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Show I The Influence of Christianity in the World's Progress At the close of the school term at the Branch H Normal last June, an address was delivered be-H be-H fore the students, parents, and visitors who were H present, and later published in "The Student," H the official school paper to which considerable H objection was voiced by many who heard or read H .The author of the paper was Mr. George H Hanifj, one of the graduates, and a resident of H Panguitch. It was entitled " International Arbi- H tration," and in many respects was a splendid H resume of the tendencies of the times as regards H the attitude of the world on the question of uni- B versal peace among ail nations instead of the mili- H tar'ism that for centuries has prevailed as the one H and only means of deciding international disputes. H After discussing in a most thorough and in- H telligent manner the awful consequencies of H war, their inhumanity, and resultant loss of life H and property, the almost momentary destruction H of that which it has required the accumulated H genius of man years in constructing, he spoils H the article, by concluding with a series of state- H merits in which he says that the change in senti- H ment in recent years respecting war and militar- M ism and the prominent part taken in the peace H movement by the United States, is due to the ab- H 'senceof "Chrtisianity" fiom among the peoples H most active in the movenment. H He says, "They may tell you that the spirit H- of love, or Christianity, is the natrural law of H life, but-it is not so; war, hate, lust, treachery,' 1 slaughter, rapine, murder, is the law of all life." In this statement he is partially correct. The M ' animal instincts of all life, even mankind, is by M nature brutal, and it is'ony through the refining 1 and enlightening influences of CHristTarlity" that M this; natural inclination can be changed. Man's stubbornness, and contempt for admonitions to do B rijfht, were manifested in the earliest recorded M period of his existence, back yonder when Adam M and Eve were placed in the garden of Eden; and ' ' his cruel nature a little later, when Gain slew his m brother Abel. m Inthe doing of these acts the perpetrators M have gone counter to the counsels and commands m of God and of his son, Jesus Christ, for always m and eveyrwhere we find they (and their chosen M aids) have pleaded with men to "be merciful" H (not cruel), "to love their neighbors" (not hate m them), and so on, the divine commands covering H eycry good thing that we have in the world and M every good thing the mind can conceive. To at M tempt, even inferentially, to assert that the evils M above mentioned, or any of them, can be charged' m to chrstianity is as far from the facts as it is pos- M sible to be. It would be just as consistent to , state that scarlet fever, typhoid fever, smallpox, M and yellow fever epidemics are due to the'activ- M ity of the army of health officers who are busy m everywhere urging the people to clean up and dis- m infect. B We haven't space here, and it would serve no H -good purpose, to discuss the statement of Mr. M Hanks respecting "that myth of the second cornel corn-el ing of the Savior," this being clearly an atheistic m declaration. H Again, he says that "It is the ignorance of HI natural law and a superstitious belief in a future m life, that promote most of the wars in the world today." H If he had safd that it was this ' 'supers ti-M ti-M tious" belief that caused most of the w.ars of the M "past" he would have been correct. It was, B however, the superstition of the idol-worshipers, B the heathen and the ignorant of the gospel of the H Lord that engaged the peoples in war. In no H singlo instance can it be charged that the belief m of Christians in a future life has been responds respon-ds sible for a combat between nations. M Further on he says: "America stands today H , where she is because she is non-Christian, and H the non-controlling orthodox authority. It may H be surprising to some to learn that this great republic of ours is not a Christian nation and H that this class of people are in a small min- ority. . H w If we were to base our opinions strictly on H .the above statement, we should conclude that the ( I writer's "education" hm. been gained from a study of but one side of the subject. No one properly pro-perly informed will dispute that Engalnd (including (includ-ing Canada) and America are the leaders in all those things which have sin influence for the enlightenment en-lightenment and elevation of the human race. As to the non-Christian beliefs of the people of the United States, lot us see, -perhaps figures will give us an insight. Andrew Carnegie, the prime figure in the world's pez.ee movement, is a Christian, an ardent financial cl urcii supporter and regular church attendant. The presidents of this country have nearly all been Christians and regular reg-ular church attendants, and many of the leading men of the nation have been zealous Christians. Mr. John Wanamaker, former postmaster general has for fifty years been superintendent- of the largest Sunday school in this country and the second largest in the world. At the present time our president, vice-president, secretary of state, and other cabinet officials, are men who are and have been active in church work, and their efforts to restore peace in Mexico along lines of Christian justice is approved by Germany, France, all of South America, and even Japan. Most of the Protestant churches have been organized within the last three hundred fifty years, and their greatest growth and expansion dates no farther back than two hundred years. At this time, in the United States alone, the Baptists have an active membership of 3,380,000, the Congregationalists 2,520,000, the Presbyterians Presbyter-ians 1,600,000, the Methodists 6,146,000, the Mor--mons 450,000, or a total of 14,10.000 regular communicants. com-municants. To this sum should be added about three million more, who make up the membership of more than a dozen other churches, and another an-other fifty per cent of the total membership for those who attend either regularly or occasionally some one of the churches and give to them financial finan-cial support, making a total of 27,710,000 active supporters in the United States, nearly all of whom are adults. To this number should be added ad-ded a large part of the membership of the young people's organizations and members of the Sunday Sun-day schools which, in many of the churches, are not indued in the church 'membership. It must not be overlooked that the Methodist church has been organized only 186 years, vet has over 6.000,000 active members, thouands of church buildings, schools, hospitals, printing plants, and some 2,400 missionaries in every heathen hea-then land on che globe. Another new organization iB-the-Lfttter-Day Saints,- wh&k-hsus been organized organ-ized but 85 years, has a memberhip of 450,000, and approximately 2,000 missionaries. Another church organization is that of the Christian Endeavor, or young people's organiza tion, non-sectarian, and affiliated with aA majority of the Protestant churches. It was organized in 1881, and by 1896 had been endorsed by thirty-two thirty-two Christian denominations, had 43. 579 organi zations with a membership of 2,600,000. Without doubt the growth of these fifteen years is indes-putable indes-putable evidence of the spread of Christianity in the United States. The first American Sunday School Convention, Conven-tion, held at Baltimore in 1875, according to reports re-ports filed by the several denominations represented, repre-sented, there were in the Sunday schools of the country 6,543,743. At the 1905 convention at Toronto, Canada, the number in the Sunday schools had increased to 13,209,114, in the United States, or an increase of more than 100 per cent in the brief period of thirty years. Allowing but little for the growth of church organizations within the last four or five years, it will be seen from the above figures that more than 30,000,000 poople in thiscountry are actively supporting the cause of Christianity. There are hundreds of thousands of others who lend their moral support to the work although not identified identi-fied in anv visible manner with ny church organization. or-ganization. In view of these amazing changes in recent years, U seems impossible that any one would say that this country in non-Christian. On the other hand, it should be plain that the reat reforms re-forms of recent years have been due to the activity ac-tivity of religious workers. Never in all the his-j tory of the world has there been such harmony of .action by the forces of righteousness as in this present year of our Lord 1913. The peace movement move-ment headed by Carnegie, the social purity crusade cru-sade headed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.. a Sunday Sun-day school teacher, which hasjsecured the pasasgc , of the government "white slave1" law, the change' of the Chinese heathen mona)chytda Christian , republic, whose first presidentjDr. Sun Yat Sen, is a convert to Christianity and, a member of one of the prominent churches, the startling progress of civilization in Japan, were hundreds of churches have been erected and tens o thousands of natives na-tives have been converted within the last fifteen years, all point unmistakably to the fact that a true Christian spirit is govern ng more than ever in the annals of time the conduct of men and of nations. Any other conclusion is bound to be the result of failure to read properly the teigne of the times. . 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