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Show mm Missionary Centennial to Be Celebrated 1 1 ill BY D' v franois' Ialffi By I-cased wire t0 The Tribune. IW NEW YORK, Sept. 24. The mission- jjH avy movement as an orqaitizGci move- w monl is just 100 .veins old this year and USJ the centennia ot the formation of thc HW American Board ot' Foreign Missiou- H artes, the oldest of the American so IfflH cieties. will bo duly celebrated at Bos- Itam ton next month. In this country tho ifflm United Stutes has taken the lend of all IhI nations in foreign missionary work. IHW Contributions of the United States have Hill come to $10,000,000 in a total of $24,- IHlfl 000,000 a year. There rirc 5117 mission- $ja aries who arc supporlod by American INI t'it'ts, and they employ almost 30,000 na- fjfjl tive teachers "and preachers. Tliero arc Iffil 700,000 members of Christian churches ym in heathen lands. I rne present measure oi ivmisunn unity un-ity is said to be largely due to tho reflex, re-flex, influence of the mission lields. It is noted as remarkable by ministers that foreign missions havo always been condemned, con-demned, and yet havo always thrived. Commercial men in the cast have almost universally opposed tho missionary and his work, and vet it is argued by church people that the missionaries and not the advance agents of commerce have "brought to America the Oriental trade she .enjoys. Such men as Bishop Brent, the Rev. Dr. John P. Jones, the Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Greene, and many others . are credited with having shown to the Orient American civilization in its best 'form. Tho first century of Christian missions in foreign lands has been spent in nnnninir rlnnrc. ?n Innrnlnnr In n mi-t nan. I and in building colleges nnd churches. The old missionary hvmn, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains, ,M has boon dropped from a mission hymnal which is to be submitted for approval to the convention of the Episcopal church when it meets in Cincinnati noxt month. Since the news reached tho regular church-going public a little- while ago there has beon some indignation and surprise expressed. Protests nave beon sent to church periodicals and to all the delegates and commissioners to the convention, of the Episcopal church, when it meets in Cincinnati Cin-cinnati poxr, month. Tf Bishop Hebor's t famous old hvmn is cast out by the 'committee of bishops, priests, and laymen lay-men in charge of tho new hj'mnal It won 'i be because public opinion has not .been exprossed. In proposed mis sion hymnal there arc 172 selections, all of which tho comnuttco has preferred to tho ono which since its composition in 1819 has been tho slogan of tho missionary mis-sionary movement, and which has been accepted and adopted by practically every ev-ery Protestant sect. The objection to the composition, it is said, is that, ah though written by an English bishop, it emphasizes "natural rather than revealed re-vealed religion, apostrophizing mountains moun-tains and winds and waters." This heterodox tendency has, however, hitherto escaped the notice of tho devout de-vout for nearly a century, Tho smnll tempest stirred up among not only the regular church-going people, peo-ple, but among some who are not so regular in their attendance by the abandonment aban-donment of "The Missionary Hymn." of sentiment connected with the oll-timo oll-timo custom of gathering around the piano or the foot organ to sing hymns. Few people nowadays in the flood of cheap, popular nuisicthnt now surrounds us, remember that up to 1 S40 hymn singing sing-ing was not only a devotional exercise', but represented 'the only form of music available for the great mass of those outside tho large cities. Even then the singing was conducted under difficulties, because therp was no piano or organ not only in homes, but for the meeting meet-ing houses as. well. The ordinary procedure pro-cedure at meeting was for tho leader to sound the pitch with his tuning fork. Tho congregation then sang in as many parts as it could, and only two frequent, lv in KfiVArnl kp.vs at. onco. It pays to advertise. If you don 't believe ' it ask Christian F. Reisner. successful business man1 Not a bit or it. Ho is a Methodist minister, and a good old-fashioned one at that; a strict trinitarian. who preaches tho fatherhood of God and lets the brotherhood of man take care of itself. The Rev. Mr. Reisner Reis-ner believes heart nnd soul in his religion, re-ligion, in his church, in his work thnt he is doing. It isn't all up in tho air he says "People eomo to mo in tho middle of the night sometimes, and get mo out of bed to tell mo their troubles. And I am often ablo to help them out and comfort them. That's practical enough, isn 't it?" Tho trouble is, people don't know when they need roligion. They don't know whnt they want, thinks Mr. Reisner. Reis-ner. They are too busy making money. The buemcss man has learned that it pays to tell the pooplo what they want, in tho way of material things. Wbv shouldn't the church, asks tho minister, bring its light from under a bushel and remind tho people that they also want spiritual things? So Air. Reisner is advertising bin church, just as a business man would advertise his mnko of shoe, or brand of tobacco. For example, when he was preaching in Donver ho sent out word to all the papers ono week in midsummer midsum-mer that ho was going to deliver a snow service the following Sunday. Half tho population of Donver tried to crowd into t lie church on a late Sunday to see tho wagonlond of snow that had been brought down from tho mountains, and piled up in front of his pulpit. And it is a fair giiesB that nono of them over forget that sermon and ita text, As enow in tho time of harvest, so in a faithful mossengor. " Since coming to this city last April to become pastor of the Grace Methodist church ho has ox-tended ox-tended his policy of advertising. Last year he held a "rose service" at which every ono in tho church was presented with a rose. Every week ho has hundreds hun-dreds of enrds printed with catchy headlines, givin tho gist of tho next Sunday 's sermon. Mr. Ecisnor's policy of advertising has been successful. So successful that it attracted tho mayor of Denver and man' of the high public officials to his church when ho was in Colorado; so successful that a largo business house mado him a very lucrative offer if ho would go on the roud and advertise adver-tise their goods. But ho does not -want to dclivor tho goodH for any business house. "I want," he says, ''to deliver the goods for the glory of God." Asido from tho three princes of tho Catholic church who will participate in tho consecration ceremonies of St. Patrick's Pat-rick's cathedral, in New York on October Octo-ber 5. Archbishop Diomedo Falconio, apostolic dologate, and a host of archbishops arch-bishops and bishops from abroad nnd this country will attond. Fifty-four nl-readv nl-readv havo accepted the invitation of Arclibishop Farley. Every archbishop and bishop in this country has beon invited. in-vited. Mgr. Fnlconio will bo tho celebrant of solemn pontifical vespers. Cardinal Vannutelli. of Homo, and Cardinal Logue, of Ireland, will bo present nt tho solemn pontifical mass in the morning, at which the celobran,t will be Cardinal Gibbons. After tho hisrh mass thoro will bo a dinner at Cathedral college, Madison aveuue'and Fifty-first street, for all the clergy. The programme also includes a requiem mass for all tho priests of the dioceso who have died in the last one hundred years and a children's service. serv-ice. Tho tiino for theso and for tho rocoption at the Catholic club to the three cardinals has not yet been h:ed. "As God is my witness, if you have this young man shot you're his murderer murder-er " The young clergyman who thus remonstrated with the half-breed Eiel. forty-one yours ago, on the cold, grim morning that Thomas Scott was led out. for execution, died tho other day at Toronto. To-ronto. Eow George Young was the first Methodist missionary in Manitoba; he was a sky pilot of the trails; he be-lond be-lond to 'the best of the mist liko Rob-ortson, Rob-ortson, tho Presbyterian, to the days when bad men were picturesque horse thieves, whiskey smugglers, and alcohol, ixed red men. Fort Garry was Dr. Young's mission. Hero, as a young ma n, ho .began by ministoring to the prisoners whom "Ricl catherod in on hi3 rampage back in 1S69: ho comforted Thomas Scott in his last hours. Dr. Young was a great Canadian missionary. He camo to Fort Garry as a humble emissary of his church, ho lived to see it Winnipeg, a city of churches. |