3 nV\ ' •W. '.■Ov/ ■ ^■|^YaA«a i J-|‘-^ e ■ > - ‘‘'4it«- - , -'/)ioY '> •■ ' ■ ..•‘\'!r;'- . ' ) . THE WORLD-TASK By Rev. Floyd L. Carr The Possibility of World Democracy 7. Birth of World-Consciousness A new world-consciousness has been born through the travail of the World-War. Men respond with a new understanding to the lines: “Though East be East, though West be West, The world they form is one; Alike the aims of human kind, The goal when all is done.” President Wilson strikes a note that awakens a deep and universal re¬ sponse when he declares that “the world must be made safe for Democ¬ racy.” It has long been a common-place that steam and electricity have made the world one neighborhood, but the War has illumined the axiom with its lurid light. Taylor & Luccock in “The Christian Cru¬ sade for World Democracy” say: “If politics make strange bed-fellows, the War has made still stranger trench- feUows. The Gurkha from India, the Arab from Arabia, the Algerian from North Africa and Hottentot from Central Africa have spilled their blood along with the New Zealander, the Canadian and the Belgian in the cause of freedom. The Fiji Island- er has gone over the top with the French and American for others. The Sikh of India rightly wears the Victoria Cross for high valor along with his English comrade in his own tongue repeats the glorious watchword of France. They shall not pass!’” It is increasingly recognized that the winning of the War is only a pre¬ lude to the larger task of making the world safe for Democracy. The Allied nations during the past five years have marshalled their resources to uproot the weeds that choked the growth of democratic and Christian ideals in Europe. This achieved, these same nations are now confronted with the task of planting the beneficient seeds of good-will, democracy, justice and Christianity in the neglected fields of the earth. The jungle of ignorance, superstition and oppression must give way to the abundant harvest of knowledge, faith and freedom. The desert of heathendom’s sin and degradation must blossom as the rose under the stimulus of the ideals of Jesus Christ. The fecundity of Jesus’ teachings concerning the loving Fatherhood of God and the infinite worth and rights of His children has manifested itself wherever the seeds have been planted. Shall we withhold these seeds from the needy parts of the world? The new world¬ consciousness forbids. 4 THE WORLD-TASK 2. The Function of Christian Missions It is evident then that Christian Missions are destined to play a mighty part in the making of the world safe for Democracy. Herbert Spencer said: There is no political alchemy by which we can get golden conduct out of lead¬ en motives.” Dwight L. Moody was wont to say: If you want to get good water it is not enough to paint the pump, you must clean out the well.” In The Christian Crusade for World Democracy” the writers, Taylor & Luccock point out the fact that, “The mainspring of human progress has been for nineteen hundred years, and is today the Christian faith. The moral dynamic that transformed our wild fore¬ fathers, the Saxons, Celts and Scandinavians into civilized nations was not science, then unborn, not politics, literature or art; it was Christianity.” The power that has in the last one hundred years aroused Asia and Africa and the Islands of the Pacific from the sleep of centuries is not commercial or governmental but Christian. The credentials of the Gospel of Christ for a world-task are well urged in the words of President Wilson: “The Gospel of Christ is the only force in the world that I have ever heard of that does actually transform the life; and the proof of that transformation is to be found all over the world and is multiplied and repeated as Christianity gains fresh territory in the heathen world.” That the Christian missionary has played and is destined to play no small part in the world-task none can gainsay. Dr. Sidney L. Gulick sets forth the larger work of the messenger of Love: “The missionary is now seen to be not merely saving a few individuals from the general wreck of the pagan world, but planting a new life which will transform that world and bring it into the Kingdom of God. Christ must be made King in our organized life as communities and thus society be saved, even as He has been made Saviour of individuals. Foreign missions in all their activities aim at the double purpose of saving both individuals and society—the establishment of the Kingdom of God through the production of children of God.” Eminent American leaders, not predisposed in favor of the missionary enterprise by their early point of view and training, have united in recogni¬ tion of the fundamental value of the work of Christian missionaries. Hon. William B. Reed, trained merely in the school of American politics, said: “I went to the East with no enthusiasm as to the missionary enterprise. I came back with the fixed conviction that missionaries are the great agents of civilization.” David Morgenthau, of the Jewish race, said on his return from serv¬ ice as American Ambassador in Constantinople: “A residence of over two years in Turkey has given me the best possible oppor¬ tunity to see the work of the American missionaries and to know the workers inti¬ mately. Without hesitation I declare my high opinion of their keen insight into THE WORLD-TASK 5 the real needs of the people of Turkey. They go straight to the foundations and provide those intellectual, physical, moral and religious benefits upon which alone any true civilization can be built.” Nor is direct evidence lacking that in theory and in practice the mis¬ sionaries are training in Democracy the peoples of the backward lands. The Bishop of Calcutta (Church of England) said to Tyler Dennett not long ago: For thirty years I taught Green’s English History to students in a mission college. 1 always said to myself after finishing the course, Tf these boys do not appropriate some of these ideals, it will not be my fault.’ ” Bishop Lewis of the M. E. Mission in China says: u church in Asia is a miniature republic. The only trial by jury which the Chinese know is that which is practised in the discipline of the Church.” J. The Leadership of America. America s policy in respect to China and the Philippines is in marked contrast to the European record of exploitation and has given our nation a mighty influence in the Far East. China has counted America her friend ever since the return of the 1 10,000,000.00 Boxer indemnity. Hun¬ dreds of Chinese students supported by the interest of that fund, are now studying m America and in every intelligent Chinese mind there is a settled predisposition to trust America. China’s revolution in 1911 and the founding of an elemental republic by Dr. Sun Yat Sen and others was the direct outcome of the leaven of American ideals working through China’s millions. But Arnerican leadership in the East is not due so much to its liberal dealings with China as to its unselfish policy in the Philippines. Presi¬ dent McKinley sounded our high ideal saying: . Philippines are ours, not to exploit but to develop, civilize, educate and tram in the science of self-government. This is the path of duty which we must follow or be recreant to a mighty trust committed to us.” In Taylor & Luccock’s work, “The Christian Crusade for World Democracy” (pp. 148-49), the following review of the progress of the Phil¬ ippines is given: ^ be proud that our nation has been true to that trust. We have F we have, science, education of the women, intel- religious liberty and a great liberal government in which they themselves have part. It is a record of progress unexampled in the contact of any Western people with any part of Asia In eighteen brief years have been brought about the F^n£df