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diff --git a/8427.txt b/8427.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d5dbe4 --- /dev/null +++ b/8427.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4659 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Home Missions in Action, by Edith H. Allen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Home Missions in Action + +Author: Edith H. Allen + +Posting Date: March 21, 2015 [EBook #8427] +Release Date: July, 2005 +First Posted: July 9, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOME MISSIONS IN ACTION *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, Anne Reshnyk +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + +HOME MISSIONS IN ACTION + + +BY + +EDITH H. ALLEN + + + + +To + +MY FATHER A + +Christian Patriot + + + + +FROM THE PUBLICATION COMMITTEE + +The general topic for the text books for 1915-16, as first chosen +by the "Committee of Twenty-eight," was "The Church at Its Task." +This committee is composed of representatives from the four +missionary organizations: the Home Missions Council; the Council +of Women for Home Missions; the Conference of Foreign Mission +Boards and the Federation of Women's Boards of Foreign Missions. + +The outbreak of the great war of the nations brought new duties +and questions of adjustment to the Christian church; the Committee +has recognized this in changing the original topic to "The Church +and the Nations." + +This book is written from the standpoint of the words chosen as +the key note for the year, "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on +earth." It recognizes the fact that the Kingdom cannot come to our +land, or to the world unless all social conditions are drawn +within its scope; it emphasizes the desire of Home Missions and +the church to work toward this great end, and the recognition of +their responsibility for its accomplishment. But unless the +nations of the world are trending toward the day when peace shall +reign and hatred and strife cease among men, these desires cannot +be realized. With this in view the portions dealing with social +conditions and peace possibilities have been written. + +That this book may reveal the far-reaching potentialities of Home +Missions as a dynamic force for reclaiming, educating, healing, +and integrating our nation into a land over which the Christ shall +reign and that from Him it shall also draw its ideals and its +power, is the hope and the prayer of the author and the Council of +Women for Home Missions. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. A NATIONAL FORCE + +II. A RECLAIMING FORCE + +III. AN EDUCATIVE FORCE + +IV. A HEALING FORCE + +V. AN INTEGRATING FORCE + +VI. SOURCES OF POWER + + + + + +I + + +A NATIONAL FORCE PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH + + +O God, we pray for thy Church, which is set to-day amid the +perplexities of a changing order, and face to face with a great +new task. We remember with love the nurture she gave to our +spiritual life in its infancy, the tasks she set for our growing +strength, the influence of the devoted hearts she gathers, the +steadfast power for good she has exerted. When we compare her with +all other human institutions, we rejoice, for there is none like +her. But when we judge her by the mind of her Master, we bow in +pity and contrition. Oh, baptize her afresh in the life-giving +spirit of Jesus! Grant her a new birth, though it be with the +travail of repentance and humiliation. Bestow upon her a more +imperious responsiveness to duty, a swifter compassion with +suffering, and an utter loyalty to the will of God. Put upon her +lips the ancient gospel of her Lord. Help her to proclaim boldly +the coming of the Kingdom of God and the doom of all that resist +it. Fill her with the prophets' scorn of tyranny, and with a +Christ-like tenderness for the heavy-laden and down-trodden. Give +her faith to espouse the cause of the people, and in their hands +that grope after freedom and light to recognize the bleeding hands +of the Christ. Bid her cease from seeking her own life, lest she +lose it. Make her valiant to give up her life to humanity, that +like her crucified Lord she may mount by the path of the cross to +a higher glory. + +--Walter Rauschenbusch. + + + * * * * * + + +Home Missions may be defined as the out-reaching of the Christian +church in America to those peoples and places in our land beyond +the immediate environs of the local church. + +From the time the Pilgrim, the Dutch, the Cavalier stepped on +these shores the church (and included in it Home Missions) has +exerted a most powerful influence upon the ideals and standards of +life on this continent. + +While shaping and moulding the thought and life of the people, it +has itself developed a content and vision infinitely greater, more +inclusive, more of the spirit of the Christ's "I am come that ye +might have life and have it more abundantly," than was dreamed of +in the days of its beginning. + +"The hidden forces of national life are instinctive and +unconscious. One cannot differentiate natural influences so as to +ascribe to each its value. The ideals of nations, like those of +individuals, are derived from all the concrete qualities of +character." [Footnote: F. H. Giddings in "Democracy and Empire."] +The ideals which are a compelling force in our nation to-day +cannot be ascribed to any one force, but are the result of all +those formative reactions which are the product of racial, +economic, social, ethical and religious forces, the latter being +pre-eminently the most marked. + +It will be remembered that into the new and harder life of the +successive frontiers, Home Missions entered, bringing a saving power, +as well as one that softened and glorified the renunciations and +sacrifices attendant always upon frontier life. + +Indeed, the most marked characteristics of our national life +until recent years have been those born of contact with frontier +conditions--courage, discipline, an austere sense of duty, a +passion for work, marvelous practicality joined to a fundamental +idealism and love of sentiment, an unconquerable hopefulness and +an innate kindness and personal helpfulness. + +Of necessity the conditions and environs of the country have +reacted upon the religious ideals and life of our people. We can +not enter into the fullest understanding of the present place and +influence of Home Missions as a National Force, or a study of its +immediate future, without pausing to review the background of the +past. For we recognize that growth, organization and development +are all functions of _time_. + +The early fathers had no thought of founding a nation when they sought +refuge and a new start on this continent. Jamestown, New York, Plymouth +and their outgrowing settlements were intensely individualistic. They +were the individual Cavalier, Hollander or Pilgrim, only in larger +proportions, bearing all their characteristics. + +To appreciate the characteristics and spirit of these colonists, +we must consider the special significance of the age that gave +them birth. They "were the children of a century in which the +human spirit had a new birth in energy of imagination, in faith +in its powers to dare greatly and achieve greatly." [Footnote: +Hamilton Wright Mabie--American Ideals, Character and Life.] + +They were inspired most strongly by religious aspirations, +although combining with these impelling political convictions. +In the Puritan colony, "membership in the church for some time +remained a qualification for voting." + +"In nearly every document which conveyed authority to discoverers, +explorers, and settlers in the New World, the Christian religion +was recognized." [Footnote: Hamilton Wright Mabie--American +Ideals, Character and Life.] + +Their faith was of heroic quality, of rock firmness; their +obedience to duty as they saw it, almost absolute. + +The Bible exerted a tremendous influence. It was not only their +religious guide and teacher, but was also their library, daily +companion and for some time their only literature. It became +wrought into the very fibre of their thought. + +This dominating religious attitude, while modified in the +different types--the Friends, Huguenots, Moravians--gave the +impulses which have had so strong a formative influence upon the +life of the nation. + +Recognizing fully the incalculable value of this early religious +contribution, we cannot fail also to realize the limitations of +the religious outlook of that period, and the effect of these +limitations upon the social life of the country. Seventeenth +century religion laid its emphasis upon the subjective--upon +definitions of religious belief--and found expression in theological +discussion and opinion. It concerned itself intensely with the +individual as regards his spiritual life, but took little or no +account of the outward conditions that bear so powerfully upon +the inner life. Thus in its growth the church failed to exercise +that commanding influence in the redemption of society and the +_forming_ of social conditions which should have accompanied the +preaching of individual salvation. + +It entered deeply, reverently, passionately into the spirit of the +first commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy +heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might," but failed in +holding with equal grasp the second, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor +as thyself." + +Had the church, had Home Missions, entered fully into the spirit +of this second commandment, its enormous restraining, organizing, +saving power would have contributed more fully to the _forming_ of +the community life before it so desperately needed _re_forming--to +dealing with those great fundamental conditions which have led to +the "submerged" of our civilization. + +To-day we are coming to recognize the vital connection between +spiritual regeneration and the bringing of the Kingdom of God on +Earth. Home Missions is essentially and radically concerned with +both. Rev. David Watson in his "Social Advance" says: + +"Theology and sociology are closely kin and in a sense +complementary. Theology deals with man's relation to God, +Sociology with man's relation to his fellows. The one is the +science of God, the other is the science of society. + +"The goal of all real social advance, as of all Home Mission +effort, should be the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth +in all its gracious fullness; and the method fourfold, by +spiritual dynamics (the church and its Home Missions), moral +culture, economic change and wise legislation." + +First, the Gospel, with its message of individual salvation, and +the Kingdom of God, this opening the way for and bringing with it +education and moral culture, and the control of economic forces by +legislation. + +"Only through the unified action of all these forces is continued +progress assured." + +The church has eagerly sought to comply with the first three +requisites, but its failure to recognize the specific influence it +might exert along the lines of the economic and legislative have +retarded mightily the better day in this land and hindered the +best and highest attainment of our democracy. + +The concept of the Christian ideal to-day is that it shall save the +individual, but also remove that which produces crime and makes sin +almost inevitable--in short, that it shall seek to redeem the +environment as well as the sinner, and give more wholesomeness, +more fullness, more joy to life through redeeming its conditions, +as well as saving its soul. + +On the church and its outreaching Home Missions as the instrument +for the Kingdom-progress, rests a heavy responsibility in supplying +that spiritual dynamic and inspiration which is back of all social +upbuilding. It must produce the men and women whose characters are +such that in their attitude toward industry, labor, legislation, in +all their social capacities, they will seek to live Christ's social +principle, "What ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so +to them," and to bring the Master's Beatitudes as a working principle +into life. + +Before considering what we have left undone, let us review in +outline the splendid record of Home Missions. + +Since the early days when Roger Williams pressed into the wilderness +of Rhode Island, the Christian preacher and teacher have followed +the advancing line of the successive frontiers--no hardship, no +denial, no scarcity of food, no privation, no want or cold so great +that Home Missions hesitated to go, with its spiritual healing, its +community service, bringing the very heart of Christ's love and +service into these new centers. When adventurous home-seekers reached +the Alleghanies, the Iowa Band soon followed. When the fate of the +great Northwest hung in the balance, a missionary statesman came to +its saving. + +When the frozen North called men with its lure of gold, an +indomitable missionary led in all that made for the better life. +When a devastating war had spent its fury and a helpless Africa, +bound by heaviest chains of ignorance and superstition, waited, +Home Missions responded. + +When the deposed Red brother suffered every form of grievous +wrong, Home Missions brought him brotherly love and helped him +find the Jesus Road. When the alien stood bewildered in our midst, +Home Missions gave him guidance. When the dumb appeal of the +isolated mountaineers was realized, Home Missions followed the +lonely mountain trail. To the mines and the lumber camps, to the +ancient Spanish folk of our continent, to those deluded by the +false Prophet--to all of these Home Missions has carried its +threefold ministry of saving, teaching and training. + +Home Missions counts its lives laid down for the Christ on a +hundred fields. No pen can tell of the magnitude of its influence +on our national life. Its little enterprises are now the great, +strong city churches of Nebraska, Kansas, California, Oregon, in +fact of all the States. + +It was a Congregational pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Porter, who +preached the first sermon on Lake Michigan, as he held a service +in the carpenter shop of Fort Dearborn in 1833. The population of +what afterward became the city of Chicago then numbered three +hundred. As a result of the efforts of Rev. Mr. Porter, who +organized the first Presbyterian church in the city of Chicago +while working also for the Congregational church, many of the +present centers of Christian influence were instituted in that +city. + +It is instructive to note the returns from one Home Mission +enterprise. On the Pacific coast the Congregational Home Missionary +Society in sixty-two years spent $1,646,000. In thirty-two years +the churches thus founded sent $864,000 to carry Christ's message +to foreign countries, and $302,000 through other Congregational +agencies for uplift in this country. This was given in addition +to all the local philanthropies and social service rendered in +their own communities by these organizations. + +The history of the first Presbyterian Church of Portland, Oregon, +is one of the outstanding illustrations of the fruitfulness of +Home Mission work. "This church was organized on January first, +1854, with ten members. It was a strictly Home Mission work, +dependent upon the Home Board for its existence. When it was +reorganized in 1860 it had but seventeen members, and they were +unable to pay the salary. + +"During the next four years it received aid from the Board of Home +Missions to the amount of eleven hundred dollars. Then it undertook +self-support. It has been blessed in having a line of far-seeing +pastors who have led it on from strength to strength. + +"As its members increased in wealth they grew in their interest in +the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Every enterprise which +helped on that Kingdom was either begun or promoted by the First +Church. The first missionary to Alaska went out from it, and her +expenses were paid for six months from the treasury of the First +Church. + +"The steady development of the Oregon Territory engaged the eager +interest of this church from the first. It is said that in all +that district, including Oregon, Washington and part of Idaho, no +Presbyterian church was ever erected which did not receive some +aid from the members of the First Church of Portland. + + "In a single year of its history it has contributed twenty thousand +dollars to Home Missions, and it is because of the large share in the +Home Mission work of the Presbytery of Portland taken by the First +Church that that Presbytery was able to assume self-support, and so +become the first self-supporting Presbytery in the great Northwest. + +"This church also fostered the educational interests of the +Northwest. Albany College in Oregon owes its existence in large +measure to its generosity. Portland Academy was early taken over +by its members, and to-day is equal to any secondary school in the +country. The San Francisco Theological Seminary came into a full +share of aid and care. The Ladd professorship is a lasting proof +of the spirit of that church. + +"The increasing numbers of Chinese attracted the attention of the +church, and the first mission to the Chinese by the Presbyterian +Church was established in 1885 on petition of the pastor of the +First Church. + +"Its foreign mission work has been extensive. Not only has it sent +out its own members to the foreign mission field, but it has been +from the very beginning a liberal supporter of Foreign Missions. +The first Foreign Mission Society of Oregon was organized in this +church, and the splendid North Pacific Board of Missions, broad +enough minded to see the whole task of the church, was organized +here, and is to-day an eager supporter of Home, Foreign and +Freedmen's missions. + +"Nor has the church been unmindful of its debt to this ever-growing +city of Portland." [Footnote: Rev. Charles L. Thompson, D.D.] + +Illustrations of similar service might be multiplied many times +from the history of other denominations. + +With all this glorious, Christ-filled service, Home Missions has +ministered to only a small part. Over sixty millions of the nearly +one hundred of our population are non-Christian and allied with no +religious organizations whatever--Catholic, Hebrew, or Protestant. + +Still more than forty thousand Indians in this country are without +Christian ministry. Still great districts in our Southern mountains +wait the coming of opportunity and uplift. Still large numbers of +Mexicans in the Southwest, ignorant and superstitious, are a retarding +element in their communities. Still vast immigrant settlements remain +untouched by regenerating influences and absorb, as well as contribute, +much that is deteriorating. + +Still the traitorous hierarchy, Mormonism, makes enormous strides +almost unchecked by Christian effort. The Mormon Church officially +makes the following report of its mission work in this country and +abroad in one year: Tracts distributed, 10,892,122; gospel +conversations, 1,744,641; families visited, 3,532,273; books +distributed and standard church works, 500,614; meetings held, +92,072. + +Still from our cities comes the bitter cry of the submerged and of +the women and girls whom unspeakable sin is claiming. "The United +States has the largest proportion of women workers to the +population in the world (one in five). [Footnote: Henry C. +Vedder--The Gospel of Jesus and the Problem of Democracy.] It has +done less toward the regulation of this form of labor--less for +the protection of its women laborers--than any other country." + +The recent investigations in Chicago and other large cities show +the close relation between insufficient wages and vice. + +One of the greatest obstacles to the relief of these conditions is +the indifference of well-to-do people who do not come into +personal contact with the wrongs and sufferings of the working +people. + +Still we are confronted by the sad spectacle of more than a +million of the nation's children at work in factories and cotton +mills for their living, and helping to support their families. + +"The child is the embodied future. We can never have good +citizenship without protected childhood. Child labor is a process +of squandering future wealth to satisfy present need." [Footnote: +See report of Eleventh Conference of Child Labor held at Washington, +January, 1915.] + +Defrauded childhood! Children, loaded with heavy tasks beyond +their strength, robbed of the light and joy of life, plead for +childhood's rights and that spiritual development that should make +known to them the companionship of the Saviour and the love of the +Heavenly Father. + +The testimony printed in the fall of 1912, concerning child labor +in the canning factories of the Empire State, shows that more than +a thousand children were employed in the canning industry that +summer; one hundred and forty-one were less than ten years old. + +An experienced manufacturer has said, "You can protect a machine, +you can guide the buzz-saw, but no law that you can enact can, in +a large industry, protect the heart and soul of the child." + +A marked improvement has been made in the last five years in combating +the evils of child labor. Many states forbid the employment of children +under fourteen years of age in factories and mills--but in North and +South Carolina, in Georgia and Alabama, children under fourteen are +still permitted to labor in factories ten or twelve hours a day. + +To reach this evil from the Federal standpoint, the powers of the +Inter-State Commerce Commission should be invoked. + +A bill is now pending (February, 1915) before Congress to bar from +interstate commerce the products of mills, mines, quarries, +factories and workshops employing child labor. + +Home Missions must also face to-day the infinitely complex and +rapidly increasing problem involved in the adjustment of our +population to cities and away from rural districts. Thus cities +are becoming dominant factors to be reckoned with in all the +elements that enter into the question of religious and moral +uplift, as well as the ideals and the welfare of our nation. + +Here the aggregation of immigrants focuses acutely the complex +problems peculiar to them. + +Here is the child laborer in factories and on the streets. + +Here women and girls struggle under fearful economic pressure. + +Here is the political boss--and what ex-President Roosevelt terms +"organized alliance between the criminal rich and the criminal poor." + +Here is the class consciousness and hatred--the cry of anarchy and +socialism. + +"To-day seventy-six per cent of the population of Massachusetts live +in cities; of New York, eighty-five and one-half per cent; New Jersey, +sixty-one and two-tenths; Connecticut, fifty-three and two-tenths; +Illinois is one-half urban, and forty per cent of California's people +live under city conditions." [Footnote: Frederic C. Howe--The City, +the Hope of Democracy.] + +Contrasted with this peculiar burden of the city, there is the country +church and the adaptation needed to maintain it in any degree of +effectiveness, when its very life blood has been drained for the +city. It has made untold contributions of ministers, missionaries, +church officers and members to the cities and distant fields, leaving +the mother church childless and weak in its advancing years. + +Changes that leave almost none of its former constituency confront +the country church. + +Old farms and village stores pass into the hands of aliens--in +many instances Hebrews--summer boarders claim the attention of the +faithful women of the congregation for the most favorable months +of the year. Sunday sports engage the interests of the indifferent, +and there are many other disintegrating elements. + +In a land where progress calls to progress, where the results of +hasty development create a large share of its problem--a land +where the need of Christian effort is paramount, and where such +effort is so vital to the world, the decadence of the country +church is of far-reaching significance. Home Missions is called to +direct its energizing, constructive ability to the solution of +this baffling and discouraging feature of its problem to a greater +degree than ever before. + +Home Missions at this time also confronts a new opportunity and +obligation--to make its voice heard, its influence felt, for +international peace. + +These winter days of 1914, in which the world has apparently lost +its soul in the fury of slaughter, speak very loudly to the heart +of Christianity. + +No force for the upbuilding of the Christ power on earth can +ignore the significance and solemnity of this time. + +Has Christianity failed in these warring lands, or have they who +are controlled by Christian standards and ethics in other relations, +failed to apprehend that the Christ test--His principles--must be +brought to bear upon _all_ of life--upon personal, individual, +national and international relations? + +The fruition of Christianity must at last bring in the day when +the conscience of Christian nations will hold true to the Master's +teaching. "What ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so +to them," must be wrought into national consciousness and practiced +as an international principle. With the fatherhood of God, the +_brotherhood_ of man is the very heart of the Gospel message. + +Home Missions must take account of the moral reactions of such +carnage as is now taking place. + +"Death meets those myriads whilst indulging the most appalling +passions--their hands filled with weapons of carnage, their hearts +with fratricidal hate. It is the sense of the moral death involved, +searing of conscience, deadening of heart, blunting of moral faculty, +fruits of death brought forth in the soul of the survivor, which are +more horrifying to the enlightened consciousness than the dying groans +of the stricken can be to the more bodily nerve. The thing to fear is +not pain, but trespass; not suffering, but sin--the peculiar sin of +war is that it corrupts while it consumes, that it demoralizes whilst +it destroys. It is not because war kills that it is the devil, but +because it depraves; and it is because it depraves that it is condemned +by the religious consciousness. The damage that it inflicts upon the +persons and property of men is trifling beside the damage it inflicts +upon morals; and it is this that is exciting in thoughtful minds a +fresh interest in the whole military conception. The ominous thing is +not the body prostrate on the battlefield, but the brute rampant in +the mother-land; the general lowering of ideal, the blatant materialism +and defiant selfishness." [Footnote: Walter Walsh--The Moral Damage +of War.] + +Home Missions must consider the responsibility of our Christian +nation toward the attitude of world thought that made possible +this war. It was John Hay in his instructions to our American +delegates to the First Hague Conference who said: "Next to the +great fact of a nation's independence is the great fact of its +interdependence." [Footnote: William I. Hull--The New Peace +Movement.] + +Through travel, cultural influences, commerce, the rapid circulation +of news, the cultivation of sympathy, there is a recognized oneness +of the world to-day; a solidarity which, notwithstanding all the +differences arising from remoteness, race, legislation, and religion, +binds together the world as never before. + +The world is realizing to-day, as one of the results of this +conflict, that in the largest sense its interests are one, and +that all nations are interdependent. + +"America must remember that the military idea and the ideal of +democracy are absolutely opposed." + +Dr. Josiah Strong, in a powerful presentation of the effects of +the war says: "Evidently the increasing interdependence of the +nations is creating new international rights and duties, but there +is no world legislature to recognize and legalize them, there is +no world judiciary to interpret and apply them, and there is no +world executive to enforce and vitalize them. + +"The economic and industrial organization of the world has far +outgrown the political organization of the world." [Footnote: The +Gospel of the Kingdom, January, 1915.] + +Some new world organization is needed and must come to supply this +deficiency. + +Home Missions must use its influence to build up a Christian +sentiment for the adjustment of international disagreements other +than by bloodshed and slaughter. + +"The following facts are significant. The European war is said to +cost over _one hundred million dollars_ a day in money, stoppage +of industry, and destruction of property. + +"The United States has spent in preparedness for war during the +past ten years a sum six times the cost of the Panama Canal." +[Footnote: New York Peace Society Leaflet.] + +The European war says: + +"That a world that prepares for war will get it sooner or later. + +That militarism has revealed itself as an enemy to civilization +and must be destroyed. + +That autocrat rulers with power to make war have no rightful place +in the modern world. That no more attempts at world domination are +wanted, no matter by what nation or race. + +That nationality and national boundaries must be respected, +territories being enlarged only by the free consent of the +population to be annexed, and colonization taking place only by +peaceable commercial and industrial methods. + +That, while military preparedness cannot preserve peace, +_preparedness against attack_ is essential. + +That a league or federation of the peaceably inclined nations for +mutual protection and for the preservation of international law +and order has become a necessity of the immediate future. + +That lasting peace may be secured through the development of +international law, the extension of democracy, and the cultivation +of the spirit of international justice and good will." + + +Home Missionary women must assume their full share in all efforts +to spread illuminating information on this subject, and through +their personal attitude, thinking, and praying, strive for the +establishment of world relations that will make for peace. + +The destruction of homes, hunger, sickness, poverty, degradation, +all fall heavily upon women and their helpless little ones. + +When the guns have ceased their work of death and the ruined land +turns to rebuild its broken commerce and industry, it is the +children who must grow up under the privations and the stunting +burdens of fearful taxation. From the cradle to the grave, they +must pay the billions of treasure eaten up by devastating, +destroying war. + +Let every Home Missionary woman, to whom this land is dear, who +cherishes father, husband, son or brother, who clings to loved +home and precious children, use all her influence to bring in the +day when the Christ standard shall be the standard for all our +national and international relations. + + +O bells, to-day let warfare cease! +Christ came to be a Prince of Peace. +No longer let the sound of drum +Or trumpet, campward calling, come +To vex the earth with dread, and make +The hearts of wives and mothers ache. +Leave battle flags to moths and dust-- +Let sword and gun grow red with rust! +Earth groaned with carnage--let it cease-- +Ring in the thousand years of Peace! + +Ring out the littleness of things, +Ring in the broader thought that brings +Swift end to all ignoble creeds. +Ring in an age of noble deeds +For all things pure, and high, and good-- +The era of true brotherhood. +Ring out the lust for gold and gain-- +The greed that cripples soul and brain, +And open eyes, long blind, to see +What grander, better things there be! +[Footnote: Eben Rexford.] + + +Home Missions is one of the greatest contributors to national +righteousness. Through it the higher life of the community is +developed in the formative period; through it belated peoples +receive the spiritual transforming dynamic that makes them reach +up to the higher and better in their surroundings and gives them +a developing effectiveness and efficiency. + +It brings the same force with greater power into the lives of the +children, giving them also a training of minds and hands that +equips them for an enlarging sphere of usefulness. + +It brings the most telling force possible to the upward struggle +of our primitive and dependent people, patiently leading them by +the road of sympathetic understanding into some strength to stand +amidst the overpowering complexity of the civilization that +surrounds them, in which they as yet are not advanced enough to +become more than a problem. + +The Negro and Indian testify to the marvelous transforming power +of the Gospel of Christ brought by Home Missions--a power that gives +moral fiber, a wholesome attitude of life in which work and ambition +have place. + +To all that is noblest, highest and best in our national life, Home +Missions has given in large measure. + +Home Missions faces forward, realizing that infinitely greater +responsibility and service must now enter into the mission of the +church at home, if this country is to remain Christian itself and +be a force for Christianity in the world. + + + + +II + + +A RECLAIMING FORCE + + + "Go ye and teach the next one whom you meet-- + Man, woman, child, at home or on the street-- + That 'God so loved them' each in thought so sweet + He could not have them lost through sin's defeat, + But sent you with His message to repeat That pardon + through His Son might be complete. + So shall our land be saved from sore defeat + And gather with the nations at His feet." + + + * * * * * + + +Referring to the incident when the disciples, James and John, +confronted by the lame man at the gate Beautiful of the Temple, +gave him restored health through the power of the Christ, instead +of the alms which he solicited, Dr. John Henry Jowett said: "He, +the Master, gave fundamentally to those in need. He did not attend to +the symptoms, but cured the disease. He gave capacity for incapacity, +ability for inability, life for feebleness. He strengthened the +wills of those born impotent and gave them the power of self-control. +"As Christ gave fundamentally in His earthly ministry, so He has +given since. It is still the greatest mission of the church to +reach and restore--to give "capacity." + +Christ said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." It can never +come in society, it can never prevail in a nation, until it has +first come into individual lives and found expression through +them. + +"All true progress," says the Hon. James Bryce, "has always been +from the soul working outward through men's acts, and it is so to-day." + +Home Missions has pre-eminently been the agent of the church in +this fundamental work of reclamation. Let us go to the laboratory +of the Mission fields where we may see Home Missions in action, +and witness the Christ power to restore, uplift, transform, to +give capacity. + + * * * * * + +It was a crisp day in early autumn when the visitor from the +Women's Board stepped from the train at a small station in +Northern Minnesota and was met by the Home Missionary pastor. + +A pair of strong horses and a light buggy made quick work of the +ten-mile drive, to the new mission church at M---- L----. + +It was through what might be termed new country--so new that the +stumps of the recently demolished forest were still standing, seared +and slashed remnants of the splendid trees. + +The first crop raised by ploughing the rich earth between the stumps +stood tall and full of the promise of marvelous productiveness when +suitable cultivation was possible. It was one of the crude frontier +towns of the Northwest. + +Several Old World kingdoms had contributed to the population. +There were Norwegians, Swedes, Hollanders, a few Poles, and some +Americans of the sort who perennially move on, hoping for better +conditions. + +The lives of the people were filled with heaviest toil, for they +were conquering a new country. They were renters of the land, or +had bought with heavy mortgages, and so their ceaseless struggle +was to gain a foothold. Little time or thought had they for the +claims of the higher life. + +There was no reminder of the things of God in the town save a +Catholic chapel. To many of the people this faith was most repugnant. +There was no Sabbath, though for some the day's toil was not quite so +arduous. The saloon, with its warmth and brightness, lured the tired +men with the promise of sociability at all times. + +Among them, however, was a man who had been an elder in a Protestant +church across the seas, and he realized what the godlessness of the +little place would mean to them all, and especially its effect upon +the lives of their little children. + +He sought the help of a Home Missionary whose duties covered a +district of hundreds of miles, and to whom was entrusted the +establishing of new fields. + +When his work called him to that part of Minnesota, he visited +M---- L----, holding services in the little district school building, +visiting in the homes and doing what he could in a brief stay to +rouse and help them spiritually. + +As he was able, he returned to them several times during the year. +How gladly did those welcome him who in the old homes had followed +after the things of God! + +In the summer he arranged to have a student missionary commissioned +to the field. In due time the student arrived, spending the four +months of his seminary vacation among them. + +He was an indefatigable worker. Soon the little schoolhouse was +most uncomfortably crowded with those who were drawn by the singing +and the bright _go_ of the meetings. + +Services were then held out of doors, the congregation seated on +improvised benches of boards laid across tree trunks. + +The student organized and superintended a Sunday-school--gathered +the young people into an Endeavor Society. He formed a singing +class--a portable baby organ which he played was their only musical +instrument. + +He arranged games, socials, and picnics; one of the latter, a +berry-picking picnic, the proceeds of which, twelve dollars, was +given to missions. + +So close did he bring religion to these people, so desirable he +made it, that they became eager for a permanent church. A very +little help was given by the Board toward the purchase of the +land, and the people attended to the building. + +The men quarried and hauled the foundation stone; they secured and +dressed the timber, and with the labor of their own hands the little +church was built before the student returned, and later, beside it, +the Women's Board helping, a tiny parsonage was placed. + +Then came an energetic, devoted Home Missionary to live the Gospel, +day by day, as well as preach it; to incorporate Christian ideals +into the daily thinking of these people, and Christian purposes +into their controlling motives; to make them understand that the +Gospel means honesty in business, cleanness of heart and body, +health and enlightenment, and whatever makes life worthy here +and now and fits it for the future beyond. + +Thousands of such homely frontier missions are molding the +citizenship which makes the very life of the Republic. + +All honor to the men and women of character and ability who, as +Home Missionaries, are devoting their lives to such fields--the +most difficult in the world--where no picturesqueness of scenes +or people relieves the strain--where sordid sin, monotony, crudity, +and newness prevail, but where the returns in character-building +contribute to the life of a nation whose mission is the world. + + * * * * * + +The following quaint letter was written by Rev. Aratus Kent, a +Congregational Missionary at Galena, Ill., to the Congregational +Home Missionary Society under date of April 9, 1844: + +"When I came to Galena (in 1829), there was not any church or +clergyman within two hundred miles, and I used to say that my +parish extended from Rock River to Wisconsin. Now I can count +within these bounds twenty-five churches and fifteen ministers. + +"Let those then who think little of the influences of the Home +Missionary Society blot out of being those twenty-five churches, +and drive out of the state those fifteen clergymen, and disband +fifty Sabbath-schools, and burn a thousand Bibles, and recall a +thousand volumes of the Tract Society, and stop the monthly visit +of a tract to five hundred houses, and give back a drunken father +to fifty families that are now rejoicing in the peace and plenty +consequent upon their regeneration." And yet this work of +vandalism is not done until you have taken back that stream of +heavenly influence which has gone forth from this district to +bless the heathen in our forests and the heathen beyond the ocean, +and until you have recalled that company of young men who have +gone away for the ministry. + +"We need within this field more missionaries who can endure +privations, and who, to meet their appointments, can face a +prairie storm and buffet a swollen stream, and who, like their +Divine Master, can take the mountain top for their study and the +midnight hour for the season of their devotion. + +"We want also assistance here in the West to establish literary +(educational) institutions upon the right basis, and if the +professors of the East would come and see what I see, they would +court the honor of contribution to establish the female seminary +in Galena which was yesterday projected, and which is next week +to commence its existence. This church has sustained a German +colporter during the winter." + + * * * * * + +About a little valley in the Southland stand mountains grim and +forbidding in their rugged beauty--holding close within their +bounds those who for generations had found their scanty living +upon the sterile mountain sides and in the richer valleys, saying +No! to the pressing outside world, with its progress and its +change. + +Many winters and summers passed over the settlement of J----, on +---- creek, forty miles from all railroads, shut in by laurel-covered +hills and pine mountains; its people, of fine pioneer ancestry and +deeply religious, thrown back upon themselves through segregation +and isolation, had lost much of the initiative and force that +characterized their ancestors, and had crystallized along the +lines of their peculiarities, as any people will under the same +conditions. + +Up the creek and into the valley one day there came two "foreign" +women from the great world beyond. They were Home Missionaries, +but did not use this designation for fear the mountain people +might not understand that they came simply as friends to bring +to the valley the _opportunity_ America gives to her children. + +They found the people simple folk, ignorant, but with no touch of +vulgarity. Their eyes saw no opening beyond the blue shadows of +the enveloping mountains. To a few the longing to _know_, or that +their children might have a "_chance_," hung like a star afar off, +but with little hope of attainment. + +A dark fatalism presided over their destinies. "What is to be will +be, I reckon," summed up their philosophy. + +About many of them appeared an atmosphere of the unconscious moral +heroism that willingly gives its all to meet whatever the day may +bring of privation, hardship, suffering, or death. + +The valley folk were very suspicious of the two friends at first, +and curious about them in a shy, kindly way. + +Why had they come? What were their real motives? Did they mean only +good to the valley? It took many months of devoted service on the +part of the women to answer these queries. + +Did sickness ravage some home where many little ones were crowded +into two or three rooms? Was some man crushed by the heavy logs +while at work? There the nurse friend came with her comforts and +her skill to fight for the life of the sufferers, to watch beside +them during the long, chill nights of pain--to pray that the +healing power of the Christ might be manifested. + +The two friends found that the valley had no Sunday-school or +regular preaching service to mark the Lord's day. Occasionally an +itinerant preacher held meetings, but Sunday after Sunday came and +went in the valley with no religious service whatever. + +They found that the children received but poor schooling, and +little or no training for life. + +They found mothers who knew only the monotony of drudgery and were +eager to share in the fuller life. + +They found the wide use of corn whisky to be sapping the moral and +physical strength of the men, and that everywhere among them +lawlessness prevailed, even though some were anxious for better +things. + +Through the love-service of the two friends and those who followed +them, and the co-operation of the people, the valley to-day is +transformed even in its outward appearance. + +Drinking has disappeared except in sporadic cases. Lawlessness is +under ban. A great, throbbing, new life has come to stimulate and +inspire not only the valley, but its environs. + +Here the reclaiming power of Christian service meets with fullest +response. A church and Sunday-school (also four outlying schools), +men's Bible classes, several Endeavor Societies and King's Daughters' +Circles, Boy Scouts, Girls' clubs--the ministry of a hospital, schools +and dormitories, all are spreading the regenerating forces and bringing +in a new day of hope, opportunity, and efficiency to this valley, and +to hundreds of others throughout the Southland. + + * * * * * + +All along the fine military road built by Spain in Porto Rico--and +still more on the bridle paths that pass for roads in much of the +island--may be seen little brown shacks, or huts, made of old +boards and tin cans flattened out, and thatched with palm leaves. +In these the people live. + +"We had sixty names on the waiting list of the Missionary Home in +Porto Rico, and money had come so we could take in a few more, and +we--the superintendent and I--went to try to find the most needy. +Our search took us into a dreadful, slimy patio, where we found a +grandmother and three little girls. We could take but two of them. +The oldest was thirteen--we knew she would soon be too old to be +helped at all if we did not take her now. The second was under ten, +and the youngest was three and a half. We could not bear to leave +the dead mother's baby, so we took the oldest and the youngest, and +promised the second girl that we would come for her as soon as possible. +They lived in a room nine by twelve feet in size, in which twenty-two +people slept under some old clothes. Do you wonder that she fell on +her knees begging 'Oh, lady, take me, too!'" + +"The next day the grandmother was taken ill and had to be sent to +the hospital, and on Tuesday when I went to the patio again the +girl had disappeared. + +"Three months later we found her, beaten and bruised from head to +foot, at the door of the Home. She had been in a place where care +and shelter were expected, but when the poor, home-sick girl cried, +they abused her and then put her out on the street, and somehow she +found her way to our Home. + +"You would enjoy seeing how quickly the girls in our Home learn +to help each other. Mercedes had been in the Home but ten days when +Francesca came--a bit of a waif who had never worn shoes in all her life, +nor seen a bed before. Of course she knew nothing about undressing and +sleeping between clean, white sheets. She tried to do like the others, +but got into bed with her precious new shoes and stockings on. Mercedes +watched her, and when ready herself, slipped across the room, whispered +to Francesca, took off her shoes and stockings, pushed her--but very +gently--down on her knees for the evening prayer, and then covered +her up in bed as softly and lovingly as a mother." [Footnote: In +Southern Seas--Alice M. Guernsey--Women's Home Missionary Society, +Methodist Episcopal Church.] + + * * * * * + +With soft, Insistent regularity came the beat of the tom-tom over +the hills, calling the Indians to the Medicine Lodge dance. There +was something weirdly fascinating in the reiterated turn, turn, +that carried almost a hypnotic power as hour after hour it called +through the stillness. + +Wrapped in their bright blankets--men on horseback--whole families in +wagons--the Indians passed round the curve of the road, to disappear +in the big, open depression just beyond, where the Medicine Lodge was +in camp. There was a group of rounded tents in which families and guests +were prepared to live the four days and nights during which the rites +of the dance lasted. It was an untidy and disorderly camp, with children +and dogs tumbling about--women kneeling to arrange small strips of meat +to cook over the bit of wood fire on the ground, or attending to other +home-keeping matters. Dirt, flies, children, and dogs were everywhere. + +A few feet away stretched the long tent where the ceremony of the +dance was to take place. They had taken their places and were +ready for the ceremony--mostly men, a few women, a little girl of +nine years, a young mother of twenty whose baby two weeks old was +held by an aged grandmother, who crouched at the end. + +All were dressed in beaded finery. All wore moccasins--some men +had long beaded stoles--others wonderful beaded waistcoats. The +women wore long beaded hair ornaments reaching almost to the +ground, as well as strings of beads and other ornaments. + +The faces of nearly all were marked with spots of bright red or +long streaks of yellow and red. The same color was used in the +parting of the hair. + +They sat on the ground in two long rows, facing each other; back of +each, attached to the wood trellis of the tent, hung fur pouches of +various shapes and sizes, ornamented with beads and containing the +"medicine," which was some trifling article--a bit of bone, stone, +seed, or whatever, through some special circumstance, had come to be +accepted by them as their charm, or "medicine," to ward off sickness +and evil--to bring them the good offices and protection of the good +spirits. + +The four or more medicine chiefs, wearing wonderfully ornamented, +apron-like front pieces, stand together at one end for a few +moments while one and then another addresses the audience. The +medicine men then, with drum and rattle, keeping step, lead in the +dance down the length of the tent and back. One by one the audience, +from their crouching positions on the ground, as they are summoned +or moved, join in the dance, swaying while they keep step back and +forth for hours at a time, to the sound of drum and rattle. Those +being initiated, as were the young mother and the little girl, were +expected not to give up, if possible, until the end. + +The dance is maintained for parts of four days and nights, almost +incessantly, except for the interruption of the feast given by some +members. The close is marked by the utter exhaustion of many of the +dancers, and sad immorality accompanies its progress. + +Can the Gospel of Christ lift such as these, with a thousand +generations of savagery back of them? + +Let another picture answer. + + * * * * * + +Almost half a mile from the Medicine Lodge camp, on a rise of ground, +stands a little Christian church--plain but beautiful. From it seem +to flow visibly those purifying and redeeming forces that are destined +to transform the darkened lives of these Indian children of the great +All-father. + +It is prayer-meeting night. The bell is rung and the audience begins +to gather. A number of alert, intelligent-looking, English-speaking +young men come in together. + +One of these, an earnest Christian, will interpret, sentence by +sentence, the Scripture reading and the message of the speaker. + +Some older men and women come next, heavy of feature and step. One +is blind and feels his way to his accustomed seat. + +Old women come wrapped in blankets, their faces seamed with toil +and showing the hardness of heathen customs, when sickness and death, +unrelieved by faith, wear the heart and waste the body. + +Mothers come with bright-eyed babies tucked in their blankets, or +leading children of various sizes--also some young women, beautiful +and intelligent--and a few white employees from the Agency--and the +workers from the Mission--until the room is nearly filled. + +The meeting is opened with prayer, and a quiet fills the room as +all are brought into the very presence of the loving Father. + +And then follows the singing, "My faith looks up to Thee," +"Lovingly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling to you and to me." +Did ever the words seem so fraught with meaning, so filled with +the yearning love of the Master? + +The message that follows is one of passionate earnestness, as the +missionary seeks to make clear to them the meaning of purity of +life--of faith in God, of His saving, keeping power. + +At its close an Indian elder, using his own soft, Indian language, +pleads in prayer for the presence of the Holy Spirit to lead his +people. + +Another rises and says through the interpreter: "When I was away at +school I learned about Christianity, but when I came back to the +reservation and the old Indian life called me, there was none to +help, and I went back. I did not work; I gambled, I drank; liquor, +I went to the medicine dance--I was very bad. Then came the Mission +and it got hold of me. The missionary brought me to Christ. Now I cut +off those bad ways. I am happy. I have a Christian home with my wife +and my child." + +This testimony was true. All there knew him to be an industrious, +upright, manly Indian, one of the two hundred members of this church, +all of whom had, in a few years, been led from the old life of +degradation to the pleasant, wholesome peace of the Jesus Road. + + * * * * * + +"Missionary work begins with evangelism. It does not end there. +The people must hear the good news of salvation. So we have spent +much time 'to make the message plain.' It has taken years of labor +to put the gist of the Gospel into several Indian languages having +no literature, that the people might get the word of God. One had +to work to get a clue to a word through a crude interpreter; or by +making signs or motions where, as often, no interpreter was at hand, +and then guessing between several possible meanings. In this way one +would in time get a knowledge of the commonplace things in a language. +Then there must follow the task of finding equivalents for Christian +terms in the speech of a people without Christian ideas. + +"Difficult as all this work was, it is only a beginning, only +elementary. The message must be applied to all phases of life. A +constant educational process must be kept up to incorporate Christian +ideals into the daily thinking of the people. This is to be done by the +reiterated daily teachings of the schools, and the living example of +the missionary, and of those he can educate to lead the people. A bare +message unrelated to life is like seed scattered on the road or on a +rock. After sowing one must harrow and cultivate and fight insect pests +all the season to get a crop. So a constant process of education, moral, +industrial, hygienic, must go on, or there will be no regenerated, +fruitful characters. + +"The old Indian linked his hunting and corn planting and simple +arts to religion. He lived by the help of his gods. We are trying +not to destroy this faith, but to transfer it to the living God, +and to make it 'work by love,' instead of by selfishness. Our +little girls in the Home are learning to keep house and sew and +cook, because it is the work of a child of God to do these things +well. We are trying to teach our neighbors by word and example to +farm and build and make homes in a way that will be becoming to a +redeemed man. They must understand that the Gospel means diligence +in business, honesty, carefulness, co-operation, skill, cleanness +of heart and body, health and prosperity, and any other virtue +that makes life worth living now and always. We think our example +in raising seventy bushels of oats or two hundred bushels of +potatoes to the acre, garden vegetables, improved cattle and hogs, +well-kept horses, small fruits and sheltering trees and pretty +shrubs, in what is classed as a semi-arid land, is a part of the +Gospel of Christ, who came to make all 'deserts blossom as the +rose.' + +"When our former Mission school boys are found taking hold of +agricultural work according to present-day methods and earning a +support for their growing families, building their meeting-place, +and making some contributions to the church work abroad, we feel +that the foundation of a Christian community is being laid. + +"The clouds return sometimes. There comes a recrudescence of +heathenism. Yet faith sees still the leaven at work. An old man's +daughter went away to our Santee School and returned a believer in +the Christian way. She taught her father what she had learned, and +prayed for him. He yielded to her faith and threw away his fetishes +after a hard struggle with all the past and present environment that +bound him. Then at once his instinct was to make a better home for +his family. He must get away from the heathen village, with its +squalor, and impurity, and idolatry. It is true that environment +does not regenerate the soul, but the renewed soul transforms the +environment. Better conditions are evidence of the new life. On the +contrary, when some fall back to heathenism, they fall into slovenly +attire, ill-kept homes, and neglected fields." [Footnote: Rev. C. L. +Hall, D.D., American Missionary Association.] + +Alaska is a post which beyond any other in the American church +demands courage and endurance, both physical and moral. + +"The natives of Anvik invited the missionary to visit their +village, 450 miles by water from St. Michael. + +"These natives were Ingiliks, partly Indian and partly Eskimo. They +lived in underground houses and were superstitious, dirty, ignorant, +and degraded. Rude buildings were erected for a mission house and the +schoolhouse. In 1894 the first church was erected, the money for it +being a part of the first United Offering of the Women's Auxiliary. +Little by little the people came out of their holes in the earth and +built themselves houses. The community has been physically and morally +transformed. A saw-mill, the gift of a generous Eastern layman, has +been a most practical means of evangelising, not only furnishing +lumber for houses, but healthful occupations for the men. This +transformation has been wrought, not by legislation or civilization +as such, but by the consistent teaching and example of a devoted +Christian man and his splendid helpers. 'Through these long years, +in the loneliness of this far-away station, the missionary has +remained the kind, wise, spiritual shepherd of these native souls +in the wilderness. The mission has pursued high ideals, and has +ministered spiritually and helpfully to a vast region.' + +"A gold strike was made at Nome, and with the first rush of eager +prospectors went in a missionary, who aided with his own hands in +the building of the church. Though the saloon men were bidding for +the only available lumber, the bishop got it first to build a +clubhouse for the men, the only competitor of fourteen saloons. + +"So he goes back and forth across his great district, up and down +its rivers in the short summer time--formerly by boat or canoe, +but now in a launch, the 'Pelican.' In the winter he is away +across the trackless wilderness, a thousand miles or more, behind +his dogs, cheerily facing hardships and making light of dangers, +carrying his life in his hand as he goes about his daily work. + +"Particularly is he interested in the preservation and betterment +of the native races, the Eskimos and the Indians, endangered by +their contact with the white man and their own lack of knowledge. +Everywhere his hand is raised and his voice is heard in their +behalf. + +"Alaska is the land of one great river, without which it could +scarcely have been explored--much less occupied and inhabited. The +Yukon is the great highway. Over its waters in the brief summer, +and upon its frozen surface in the winter, go travelers by boat +and sled, and among them the representatives of the church. +Familiar to the dwellers along its banks is the little 'Pelican' +bearing the missionaries, with a half-breed engineer and the +faithful dogs. Everywhere along the river in the summer time may +be found the temporary camps of the Indians, to whom the short +fishing season means food through the long winter for themselves +and their dogs. Here a stop is made at a native camp to baptize a +baby--there a marriage ceremony is performed; a communion service +is held or a call made at a fishing camp to pick up some boys and +take them to a far-away boarding school. The work is as varied as +it is far-reaching. Not a mission point along the river is +neglected, and places which formerly could never be visited by the +hand-paddled canoe now look forward once a year to the coming of +the 'Pelican,' and wait to hear the familiar throbbing of her +motor, as does the New Yorker for his morning mail, or the farmer +for the postman's whistle. + +"Fairbanks, the metropolis of central Alaska, was a new mining +camp when the missionary Bishop secured an early entrance for the +church. The log building which was a chapel on Sunday became a +reading-room on week-days for the rough-clad miners. A hospital +was built and it ministered to the sick through the range of a +wide territory. Missions both to white men and to Indians have +spread along the valley of the river on either hand, and now +Fairbanks is the center of what is known as the Tanana Valley +Mission, with half a score of workers, schools and missions, +hospitals and reading rooms, distributing tons of literature in +lonely mining camps, and carrying everywhere the message of the +Master. + +"Over on the coast, at Cordova, may be found the unique settlement +work called 'The Red Dragon,' a clubhouse for men which on Sundays +is converted into a place of worship. Missions in Alaska minister +to human need as a preliminary to and accompaniment of an +effective preaching of the Gospel." [Footnote: Board of Missions +of the Protestant Episcopal Church.] + +These pictures of the power of Home Missions to restore--to give +capacity--are merely typical, and stand for the thousands of others +unrecorded except as the lives of the reclaimed individuals and +communities make their indelible imprint upon our national life. + +Surely through the demonstration of such reclaiming power the +consciousness must grow that ignorance, degradation, vice, crime, +and bitter poverty need not be the inevitable accompaniment of a +great civilization, but that these diseased spots in the social +fabric are abnormal and curable, if to their removing is directed +first the power of Christ in the inner life, and for the outer a +social regeneration which will substitute physical conditions that +do not menace, but make for righteousness. + + +"In haunts of wretchedness and need + On shadowed thresholds dark with fears, + From paths where hide the lures of greed + We catch the vision of Christ's tears. + +"The cup of water given for Thee + Still holds the freshness of Thy grace; + Yet long these multitudes to see + The sweet compassion of Thy face." + + + + +III + + +AN EDUCATIVE FORCE + + +"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." + +"After all, it is the children who are the important factors of +our nation, and every one of them neglected is a reproach to every +Christian, man or woman, in the churches who has a dollar or a voice. +When the Spartans were demanded to give fifty children as hostages, +they wisely replied, 'We would rather give one hundred of our most +distinguished men.' + +"It is an irrefutable fact that the work with the children pays +the best dividends to the state and nation. There is a Doric oracle +which says, 'If the Athenians want good citizens let them put whatever +is beautiful into the ears of their sons.' If we Americanize this +oracle it would read, 'If the Americans want good citizens let them +put whatever is beautiful and useful into the ears of their sons and +daughters.'" + + + * * * * * + + +It is instructive to note the inter-relation and interaction of +forces and influences that have been powerful factors in national +development, and to consider their sources. + +The American passion for education had its roots far back in +Holland, in the period when that country was the world's great +intellectual center, as well as the world's leader in commerce and +manufacturing. The most powerful single factor in shaping Colonial +thought and character was the Bible. It was from Holland that +England received its first Bible printed in the English tongue. + +It is said that under the persecution of Phillip II and the Duke +of Alva, fully one hundred thousand Hollanders crossed the channel +to find homes in England. + +Industrious, self-supporting, self-respecting men, and women they +were, refugees for freedom and for conscience' sake--among them +were scholars, bankers, merchants, and intelligent, plain people. +They came from a land of free schools and universities. + +The counties in England in which the Hollanders settled sent the +Pilgrims and the Puritans to America. These counties also gave +birth to the University of Cambridge; the Puritan movement in England +was largely under the leadership of men who had studied in Cambridge, +and it was that educational center of broad culture, thought, and +inspiring ideals which furnished America the first scholars and +leaders of New England. + +The first free school of America was opened by the Hollanders in +Manhattan in 1633. It was known as the Collegiate School, and +though it has changed somewhat in character, it is still one of +the leading preparatory schools of New York City. + +Regard for education thus came to this country with the colonists, +though not all the colonies attached the same importance to it. + +In the Home countries of the colonists, the schools had been +an adjunct to the churches. It was natural, therefore, that the +impetus for the establishment of schools in this country should +come from the church. + +"One of the first provisions made by the Virginia company in their +settlement of Jamestown was to set aside land for the use of a college +to 'teach Indian children the rudiments of religion and the Latin +language,' and money was collected in England to establish a school +which should prepare children for this college. The failure of the +company a few years later defeated these plans." + +"Twenty years after the landing at Plymouth, the Massachusetts +Colony ordained by law that every child should be taught to read +and write and understand the principles of religion and the capital +laws of the country. A little later in the same section, every township, +when it numbered fifty householders, was required to support a teacher, +and towns numbering a hundred householders, to establish a school to +teach Latin. These were rude pioneer experiments, for the conditions +which surrounded them were rude; their importance lay in the fact that +they gave education a first place in public interest and accustomed +people to think of education as a function of the community." [Footnote: +American Ideals, Character and Life--Hamilton Wright Mabie.] + +From these feeble beginnings has come that greatest bulwark of the +Republic--the free school. + +It lies at the very foundation of our national life. It makes +possible our democracy. A helpful government by the people is not +possible if the people are ignorant and superstitious. + +It is the greatest institution for citizenship. "Through it come +knowledge of the meaning of our institutions, the interpretation +of our national past, and a reverence for the national symbol--the +flag." + +It is a fusing force whereby children of many nationalities, +differing in feelings, sympathies, purposes, and class, become +Americans. + +The forty-eight States in the year 1912 spent $450,000,000 on the +public schools of the country. The nation's tobacco bill for the +same period was nearly three times as great, and it spent five times +as much for liquor. + +Even with this large expenditure, the provision for the school +population of the country is, in places, fearfully inadequate. In +our large cities, if the truant and labor laws were properly enforced, +the lack of school provision would be still more apparent. In New York +City alone more than 100,000 children are attending school but half +the time. + +As we turn to study the need for Mission Schools, and their place +as an educative force, it is well that we should seek to realize +something of the splendid achievements of our public schools as +well as where they seriously fail. + +Their efficiency differs with the vision and effectiveness with +which they are administered by the different states. + +Many states have added incalculably to the usefulness of the +schools by relating the curriculum to life through industrial and +vocational training, but much remains to be accomplished in attaining +a proper balance in the adjustment of the cultural and the practical +in the public school courses. + +The state of Ohio affords an interesting illustration of the wider +relation of the public schools to the life of the school +population. + +"In the winter of 1914, nearly one thousand boys and girls of +Ohio, in five special trains, were sent on a tour which embraced +the cities of Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, as a reward +for their efficiency in agriculture and domestic science. The +people of Ohio have found that it pays to encourage thrift and +industry in their children, for since these "corn tours," as they +are termed, were started, the annual value of the corn crop of Ohio +has become almost twenty million dollars _more_ than it formerly was." +[Footnote: Outlook, Dec. 16, 1914.] + +Public School, No. 23, of Mulberry Bend, New York, stands in the +heart of an Italian district of more than 100,000 souls, and draws +also from the great Chinese section. Various other nationalities in +less degree contribute their quota, so that the school ministers to +the children of twenty-nine different nationalities. + +This school is fortunate in having a teacher of unusual ability +and magnetism for its new students in English. A visit to her room +on the top floor well repays the effort of exploration in a very +foreign quarter of America's greatest city, and the long climb up +the winding cement stairs of the school building. + +As you enter, the class is asked to bid you "Good morning," and +the familiar greeting comes to you in the soft Italian accent, +mingled with the higher-keyed voices of the Japanese and Chinese. + +The group of ten Chinese young men impress you by their alertness, +neatness of appearance, and evident eagerness to learn. An Italian +boy who had been set at a trade when very young is now having a +belated chance to learn to read. A number of girls of various sizes +help to make up the class, with little Italian Mary, ten years old, +quite new to America, beautiful and winning in spite of her unkempt +appearance and poor clothing. + +With the exception of two who had acquired a little English, the +class entered school three months before with no knowledge of +English. All are able to write their names and addresses and simple +sentences in English on the blackboard. + +They can go through the transaction of buying a newspaper, explaining +each action involved, and making correct payment or exacting correct +change. + +When questioned, they give quickly and correctly the names of the +President of the United States, the Governor of New York, the Mayor +of New York City, and answer other questions on civic affairs. + +It was deeply stirring to see a little Italian whose patois English +was scarcely intelligible, step forward, with conscious pride, to +be the standard-bearer and hold the flag while the class, with eager +enthusiasm, saluted, touching foreheads and extending arms at full +length as they repeated, the foreign tongues giving queer twists to +the words: + +"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the Republic for which it +stands, one nation, indissoluble, with liberty and justice for all." + +Many night classes likewise afford opportunity for new Americans +to learn English. Public School No. 95, located on Clarkson Street +in the old Greenwich Village of New York, where now many Italians, +Irish and a few Jews find homes, carries forward a remarkable +service to its neighborhood. + +Here the opportunity of helpful evening recreation is given to +girls and boys. These evenings include basket ball games and +athletics, Boy Scout activities, moving picture exhibits, public +concerts and meetings, with such speakers on popular themes as +Commissioner of Corrections Katharine B. Davis. Other public +schools give carpentry training in actual shop work, qualifying +the students for positions in trade. They also prepare students to +pass the civil service examinations for public positions and give +suitable training for positions on the Police and Fire Department. + +The establishment of continuation schools in a few stores and +factories is an inestimable boon to some of the toilers thrust too +early into the livelihood struggle. + +The employers are finding it to their interest to spare their +workers for certain hours and days for such schooling because of +the increased efficiency and intelligence of their service. + +A peculiarly neglected group in the foreign quarters of all our +cities are the older women--workers and mothers in the homes. To +these Home Missions is striving to bring some knowledge of the +tongue of the new country through classes arranged especially for +them. + +It is startling to find that the United States census for 1910 +reports a greater percentage of illiteracy among native whites of +native parentage than among native whites of foreign parentage. +The proportion of children from five to fourteen years attending +school is greater among those of foreign parentage and foreign +birth than among native Americans of two or more generations. + +For the entire population over ten years of age, the following +table gives the percentage of illiteracy: + + + Foreign Foreign + Native or Mixed born Native + Parentage Parentage Whites Negro[A] + +United States as a whole....... 3-7 1.1 12.7 30.4 + +The North...................... 1.4 0.9 12.7 10.5 +The South...................... 7.7 4.3 18.8 33.3 +The West....................... 1.7 0.8 9.5 7.0 + +For the children of school age from ten to fourteen, the following +table shows the percentage of illiteracy: + +United States as a whole....... 2.2 0.6 3.5 18.9 + +New England ................ 2.2 0.6 3.5 18.9 +South Atlantic................. 5.0 0.8 5.3 18.9 +East South Central............. 5.8 0.9 11.4 20.7 +West South Central............. 4.1 11.2 34.6 22.4 +Etc............................ --- ---- ---- ---- + +[Footnote A: United States Census for 1910]. + +In some Western states the percentage of illiteracy is as low as +one-tenth of 1 per cent. + + * * * * * + +An examination of schools in fifty-two cities representing with +fairness the entire United States, shows that the majority of +children who enter complete only the fifth grade; of one thousand +children of school age, only one hundred and twenty graduate from +the grammar school and six from the high school. [Footnote: Henry +C. Vedder--The Gospel of Jesus and the Problems of Democracy.] + +It is axiomatic that if children are to be spared by law the strain +of enforced labor upon immature bodies and minds, and to be properly +conserved because they are the most precious of the nation's resources, +they must be prepared by suitable training for the life work that lies +ahead--"making a living being an indispensable foundation for making a +life." + +Through special circumstances certain parts of our country have +been slow in developing the free school so as to make possible even +a most elementary education for their children. This is notably true +of sections in the South. From the early days when the University of +Virginia entered upon its honored service to higher education, the +schools and colleges of the South have been influential, but through +the force of peculiar economic condition these have ministered to the +privileged classes, while the great masses of Negro and white children +in the isolated regions were given few opportunities for even the most +elementary schooling. + +The devastation of war left an impoverished South, and as free schools +depend upon the generosity of the individual states, many, though +desirous, were utterly unable to make suitable school provision for +their children. + +Sections in the North thus neglected may also be found, as some of +the islands on the coast of Maine and other more or less isolated +regions of New England, New York, and other states will testify. + +There have been great gaps where the government has failed to +make adequate educational provision among the Indian tribes. The +Spanish-speaking people are also exceptional in their educational +needs. Though the government has done much, yet Cuba and Porto +Rico are among the places where conditions make necessary special +educational effort. + +The vast number of non-English-speaking adult foreigners calls for +unusual educational provisions. + +As the church sent out the school in the early days to become one +of its greatest contributors to our national life, so ever since, +the church has earnestly sought to supply the neglected with that +knowledge which is power. + +It is increasingly the aim of the schools founded and maintained by +Home Missions to lead to self-realization and self-help, to bring the +Christ motive to the inner life, and efficiency and effectiveness to +the mastery of outward circumstances through the training of minds +and hands. + +Among the early Home Mission schools, were those opened to give +guidance and direction to the millions of Negroes in their baffling +struggle upward from bondage to all that freedom means of ability +toward self-direction and development. + +"At Kent Home for Negro girls at Greensboro, North Carolina, the +schedule of the day's activities shows the scope of such schools. + + * * * * * + +"The day's work begins early, breakfast being at 6:30. Busy hands +have the house in perfect order, and advance preparations made for +dinner by the time the chapel bell rings at 8:30. + +"All the work of the Home is done by the girls under the supervision +and with the practical assistance of teachers. They are marked and +graded in this as in their school work. They are also making creditable +progress in general cooking, plain sewing and dressmaking. + +"The students in the college range in age from sixteen to sixty +years. One of the latter took eleven years to graduate, keeping +two girls in school and a large family at home at the same time. + +"The taste for reading must needs be cultivated in most of the +girls who enter our Homes. The gift of $100 from a former 'Kent +girl' and her husband, provides the nucleus of a library made up +of such books as girls need and enjoy; better still, it is reaching +more than our girls. Neither college nor village has library +opportunities for colored people, and so the supply at Kent Home +was made available to those outside." [Footnote: Woman's Missionary +Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.] + + * * * * * + +"It was a Negro girl from Boylan Home, Jacksonville, Florida, who +went back to her cabin home to find no floor but the earth, and nothing +to sit on but home-made stools. But she had the equipment for producing +better things, and was soon conducting quite a dressmaking business for +the neighborhood. + +"A frequent sign of progress is the request of a girl to buy a broom +to take home to her mother. Neither mother nor girl had known in the +past anything better than a bundle of twigs wherewith to sweep the +rough wooden or earth floor of the cabin." + + * * * * * + +Spelman Seminary at Atlanta, Georgia, founded (1881) and +maintained by the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, +has carried forward a varied and far-reaching service to Negroes. + +One student referring to her own experience says--"I thought I was +going to Spelman to learn books, but I soon found that sewing, washing +and ironing, sweeping and dusting, cooking and all sorts of work are +included in getting an education here. + +"While carrying on high school work I completed the three years' +course in cooking. Plain sewing had been thoroughly mastered. +Basketry, practical gardening and agriculture were a part of the +grade work. Now while I am completing the course in Normal training +I am taking bench work, more advanced agriculture and care and raising +of poultry. This knowledge will be needed as I seek to better the home +conditions of the pupils in the country schools under my care. + +"I have also some knowledge of nursing gained at MacVicar Hospital, +which is connected with Spelman and which gives full nurse training +courses to some eighteen or twenty students each year." + +One of the most telling features of Spelman's community service is +the sending out of a county supervisor of public schools to introduce +industrial training and better methods of school work. + +During the last year of Normal work each student-teacher is sent +out to visit the county schools with the supervisor whom Spelman +employs for the rural work in Fulton County. + +There are eight rural and seven suburban Negro schools in the +county. The school buildings range from an old house or a one-room +building, with almost nothing to work with, up to a good school +building fairly equipped. + +The following is told by one of the Normal students of her work in +the country schools: + +"Mothers' clubs were formed and fathers were interested so far as +possible in order to secure the sympathy and co-operation of the +parents in introducing industrial work. + +"The tools were crude. In many instances jack-knives, stones and +glass were used if hammers, planes and saws could not be obtained. + +"Sewing was taught to both boys and girls. At first the boys +objected, but such remarks as 'Can't she see us is boys?' failed +of results, and soon the boys became thoroughly interested in +making good sized boys' handkerchiefs from flour sacks. Baskets +were made from pine needles, reed, willow, and rushes, and mats +from corn shucks. + +"Early in the term the untidy, neglectful school yards were converted +into gardens, farmers supplying the seed, and when no mule could be +procured for ploughing, four boys were harnessed to draw the plough, +while another guided it. + +"Parent-teachers' clubs were organized and many mothers came for +instruction." + +The fact that the last census reports thirty-three per cent of the +Southern Negro population above ten years as illiterate, shows a +vast need here of additional educational effort of the kind that +Missions are bringing--the all-round training that gives ability +to earn a living, combined with the moral and spiritual qualities +which alone can produce worthy citizenship. + + * * * * * + +In Porto Rico and the island possessions of the United States, +Mission schools have rendered the greatest possible service. + +There were almost no schools for the plain people on the islands +under Spanish rule. Our government, when it assumed control, +addressed itself vigorously to the task of providing schools as +well as giving the islands wholesome physical conditions, but +there was great need of supplemental Mission schools, especially +for the younger children. + +In addition to the lack of sufficient public schools, there are +reasons involved in the former religious control of the islands +which make the Mission school most essential in bringing to the +citizens of to-morrow quickening ideals and constructive training. + +"Mercedes, Juanita, Pachita, Juan, Felipe--here they are, all out +at play, just like American school children at recess, only that it +is too hot for hard running games. Where is the schoolhouse? Why, +under that cocoanut tree. Yes, that little shack, thatched with palm +leaves. See the American flag floating atop it! That tells the story. +If the breeze that waves it could speak to you as it does to some +older people, it would say, 'In all this beautiful island outside +the city of San Juan, there was but one schoolhouse when it came into +the possession of the United States. Spain had kept the men and women +in ignorance for more than four hundred, years. Every bright fold of +Old Glory means new life, new joy, new hope to the boys and girls of +Porto Rico, for now they have a chance.'" + + * * * * * + +The concentration of Orientals on the Pacific coast has laid a heavy +responsibility upon Home Missions to interpret to them the message +of Christ and the meaning of true citizenship in the Republic. + +A number of the larger denominations have responded effectively to +this call, and their schools and missions extend from the Golden Gate +north to Seattle and south to San Diego. + +Homes for girls, with kindergarten and primary schools, and evening +classes for young men are most important and telling features in +this service. + +The story of one girl in the Home maintained in San Francisco by +the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal +Church is typical of the far-reaching character of all missionary +service to Orientals. + + * * * * * + +Miss Caroline Lee, a remarkable student, was graduated from the State +Normal School of California. She is at present (January, 1915) attending +the Training School of the Young Women's Christian Association in New +York City, preparing to fill an important position in China under the +National Board of the Association. + +Her child life was filled with tragedy and hardship. Her earliest +memories are of a river boat in China and of being sold and brought +to San Francisco, and sold again. + +Here, suffering from the result of a serious fall, she was found +by a missionary and taken to the Mission Home, where she spent five +months in the hospital. + +In the helpful atmosphere of the Home, she developed a remarkably +bright mind and a sweet Christian spirit. + +Having completed her school course, she became an efficient worker +among her own people, reaching heathen as well as Christian homes +through the children in her kindergarten classes, who were devotedly +attached to her. + +The qualities of her character and service brought her an opening +to a position of great importance in Christian work in China. As +she returns to China, she becomes another of the many links in the +far reaches of Home Missions by which it influences the ends of +the earth. + + * * * * * + +Home Missions probably faces no greater challenge than is presented +to its faith and accomplishment by Mormonism. + +Through constant recruits of hardy, industrious, but uneducated +immigrants, the growth of Mormonism is rapid and of immense political +significance. + +The Mormon church, with its great foresight, has established strong +colonies in many states. In at least eight the influence of the +church in civic affairs is paramount. + +Because of the fundamental principle of religious tolerance in this +country, and the insidious methods of Mormonism, it is most difficult +for Christianity successfully to combat this menace. It is acknowledged +by those whose experience in Utah and other Mormon states gives them +authority, that Christian education of the Mormon young people is the +surest and best method of bringing enlightenment, independence of +thought, and release from church dominance. + +Mormons realize the value of early instruction in religion. Forty +thousand children are under regular instruction in Mormon religion +classes held in the public schools at least once a week, immediately +following the day-school sessions. The regular school teachers (if +Mormons) instruct these classes. + +"I recently made a circuit of two score towns in eastern and southern +Idaho (Mormon territory) in quest of students. It was a strenuous +piece of work and required traveling by rail, on horseback and foot. + +"Perhaps the most fruitful work of the summer consisted in personal, +intimate talks with the younger professional and business men. They +do most certainly betray dissatisfaction with the old order. A few +are diligently working to liberalize their church against the inertia +of the membership and the alert opposition of the crafty leaders. One +of these _leaders_ I recently heard openly disparaging education as +'not quick with the Spirit,' and deploring the tendency to question +the authority and validity of the priesthood. By far the larger number +of younger dissatisfied men are leaving religion out of their accounts, +living for personal gain, and when pressed, avowing hostility to all +religion. + +"The need of cultural advantages is most apparent throughout rural +Utah. The work, therefore, of our academies not only fills a great +need educationally, but responds effectively to the appeal for good +home environment. Christian education is the leaven that Utah needs. + +"The graduating classes of the New Jersey Academy for the past three +years have all become Christian girls and members of the little +Presbyterian church. + +"I am confident that a new era is dawning--an era marked by intellectual +development and religious awakening, an era of questioning, an era of +intelligence. This cannot fail to be effective in breaking up the +crust of dogmatism and superstition which has retarded the independent +religious thinking of these people for many years." [Footnote: Rev. +Mr. Wittenberger--Presbyterian.] + +Probably nowhere in our country is there greater eagerness for +"book learning" than among the mountain people of the South. The +passionately desired schooling in the mountains is often secured +only at the expense of great hardship. Booker Washington has said +that the measure of attainment is not the result accomplished, but +the obstacles overcome in attaining it. + +There is much illiteracy among the older people, but through the +Mission schools and the improved educational system of the states, +comparatively few children now are lacking the opportunity of some +elementary education. The training received in the district school +is often very meager and the term of a few months' work much too +short. + +Through the many months when the schools are closed, the young people +are thrown upon their own resources. They are without stimulating and +helpful outside interests, and deterioration is the inevitable result. + +It is interesting to note that in September, 1914, the Kentucky state +legislature appointed a Commission on Illiteracy. The Commission has +launched an educational campaign with the watch-word "Illiteracy +eliminated in 1920." + +A number of Southern states have recently made earnest efforts to +reduce the percentage of illiteracy within their borders. + +The story of what was accomplished in a campaign for the elimination +of illiteracy in Rowan County, one of the most backward mountain +counties in Kentucky, is both picturesque and instructive. + +During the fall months of 1911, 1912, 1913, under the enthusiastic +leadership of the County Superintendent and a corps of fifty +volunteer and unpaid teachers, practically every man, woman and +child in the county was taught to read and write. A special +feature of this campaign was the holding of moonlight schools, +making possible the attendance of the older people. + +Almost all of the fifty teachers who gave this splendid service +were graduates of a Mission School, the Morehead Normal School, +which is under the administration of the Christian Women's Board +of Missions. + +Helpful and commendable as such methods are, they cannot supply +the place of a Mission School giving regular educational and +industrial training. These are qualified to bring to peculiarly +backward communities some grasp of the larger, fuller life, and +equipment for living it. + + * * * * * + +"The Mission teacher was making her way along the mountain trail +toward a log house. As she drew near, a woman, scarcely more than +a child, came to the door, looking eagerly up the creek. A tiny +two-year-old boy tried in vain to pass her that he might play in +the shallow water of the creek. + +"A wailing cry reached the teacher's ears as the mother turned +into the room and in a moment was again standing in the doorway, +this time holding in her arms a smaller bit of humanity. + +"As the teacher reached the house she paused, for a man was riding +down the creek. At sight of him the face of the mountain woman in +the doorway assumed a stolid, almost hard, look, as if life had +already brought to her all the misery and trouble it could, and +there was nothing now but indifference. + +"The man rode to the door saying, 'Hullo, Ocie.' + +"'Howdy, Alf,' was the reply. + +"He swung round sidewise on the horse and remarked: + +"'They had a fight up to Lef' Fork las' night. Boys been a drinkin'. +Jim, he's dead. Andy's not hurt much. They hev taken him to the +Cou't House.' + +"That was all. The child-woman's expression scarcely changed. The +man sat his horse quietly, then with the words, 'Yo pa'll be down +some time this mawnin' afte' ye,' he turned and rode up the creek. + +"The teacher crossed the foot log, lifted the fretting child into +her arms and drew the mother after her into the house. The room was +without light, excepting from the open door; the bare, rough-hewn +floor and table were spotless. One chair, a bench and an old chest +of drawers was the only furniture besides the large bed with its +neat, homespun blue counterpane. The hearth of the huge fireplace +was swept clean, and although the middle of May, a good fire was +burning. The teacher, sitting on the bench behind the table, let +the little boy play with her watch, her purse, her rings, until +in a wealth of happiness and satisfaction, he fell asleep in her +arms. The girl-wife shifted the sleeping babe in her arms, raised +her head, and with all the pathos of a hurt and ignorant child +spoke her heart to the woman whom she knew would understand. + +"'I've fearn this thing for a long time. Las' winter befo' the +baby come, I used to set befo' the fire all night long, dreadin', +dreadin'--I didn't know what--this, I guess. We've been married +nigh onto fou' years now, though I ain't but seventeen; Andy he's +comin' nineteen. It's agen the law to marry that young, but pa he +hed a big family and Andy, he was a mighty nice young man, so we +fixed it all right. + +"'We never hed no preachin' fo' more'n three year befo' yo' all +come, exceptin' when Mis' Lawson's baby died and when Ben and Lizy +was married, ole Brother Bonat come over an' preached a couple o' +nights. Fo' more'n year now Andy an' Jim ha' been hangin' roun' +Eskin's store, an' you've never know'd 'em exceptin' as the rough +men they are. When yo' all come I tho't maybe yo' could get 'em +back, but it was too late. Now Jim, he's dead, and Andy--cou'se he +never'd tetched Jim if he'd been hisself.' + +"The soft, hopeless drawl stopped, and again there was silence. +Soon the sleeping children roused, the dog barked, and three men +came to the doorway--the father and brothers. Without greeting, +the old man said: 'Yo'd better come home, Ocie. Jim, he's dead, +an' Andy'll hev to go to Moundsville, I reckon.' (Moundsville +meant the state penitentiary.) The teacher helped to dismantle the +poor little home and saw the few household belongings loaded on +the ox sled. + +"The silence which she knew was more acceptable sympathy to the +tearless child-woman than words would have been, was only broken +when they were standing on the steps above the creek. Then the +words were interrupted by the child-mother. + +"'It's too late to help this now, but ef yo' all will just see +that there's a school here where my children can learn what their +pa an' me an' Jim didn't know, an' will keep the meetin's agoin' +at the schoolhouse so they'll know how to be good, I'll be mighty +glad. These here little fellers named Jim an' Andy, too, yo' know, +an' I want 'em to hev more of a chanct than we've hed. They's lots +of us up here thet hed in us a great big feelin' of wantin' to be +somethin' and to do some-thin' that we didn't know what nor how, +'n' I guess we get reckless sometimes thinkin' it's no use.'" +[Footnote: Alma C. Moore--Christian Women's Board of Missions.] + + * * * * * + +The detailed and comprehensive report of the Commissioner of +Indian Affairs, issued in January, 1915, emphasized the desirability +of the attendance of Indian children at near-by public schools, to +obviate the dreaded separation from parents which is entailed when +they must be sent by the government to distant Indian boarding schools. + +The report mentions the gratifying increase last year in the number +of Indian children in attendance at the neighborhood public schools. + +Some tribes are still peculiarly neglected educationally. The +Navajos are a conspicuous example. + +Twenty-four thousand Indian children remain without schools. + +The religious motive enters deeply into the psychology of the +Indian, and no greater stimulus toward better living can be given +them than Christianity affords. Therefore the Mission School is +especially adopted to bring the Indians into helpful and constructive +relationships as individuals and citizens. + +Of great significance in the uplift of the Indians is the recent +opening of several schools for training young Christian Indians +for leadership in Christian work among their own people. + + * * * * * + +"The transition which is now going on from the old days of hunting +and fishing to the new period of commercial development throughout +all Southeastern Alaska must have a profound effect upon the future +of this people. + +"More pupils applied for admission to the Sheldon Jackson School at +Sitka this year than could possibly be accommodated. The industrial +departments of this institution have received careful attention. +The general claim of all this work is to give full practical and +theoretical training, with a view to preparing the girls for the +task of home-making and the boys as wage earners." [Footnote: +Woman's Board of Home Missions, Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.] + +This aim holds true also for the schools of all Protestant +Missions in the far North. + +Education is one of the expressions of the passionate desire and +purpose for betterment of those who gave their impress to our +national life. Hamilton Mabie says: "Among Americans education is +not only a discipline, a training; it is also a symbol. It means +living an ampler life in a larger world." + +The church-Home Missions--from the beginning has been the largest +factor in the spread of schools and colleges--the greatest single +educative force of this country. + +The record of the Home Mission activities of the various denominations +tells the story of the founding of academies and colleges, throughout +the length and breadth of the land. In Kansas the State Normal School, +State Agricultural College and the State University were founded by +Home Missionaries. + +Of the great Eastern universities and colleges it will be recalled +that many were established by the Christian church. Among these +are Harvard, Williams, Columbia, Princeton, Rutgers, Vassar and +many others. + +Home Missions is still an active and deeply needed educative +force. It brings the most powerful influence to the great groups +of the neglected in our land, giving them visions of bettered +physical conditions, yearnings after higher spiritual purposes, +and determinations for a fuller realization of life in all its +meaning, with the power of attaining these ideals. + + + + +IV + + +A HEALING FORCE + + +"During the spring months an epidemic of diphtheria and other +infectious diseases visited a district of nine or ten villages in +New Mexico. Many children succumbed to these diseases, the number +of those who died being about one-tenth of the entire population +of the district. + +"No people in the world are kinder-hearted than the Mexican +people. Everybody, even the children, visits the sick, and attends +the _velorios_ (wakes) and funeral rites of the dead, without +regard to the contagious character of the disease. + +"This fatal custom is re-enforced by a fatalistic philosophy. +Whatever befalls one, he receives it with an '_Asi me toco_' (It +was my fate). Whatever comes, he says: + +"'_Es par Dios_' (It is of God). Each man has his appointed time +to die. Until that time he is safe, and when that time comes +nothing can save him. There is no such thing as contagion; disease +strikes when and where God will. Medicine will cure, if it is the +will of God. What the medicine may be is of little importance; a +glass of water will cure as well as anything else, is a frequent +saying, if it is the will of God. + +"She, the missionary nurse, thereupon took up her station in the +sick room, kept out the numerous callers, administered antitoxin, +and nursed the child back to life. She had saved the child. She +gave the antitoxin treatment in other cases where the parents were +willing. She thus treated fifteen cases, losing only one." + + + * * * * * + + +"The healing of the seamless dress, + Is by our beds of pain. + We touch Him in life's throng and press, + And we are whole again." + + * * * * * + +Of all the compelling qualities that drew humanity irresistibly +to Him, the compassion of the Christ was the most winning. This +constraining love was the very heart of His Gospel. + +The masses of the suffering in His day knew only the ostracism of +society because of their affliction. + +The blind must sit idly through the glory of the day by the dusty +road-side, begging bread from the passing throng; the crippled lay +in their misery and impotence at the gateways of the temples, +sustained by the occasional coins tossed by the more fortunate as +they hurried by. Nervous and mental sufferers must range through +the wilds of deserts and waste places, or share the tombs where +the lepers took refuge, being judged possessed of devils and fit +only to be outcasts. + +The pity of Christ, as well as His power to heal, disclosed a new +force in the world-a love that could tenderly share the darkened +outlook as well as minister to all the needs of such as these. + +The compassion of the Christ reached and lifted the hopeless heart +of suffering humanity as His touch soothed the torturing agony of +disease and brought hope and healing into a world hardened to pain. + +It released a power the beneficence and helpfulness of which +increase year by year as science adds to its ability, and a growing +sense of responsibility widens its use. + +The Christian era ushered in the day of hope for the sick-poor--a +day that has progressed steadily, to an ever-enlarging vision of +what was in the heart of Christ for the healing of the nations. + +Ancient writers tell us of some efforts in pre-Christian days +toward the institutional care of the sick. The earliest records +mention the treatment of the sick in the Greek temples of Aesculapius +in 1134 B.C.; these were probably not for the poor. Seneca very +much later refers to the infirmaries established by the Romans for +the well-to-do classes. + +In 226 B.C., the Buddhists in India are credited with some small +efforts to provide for the sick poor, as are also later the fire +worshipers of Persia. + +"When the example and teachings of Christ began to bear fruit, and +when Jerusalem and the roads approaching it began to be crowded +with pilgrims, special accommodations for the use of the sick were +established. When monasteries and convents followed, they too, +provided for the sick." + +From the Roman word "hospitalia" (apartment set apart for guests), +our word hospital is derived. + +In the writings of St. Jerome, who established several, the word +"hospital" is first used for a curative institution. + +It is of interest to know that the oldest hospital now in use in +Europe, the Hotel Dieu, was founded in Paris, in 600 A. D. by the +Bishop of Paris. + +All the early hospitals were church institutions, and the wards +were clustered about the chapel, as may be seen to-day in the +arrangement of beautiful St. Luke's hospital in New York City. +Thus we find that religion, not medicine, gave birth to hospitals. + +An accelerating influence in their growth came through the +necessities of war, which threw large numbers of the injured and +suffering upon communities quite unprepared to receive and +minister to them. + +It was to meet such a need that the first hospital was established +in the United States on Manhattan Island in 1658. + +The "New Netherland Register" says "This hospital was established +at the request of Surgeon Hendricksen Varrevauger for the reception +of sick soldiers--who had been previously billeted on private +families." + +In 1679 the hospital consisted of five houses. + +Early in the eighteenth century pest-houses were established at +Salem, Massachusetts, at New York, and Charleston, and in 1717, +a hospital for contagious diseases was built in Boston. + +The teachings and writings of Benjamin Franklin were of marked +importance in promoting sanitary science and in securing the +building of the first chartered hospital in the United States, +which was erected in Philadelphia in 1755. The record shows four +hundred and thirty-five patients treated in this hospital in the +year 1775. + +That year was also marked by the building of the New York +Hospital, which was destroyed by fire almost as soon as completed, +and rebuilt in 1791. It owed its origin to two professors of +King's College (now Columbia), which at that time was a church +institution. + +The necessities of war have from early times had a marked effect +upon the development of hospitals. Dr. James Tilton, in presenting +recommendations to Congress in 1781, says of his experience in the +Revolution: "It would be shocking to humanity to relate the history +of our general hospitals in the years 1777 and 1779, when they +swallowed up at least one-half of our army, owing to the system of +placing nearly all the sick of the army in the general hospitals, +where crowds and infection wrought a fearful mortality, and where +more surgeons died in the American service in proportion to their +number than officers of the line--a strong evidence that infection +is more dangerous than weapons of war." + +The death rate of the English and French soldiers was so fearful, +and the neglect and condition of the wounded men so appalling in +the Crimean war (1854), that the entire English nation was aroused. +It was a woman, Florence Nightingale, who was sent out by the nation +and given full authority to act in the emergency upon which hung +the fate of the armies. + +Not only did this noble woman, with her band of thirty-seven +nurses, bring healing instead of death in those army hospitals, +but she instituted reform in sanitation which was adopted by +hospitals throughout the world. + +To her also humanity owes the inestimable boon of the trained +nurse of education, refinement and ability. Before Florence +Nightingale gave herself and initiated the movement for the +training of young women of standing as nurses, such work had been +left to the rough, uncouth, and often low-lived men and women, of +whom the unspeakable Sairey Gamp, immortalized by Charles Dickens, +is a fitting type. + +As the Christian church was the first to give healing to the +needy, so it has carried this ministry wherever in the world its +banners have been set up. + +Throughout this land, from Alaska to the Gulf, may be found +hospitals established by the Christian church--the greater number +the product of Home Missions. + +The Home Mission nurse, or deaconess-nurse, is an important factor +in connection with nearly every mission station. + +In lumber sections, in mining camps, on Alaskan river boats, in +far back mountain settlements, in the patios of Porto Rico and our +island possessions, with the Negroes of the South, the Orientals +of the Pacific coast, the backward peoples, the Mexicans and +Indians, the depressed of our great cities, at the gates of the +nation--wherever the cry of human need in our land has been met by +Home Missions, there these ministers of healing have carried their +blessed service. + +If the nurse, or deaconess, is to fulfill her mission to the +sick, she must have training. There must be deaconess homes and +hospital's for this, where also the sick poor who can rarely be +properly cared for in their dark, crowded, unsanitary homes may +find help. In answer to this double need, deaconess hospitals +have been established. + +"The deaconess nurse goes into the homes of the poor, bringing +the skilled touch of the nurse and the loving heart of Christian +womanhood to the service of the neediest. Contagion has no terrors +for her; Filth, vermin, and dangerously unsanitary conditions are +matters of every-day occurrence. No service so quickly opens the +heart to good influences as that which comes in hours of deepest +need and helplessness, to lead the heart through human tenderness +to the Source of all goodness and love. Whole families have been +won to Christ through the services of a Christian nurse. + + * * * * * + +"Babies first! The wee folk, doomed to the ill's to which tenement +life is heir, must have safe food; a luxury unattainable, or it +would be if the House did not have a dispensary from which over a +thousand bottles of milk, modified by the doctor's prescription for +each individual case, are given out each month. + +"It is worth while to visit the Medical Mission at 36 Hull Street, +Boston. There will be found a dental clinic, opened in the spring of +1912, and the school nurses send the children there to get acquainted +with the pleasures of the dental chair, and, most important of all, +to learn how to care for their teeth. Then there are the orthopedic, +and the regular surgical and medical clinics. + +"Soon after lunch I went with a nurse to make call's on a few of the +out-patients. We read of dark stairways, but I had no conception of +such dark and crooked ways. Why the children do not have broken +limbs all the time I cannot imagine. + +"We entered three places--I suppose the people who live in them +call them homes; each has two or three rooms, with one or more +beds in every room, even the kitchen. If there were three rooms, +one was window-less. A mother, with a three weeks' old baby, was +scrubbing the stone steps. The babies were bound up like papooses, +and the nurse had to unwind the little living mummies to care for +them. + +"Later, returning to the Mission, we attended the 'Italian +Mothers' Club.' How they luxuriate in their weekly treat! They +sing, sew on garments which are theirs when completed, listen to +talks from visitors and workers, and always close the hour with +the Lord's prayer. Children cling to their skirts or lie in their +laps as they discuss their personal problems, and all look up when +spoken to with the never-failing Italian courtesy. + +"Some of the year's statistics are a revelation as to the work +done: Dispensary treatments, indoor, 12,522; outdoor, 1536; new +patients, 4649; operations, 329; obstetrical cases, 151; calls +made by nurses, 3075. + +"In one week at the morning and evening clinics, ninety-seven +patients were treated at the dispensary besides the vaccination +cases." [Footnote: Woman's Home Missionary Society, Methodist +Episcopal Church.] + + * * * * * + +"She was an epileptic. The sadness that is bound up in the word +only those who have experienced it can know. She worked with her +needle as long as she could. At the warning cry of one of the +terrible attacks, her mother tenderly cared for her. + +"'There is only one thing that rests on my heart,' said the mother, +as she lay on her death-bed. 'I am satisfied about everything else +and ready to go, if only there was some friend to care for my poor +epileptic girl.' + +"A friend promised to place the daughter in the Lutheran Home +for Epileptics, and the mother died praising God for those who, +in following His Son, had provided for those who were afflicted." +[Footnote: The Women's Missionary Society, Lutheran General +Council.] + + * * * * * + +Nowhere is the twofold service of the Mission hospital more +needed than among the Negroes of the South, where the unsanitary +conditions in and about the homes, and the widespread ignorance +of the simplest laws of health are so pronounced. A number of the +Boards maintain hospitals providing care for the sick Negroes and +the training of colored girls as nurses for their own people. + +Among these MacVicar Hospital is outstanding in the character and +efficiency of its service. + +This hospital is a department of Spelman Seminary, maintained by +the Woman's American Baptist Home Missionary Society at Atlanta, +Georgia. Its workers are members of the school faculty and they +are paid from the school fund. A small charge, to outside +patients, is made. + +The trustees have set aside one-half of the annual income of a +small endowment in order to provide free operations and treatment +for those to whom even a small payment is impossible. + +Negro women and children from the city have the privileges of the +hospital, and patients also come from various parts of the state +for medical and surgical treatment. + +The hospital is able to take adequate care of the health of Spelman's +large family of six hundred people. When smallpox is in the city, +vaccination day is held and every boarder, day pupil, teacher, and +workman must report to the hospital. + +The doctors from the city co-operate in the work at MacVicar, +giving their services freely. + +One of the most valuable features of the institution is the +training course for nurses, to which those in training must give +their entire time for three years. They must have completed the +eighth grade in school before beginning. + + * * * * * + +Of those in dire need of physical as well as spiritual regeneration +in our land are the Mexicans, of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, +California, and the large colonies in some of the cities of Texas. + +The prevailing ignorance, untidiness, and superstition of the +homes call insistently for more missionary nurses to teach +cleanliness, sanitation, and economy, and the training of mothers +in the care of their little ones and in the preparation of +wholesome food. + + * * * * * + +The latest report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs states that +the Government maintains fifty-one hospitals (six additional are +under construction), with a combined capacity of 1432 patients, to +care for a population of 331,250 persons. In view of these figures, +it is not difficult to realize the urgent need of the field workers +and nurses in connection with Christian Missions among Indians. + +The report shows also the estimated number of 21,980 Indians +suffering from tuberculosis, and 35,769 afflicted with the highly +contagious eye disease, trachoma. The death rate per thousand +among the Indians last year was 30.76. The percentage of deaths +due to tuberculosis was 31.83, while the birthrate was 38.79 per +thousand. + +The Commissioner of Indian Affairs says: + +"I am fully aware of the fact that to perpetuate the Indian race, +the inroads of tuberculosis must be stayed. To do this it is +essential that better sanitary conditions be instituted in the +Indian homes, and cleanliness, better ventilation, and sufficient +and nourishing food be secured." + +Realizing the importance of these matters, a study has been made +of the physical conditions of the government Indian schools. An +effort has been made to detect incipient tuberculosis and trachoma +and segregate and treat those infected, so that healthy families +may not be infected through the return of a child who has been +infected at school. Regular talks are given to the children on +sanitary matters. + +There is vital necessity for more hospitals to care for the +children and other members of the family in the early stages of +disease. + +Fully sixty per cent of the Indians under the supervision of the +Indian service are still entirely dependent upon the government for +medical assistance. The medical staff employed by the government +comprises one hundred and twenty-eight regular physicians, devoting +their entire time, and fifty-nine contract physicians giving part +time service. + +A unique and most helpful feature of the Indian Missions +maintained by the Women's Board of Domestic Missions of the +Reformed Church in America are the separate buildings known as +lodges, set apart for the use of the Indians. + +Here the specially needy sick find care and shelter until other +provision can be made for them. + +Here when the journey has been long, or necessity compels, mothers +bring their little ones for rest, or to spend the night. + +Young girls pressed by temptation or needing shelter can find +security and safety at the lodge. + +The lodge sewing machines and laundry facilities are greatly +appreciated by the women who seek the help of such conveniences +from time to time. + +Here mothers are taught many helpful lessons in sanitation, +the care of babies, and the preparation of food for the sick. + +Occasionally Indian feasts and celebrations connected with +the Mission are held or prepared in the lodge by the Indians +themselves under the supervision of a worker. + +The lodge matron knows the Indians and how to help them, and is +loved and trusted by them because they realize her sympathy and +appreciate what her kind hands do for them in the care of the +sick, and often, also, in the preparation of their dead for burial. + +Many a sick and needy one at the lodge has turned from the old +Indian road of darkness, pain, and dread, and found rest, and +help, and light in the Jesus Way. + + * * * * * + +"Here in Alaska the hospital boat was launched this summer, and +will be of great use. + +"One of the important results of my visit, I trust, will be a +report of a medical survey made of the natives in Haines and Kluckwan. +A number of estimates of the amount of tubercular and other infectious +diseases among these people have been made, but, so far as my knowledge +goes, no careful, exhaustive, complete medical survey of any one village +has ever been made, or put into suitable form for presentation. I fear +that this will disclose a most appalling condition (unless it should +prove that the estimates hitherto available have been very carelessly +made). Whatever it may show, I feel sure that it will help us in +presenting to the United States Government the medical needs of these +people in such a way as to compel the serious attention of Congress, +and result in an appropriation annually for the introduction of such +sanitary measures throughout Alaska as will eventually eradicate the +dreadful source of contagion now existing. + +"It seems almost inconceivable that while so much has been done for +the Indians of the plains, for the people of the Philippine Islands +and for Porto Rico, in the way of sanitation, these natives who have +been wards of the nation for forty-seven years should have been almost +entirely neglected in this respect. According to the information +which I have, there is not a single government hospital in all Alaska, +and only one hospital of any kind--our own at Haines--that is being +maintained for the benefit of the natives; nor are there any homes +for the aged, the incurables, or orphans, though these are sadly +needed. While the church has been ministering to their spiritual +needs, and the government and church together have been supplying +educational facilities, all agencies have failed to meet the +fundamental problem of physical regeneration. + +"The question may be asked, as, indeed, it has been, 'What is the +use of attempting to save a dying race?' and secondly, 'Can the +race be saved?' I have little patience with Christian men and women +who ask the first question, but shall reply most emphatically that +on commercial grounds alone we should save these people. They ought +to become a very valuable asset in the new economic development of +the entire territory of Alaska. When properly trained and disciplined +they make excellent workmen. Their natural adaptation to the climatic +conditions should prove a valuable commercial asset. In the name of a +common humanity; in the name of the gospel of the brotherhood of man, +as well as for commercial reasons, I do not hesitate to say that they +should be saved. + +"Can they be regenerated physically? Possibly not as a race; but +as individuals without hesitation I answer in the affirmative. The +introduction of proper sanitary measures by the government; the +development of educational systems by both church and state; and +the ministry of spiritual advisers working hand in hand, would +form a combination of agencies that in ten years would completely +transform, rebuild and place on the sure road to health and +prosperity, this people." [Footnote: Rev. M. C. Allaben, Woman's +Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.] + + * * * * * + +The mountain made a steep descent to the road except for one shelving +bit of level ground upon which rested, as if it had alighted there, +a one-room cabin, for which an end of a tree trunk served as a +doorstep. A loosely-hung wooden door provided the only light by day, +except that given by the flickering of the flames from the burning +logs on the old open fireplace. + +On a big bed in the corner, the only one the home afforded, lay a +little baby girl, burning with fever. Over her bent her young +mother, widowed, though still in her early twenties. + +Pretty fair-haired children of two and four years of age crouched +in sleepy misery on the foot of the bed, sharing in their childish +way their mother's anxiety. + +An older girl of six, pretty, but already womanly in her busy +household ways, heaped another log on the fire and hovered over it +for warmth. She was barefoot and, like the others of the household, +including the sick baby, wore the scanty day-time clothing, having +no other, for they were of the very poor of the mountains. + +It was the lonely, desolate hour between midnight and morning. The +watchers in the cabin listened intently for the sound of hoof-beats +which would mean that the Mission nurse had been home when the +summons came, and would soon be with them. + +Hark! Yes!--through the night came the beat, beat of the hoofs of +old "Bess" as she struck the road in a swift steady trot. + +Emma, the oldest girl, is down in the darkness at the road to meet +the beloved nurse and help her dismount. She holds the lantern while +the saddle-bags are swung off and old "Bess" is blanketed and tethered. + +As she enters the cabin Miss M---- goes immediately to the bed, +and holding the lantern for light, examines her little patient and +finds a bad case of pneumonia. The Mission hospital is not yet +completed, and there is no doctor within many miles. She must fight +alone for the little life. + +Swiftly the saddle-bags are unpacked, yielding the "wonderful +salve" (antiphlogistine) and other medicines--a small wash basin, +soap, wash cloth and towel, flannel and a change of clothing for +baby. + +Emma is bidden to heat water, which she does by filling an old +black kettle and standing it on the blazing embers of the open +fire. + +How the nurse worked, and watched, and prayed as the hours passed, +and no improvement! The day came and went, and another night +brought closer the shadow--the little one seemed hardly to breathe. +Then the mother fled out in the darkness to rock back and forth in +an agony of weeping, which was hushed only when the quiet voice of +the nurse said: "You make it harder. Pray instead." + +At last the waiting nurse feels the little body relax under +her touch. Sleep and restoration begin to steal back the ebbing +vitality--the little life is saved. + +To-day within reach of this home, and many like it, the Mary +Isabel Alien Memorial Hospital at Gray Hawk, Kentucky, stands with +open doors and inviting beds for all who suffer. [Footnote: +Women's Board of Domestic Missions, Reformed Church in America.] + +Whatever equipment and loving service can do to provide healing +may be found here. + + * * * * * + +"The military occupation of Porto Rico drew the attention of +the Christian churches of the United States to their opportunity +and responsibility for sending the light of the true Gospel to that +island where it had never penetrated. Soon after this the investigations +of a military surgeon demonstrated the important fact that ninety +per cent of the working population of the island were affected with +the hook-worm disease. Apart from other diseases which were present, +here was a great economic and humanitarian problem. The government +had done much, but as elsewhere, other agencies were needed if the +physical ills of the Porto Ricans were to be healed. In response to +this need Dr. Grace Atkins went to Porto Rico in 1900 as the first +medical missionary under the Woman's Board of Home Missions of the +Presbyterian Church. She started a clinic in a room of her rented +house, and treated many sick people in their homes. Being impressed +with how little she could do in this way for many who were seriously +sick, or who needed operations, she urged upon the Board the erection +of a hospital. In response to her call to the church, in February, +1904, the present hospital buildings in San Juan were opened to +receive patients. There were forty-five beds and, at that time, +this was the only hospital on the island in which the sick could +be properly treated. + +"That there is need for the work and that the hospital is +meeting that need is shown by the number of those who come +for treatment. This has increased from seven thousand in 1907 +to over nineteen thousand in 1914. The majority of these naturally +are treated in the dispensary, where a clinic is held daily, except +Sunday. On Monday all day is required to treat those who come, the +number reaching almost two hundred at times. Many come in from the +surrounding country, often walking from ten to thirty miles. All +classes of diseases are seen. Besides the more common ailments, with +which all are familiar, there are many cases of hook-worm anemia and +a number of other diseases peculiar to the tropics. Then there are +many who need surgical treatment. Blind men come in led by little +boys; some are brought in rocking chairs by their friends; others +are carried in hammocks, while still others arrive in coaches or +automobiles. One woman may have a piece of a needle broken off in +her hand and another a large tumor which needs a major operation +for its removal. Each one must be examined, a diagnosis made and +the proper treatment and instructions given. The most serious cases +are admitted to the hospital when there are beds available. On an +average six to eight cases a week have to be refused admission +because the beds are filled. + +"In the private rooms are treated many Porto Ricans and many +Americans. The latter not only receive medical attention needed, +and much appreciated, on a foreign shore, but also an education +in practical Christianity which in many cases proves a great +surprise as well as a benefit to themselves and the hospital. +Practically all the patients in the wards are Porto Ricans. A +few of the more serious medical cases are admitted, but the +majority are those who need operations. Able to pay nothing or +very little, there is no other place where most of them can receive +treatment which will enable them to support themselves and those +dependent upon them. The blind have been made to see and the lame +to walk. So many apply for admission that there is always a waiting +list. Many lives have been saved in the children's ward by taking +in babies who have become sick from improper or insufficient food +due to ignorance or poverty. Tuberculosis of bones fend joints is +common and many little sufferers have been restored to health and +strength. + +"That the work done in the hospital is not only helpful to +individuals but that it could be done by no other institution +present or projected is the testimony of the head of the +Department of Health, who is an American and has resided many +years on the island. + +"One of the most important departments of the hospital is the +training school for nurses. There were practically no trained +nurses on the island and no provision for their training when +our school was opened. About sixty have graduated and are doing +faithful and efficient work as head nurses in our own and other +hospitals, and in the homes of their own people. There are usually +about fifteen pupil nurses. In addition to the regular hospital +work a department of district, or visiting, nursing has been started +and each one is trained to do actual practical work in the home. Not +only is this valuable for the nurse, but it makes it possible to +follow up many of the cases from the clinic, or hospital, and +supervise their diet and care and so try to keep them well, which +is especially important for the babies. One of the graduates is +doing this in connection with the settlement work of our church in +San Juan. Her work has suggested to the local Board of Health the +desirability of establishing a similar work on a larger scale. This +is an illustration of the indirect benefits of missions throughout +the world. + +"But men are souls and merely have bodies, so that, however important +it is to heal the body, our Master came to save the soul and our +duty is to point them to Him. Every day in the wards and in the +clinic the Bible is read and prayer is offered. On Sunday a service +is held in which the Gospel message is explained. They have never +had the Bible and know nothing of the true Gospel. The are either +entirely ignorant of religion or their ideas are erroneous. By the +spoken word in the hospital and by giving them the written Word to +carry to their homes, the way is prepared for the entrance into +their hearts and lives of the divine Healer and Saviour. + +"The three years' course affords opportunity for the thorough +religious instruction of the nurses in a weekly Bible class and +in the church services which they attend on Sunday. With very few +exceptions they have become members of evangelical churches before +graduation." [Footnote: Presbyterian Hospital, San Juan, P.I.] + + * * * * * + +"Of first importance in the physical well-being of the boy or girl +is the knowledge that will lead to a wholesome development of body +and mind. + +"One of the most important phases of Home Mission medical work is +instructing the students in Mission Homes and Schools in health and +home sanitation, bringing to them something of the ideal for their +older lives that Dr. David Starr Jordan expresses in "The Call of +the Twentieth Century," where he speaks to the boy of to-day: + +"So live that your after self--the man you ought to be--may in +time be possible and actual. Far away in the twenties, the thirties +of this century, he is awaiting his turn. His body, his brain, his +soul are in your boyish hands. He cannot help himself. What will you +leave for him? Will it be a brain unspoiled by lust or dissipation, +a mind trained to think and act, a nervous system true as a dial in +its response to the truth about you?" + +The place and need of Home Missions as a present day healing +force can be more fully realized when we consider the conditions +peculiar to our country, which call urgently for greatly increased +facilities for physical regeneration. + +Pre-eminent among these are the constant influx of aliens from +southern Europe and others of a dangerously low standard as regards +sanitation and health--and the economic pressure which produces +appalling congestion in living conditions. + +"People are already living on certain portions of Manhattan Island +at a density which, if continued throughout the entire city, would +give New York a population of 197,372,635." + +There is, on the other hand, the isolation and neglect of large +groups of people who are uninformed of sanitation and have only +precarious access to medical attendance, and whose needs call +insistently for help, as well as constitute a menace to the health +of these communities; such are found among Alaskans, Indians, +Mexicans, and others. + +As the enlarging view of spiritual regeneration has come to include +the redemption of the environment so that it shall be an aid to +better living instead of an almost insupportable hindrance, so +also a newer and infinitely greater scope is daily coming to the +realm of healing science--that of prevention of disease and stamping +out of scourges rather than merely the healing of individuals after +disease has claimed them. + +This wider vision of physical regeneration, Home Missions is seeking +earnestly to promote, that the better day for which humanity yearns +may be hastened, when His Kingdom will come on earth. + + + + +V + + +AN INTEGRATING FORCE + + +"Then let us pray that come it may, + As come it will for a' that, + That sense and worth o'er a' the earth + May bear the gree and a' that, + For a' that and a' that, + It's coming yet, for a' that, +_That man to man, the world o'er + Shall brothers be for a' that_." + + +"Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?" + +"There is neither Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor +free; but Christ is all and in all." + +"One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who +is over all, and through all, and in all." + + + * * * * * + + +A prominent American clergyman lecturer and writer was traveling +through inland China a short time before the outbreak of the Boxer +rebellion, when the feeling toward foreigners was intensely +hostile. + +Through a misadventure he became separated from the party with +which he traveled and found himself alone with his Chinese driver +and courier in a village, when a suspicious crowd quickly assembled +which refused to permit him to proceed. + +Passports and letters from prominent Chinese officials were of no +avail with this prejudiced crowd which grew constantly more excited +and revengeful. + +Suddenly through the threatening mass a man forced his way to the +side of Dr. P.----, exclaiming in English, "You Melican man?" "Yes," +came the reply. Turning to the crowd he explained the friendliness +of American foreigners, and turning to Dr. P. again said, "Me +Melican man, too, I live San Francisco seven years." Then he said, +"You Jesus man? Me Jesus man, too; Mission, San Francisco, made me +Jesus man." + +Turning again to the crowd he succeeded in persuading them, though +protesting and reluctant, to allow Dr. P. to proceed on his way +unharmed. + +This incident stands for the myriad influences in the ebb and flow +of immigration that carry the impulses, the ideals, and the new +life of America into the heart of the old world civilizations. + +To the great inert masses of people in these lands have thus been +brought the germs of free thought and action and the sustaining, +impelling faith that these might sometime be attained by them and +their children. That to them through unceasing struggle might also +come the better day when government would stand for freedom, +opportunity and progress, rather than the sword, prison, +banishment and oppression. + +America has been the great inspirer of the world. + +Since the dawn of the twentieth century more than 10,500,000 +immigrants have entered the United States. Through the pressure of +economic conditions a large proportion of immigrants and their children +are forced into the centers of poverty, crime and disease, the slum +districts of our great cities, and into huge colonies in industrial +centers where they both receive and contribute to conditions that have +become pathological for the community, real sources of infection, both +mental and physical. It is therefore not surprising to find that the +children of immigrants reared in American cities contribute twice as +many criminals as the sons of native whites of native stock. Our great +industrial centers show an enormous aggregation of foreigners. It is +said that these contain seven millions of the Slavs, the Latins, and +the Asiatics, and those whose racial background makes difficult the +conception of a democracy and their assimilation into it. + +We confront a condition of grave peril to industrial interests as well +as to our national well-being when, in addition to the overcoming of +racial background, we must add the retarding effect of the segregation +of large foreign colonies in mining and industrial centers. Great numbers +of these aliens do not expect to become American citizens, but are here +only to accumulate sufficient capital to return. "Of all the immigrants +now comingone-third return to Europe and two-thirds of all those who +return remain there." These constitute largely a mobile migratory and +disturbing, unskilled wage-earning class. + +They therefore are unfavorable to assimilative influences and tend +to establish in modified forms the standards and customs of the +communities from which they have come. "The town of Windber, in +Western Pennsylvania, has a population of 8000 persons and is the +center of twelve mining camps. It was founded by the opening of +bituminous coal mines, for which purpose 1600 experienced Englishmen +and 400 native Americans were brought into the locality. At the +present, eighteen races of recent immigration are numbered among its +mine workers. The Southern and Eastern Europeans among them have their +churches, banks, steamship agencies and business establishments in the +town to which they go to transact their affairs and to seek amusement." +"Another illustration is the recently established iron and steel +manufacturing community at Granite City and Madison, Illinois, which +has the distinction of being the largest Bulgarian colony in the United +States. These two cities join each other and for practical purposes are +one. Fifteen years ago its site was an unbroken stretch of corn fields. +The original wage-earners were English, Irish, Germans, Welsh and Poles; +then followed Slovaks, Magyars, a few Croatians. Mixed groups came next, +Roumanians, Greeks and Servians, and later Bulgarians, until that group +alone numbered 8000; later still, the foreigners were augmented by the +arrival of 4000 new immigrants--Armenians, Servians, Lithuanians, Slovaks, +Magyars and Poles. Under normal industrial conditions the population +of the community is estimated at 20,000 Here the various racial groups +live entirely apart from any American influence." + +The New York Tribune states: "It is a somewhat startling +announcement that more than one-third of the adult male inhabitants +of New York City are unnaturalized aliens. There are, according to +the census, 1,433,749 males in the city, of twenty-one years or more, +and of these more than 500,000 have not become naturalized. In the +whole state there are 718,940 foreign-born white men of voting age +who have not become citizens. It needs no argument to prove that +this is not a desirable state of affairs, and that if perpetuated +it would be mischievous, if not disastrous." + +From the figures collected in an investigation of four months in +New York City Night Court, it appears that 7.7 per cent of the +women arrested and convicted for keeping disorderly houses and +solicitation were foreign-born. + +In New York City all the conditions created by immigration are +enormously accentuated, for within itself and its suburbs it has a +foreign population exceeding the whole population of Chicago. + +"It is at once the largest Catholic city of history and the +largest Jewish city of history." + +Statistics furnished by the industrial department of the Y.M.C.A., +based upon the census of 1910, give the proportion of two out of every +three of the inhabitants of the following cities as foreign-born or of +foreign-born parentage. + + + 181,511 Columbus 104,402 Spokane + 233,650 Indianapolis 213,381 Denver + 116,577 Dayton 207,214 Portland + 248,381 Kansas City 558,485 Baltimore + 319,198 Los Angeles 168,497 Toledo + 237,194 Seattle 423,715 Buffalo + 100,253 Albany 267,799 Jersey City, N.J. + 124,096 Omaha 347,469 Newark, N.J. + 137,249 Syracuse 224,326 Providence + 687,029 St. Louis 102,054 Bridgeport +1,549,008 Philadelphia 465,766 Detroit + 150,174 Oakland 104,839 Cambridge + 112,571 Grand Rapids 560,603 Cleveland + 218,149 Rochester 670,585 Boston + 533,905 Pittsburgh 125,600 Paterson, N.J. + 301,408 Minneapolis 373,857 Milwaukee + 129,867 Scranton 2,185,283 Chicago + 214,744 St. Paul 106,294 Lowell + 145,986 Worcester 4,766,883 New York + 133,605 New Haven 119,295 Fall River + + +This tabulation suggests all that these dominant cities represent +of congestion of industrial and social pressure, and their powerful +effects upon new Americans in their most impressionable period. + +"The significant feature of the situation of which the foregoing +illustrations are typical," say such authorities as Prof. Jeremiah +W. Jenks and W. Jett Lanck, "is the almost complete ignorance and +indifference of the native American population to the recent immigrant +colonies and their condition. This attitude extends even to the native +churches. Comparatively few agencies have been established for the +Americanization and assimilation of Southern and Eastern European +wage-earners. + +"Not only is a great field open for social and religious work, but +vast possibilities are offered for patriotic service in improving +these serious conditions which confront a self-governing republic." + +That the crowding, struggling foreigner of many races and tongues +may take his place as a voting American, in whose hands rests a +predominating influence upon the present and future of this nation, it +is essential that he catch the vision of those fundamental, inspiring +ideals which have made America the hope of the hopeless, the very land +of promise, to the oppressed of the world. + +He must be touched by an integrating force, a dynamic power, capable +of revealing and developing the inherent best in him and contributing +to him of the essential best in America. + +"Religion alone answers this need in fullest measure. It is the great +quickening power which can resolve ancient inheritance of personal +and race antagonisms and hatreds into a struggle for higher individual +and community welfare." + +Eternally true are the Master's words, "Man cannot live by bread +alone"; he must have the spiritual communion which can give to him +and to society the uplifting conception of the Fatherhood of God +and the brotherhood of man. This is the great integrating, harmonizing +power that the church of Christ must bring to the solving of America's +insistent immigrant problem. + + * * * * * + +Before taking up in detail the study of what Home Missions is +actually accomplishing as an integrating force, let us turn briefly +to consider some of the powerful disintegrating factors operative +among immigrants and their children. + +Second to the great fact of labor and its demands in our cities is +the need and demand for recreation. The reaction from the monotony of +factory life, with its exacting, fatiguing tension of machine-tending, +and the crowdedness of the tenement home, sends the laboring multitudes +into the streets at night seeking diversion and amusement. This is +pre-eminently true of the young, who find commercialism waiting at +night to "extract from them their petty wages by pandering to their +love of pleasure" after having utilized their undeveloped labor power +in its factories and shops by day. + +Jane Addams says, "The whole apparatus for supplying pleasure is +wretchedly inadequate and full of danger to whomsoever may +approach it. + +"Who is responsible for its inadequacy and dangers? We certainly +cannot expect the fathers and mothers who have come to the city +from farms or who have immigrated from other lands to appreciate +or rectify these dangers of the city. + +"We cannot expect the young people themselves to cling to +conventions which are totally unsuited to modern city conditions, +nor yet to be equal to the task of forming new conventions through +which this more agglomerate social life may express itself. + +"The mass of these young people are possessed of good intentions +and would respond to amusements less demoralizing and dangerous, +if such were available at no greater cost than those now offered. + +"Our attitude toward music is typical of our carelessness toward +all these things which make for common joy." + +The vicious, sensuous music of the dance hall, with accompanying +words, often indecent and full of vulgar, suggestive appeal, are +permitted a vogue throughout the entire country. + +No diagnosing of the immigrant city problem or understanding of +the task of securing civic righteousness can be obtained by Home +Mission women without realizing the place and influence of amusements +upon the lives of the young people of our land. + +A noted English playwright stated that "the theatre is literally +making the minds of our urban population to-day. It is a huge factory +of sentiment, of character, of points of honor, of conception, of +conduct, of everything that finally determines the destiny of a nation." + +Hundreds, yes, thousands of young people attend the five-cent +theatres every night, including Sunday, receiving the constant +effect of vulgar music and a debased and often vulgar and suggestive +dramatic art. + +"Many immigrant parents," says Jane Addams, "are absolutely +bewildered by the keen absorption of their children in the cheap +theatres. + +"One Sunday evening recently an investigation was made of four +hundred and sixty-six theatres in the city of Chicago, and it was +discovered that in the majority of them the leading theme was +revenge, the lover following his rival, the outraged husband +seeking his wife's paramour, or similar themes. It was estimated +that one-sixth of the entire population of the city had attended +the theatres on that day." + +The same would generally be true of other large cities. + +Nor is this low and vicious standard of cheap amusements confined +to large cities; it is bound to prevail also where our backward +people come into contact with white villages and communities. The +cock fights and other demoralizing amusements of Spanish-speaking +peoples and the dances of the Indians must be superseded by +entertainment that is wholesome and helpful. + +Through its own agencies and as it co-operates with others +for betterment Home Missions must take into account the urgent +demand for wholesome amusement for those who, on account of the +conditions of their environment, are so much in need of the cheer +and joy of attractive and elevating forms of entertainment. + +Home Missions responds to the cry of the city's need through the +ministry of the deaconess, who in turn is nurse, or visitor, or +leader of kindergarten, day nursery, rescue home, or orphanage. + + * * * * * + +A gentle-voiced Italian mother it was whose ten children filled +to overflowing the three-room tenement home, one room of which was +without means of light or air. She lifted to her arms the youngest +child of less than a year, clad in one ragged little garment, while +she seated herself to tell in broken English and with many gestures +her story to the deaconess who came to see if she could help about +the oldest boy, who was giving trouble. The woman said she had been +married in Italy when only fourteen years of age and was now thirty-one. +She had come to America when her second child was a baby. Her husband +was a longshoreman and earned twelve dollars a week for the support +of the family of twelve. They were looking forward soon to the help +of the earnings of the oldest child, a boy not quite fourteen. This +boy was the problem! To escape the uproar and confusion of the crowded +rooms he spent his time when he could escape from school, on the +street. A gang adopted him. He was ill-nourished, and his teachers +suspected him of receiving and using cocaine. Poor little scrap of +humanity! with a hungry, craving body and no room for soul, mind or +body to develop but the corrupting street, with its saloons and its +gangs! From such a childhood he is destined soon to join the ranks +of labor. Will he add to the number of America's criminals or can he +possibly enter the ranks of good citizenship? If he were simply an +individual case it would still be inexpressibly sad, but, alas, he +stands for thousands in our land. + +The deaconess will do her utmost for his rescue, but we cannot +wonder at her feeling that great fundamental, preventive measures +must be taken by the church and society to wipe out the city slums +and all that they stand for of pestilential evil. + +Of great significance are the disintegrating efforts of certain groups +of socialists and anarchists who by means of Sunday-schools gather +children of immigrants largely to inculcate in them the peculiar +principles and doctrines of anarchism and their brand of socialism, +as well as to crush out of their thought all idea of God and love +and obedience to Him. These Sunday-schools, so destructive of all +that is best and highest in the child soul, flourish in New York, +Brooklyn, Chicago and other large cities. + + * * * * * + +The foreigners who stand perhaps in greatest need of the +understanding sympathy and the harmonizing influence of the church +are those isolated in the great mining regions, where the conditions +of living are so hazardous and where maladjustments of every sort +contribute to an atmosphere which breathes of hatred and discontent. +It is estimated that our present industrial system, through criminal +negligence, takes the huge toll of 45,000 workers killed every year. + +One miner of every hundred dies because his employer cares less +for the lives of his men than for the few extra dollars, the cost +of proper safety arrangements. + +"In the course of the Pittsburgh survey it was discovered that by +industrial accidents Allegheny County alone loses more than five +hundred workmen every year, sixty per cent of whom are young men +who have not yet reached the prime of life. This loss falls not +upon the people who determine the degree of protection from injury +and decide about the introduction of safety devices, but upon the +widows, the orphans and the aged parents." + +Here the resourceful Home Missionary is an inestimable help. She +is often a Slavish or Bohemian girl, knowing from actual experience +all the sordidness, the monotony, the tragedy that envelop the mine +and its workers, for in many cases she herself has been a part of it, +herself Christianized, educated and trained by Home Missions. She +speaks the language of the mines, she knows its innermost life. When +the frequent accidents, throw their desolation and fearful economic +burdens upon the homes, she comforts and sustains. She helps the +stricken wife and children to keep to decency and right. She teaches +night classes in English, and mothers' classes, sustains reading and +club rooms with games and wholesome amusements to hold the boy miner +from the lure of the saloon. She conducts the Sunday-school and is +herself a peripatetic Christian settlement, with all that it implies +of sacrifice, service and the salvation of soul and body. + +A commentary on the need of Home Missions in the mining sections +is forcibly presented in the following testimony. + +Before the Commission of Industrial Relations (February, 1915) +Mrs. Dominiki from the Colorado mines, speaking of the general +labor conditions in the district in which she lived, said: + +"I never saw a church in any of the coal camps except Trinidad. +There were no halls where people might meet but there were always +plenty of saloons. + + * * * * * + +"Hotels, boarding houses of many descriptions, stores, saloons +and gambling dens, are visible on every street. Everything suggested +money-making and money-spending." [Footnote: The Outlook--February +17, 1915.] + +This typical mining town does not pretend to have any sacred days +or sacred hours. Business, money-making and sporting are the great +aim of life. The mines work seven days each week and twenty-four +hours each day. The great concentrators know no pause; the cables +are ever busy transporting the mineral from the tunnels to the +mills. + +The streets are full of busy teams on the Sabbath, just as on +any other day; the same is true of all the stores but one, the +proprietor of which put out as his first advertisement, "This +store will be closed on the Sabbath." The saloons and gambling +dens boom in iniquity on the Lord's Day as well as on any other +day. + +The first service was held on the street. A wagon answering for +pulpit, platform and choir-loft, the noble few, interested and +willing-hearted, were organized for Christian work; and after a +long, severe, self-sacrificing struggle, with help of friends here +and there, a comfortable meeting house was completed, even to a +bell in its tower. The Sabbath bell is now heard, What a message +it declares! What memories it awakens! Who can tell what its +influence shall be? + +"'The next thirty-five miles is an American Sodom,' said the +conductor. + +"What did the converted coal miner find, when he accepted this +difficult trust? Saloons in abundance--in one town eleven in a +row--each saloon with its attendant gambling den, dance house, etc. +He found this region a hotbed of infidelity. He saw multitudes of +young people of all nations under the sun making holiday of the +sacred hours of the Sabbath, and, saddest of all, knowing no better. +There were no gospel services, nor Sunday-schools, for there was no +place to hold them. + +"While I have spent much time in visiting the five towns of this +neglected field, I selected one place as a center for extra effort, +and here I commenced a series of gospel meetings. The result is a +church of seventeen members and a Sunday-school of fifty scholars. +As all these towns are dreadfully cursed with saloons, we are trying +to create a temperance sentiment. Fifty have already signed the pledge, +among them some of the worst drunkards in the town. Forty-five children +have joined the 'Children's Band' and are trying to keep their lives +clean. We have bought half an acre of ground, whereon to build a +church and parsonage. Work is already commenced in good faith." + + * * * * * + +"With the opening and development of the hard coal mines of +Pennsylvania in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, a +large migration of Welsh miners began to arrive in the state. They +were Protestants and fervently religious. Immediately the organization +of religious life began. In 1831 different denominational elements +gathered together and began Sunday-school and church life in Carbondale, +Pa. The Congregational Church there has been a steady factor of +religious life ever since, first among the Welsh exclusively, but +later among all classes. + +"In similar manner churches were organized all over the anthracite +district. To-day fully two-thirds of the churches of the Congregational +faith in the state are of Welsh origin, and barring a few in agricultural +regions all are among miners or mill hands, joyfully affording the +privileges of the Gospel to the poor. + +"These churches have made a large contribution to the religious +life of the state; they are fervently and effectively evangelistic. +It is probably true that the Welsh people are the most thoroughly +evangelized of any in the state to-day. Twelve churches have +received one hundred or more members each on confession of faith +within a year. + +"In these later months these Welsh Christians are pressing into +the evangelization of other nationalities, which constitute a very +large part of the population in the anthracite regions, and their +splendid zeal helped to make the 'Billy Sunday' campaign in +Wilkes-Barre and Scranton the most wonderful, even that spectacular +man has ever conducted. As personal workers they are unsurpassed, +and since the revivals they have organized workers' bands and Bible +classes, and have gone out into all the country for fifty miles +around holding meetings in which singing, personal testimony and +prayer have been made marvelously effective, while their earnest +labors in local churches which they have joined as members, have +in many cases verily revolutionized the life and multiplied the +power of the churches." [Footnote: Rev. A.E. Ricker, Congregational +Home Missionary Society.] + + * * * * * + +The Italian immigrant is perhaps more widely distributed throughout +our land than any of the other nationalities composing the immigration +of the past twenty years. + +From New Orleans, with its 60,000, to New York with its nearly +half a million, scarcely a city is without an Italian colony, and +even villages and rural districts show a quota of these ubiquitous, +hard working, promising new Americans. + +Italy, the land of art and beauty, contributes to us citizens with +an enormous capacity for industry and economy, warmth of nature, +response to beauty and openness to religious appeal, with a tendency +to crimes of passion and, in general, a most un-American attitude +toward the child, using him at the earliest possible age as a +commercial asset for the family. + +Physically they are of marvelous vitality and strength, and like +other hardy peasant stock have great endurance and are very prolific. +Early marriages, arranged by the parents, and large families, are +the rule among them. + +All of these factors are of greatest significance to us as a +nation, though we can not here enter into a discussion of the grave +potentialities involved in the absorption by our nation of a virile, +prolific, though not highly intelligent class. + +We cannot, however, fail to be impressed with the urgent necessity +of imparting to such a people the ideals and standards essential +to their adoption into our body politic. + +The church is qualified beyond all other agencies to accomplish this +end, and to give spiritual direction to the Italian-Americans who are +turning from the superstition and inadequacy of the religion which is +fast losing its hold upon them in Italy, as well as America, and from +which they are rapidly drifting into indifference and unbelief. + +In a late investigation made by the Italian government into conditions +in southern Italy the beneficial effect of the returning immigrant +was expressed in the strongest terms. + +In effect this report said that "greater than the benefit any laws +that the government could pass, better than any training which the +government could give the people was the beneficial influence of the +returning immigrant. Not merely did he bring new wealth into the +country, but what was of still greater importance than the imported +wealth, he brought with him the American spirit of intelligence, and +enterprise which made of him a much worthier and more helpful citizen." +[Footnote: The Immigrant Problem--Jenks and Lanck.] + + * * * * * + +He came of generations of Waldensian Protestant ancestry in Italy, +this alert, efficient, cultured Italian pastor. He found the parish +to which he was assigned composed of several thousand of his countrymen +in a Hudson river town; the building to be used for church purposes +a dirty, run-down old hall, a part of the most disreputable corner +of the town. + +There was not one Italian Protestant, or sympathizer, so far as he +could discover, in the community and there seemed to be the greatest +apathy to the Mission on the part of the old aristocratic church of +the town. + +Several blocks away a fine new brick church was in process of +construction, to be used for Italian Catholics. Truly the prospect +was not encouraging for the Protestant Mission. + +However, generations of those who endure and overcome had written +deep within him an unfailing courage and a conquering faith. + +He began to cultivate Italians in their stores, on the streets, in +their homes, wherever he might. His charm and sincerity opened the +way and won true friends. In his discussions with them he found +those who were questioning the authority of their former faith; it +seemed out of harmony in this new land, and they were turning from +it to unbelief. + +Here was the opportunity for him to offer them the new faith +and the One who said "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life," and +compellingly he did it. + +The story that follows is of absorbing interest, but we can only +touch it in outline and record-how the groups of converts joined +the pastor in repairing, painting, electric lighting of the +building, until it became truly inviting. + +How there came to be a library with books in English and Italian, +and evening classes, and meetings, and wholesome amusements to +compete with the dance halls and saloons for the young people. +There were at times stereopticon lectures on things historic and +civic, and dramatic presentations of the Prodigal Son and other +Bible stories which the pastor himself prepared and trained the +people to present. + +How a wonderful Sunday-school grew and glowed with happiness and +enthusiasm, even though threatening priests sometimes pressed in +ordering out the children and shaking excited fists in the faces +of the teachers. + +How beyond all else in depth and influence were the beautiful +church services, reverent and meaningful, bringing close to +waiting hearts the burden-lifting, life-giving Jesus the Christ. + +Did ever the precious hymn, "What a Friend we have in Jesus" +seem quite so fraught with joy and sweet companionship as when +the familiar music was sung by this Italian congregation. + + +_Quale amico abbiaino in Cristo! + Sempre pronto a compatir + Ogni nostro pensier tristo + Tutto il nostro gran fallir! + Ma qual pace noi perdiamo, + Quali pene noi soffriam, + Sol perche non confidiamo + Tutto a Lui mentre preghiam_. + + +Already from this Mission sixteen earnest Christian members have +returned to Italy, each having two Bibles, one to give away. + +Who can measure the leavening force of the gospel carried by the +many who return and who are scattered up and down throughout all +the lovely land of Italy. + +Home Missions is not bounded in its results by the seas surrounding +the home land, but reaches far away into the heart of the old world +across the seas. + +It is not possible here to differentiate the various races and +peoples in our land, each of whose particular circumstances and +need and reaction upon our national life makes an urgent claim +upon the integrating power of Home Missions and the church. + + * * * * * + +Passing mention only can be made of the special needs of the +Mexicans in the United States, thousands upon thousands of whom +are voting citizens and yet are quite unable through deep +ignorance, and lack of standards of life to take their places as +part of the people who govern. + +El Paso, Texas, shows 40,000 permanent Mexican residents; Southern +California, 80,000. They form one-half the population of Arizona +and more than half of New Mexico and are found in other Western +and Southwestern states. + +Home Missions is giving a very valuable and varied service to +these Americans from old Mexico. + + * * * * * + +The Orientals of America form a distinct group. Marked racial +differences and their background of the mystic, age-old East leave +them separated and apart in a conglomerate civilization whose +assimilative power is the wonder of the age. They form thus far +the largest body of "irreconcilables," to use Prof. Lowell's term, +found in our land. + +"It is indeed largely a perception of the need of of homogeneity +as a basis for popular government and the public opinion on which +it rests, that justifies democracies in resisting the influx in +great numbers of a widely different race. + +"One essential condition to a democracy is that people should be +homogeneous to such a point that the minority is willing to accept +the decisions of the majority on all questions that are normally +expected to arise." [Footnote: Public Opinion and Population +Government--A. Lawrence Lowell.] + +The German poet, Goethe, a most penetrating thinker, declared that +the prime quality of the real critic is sympathy. There is no +other realizing and understanding approach to a man or a race. +"The significant ideals, the organized energy, the sustaining +vitality of an alien people must be sought and understood in order +to come into sympathetic touch with them." This is the only key to +mutual understanding and respect. + +It is especially needful that the Oriental should be considered +from this standpoint: in varying degrees, according to their race +and standard, they lay a grave responsibility upon Home Missions. +By the tens of thousands they are here, Hindus, Chinese, Koreans, +and Japanese, bringing their ancient faiths, raising their temples +in our Christian land. Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, +Brahmanism, and many other alien and heathen faiths count their +adherents by the thousands, while many one-time Christian folk are +turning to the modern forms of these religions. + +The fact that rescue homes for Chinese slave girls are a feature +of Home Mission work among Orientals tells its own story of +degrading customs transplanted to America's shores. + +Through colporteurs, evangelists, deaconesses, schools, homes, +hospitals and churches, Home Missions is giving the Christ to the +Orientals; and they, returning, carry the "new life" gained in +America to their great awakening lands where rests so much of the +world's future destiny. A great international evangelism is being +poured out by Home Missions; for these Christians that are +"scattered abroad go everywhere preaching the gospel." + +A noted Japanese evangelist, Rev. Kiyomatsu Kimura, for six years +pastor of the Congregational church of Kioto, known as the Moody +of Japan, because of his great power as a soul winner, has been +visiting this country, preaching to his own people (January, +1915). + +In Hawaii, as a result of his three months of labor, one thousand +Japanese and Koreans accepted Christ. + +In New York City his brief stay admitted of only three evening +meetings, when twenty decided for the Christian faith. Probably +just as remarkable results will attend his efforts in Chicago and +the far West. + +Rev. Mr. Kimura received his training in personal and evangelistic +work in the Moody Institute of Chicago. + +"An American artist on the wall of a library building has striven +to represent the spirit of America by a procession of men, women +and children. + +"They are all marching together with eager expectation on their +upturned faces and the morning light shines on them." + +Yes, America offers hope, a future, the upward path, to the +crowding millions, but only as the light of God illumines and +makes clear the way and His voice stills the hate of race and +class, saying "Come unto Me," and "Bear ye one another's burdens." + + + + +VI + + +SOURCES OF POWER + + +Lover of souls, indeed, + But Lover of bodies too, +Seeing in human flesh + The God shine through; +Hallowed be Thy name, + And, for the sake of Thee, +Hallowed be all men, + For Thine they be. + +Doer of deeds divine, + Thou, the Father's Son, +In all Thy children may + Thy will be done, +Till each works miracles + On poor and sick and blind, +Learning from Thee the art + Of being kind. + +For Thine is the glory of love, + And Thine the tender power, +Touching the barren heart + To leaf and flower, +Till not the lilies alone, + Beneath thy gentle feet, +But human lives for Thee + Grow white and sweet. + +And Thine shall the Kingdom be, + Thou Lord of Love and Pain, +Conqueror over death + By being slain. +And we, with lives like Thine, + Shall cry in the great day when +Thou comest to claim Thine own, + "All hail! Amen." + +--W.J. Dawson. + + + * * * * * + + +"Thy kingdom come--Thy will be done on earth." + + +Fundamental in all projects for the upbuilding of a worldly or a +spiritual kingdom, or an individual character, lies the ideal. +Action, growth, conduct, spring from the creating ideal and in the +process of development they advance and enlarge together. + +"The ideal is the primary moving power in the human spirit," +Professor Gidding says; "into his ideal enter man's estimate of +the past and his forecast of the future--his scientific analysis +and his poetic feeling, his soberest judgment and his religious +aspiration." + +Our ideal then for our country, for the work and place of Home +Missions in it, for ourselves as Christian patriots and believers +in Home Missions, is essentially a basic source of power. Into the +ideal for our country must enter the inspiring conception of the +nation which will include the background of its yesterday. + +America means not only the cultural institutions, the multiplied +industries, the vast wealth of farms (four crops in the year 1915 +were valued at $4,770,000,000), mines and forests, but the genius +of an Edison, a Burbank, a Goethals, a McDowell, the devotion of a +John R. Mott, a Frank Higgins, a Jane Addams and the long honor +roll of men and women made great through their service. America +also embodies all that was wrought by those early comers who +endured hunger, disease, suffering, that they might conquer a +wilderness and make it a land of opportunity. It holds the fruits +of service and sacrifice purchased by those later ones who +willingly faced death "that government for the people and by the +people" might replace tyranny and oppression, and the imperishable +glory of those others who counted not their lives dear but laid +them down that sweet freedom might be the right of every man, of +whatever race or color. Beside all these stood the strong, true +women who suffered, endured and triumphed with them. + +The rich heritage bestowed by a Washington, a Lincoln, a Lee, a +John Eliot, a Charles Sumner, a Marcus Whitman, a Sheldon Jackson, +a Harriet Beecher Stowe, a Frances Willard, and a host of others, +constitutes the infinitely precious treasury of our national life. + +Bayard Taylor expresses the peculiar genius of America in his +national ode: + + +From the homes of all, where her being began +She took what she gave to man. +Justice, that knew no station, + Belief as soul decreed, +Free air for aspiration, + Free force for independent deed. + + +She takes but to give again +As the sea returns the rivers in rain +And gathers the chosen of her seed +From the hunted of every crown and creed. + + +In one strong race all races here unite. +Tongues meet in hers, hereditary foemen + Forget their sword and slogan, kith and clan. +'Twas glory, once, to be a Roman: + She makes it glory, now, to be a man! + + +Our ideal for America is summed up in this--that it may +increasingly become the kingdom of God. What do we mean by +"kingdom"? St Paul says "the kingdom is righteousness and peace +and joy" which being interpreted might read, the kingdom--Christ's +rule on earth--will bring to all the Father's children the +opportunity of knowing Him and His saving love expressed through +Jesus Christ; it will mean the transforming of human society so +that ignorance, greed, disease and injustice shall be overthrown; +so that "the bitter cry of the children" shall no longer be +drowned by the whir of the wheels of industry; so that the +sisterhood of women shall be established and that through the +dominance of righteousness men shall cease to invoke war and +strife, and, released from crushing burdens, into life and labor +shall come joy and an increasing sense of spiritual values. + +Another source of power is to know the factors that enter into our +problem and the facts of our undertaking. That we may intelligently +synthesize the influences that bear powerfully upon the church as it +seeks to meet its present day task, apprehend the effect of these +influences upon the religious ideals and thought of our young people, +and realize the atmosphere which Home Missions must permeate with its +saving faith, we must take account of the moulding thought-life of +our day. + +It is always difficult to separate the apparent from the underlying +and more subtle causes and influences. Within the outer and more +obvious is usually hidden an inner current of thought and movement +that must be sought and realized in order that the whole content +may be obtained. Until quite recently--and we are still feeling its +effects--the tendency of our time strongly emphasized material +accomplishments. The world has been "intently and almost exclusively +occupied with subduing natural forces and material matter to humanity's +growing physical and mental needs." Thus have been given us the wonders +of scientific triumph which make possible the civilization of our day. + +In America, especially, material development has appeared to +receive an exalted value and place. We have become familiar with +the charge made against us by Europe of being a nation of +materialists. + +The transforming of a continent from a wilderness to a land of +homes and highly organized industry in the brief space of three +centuries; the marvelous and rapid development of the vast material +resources of our land; the hastening here of eager recruits from +other lands, passionately seeking and needing material betterment, +have magnified in this country the feverish acquisition of material +wealth and accentuated the hard, calculating business spirit; and +has seemed to place undue value upon the worth of material success +and the things of which it is made. + +John Burroughs from his quiet vantage point of observation says--"The +present civilization arms us with the forces of earth, air and water, +while it weakens our hold upon the sources of personal power. + +"It gives us great intellectual riches but it deadens our finer +spiritual faculties, our clear conception of the higher values of +life. Where there is no vision, no intuitive perception of the great +fundamental truths of the inner spiritual life, the best and the +highest must perish." + +Before seeking to discover the hidden ethical motives and forces +that animate and elevate our national life, let us consider the +very real effect of the apparent predominance of the materialistic +upon our college students. + +Our young people are exposed not only to the pressure of the +materialistic atmosphere which throbs and beats about us all, +but they must also meet the same force from a different and +very direct contact in their classrooms at college, and in the +universities. + +Few of us realize the difficult adjustment of mental and spiritual +outlook young people of Christian training must face as they enter +college and university, or the shock to their Christian faith +received through the contact with rationalistic and materialistic +philosophy. + +The professors presenting these subjects speak from a large +experience and wide information to those of limited experience +and immature thought, who are unable to give a mental margin for +faith and all that it implies; though this wider understanding may +lie in the mind of the lecturer mitigating his personal view point, +it is not presented to the student. + +Without intention often, and because the subject lies in the realm +of speculative thought, the presentation apparently leaves no room +for faith or for those vital qualities which lie beyond the realm of +reason and deduction and can be apprehended only through spiritual +perception, and which are infinitely precious because they constitute +the soul life. Here is found the source of those finer feelings and +impulses--love, faith, reverence and the response to the Divine. + +Of greatest value in the promotion of the spiritual life among the +students taking these subjects, is the fact that the later philosophers, +of whom William James, Josiah Royce and Henri Bergson are prominent, +give place to the spiritual and to the power and inspiration of the +unseen. [Footnote: The following, which appeared in the Outlook of +March, 1915, though recording a special occasion at one university, +is true in showing the tendency which obtains in varying degrees at +many others: + +"To understand the significance of this religious awakening at +Yale (February, 1915), there is needed a brief explanation of the +genesis of this 'new evangelism' of the second decade of the +twentieth century, which is transforming our colleges, and which +makes it natural and normal for students to desire a period set +apart for special meetings each year when they can 'come across,' +as they put it. + +"The teaching of Professor William James, of Harvard, showed how useless +it was to get men to listen to appeals if they were not energized to +act on them. This gave a scientific basis for registered decisions. +As soon as John R. Mott and G. Sherwood Eddy dared act on this the +results were so remarkable that the conservatives no longer opposed it."] + +Very wisely must the Christian influence of the home and the church +be exerted during this period so as not to seem or wish to limit the +freedom of thought and research, yet at the same time to hold the eager, +questioning young life true to the highest and best, that with the +development of the mental life may go also a deepening and widening +of the spiritual. + +Home Missions, too, must be watchful and efficient in its attitude +toward the student body and recent graduates, that it may offer +the special presentation of its scope and appeal, and the concrete +objects of interest to which the students may contribute service +best fitted to meet their peculiar requirements. + +With the superficial dominance of the materialistic in our +civilization has come also a marked relaxation of standards in +social and religious life. + +Into both have crept a lenience toward tendencies that are +vicious and destructive. In social life certain dances, amusements, +styles of dressing, have been tolerated even by Christian women, +that savor only of the lowest and most vulgar practices and places. +As we desire the triumph of what Home Missions stands for, our +influence as Christian women should be exerted powerfully to maintain +standards in these matters that will be helpful rather than hurtful +to the ideals and Christian development of our young people. We can +not escape a heavy responsibility along these lines. + +The relaxation of standards in religious matters invites the +growth among people of Christian up-bringing of the many modern +forms of ancient non-Christian faiths which are gaining wide +acceptance in our land. Mormonism, Theosophy, Bahaism, New Thought +and other cults because of their apparent intellectuality, +mysticism and spirituality appeal to hundreds and thousands of +women who do not think deeply, and who are carried away by the +seeming depth and power of the appeal of these new faiths. + +If devotees declined to accept the literature furnished by these +organizations for their delusion and would go to the libraries and +ascertain for themselves the origin, beliefs and accomplishments +of these religions and their ancient prototypes as they flourished +in India, Persia, Arabia, they would learn the facts as to the +faith to which they are giving their allegiance. + +A sample of the destructive teaching to which many indifferent, +thoughtless and curious people are exposed was furnished to the +writer at a crowded Theosophist meeting in New York City where one +of their lecturers spoke on the theme of sin. + +With many variations and much eloquence he said in brief, "There +is no such thing as sin. The doctrine of vicarious atonement is +ridiculous. There was nothing sublime in Calvary. Many an unknown +miner has done all that Calvary suggests in giving life to save +others. Those whom we term sinful, sensual or criminal are simply +_young_ souls which have not evoluted far enough. When they have +passed through the seven or more incarnations they will have +attained beauty and perfection of character." + +Some of the leaflets and literature distributed were dangerous in +their suggestiveness. This was one meeting only, and hundreds of +the same order were held throughout our land that day. What of the +need of the pure standards and ideals of which Home Missions is +the exponent! + +The inner and true spirit of America can not be found, however, +in the emphasis upon material wealth and welfare, however dominant +that may appear to be in our civilization. + +The spirit of America is expressed in the passion for liberty and +opportunity, in the "sense of moral order and responsibility, faith +in God and man, love of home, courage and hope, and in the ineradicable +and controlling idealism which have been the strongest elements in +America since the first colonists braved the dangers of a new world +for conscience sake" [Footnote: Hamilton Mabie--American Ideals, +Character and Life.] and gave to this country the impulses that +have held true through all its national history. + +The ships carrying America's gifts of food to starving Belgians, the +ship laden with the Christmas gifts of America's children to little +sufferers across the seas, the hospital and Red Cross ministry given +to mitigate the devastation of a war in which America has no part, +express the real spirit of America. Whether a controlling Christian +impulse is to continue in this land, the church of Christ--Home +Missions--must answer. + +We can not fail, also, to recognize the significance, for national +righteousness of the urgent demand of to-day that business, social +conditions and politics shall conform to an ethical standard. + +This eager effort toward a standard of social righteousness is +not regarded by people generally as having its source and power from +within the church, though we of the church know that the impulse which +gave birth to this movement and the ideals and standards sustaining it +are the product of the church of Christianity. More and more, organized +Christianity is realizing its obligations along these lines and is seeking +to render the fullest social service. Emile de Laveleye, the Belgian +economist, says, "If Christianity were taught and understood conformably +to the spirit of its founder, the existing social organism could not last +a day." + +A source of power necessary to the effectiveness of missionary +service is found in organization. + +In all lines of human activity the eager effort to-day is toward +efficiency through highly developed organization. This is shown in the +realm of philanthropy in the great Sage and Rockefeller foundations, +and in the splendidly equipped charitable societies and multitudes +of others. + +In the business world the Standard Oil Company, the United States +Steel Company and the Ford Automobile Company are conspicuous examples. +The past ten years has also witnessed combinations of religious and +missionary organizations, such as the Federal Council of the Churches +of Christ in America, The Home Missions Council, The Council of Women +for Home Missions, The Federation of Foreign Missions Boards, and a +number of others which exist for the purpose of obtaining the fullest +information on all aspects of their particular fields of activity and +to secure the execution of important lines of endeavor which can not +rightly be undertaken by one Board. + +"The Council of Women for Home Missions, formed in November, 1908, +was organized that there might be a medium through which National +Woman's Home Mission Boards and Societies might consult as to wider +plans, and, co-operatively, do more efficient work for the Homeland." +[Footnote: Annual Report, Council of Women for Home Missions.] Seven +standing Committees are the direct agencies through which most of the +work of the Council is done. These committees are Home Mission Study +Courses and Literature, Home Mission Summer Schools, Home Mission +Interests in Schools, Colleges, and Young People's Conferences, Home +Mission Interests among Children, Home Mission Comity and Co-operation, +Home Mission Interests among Immigrants, Home Mission Day of Prayer. The +Council is a greatly needed clearing-house for the multitude of matters +of first importance to efficiency of service and to all Home Mission +Boards, which are not the particular responsibility of any. + +Another important source of Home Mission inspiration and +information are the interdenominational study classes which have +been formed "to bring the local Women's Home Missionary Societies +into united service for Christ and our country; to encourage +devotional fellowship and mutual counsel concerning the spiritual +life and Home Missionary activities among women's Home Missionary +organizations in local communities." + +The Home Mission summer schools are also valuable in promoting +the study of the textbooks from year to year and in providing the +opportunity of hearing from missionaries concerning their service +and fields. A background of prayer, Bible study, and Christian +fellowship adds much to the helpfulness of these special summer +assemblies. + +"Let us try to realize the significance of the fact and in these +eight summer schools that are affiliated with the Council and in the +Home Missions institute conducted by the Council itself at Chautauqua, +nearly 5000 women devote a week or more of their precious summer +vacation to perfecting themselves as leaders in missionary work in +the local churches. We should never cease to feel the inspiration +of this, and to welcome the promise of great things for the spreading +of the kingdom of God held out in the full consecration of the highly +developed powers of such a goodly company of Christian workers." + +Women's national Home Mission Boards and Societies are of +primary importance, for upon them rests the responsibility of +the administration of all women's Home Mission activities. The +earnest, prayerful planning of the Boards provides the methods of +work for societies, the literature and the effective forwarding +of the many lines of service on the field. + +The Boards with painstaking, loving care seek to meet the +constantly growing requirements of the fields committed to them, +many times attaining almost the impossible in erecting buildings +and responding to the appeals from people and places lacking the +gospel ministry, and needing desperately the provision of a school +or a hospital. Let us remember that the Boards can be strong and +effective for the kingdom only as the societies and churches +through their vitalizing prayers and their strengthening gifts +make it possible. + +The most important and basic place in all this organization +structure must be assigned to the women's, young women's and +children's missionary society, auxiliary, or mission band, in +the local church. Here in the local society each one finds her +particular place and work. Here loyalty for the denomination of +our choice finds scope and nourishment. Here through prayers, +letters, leaflets, the presence of missionary speakers, we come +into close fellowship with those consecrated ones of our own +household of faith who stand in the lonely, difficult places as +our representatives, ministering of the things of Christ to those +in need. Here our responsibility for maintaining the special work +committed to our society is found. + +To obtain a renewal of purpose, a vitalizing vision either of a +personality or an enterprise, to create a fresh enthusiasm, we must +turn from the familiar aspects of the subject to a first-hand thought, +or view. We need to be freshly introduced, as it were. For this purpose +let us renew our thought of the essential task of Home Missions. It is +to Christianize our home land-Christianize, shorn of the formal services +and forms of activity with which we associate the word means simply to +reproduce in our own lives and strive to bring to others as accurately +as possible the spirit and method of the life of Jesus, the Christ. + +The source of power which will make possible the Christ-life in +us, and the dynamic for all missionary service and power will be +found only in Him; "Ye in me and I in you"--"That ye may be +witnesses unto me," are His words. + +Let us then each seek Christ afresh, that we may know and realize +Him as if finding Him for the first time. Let us read the Gospels +as if we had never before heard the story of His life. Let us come +again to Calvary. Let us by prayer and communion open all the +avenues of our being to His presence and spirit. + +Let us seek a new realization and understanding of His character +and purpose. For what did Christ live? Ringing in His every word +and expressed in his every deed is the key note of His life--Love. +He lived to express, to incarnate love--the love of the father for +His children. We see Him turn from honor, riches, from what others +value and strive for, that he might manifest His love and teach +others how to love. The love of Jesus embodied more than it is +possible for us to comprehend in the height and depth and fulness +of its meaning. + +His love expressed perfect understanding and sympathy. "Your +heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." + +His love was filled with compassion and tender pity for the needy +and suffering. "Jesus, moved with compassion, touched him and +saith unto him, Be thou clean." + +His love felt human sorrow. At the tomb of Lazarus "Jesus wept." + +His love shared human joy. "These things have I spoken unto you +that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full." + +His love held redemption--was a saving love. "He that cometh unto +me I will in no wise cast out." + +His love knew fullest forgiveness. He said to the woman taken in +sin, "Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more." + +His love brought friendship. "Ye are my friends." + +His love gave new meaning to justice. "Her sins which are many are +forgiven-for she loved much." + +His love gave inspiration, "If ye abide in me and my words abide +in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done." "Greater +works than these shall ye do." + +His love held the promise of eternal companionship. "All mine are +thine and thine are mine. I will come and receive you unto myself, +that where I am ye may be also." + +"Outlawed men, criminals and lepers and madmen, became as little +children at His word, and all the wrongs and bruises inflicted on +them were healed beneath His kindly glance. This is how He lived +and this Gospel was the Gospel of a life He lived in such a way +that men saw that love was the only thing worth living for--that +life had meaning only as it had love." + + +O Love that wilt not let me go, + I rest my weary soul in Thee. +I give Thee back the life I owe +That in thine ocean depths its flow + May richer, fuller be. + + +This many-sided, all-embracing love is the type of love His +followers are pledged to yearn for and to seek earnestly to +express. The love of Christ found three great expressions--in +giving, in service, in sacrifice. + +If we, Christian women, are to reproduce Christ's spirit of love, +then giving, service, sacrifice must be dominant in our lives. + +How wonderfully and fully the Christ gave of all that He had--Himself. +He needs our gifts to-day, ourselves, our talents, our money. Home +Missions means a life to be lived, the full, glad giving of thought, +prayer, money, that His love may be made known to all the weary, +oppressed, ignorant, waiting, suffering ones in our land. + + +"Christ gives the best. +And in His service as we're growing stronger +The calls to grand achievement still increase. +The richest gifts for us, on earth or in heaven above, +Are hid in Christ. In Jesus, we receive the best we have." + + +The Christ-love was expressed in service. From the time that He went +forth to be "about His Father's business" we see him always serving +to the utmost of His strength with no thought of rest, or comfort. +We recall the long, hard day in Capernaum when after having spent +Himself in teaching He came to Peter's house; the news of His +presence there spread through the city; quickly were brought unto +Him the sick, the crippled and possessed; forgetful of His weariness +He healed and ministered unto them until the shadows lengthened and +night closed in. All along the way, as He journeyed in Galilee, Judea +or Samaria, he gave help and healing to the sick and sinful. When +He heard the sad cry of the lepers, He drew near them and gave them +cleansing. Those possessed of evil spirits, the blind, the soul sick, +the unrealizing, hardened woman at the well, the beautiful, loving +Magdelen, all found in Him a response to their utmost need. He said +truly, "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister." +He says to us, "As the Father sent me, so send I you." + + +"The final purpose of knowledge is action." + + +Grant us the will to fashion as we feel; + Grant us the strength to labor as we know; +Grant us the purpose ribbed and edged with steel + To strike the blow. + + +Knowledge we ask not--knowledge Thou hast lent, + But, Lord, the will--there lies our bitter need. +Give us to build above the deep intent + The deed, the deed. + +--_John Drinkwater_. + + +Knowledge must find expression in action or it is harmful and +vicious in its reaction. Having learned of Home Mission conditions +and needs, "word and deed must become one witness in action," else +our knowledge will mean a hardening of sympathy, the atrophy of +some spiritual impulse. The Lord calls us and sends us forth to +serve. + +Let us also remember that now is the time to begin a larger +service. "To-day is your day and mine, the only day we have, the +day in which we play our part. What our part may signify in the +great whole we may not understand, but we are here to play it and +now is the time." + +"Whittier tells us the story of the day in Connecticut in 1780, +when the horror of great darkness came over the land, and all men +believed that the dreaded Day of Judgment had come at last. + +"The legislature of Connecticut, 'dim as ghosts' in the old +Statehouse, wished to adjourn to put themselves in condition for +the great assizes, Meanwhile Abraham Davenport, representative +from Stamford, rose to say: + + +"This well may be +The Day of Judgment which the world awaits; +But be it is so or not, I only know +My present duty and my Lord's command +To occupy till He come. +So at the post where He hath set me in His Providence +I choose for one to meet Him face to face, +Let God do His work. We will see to ours." + +[Footnote: David Starr Jordan--The Call of the Twentieth Century.] + + +The Lord's love found its supreme expression in sacrifice. He walked +not only the Via Dolorosa--the way of pain and sorrow--which led +through Gethsemane to the green hill far away beyond the city wall; +and to Calvary--the pathway of His life was marked by _daily, hourly_ +sacrifice. + +He knew the full measure of loneliness, of misunderstanding, of +cruel malignity. He of the most sensitive perceptions and feelings +suffered from the brutality and coarseness of those who hated Him. +He knew the anguish of homelessness. Listen to the cry that escaped +Him: "The Son of Man hath not where to lay his head." If we are +following Him we too will share in the sacrificial life. "He that +would come after me let him take up his cross and follow me." But +there is joy in sacrifice, deep and true, and things highest and +best come to us only through the life laid down. + + +Out of the deep of sacrifice The pillars of the future rise. + + +It was a regiment that had volunteered for sure-death service at +Port Arthur, and the Japanese captain addressing them as they were +about to march said, "I send you forth as my loved children. If as +you discharge your duty, you lose your right hand, fight with your +left; if your left, too, is lost, serve with your feet; if your +feet also are lost, you can help with your head, giving cheer and +encouragement to others. Do not be reckless of your lives for they +are needed." + +Joyously seventy-seven earnest, willing ones went to live that +message--gloriously they did their part and won the day, though +not one of them ever returned to tell of victory. + +God calls us to _live_ for the saving of America. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +Ethics of Force H.E. Warner +Future of War Jean de Bloch +New Peace Movement William I. Hull +War Inconsistent with Religion of Jesus + Christ David Lowe Dodge +American Addresses at the Second Hague + Conference Edited by James Brown + Scott +Moral Damage of War Walter Walsh +Newer Ideals of Peace Jane Addams +Bethink Yourselves Leo Tolstoi +Blood of the Nation David Starr Jordan +The Gospel of the Kingdom (Magazine) Edited by Dr. Josiah + Strong +The Call of the Twentieth Century David Starr Jordan +Social Forces Edward T. Devine +American Ideals Theodore Roosevelt +The New Humanism Edward Howard Griggs +The Gospel of Jesus and the Problems + of Democracy Henry C. Vedder +Home Missions and the Social Question M. Katherine Bennett +Social Advance Rev. David Watson +Poverty Robert Hunter +A New Basis of Civilization Prof. Patton +Jesus Christ and the Social Question F.G. Peabody +The Social Teachings of + Christ Shailer Matthews +Sin and Society Prof. Ross +The Influence of Jesus Phillips Brooks + (Bohlen Lectures) +Ideals and Democracy Arthur H. Chamberlain +Democracy and Empire Franklin Henry Giddings + + +Hospitals W. Gill Wylie, M.D. +The Christian Ministry and the Social + Order Charles S. MacFarland +Christianizing the Social Order Rauschenbusch +Horizons of American Missions I.H. McNash +Missions from the Home Base McAfee +Missions Striking Home McAfee +The Church and the New Age Henry Carver +American Social and Religious + Conditions Charles Stelzle +The Church of To-morrow J. II. Crooker +The Social Task of Christianity Samuel Zane Batten +The Christian State Samuel Zane Batten + + +The Indian Dispossessed Seth K. Humphrey +The American Indian on the New Trail Dr. T.C. Moffett +The Indian and his Problem Francis Leupp +In Red Man's Land Francis Leupp + + +Under the Prophet in Utah Cannon and O'Higgins +Story of the Mormons Linn +Riders of the Purple Sage Zona Gale +Mormonism, the Islam of America Bruce Kinney + + +Southern Mountains S.T. Wilson Southern +Highlanders Kephert +Blue Grass and Rhododendron John Fox +Sons of Vengeance Malone +The Shepherd of the Hills Wright + + +The Day of the Country Church J.O. Ashenhurst +The Country Life Movement L.H. Bailey +The Country Church and the Rural + Problem Kenyon L. Butterfield +Rural Denmark and its Lessons H. Rider Haggard +The Rural Life Problem of the United + States Sir Horace Plunkett +The Church of the Open Country Warren H. Wilson +The Evolution of the Country + Community Warren H. Wilson + + +The Souls of the Black Folk W.E.B. Dubois +Following the Color Line Ray Stannard Baker +The Negro, the Southern Problem Page +From Darkness to Light Mary Helm +In Black and White L.H. Hammond + + +The New Home Missions H. Paul Douglas +Parish of the Pines Whittles +Spiritual Conquest along the Rockies Sloan +The Story of Panama Gause and Carr + + +Alaska, an Empire in the making John J. Underwood +A Study of the Thlingets of Alaska Jones +Life of Sheldon Jackson Stewart +Alaska, the Great Country Higginson +Alaska and its Natural Resources Dall +Kindashon's Wife Willard + + +Cuba and Porto Rico Robert Hill +Due South M.M. Ballou +Cuba and her People To-day Forbes Lindsay +American Bride in Porto Rico Marion Blythe +The American Mediterranean Stephen Bonsal +Our Island Empire Charles Morris + + +The Immigration Problem Jenks and Lauck +Races and Immigrants in America John R. Commons +Our Slavic Fellow Citizens Emily Balch +The Immigrant Invasion Warne +Immigrant Forces Shriver +On the Trail of the Immigrant Steiner +The Cup of Elijah Steiner +The French Blood in America Lucian J. Fosdick +The New America Mary Clark Barnes and + Dr. L.C. Barnes + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Home Missions in Action, by Edith H. Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOME MISSIONS IN ACTION *** + +***** This file should be named 8427.txt or 8427.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/4/2/8427/ + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, Anne Reshnyk +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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