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Show 1 THE CHURCH AND EXPANSION. The New York Commercial Advertiser Adver-tiser recently published an editorial in which, under cover of fulsome praise and flattery of the church, a labored attempt at-tempt was made to give reasons why the church should support the administration adminis-tration in its Philippine policy. Mr. Thomas F. Woodlock of Brooklyn Brook-lyn very cleverly punctures the reasoning rea-soning of the Commercial Advertiser in the following forcible letter, which , we commend to those who are contin ually prating on the duty of bringing "civilization" to the Philippines: Sir Petmit me to argue a little with you on the subject so sympathetically and ft rrnrmii i t nA ,: . - - - i.....-v ouu rx-ii'uiiiemaiiv treated in your article on "The Churth and Expansion," in Saturday's issue. 1 extract two paragraphs therefrom: there-from: the first as follows: "From the time of its union with Home the real birth of the church as a social factor it has been the trumpet of progress and the minister of civilization." civili-zation." ! The second is: "In the very islands the Bishop of New York is about to visit, American missionaries laid the foundation of an endunng civilization in Hawaii, and Spanish priests builded another in Lu-::on Lu-::on that has lived out its days and waits to be displaced by something higher and better." Let us get bac;k to first principles and cear our mindsnot only of cant but !qf misconceptions. and misused words. What. do you mean by "civilization," as you use the word in the paragraphs above? ; Do you mean material prosperity in the .form of wealth, railroads, telegraph, tele-graph, telephones, street ears , daily Uewspapers and -electric light, or even that higher -form of material prosperity, prosperi-ty, free libraries, free schools and popular pop-ular government? Or do" you mean, civilization in the highest, noblest and truest sense, namely, - inculcation of faith and morals where there have been heretofore no faith or misguided paganism, pa-ganism, and no morals? If you mean the former, what has the church any church to do with such things? It is true, as you say, that the church by which I mean.,- of course, the Roman Ro-man Catholic church became by force of circumstances the guardian and protector pro-tector of that material civilization which includes the better part of the world's goods, viz.: learning in the form of the liberal arts and the sciences, but this was an accident of its career and not the end or even a partial ob- I ject .of its existence. It was not even a I necessary means to its great end; that i that the church neglected no opportunities opportuni-ties that were offered it by circumstances. circum-stances. But its motto, the guiding and first principle of its existence, and of the existence uf any body that claims to be a Christian church is contained in the words: "My kingdom is not of this world,'.' and any church not founded upon this principle is no church certainly cer-tainly no Christlon church. The whole New Testament bristles with variations varia-tions :.of this great statement. Surely no Christian can refuse unlimited in-telectual in-telectual assent to it. It is a necessary postulate of religion practically all religion. re-ligion. Now, if you do not mean by the word "civilization" in the second paragraph quoted, the material prosperity that is "of this world," in what has the "civilization", "civili-zation", that the Spanish. priests builded build-ed in Luzon "lived out its days," and what "higher and better" is to take its place? I grant you that material progress on over-worked and much abused word that, "progress" is being introduced into the Philippines, for have we not seen telegraph instruments operated from high altars, some of which altars antedate, no doubt, American independence? independ-ence? If we look a little-higher, however, how-ever, we find that the Filipinos have been by no means destitute of "culture," "cul-ture," for the University. 8an Tomaa was founded in 1607, and the other great I university (presided over by the Dominicans) Dom-inicans) had on its rolls no less than 5,000 native students when the war broke out. But even the question of education is beside the mark when religion re-ligion is the question. . What ore American Protestant missions mis-sions going to give the Filipinos to take the place .of that which the Spanish priests brought them? Are you prepared pre-pared to say that Protestantism is ! "higher and better" than Catholicism, or do you simply mean that American missionaries are going to bring them different kinds of clothes, teach them English and offer them secular free schools, and a complete system of popular pop-ular government, with duly protected primaries? Have you not in reality confused your mind with the mixture of commerce and missions, that is at the bottom of so much talk in church -circles just now? There seems to be arf idea that the conquest of the Philippines offers j great things to United States trade and the Protestant Church, and that some- tinw- iya twr. -i -.-. linl. j. ! glorious opportunity. Is it this that j ou mean, or when you talk of "higher and better" things do you not mean the telephone, street cars, "store clothes," public (secular) schools, free libraries and the daily newspaper? The Spanish priests did not bring these things to Luzon (except the schools), for it was not their business to do so. How is it the business of American missionaries? Their business is to spread Christianity as they see it. and as they practice it; but there is already Christianity in the Philippines; it was there before it was in the UnSted States, I believe. . |