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Show The Church Will Not Shrink. '(The Rocky Mountain News.) It will redound to the eternal glorv of the Christian church in the United States that It meets the present crisis in the nation's history and opportunity with the same high spirit of consecration that it snowed In rising to the situation in 1.X9S. Then, as It does now, it accepted for itself and the nation the burden which It felt divine Providence to be laying upon the tfreat free republic of the new world to help along the progress of mankind. Then, as now, voices arose from political politi-cal ambitions, from the cloistered self-centered self-centered precincts of scholasticism and from the sordid ranks of crass materialism, material-ism, saying "what is there in it," and "what have we to do with abroad?" Hut when it became clear that duty and opportunity op-portunity alike were pushing us out of ourselves into Asia, even as now we are pushed into the Balkans and Asia Minor, the church did not shrink from the adventure, ad-venture, but gave its adherence to President Pres-ident McKlnley as ungrudgingly as today-it today-it supports the league of nations, from no selfish reasons, but for the chance of bearing some burdens for those who are unable to bear them alone. Of all places in this world to go with expectations of sympathy for the question whether we want to suffer and die in the mountains of Asia or the deserts of Africa, the Christian church is the one where a wise obstructionist would foresee failure in advance. From the day when the seventy went forth Into Asia Minor, Italy, Greece and even Spain with the conquering gospel of Christ, to which thev devoted their lives to the point of untold agonies; from the day when the consecrated conse-crated priests of Rome suffered tortures In order to spread the faith throughout the wild domains of New France, it has never been the dogma or the practice of the church to pass the needy by on the other side. Not for themselves, but for the souls of darkened places were thev stoned and sawn asunder, stopped the' mouths of lions, wandered about In sheepskins and I goatskins, subdued kingdoms, wrought , righteousness "of whom the world was not worthy." American missionaries have already suffered and died in the mountains of Asia, the desert of Africa, the wildernesses of Luzon, the dark provs inces of China, the remote fastnesses of Arctic and Antarctic regions. Perhaps there e no spot on the surface of the earth ho endeared to the Christian faith and the Christian generosity through martyrdom of our best and bravest youth of both sexes as that portion of Europe and Asia that now nsks the United States as it mandatory and turns its gaze hither above all places in the world with hope of justice and with unbounded faith In American sympathy, self-sacrifice and consecrated business talent. It was President McKinley's desire to escape the burden of the Philippines. He Instructed our commissioners to Paris to decline them. Yet in the end we had to accept the trust and the church saw the duty and the privilege and embraced it gladly. What has been done for the Islands of the sea, just as has been done In Cuba, Panama and every region over which the Stars and Stripes have extended, ex-tended, often unwillingly, their sway, is a familiar and honorable record. The league of nations is the response of an aroused international conscience to the cry of the little peoples. No doubt there is a lot of dross In the golden promises we hold out and the proud pledges we make; but there will he no selfish mental reservation in the spirit with which the church in the United States will take up its share of the burden thus assumed. . It will be well for the governments that have put out this word of promise to downtrodden peoples peo-ples if they keep abreast of the self-denial self-denial and the generosity with which the church of Christ will throw itself into this fresh opportunity to carry the gospel along with the flag into the dark and cruel places of the earth. |
