THE NEW WORLD , 
 
 movement; 
 
 4 
 
 V . , , * 
 
 K&rl Kino t3apli^tGrnv6,nl 
 
 
 
THE 
 
 NEW WORLD MOVEMENT 
 
 OF THE. 
 
 NORTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 
 
 THE GENERAL BOARD OF PROMOTION 
 OF THE NORTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 
 
 J. Y. AITCHISON, General Director 
 
 1919 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 We have been dreaming of a new day. It has not yet 
 dawned. It is not too late to usher it in. If it comes it 
 will be because the spirit and passion of Christ possess 
 the heart of mankind. This will be possible, as multi- 
 tudes of those who already bear his Name carry his spirit 
 in all relationships with their fellowmen. To help stimu- 
 late this spirit and spread this passion and usher in this 
 new day, the New World Movement has been organized 
 among Northern Baptists. To explain the purpose and 
 the methods of this New World Movement this little book 
 is sent forth. 
 

 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Challenge of the Present Crisis, by Ernest D. Burton, . . 7 
 
 The New World Movement by Northern Baptists, by J. Y. Aitch- 
 ison, . . . . . . . . . . .17 
 
 A Survey of the Survey, by James A. Clarke, .... 23 
 
 The Mission of the Church, by Mrs. Lathan A. Crandall, . . 43 
 
 The Local Church Program, by A. W. Beaven, . . . .56 
 
 The Enlistment of Life, by P. H. J. Lerrigo, . . . .69 
 
 Prayer, the Dynamic of the New World Movement, by Charles 
 
 W. Gilkey, 84 
 
 Christianizing the Nation’s Bank Roll, by Edwin M. Poteat, 92 
 
 Ministerial Compensation, by D. C. Shull, ..... 100 
 
 Present Day Evangelism, by James A. Francis, .... 104 
 

 
 
 
 
 ‘ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE NEW WORLD MOVEMENT 
 
 THE CHALLENGE OF THE PRESENT CRISIS 
 
 BY ERNEST D. BURTON 
 
 That there is a crisis no intelligent American will deny. 
 In a sense we are always facing a crisis. History is never 
 stagnant. Every day is a judgment day, because we are 
 always making decisions which are fraught with impor- 
 tant consequences for the future. It is only relatively 
 that there are areas of calm in the stream of history. 
 But we speak without exaggeration when we call the 
 present hour an exceptionally important and critical one 
 in the history of America and of American Christianity. 
 
 In a sense at least the war is over, and down from the 
 mountain tops of exaltation, enthusiasm and self-sacrifice, 
 on which for two years we, as a nation, lived, we have 
 plunged into the valley of commonplace, of money-getting, 
 of self-seeking, and of partisanship, with a speed that 
 none of us could have believed possible a year ago. Per- 
 haps we sometimes forget that before we entered the war 
 we were not wholly at peace with one another, and not 
 wholly unselfish in our aims and undertakings. Was 
 there not in 1914 a problem of the rising cost of living? 
 Were there not excess, if not excessive, profits in 1915? 
 Was there not class strife and were there not threatened 
 strikes in 1916? In large part we have but resumed life 
 where it was interrupted by our participation in the war. 
 
 7 
 
But doubtless, also, we have resumed it with a new in- 
 tensity that is in part the result of the reaction from the 
 extraordinary conditions that existed during the war. 
 
 Be that as it may, the present situation undoubtedly 
 presents to the American nation and especially to Amer- 
 ican Christianity a challenge which will test both to the 
 utmost. 
 
 A Challenge to Intelligence 
 
 First of all it challenges our intelligence. It will dis- 
 cover whether as a nation, as a church, we know enough, 
 are intelligent enough, to deal with problems of such mag- 
 nitude as now face us, in a world that is larger and more 
 complex than any we have hitherto known. Certainly 
 it is not reassuring to witness great masses of men deter- 
 mining their actions by maxims which only thinly dis- 
 guise the assumption that diminished production increases 
 wealth, that when each acre yields half as much wheat, 
 each of us will have twice as much bread; or that there is 
 a store of wealth out of which to pay wages which re- 
 mains undiminished when production ceases or is reduced 
 by one-half or two-thirds. But if such ignorance of the 
 first principles of economics surprises us, are we prepared 
 with the corrective of it? Do we know just how to make 
 it clear to our fellow toilers how they can secure their 
 share of the golden egg that labor lays without destroy- 
 ing the goose that lays it? Is ignorance wholly on the 
 side of laborers and strikers, or is there a widespread 
 cloudiness of mind, to say the least, — a cloudiness which 
 is no longer a matter of theoretic interest to education, 
 but an actual cause of strife and bloodshed? 
 
 But if these things disquiet us, is it any less disquieting 
 to read in newspapers that are supposed to represent the 
 brains of the country, arguments whose underlying prem- 
 ise, often openly expressed, is that America can now 
 return to the measure of isolation that was possible at 
 
 8 
 
the end of the eighteenth century? There is room, no 
 doubt, for difference of opinion as to the extent and char- 
 acter of our participation in the affairs of nations across 
 the seas. But that all the marvelous things that have 
 happened in a century in bringing the nations to closer 
 quarters one with another, and that our own enormous 
 increase in population, wealth, power and influence can 
 have come about and not imperatively demand of us, 
 whether we choose it or not, a different course of action 
 from that which was possible and right in the days of 
 Washington and Jefferson, — this is unthinkable. But if 
 our policy is to be different, what is it to be? What are 
 to be its broad principles? What are to be its specific ap- 
 plications? Have we studied history thoroughly enough, 
 do we know our own history and that of other nations 
 well enough to answer these questions? Are we not right 
 in saying that the present situation challenges, and coming 
 days will challenge, our intelligence as it has not been 
 challenged before? 
 
 But it is not in the realm of economics and politics only 
 that intelligence is demanded. The aspects of life that 
 are distinctly religious — the tasks of the church — are 
 no less important than those of politics and business, and 
 call no less loudly for intelligence and thought. We can- 
 not, for example, close our eyes to the fact that the prob- 
 lem of the relationships of Christian denominations to 
 one another has reached a stage which demands earnest 
 thought and the wdsest possible action. 
 
 The union of the allied forces at the suggestion of Gen- 
 eral Pershing and under the leadership of Marshal Foch 
 turned the tide of war in favor of the Allies, saved thou- 
 sands of lives and hastened the coming of peace. Not less 
 significant would be the union of Christian forces in the 
 war for righteousness. As Baptists we have put ourselves 
 on record against organic union. Grant that in this we 
 were wise. Let no one imagine that a negative utterance 
 
 9 
 
is the measure of our duty. No intelligent Christian can 
 fail to see that a Christendom united in action would be 
 far stronger than a divided Christianity. Since organic 
 union is not practicable, as many of us believe it is not, 
 it is incumbent on us to find what measure or kind of 
 unity or co-operation is feasible. We have given our 
 adherence to the Inter-Church World Movement on con- 
 ditions that have been accepted in a broad and generous 
 Christian spirit by our brethren whose judgment would 
 have named different conditions. It is now incumbent on 
 us to do our utmost to see that the plan as our action has 
 defined it is practically successful (or that we find our 
 way through this to a better plan). The task is a difficult 
 one. It certainly is. Therefore we say it challenges our 
 intelligence, demands our largest possible contribution of 
 consecrated brain power. 
 
 The Challenge of Missions 
 
 Not less certainly does the task of the church in foreign 
 lands challenge us. Never since the days of Paul has a 
 universal religion seemed so within the range of practical 
 possibilities as it does to-day. All barriers are down. All 
 doors are open. All religions are in the melting pot. All 
 systems are being tried by the test of their effects. If, as 
 we believe, Christianity is adapted to the whole human 
 race, if it can solve the perplexities, meet the needs, and 
 promote the welfare of all nations, now is the opportunity 
 of its adherents as never before to prove this and to win 
 their way among all peoples. Never were the motives 
 for the spread of pure religion so strong as they are to-day. 
 The nations of the earth can no longer live in ignorance 
 of one another, or in indifference to one another. The 
 foreign missionary is no longer the ambassador of a chi- 
 merical idea, the apostle of a forlorn hope, an enthusiast 
 to be admired and smiled at. He is the representative 
 not only of the religion of Jesus Christ, but of international 
 
 10 
 
good-will; the creator not only of Christian churches, but 
 of all international civilization; not a sectarian ecclesi- 
 astic, but an ambassador of all communions and a world 
 statesman. His work, and not less the work of those 
 agencies that send him out and stand behind him, calls 
 for breadth of vision and of sympathy, for courageous 
 planning, for patient and wise execution. It challenges 
 the intelligence of the church as it never was challenged 
 before. 
 
 The Challenge of Character 
 
 But more serious even than the challenge of our intelli- 
 gence is the challenge of our character. With all our 
 ignorance, we know at least that He whom the Christian 
 Church calls Lord announced the principle of love as that 
 which ought to govern in all the relations between men 
 and men. We know that He bade us love our neighbors 
 as ourselves, even though those neighbors be hostile to us, 
 and to do unto others as we would that they should do 
 unto us. The church has proclaimed these principles. 
 Christians profess allegiance to them. The nation has at 
 least heard them. Yet day after day we read in our great 
 daily papers, which for a little time seemed to have ac- 
 cepted nobler principles, the open advocacy of the crassest 
 national selfishness, and, what is more disheartening, find 
 such advocacy approved by Christian men. Not only so, 
 but what comes still closer home is the painful evidence 
 on every hand that in a day of rising prices, and profits 
 increased in dollars at least, the determination to grasp 
 for one’s self and one’s associates is, in alarmingly wide 
 circles, stronger than the desire to do justice to all whether 
 of our class or of another. 
 
 During the war, under the stimulus of our own danger 
 as a nation, and of the splendid spirit of self-sacrifice for 
 the world’s welfare with which many of our sons and 
 daughters gave themselves to the service of mankind, it 
 
 11 
 
seemed as if we had seen a great light and accepted a 
 nobler principle of action than had hitherto governed us. 
 The nation seemed almost to have adopted as its own the 
 principle which had been the great motive of the mission- 
 ary enterprise of the Christian church. Are we to lose all 
 that we seemed to have gained? Or after the days of 
 reaction that are so apt to come after a time of great 
 struggle, will the church address itself with renewed 
 energy to its task of giving of its best to all nations of the 
 world, and shall that spirit of good-will to all nations, 
 which we dreamed was in a measure pervading our whole 
 people, again assert itself? It is a grave responsibility 
 which rests upon the Christian church at this hour. The 
 church is the peculiar representative and custodian of 
 the missionary spirit, — the spirit of good-will toward 
 other races. It is the task of the church not only to express 
 that spirit in the sending of preachers of the Gospel and 
 physicians and teachers to other nations, but so to incul- 
 cate it at home that it shall become the keynote of our 
 international policy. Whether the church sees and meets 
 its responsibility, whether it succeeds or fails in this great 
 task, will mightily affect the whole future of the world, 
 not in respect to religion only but in reference to every 
 aspect of human welfare. The immediate future is big 
 with possibilities of good and evil. 
 
 Some Vital Questions 
 
 Nationally, internationally, economically, ecclesiasti- 
 cally, all things are shaken, and they have not yet settled 
 down into their new situation. Are we entering into a 
 period of national antagonisms, strife and selfishness, 
 which will make all the enormous costs of the war in life 
 and treasure and the monuments of civilization sheer un- 
 compensated loss, or out of the present welter shall we 
 emerge on at least a little higher level than that which we 
 occupied in that fool’s paradise in which we were living in 
 
 12 
 
July, 1914? Is the life of our nation to be rent and torn 
 by strife of classes, a war of wealth and workers that shall 
 embitter all our lives and those of our children after us, 
 or shall the voice of reason and of justice and of love 
 make itself heard above the clamor of selfishness and ig- 
 norance, and there emerge a higher type of national life 
 than we have hitherto known? Shall the churches em- 
 phasize their minor differences, struggle for pre-eminence 
 and self-aggrandizement, or will they see their larger op- 
 portunity and their common duty, and, while if not in 
 organic union yet in cordial co-operation in the things 
 for which they labor in common, attack together their 
 common task of making a world dominated by the spirit 
 of Jesus? 
 
 The Duty of the Church 
 
 Facing these questions, what is the duty of the church? 
 It is not the only agency to which this situation addresses 
 a challenge. What is its task? 
 
 First, it is incumbent upon the church in every possible 
 way, by the voice of the preacher, by the printed page, 
 by the conduct of its members, to announce with unmis- 
 takable clearness the great principles of Jesus. The values 
 of the world are in human lives. All men, all women, all 
 children are valuable, — infinitely so. All are entitled to 
 a fair share of the goods of life. Human slavery in every 
 form is unchristian. The civilization that sacrifices per- 
 sonalities to things, or the welfare of the many to the 
 greed of the few, is unchristian and is not worthy to live. 
 Moreover, human welfare is achieved not by each indi- 
 vidual, each family, each class and each nation seeking its 
 own welfare, but in all seeking the welfare of all. The 
 problems of society, national and international, are solved 
 by the Golden Rule intelligently applied. They can be 
 solved in no other way. The duty of the hour is the ac- 
 ceptance of the law of love as our principle of action as 
 
 13 
 
individuals, families, classes, churches, nations. The 
 nation, the class, the church that seeks aggrandizement of 
 itself rather than human welfare has missed the path of 
 Jesus, the only path of prosperity. The Sabbath, the 
 school, the state, and the church were made for man, not 
 man for them. 
 
 Keeping Open Road for God 
 
 The second great duty of the Christian church is the 
 reaffirmation of God as a factor in human history and in 
 human lives. The church must stand for the great truth 
 that while men are real and powerful factors in human 
 history, and cannot escape the responsibility that goes 
 with that fact, yet there is a higher power, a higher intelli- 
 gence, with which or against which they work. They can 
 hinder his purposes, they can delay his plans. But there 
 are higher plans than theirs, there is a more far-seeing 
 vision than theirs, to which it becomes them to give heed 
 and with which it behooves them to work. With that 
 Greater Mind we do well to take counsel through prayer 
 and the study of His doings in the world. To His will, so 
 far as we can learn it, we do well to bend our wills. In 
 Him and the ultimate triumph of His purposes we do well 
 to trust, and by our faith in Him steady our own wills and 
 console in darkened hours our own fearful hearts. 
 
 And standing for the truth that God is, and for stead- 
 fast faith in Him, it becomes us, also, as much as in us 
 lies, to set before Him an open road. The message of the 
 ancient prophet was “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, 
 make his paths straight.” One of our modern leaders has 
 made us familiar with the phrase, “To give God the right 
 of way in our lives.” These things we need to do as a 
 nation and as a church. Who of us is wise enough to 
 dictate to God the course which history shall take? Who 
 of us can tell that the measure of the past shall be the 
 measure of the future? Speaking for his God the prophet 
 
 14 
 
of old said, “Remember ye not the former things, neither 
 consider the things of old. Behold I will do a new thing, 
 now shall it spring forth.” To-day we need to be on our 
 guard against our conservatism, our timidity. VVe need 
 to keep an open road in our minds, in our lives, in our 
 plans, for the Lord to come and do greater things than 
 ever before. 
 
 Keeping thus an open road for God, w r e need, also, as 
 far as in us lies, to make large plans, bold plans, yet 
 definite and carefully thought-out plans. Such plans we 
 need in every church, in every state, in every division of 
 our work, in the whole denomination. Between these two 
 duties there is no conflict. We shall be more likely to 
 keep the way open for God if we are planning to do for 
 Him and for the world the largest things that seem to us 
 at all possible. His purposes are always greater than ours. 
 The larger ours, the more likely we shall be to make way 
 for His. 
 
 Education and Christian Ideals 
 
 Another great duty of the church in this hour is the pro- 
 motion of education and the permeation of education 
 with Christian ideals. However great the things we plan 
 or accomplish, w r e can but begin what others will com- 
 plete. If we labor, other men will enter into our labor. 
 And for their share in the tasks that American Christian- 
 ity will be called upon to undertake they will need both 
 native ability and education. But that education must 
 be charged with Christian principles. To a greater extent 
 than ever before, the Christian church must concern itself 
 with seeing to it that its youth are educated and that 
 their education is of a character to give them an intelli- 
 gent conception of Christianity’s task and an eager desire 
 to take part in achieving it. We must encourage our 
 boys and girls to get an education, checking, if need be, 
 their impetuous eagerness to take part in the great struggle 
 
 15 
 
going on before their eyes. We must strengthen our 
 Christian schools, we must throw around all state and 
 city schools the influences of an intelligent and vigorous 
 Christianity. 
 
 The Creation of Christian Personalities 
 
 Finally, because the church must do these things, the 
 great central task will always be the creation of personali- 
 ties molded and dominated by faith in God and the ideals 
 of Jesus. It is not the business of the church as such to 
 create or to lead political parties. It is not its business, 
 as such, to settle strikes or to champion economic pro- 
 grams. It is not its business to negotiate treaties or to 
 appoint ambassadors. It is its business, jointly with the 
 family and the school, to produce the men and women 
 who, with clear vision, high purpose, and trained ability, 
 will do all these things, and doing them will save the 
 nation and the world. We need men and women who will 
 create and maintain Christian homes, who will found and 
 conduct schools, who will manage great business enter- 
 prises on Christian principles, holding the business and 
 the wealth it produces not as a private possession for their 
 own pleasure, but as instruments for promoting the wel- 
 fare of humanity; who will lead parties, and hold office 
 and administer the government in accordance with the 
 highest political wisdom and the highest moral principles; 
 men and women whose horizon will be world-wide and 
 whose vision will be as clear as it is far-seeing; men and 
 women, in short, who will look at the world as Jesus saw 
 it, and find their joy not in exploiting it, but in promoting 
 its highest welfare. It is the high task of the church to 
 create the personalities that filled with the spirit of Jesus 
 shall face and solve the problems that to-day confront a 
 perplexed and storm-tossed world. 
 
 16 
 
THE NEW WORLD MOVEMENT OF 
 NORTHERN BAPTISTS 
 
 BY J. Y. AITCHISON 
 
 At the request of the Northern Baptist Convention at 
 its annual session held at Atlantic City in May, 1018, the 
 National Committee of Northern Baptist Laymen made 
 a careful survey of the fields and work of our denomination. 
 
 A year later, May, 1919, at the Denver Convention, our 
 people were inspired and challenged as never before by 
 the report of the Northern Baptist Laymen, through its 
 special Committee on Survey. This report of over 150 
 pages recited outstanding achievements of our denomina- 
 tion in all of its fields of activity, and indicated with un- 
 mistakable clearness and definiteness what Northern Bap- 
 tists ought to undertake to do as their minimum share of 
 the Christian work of the world in the next five years. 
 The delegates who attended the Denver Convention lis- 
 tened with keenest interest to this report. After due con- 
 sideration, the recommendations of the Survey Commit- 
 tee were unanimously adopted as follows: — 
 
 1. That as a denomination we record our acceptance of the concep- 
 tion that the mission of the Christian church is to establish a civilization, 
 Christian in spirit and in passion, throughout the world. 
 
 2. That we announce our purpose to establish independent, self- 
 supporting churches in the non-Christian world, under the direction 
 of native leadership, and to that end we plan to enlarge our educational 
 work in all fields. 
 
 3. That we record our belief in all those missionary agencies which 
 will help to make intelligent men and women, and which in the spirit 
 of the Great Physician will help to relieve human suffering. 
 
 4. That we declare our intention to increase greatly our missionary 
 staff to the end that we may relieve overburdened missionaries, and 
 may adequately man our fields. 
 
 17 
 
5. That we send a commission to study the situation in Eastern 
 Europe as soon as possible, and advise us as to the work which should 
 be undertaken there. 
 
 6. That we record our readiness to enter some of the great unoccupied 
 fields as soon as we can adequately provide for the fields under our care. 
 
 7. That we declare our conviction that the Baptists of the North 
 should not withdraw from the work for the Indians and for the Negroes 
 of the South, but that we should strengthen our schools and make them 
 as efficient as possible. 
 
 8. That we declare our determination to lay new emphasis upon our 
 work for the new Americans in all sections, and to make a special effort 
 to redeem our cities. 
 
 9. That we approve the plans to increase the work on the frontier, 
 and especially to provide churches for the proposed soldier settlements. 
 
 10. That we endeavor to increase our work in Latin America on a 
 large scale, that we may help prepare those republics for the new day 
 in their land. 
 
 11. That we take steps at once, in co-operation with other churches, 
 to study the social situation in America, to the end that we may be in 
 a position to speak with authority and helpfulness in the crisis which 
 now faces the nation. 
 
 12. That we make a determined effort to raise sufficient funds so that 
 we may grant pensions to all our ministers and missionaries, and that 
 we request the Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board to conduct a 
 vigorous campaign this fall to induce the churches to increase their 
 salaries. 
 
 13. That we record our conviction of the supreme importance of 
 general and religious education, and approve plans for the extension of 
 education of both types throughout our constituency. 
 
 14. That we appoint a committee to continue the survey and bring 
 it to completion. 
 
 15. That we establish a denominational weekly paper which shall be 
 of a high grade, and under the ownership and control of the Northern 
 Baptist Convention. 
 
 16. That we approve the budgets proposed by the Committee on 
 Survey and declare our determination to raise before April 1 , 1924 , the 
 sum of 354,006,883 for permanent equipment of our institutions and 
 work, and that we accept, as the operating budget for the year 1923 - 24 , 
 the sum of 38,210,311. 
 
 Note. — Upon presentation to the Convention, Recommendation 16 
 was referred back to the committee with a request for an estimate of the 
 total amount to be raised within five years. The committee later sub- 
 mitted the following substitute for Recommendation 16 : — 
 
 18 
 
16. That in the light of the facts presented in this survey and of our 
 desire to do a work for the Kingdom that is commensurate with our 
 resources, we declare our determination to raise before April 1, 1924, for 
 all our benevolence, including city, state, national and foreign work, the 
 sum of 3100,000,000. 
 
 It is not at all surprising that immediately upon the 
 adoption of this report our larger program was referred 
 to as the “one hundred million dollar campaign.” The 
 American people are accustomed to think and speak in 
 terms of money values. We wish to point out with em- 
 phasis, however, that our new program is not chiefly or 
 primarily financial either in spirit or its objectives. It is 
 true we shall need the $100,000,000 during the next five 
 years if we are to stand back of the work we are now doing 
 and move forward to the larger tasks which have grown 
 out of the blessing which God has bestowed upon the 
 work we have already done. But for Northern Baptists 
 to furnish the missionary leaders at home and abroad, 
 called for in this survey during this period, constitutes 
 our greatest challenge. Consecrated and trained leader- 
 ship is most fundamental to the success of the missionary 
 enterprise. All the money of our great land cannot “estab- 
 lish a civilization, Christian in spirit and in passion, 
 throughout the world” unless we have the men and 
 women who, called of God and filled with His spirit, will 
 go forth to the fields of the world, not to be ministered 
 unto but to minister and to give their lives to the task. 
 We have many such devoted souls to-day. Their number 
 must be so greatly increased year by year that nothing 
 but a general awakening on the part of our people to the 
 spiritual needs and values of the Kingdom of God will 
 enable us to reach the “life service” goal of our larger 
 program. This fact needs to be brought home with em- 
 phasis to all pastors, church leaders, Christian parents 
 and young people, and especially to the present student 
 bodies. Never was it more needful for Christian people to 
 
 19 
 
give themselves with deepest concern to prayer that the 
 Lord of the Harvest would send forth laborers into the 
 fields which are white unto the harvest. Christian men 
 and women who pray, and here is the deepest test of the 
 genuineness and strength of Christian faith, must be ready 
 if it is God’s will either to go themselves or to give those 
 nearest and dearest to their own hearts to this supreme 
 task of the present world crisis, namely, the securing of 
 adequate Christian leadership. 
 
 It is because of the need of full recognition of the real 
 values of our larger program that it has been decided not 
 to designate this the “hundred million dollar campaign.” 
 Here, again, even on its money side, we are not so deeply 
 concerned that we should raise $100,000,000, but that 
 there should first be awakened in the minds of our people 
 a spiritual sense of the relationship of our money to the 
 work of the Kingdom. Why should there be such a wide 
 breach between the spirit of the missionary who invests 
 his life in service and the church members who lack a 
 Christian standard for the measure of their financial obli- 
 gation to God? 
 
 We are not launching upon a program to commercialize 
 Christianity by raising a big sum of money. Our first 
 concern is to spiritualize the hearts of all men who handle 
 money. The remedy for present tendencies is in the recog- 
 nition of the relationship of all life and all wealth to the 
 well-being of humanity. Any business which is conducted 
 for the good of its stockholders alone is unchristian. 
 God’s program for the redemption of humanity must have 
 due consideration and adequate support. The develop- 
 ment of the spirit of love, brotherhood and justice, as 
 exemplified in the character of Christ, is so obviously the 
 duty of every Christian man or woman that those who 
 fail at this point, no matter what they profess, cannot 
 command confidence and respect as followers of Jesus 
 Christ. Our Lord has a just claim upon the time and 
 
 20 
 
money of every man. He who ignores that claim com- 
 mits a triple robbery. He robs God, society and his own 
 soul. Peace of mind, quietness of soul and a sense of duty 
 done are worth more than bank accounts. Our task, then, 
 in our larger program is not simply to get money: it is to 
 secure fuller recognition of the supreme importance of 
 spiritual values. 
 
 It is because of these and kindred facts that after much 
 prayerful consideration the name of “The New World 
 Movement” was chosen to describe our Northern Bap- 
 tist Movement for Christian reconstruction. 
 
 That “new world” which w r as to come after the war 
 has not yet materialized. In consequence, disappoint- 
 ment and restlessness are widespread. The underlying 
 reason is that selfishness is still rampant. 
 
 We are in the midst of new industrial, political and 
 social conditions which are still in process of crystal- 
 lization. This new world is in danger without the cross 
 of Christ. 
 
 But the old world of distrust and suspicion and hate 
 must go. A new world of faith and hope and love must 
 take its place if we are to escape the pit of despair after 
 these five years of horror. 
 
 Before it has visible expression, this “new world” 
 must be born in the hearts of men. 
 
 Only by the Power of the Cross can the New World 
 be Realized 
 
 It is to the making of this world that our Northern 
 Baptist Movement aspires to contribute its share. 
 
 The poster shown on the front cover page w y as designed 
 to illustrate the spiritual significance of our movement, 
 “the light that never was on sea or land” shines from 
 the cross full upon our own beloved country. 
 
 Lifting our eyes to that cross, are we not filled wfith 
 
 21 
 
a sense of our obligation to share that light with all them 
 that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death? 
 
 “The ambition which puts any personal advantage in 
 front of service is anti-Christian. It is economically un- 
 sound. It does not matter whether it be in an individual 
 life, a business or a church.” Christ’s test of discipleship 
 needs re-emphasis to-day. “If any man would be my 
 disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and 
 follow me.” 
 
 It is in accordance with these fundamental considera- 
 tions that before launching our campaign to raise money 
 we call upon our people to consider anew the importance 
 of giving fresh incarnation to the spirit of love, brother- 
 hood and justice manifested in the character of Christ. 
 Let us promise an enlarged allegiance to Christ and the 
 work of His church, and covenant together to set apart 
 a just proportion of time and money to help attain the 
 objectives of “The New World Movement.” 
 
 The series of articles which are given in this book have 
 been prepared with utmost care. They discuss topics 
 vital to the task to which Northern Baptists are com- 
 mitted. No earnest Christian should fail to take the 
 time necessary for the careful consideration of the part 
 our denomination must assume in the twentieth-century 
 program of Christ for world redemption. The demand 
 of the hour is for a new allegiance to Christ for world 
 service. 
 
 It is a time for all church members and all churches to 
 act and to act together. We cannot accomplish our 
 great task otherwise. Many churches have yet to heed 
 the lesson which Germany forced upon the Allies. Ger- 
 many, in the wrong, yet united, was able to overpower 
 the Allies until the Allies, in the right, learned their lesson 
 and supported the right with a thoroughly organized and 
 united effort. Herein lies the secret of success for “The 
 New World Movement.” 
 
 22 
 
A SURVEY OF THE SURVEY 
 
 BY REV. JAMES A. CLARKE 
 
 At the session of the Northern Baptist Convention in 
 Denver last spring the Committee on Survey, Rev. F. W. 
 Padelford, D.D., chairman, presented a report of epochal 
 significance for the denomination. With survey data, 
 maps, charts and report of the committee on the survey 
 data, the “survey” makes a handsome quarto volume 
 of 151 pages. Classes for the study of this document 
 ought to be formed in every church. In the hope of 
 leading many to a careful examination of the complete 
 volume itself, we present herewith, largely in the language 
 of the survey itself, a summary of the committee’s “Re- 
 port on the Survey Data.” 
 
 Beginnings in the Orient 
 
 Our work in the non-Christian world began with the 
 arrival of Adoniram Judson in Burma in 1813. It was 
 six years before Judson baptized his first convert, but 
 that convert was the first fruits of a wonderful harvest. 
 The total number of those who have been baptized on- 
 that field is unknown, but the present membership of 
 the Burma churches is nearly 75,000, while the number 
 of churches is greater by more than one hundred than 
 the number in any state in the North. 
 
 The year 1836 'was the great year of beginnings in our 
 foreign mission work. In that 'year the missions were 
 established in Assam, Bengal, South India and China. 
 This was just twenty-two years after Judson had begun 
 his work in Burma. The mission in Japan was founded 
 
 23 
 
in 1872. We were late in entering that country, after 
 the first pro-Christian movement had spent itself, and 
 we have suffered as a result of that tardiness ever since. 
 The mission in Africa was established by some independent 
 English Baptists in 1878, and was assumed by the Amer- 
 ican Baptist Foreign Mission Society in 1884. The mission 
 in the Philippines was opened in 1899. 
 
 Our Work to the Non-Christian World 
 
 Some idea of the magnitude of our work in the non- 
 Christian world may be gained from the following sum- 
 mary: Our missionary staff consists of 257 missionary 
 families, 181 single women missionaries, and 6,872 native 
 workers. The list of native workers comprises pastors, 
 evangelists, teachers, doctors, Bible women and nurses. 
 The total number of our churches in the non-Christian 
 world is 1,745, including 1,064 in Burma, 173 in Assam, 
 176 in South India, 22 in Bengal-Orissa, 174 in China, 
 33 in Japan, 71 in the Philippines and 32 in Africa. Our 
 total membership is 186,382, practically the same as the 
 membership of our churches in the state of New York. 
 We have 2,789 schools of all grades with an enrollment 
 of 84,469. We have 27 hospitals. The total value of 
 our mission property is approximately $3,885,500, which 
 is greater by several hundred thousand dollars than the 
 reported value of our church property in Indiana or Iowa. 
 
 The Aim of Foreign Missions 
 
 The first and most important question in the further 
 development of our work is as to what is our real aim 
 and purpose in this foreign mission task. Without doubt 
 the purpose of Adoniram Judson and his fellow mission- 
 aries of the first fifty years was to fulfill literally the 
 terms of the great commission and preach the gospel to 
 every creature. Their one thought was to get the mes- 
 
 24 
 
sage of Christ to as many individuals as possible before 
 they were swept into a Christless eternity. The deter- 
 mination to inform as many of these people as possible 
 of the Christ guided the plans for our Baptist missionary 
 work for a large part of its history. 
 
 Does that statement adequately represent our con- 
 ception of the purpose of foreign missions to-day? 
 
 We recognize that the supreme need of these millions 
 of people in heathenism is a knowledge of Jesus Christ as 
 their personal Saviour. But the impartation of that mes- 
 sage is in fact only the starting point. The mission of 
 the Christian church is not merely to pluck a few brands 
 from the burning, but to establish a civilization that is 
 Christian in spirit and passion, the world around. 
 
 The war has helped us to a comprehension of this larger 
 conception. We know now that we cannot retain our 
 own Christian civilization except as the civilization of 
 Russia, Austria, China and Japan is Christian. We are 
 now bound to Christianize Asia for the sake of America, 
 if not for the sake of Christ. 
 
 If we are ready to accept this larger conception of 
 foreign missions, then it is clear that we must work out 
 our plans on an entirely new scale. No program which 
 we can propose can be too large to suit the new situation. 
 The members of the committee frankly declare that it 
 is this larger purpose which has governed their minds in 
 determining the outlines of this report. 
 
 Education in Modern Missions 
 
 If we are to adopt this more modern idea, then among 
 the plans which must be enlarged are those which relate 
 to the place of Christian education in modern missions. 
 As Baptists we have always asserted that our primary 
 business is evangelism. Our missionaries devoted them- 
 selves largely to this business. Twenty-five years ago 
 
 25 
 
we were able to boast that we had baptized more non- 
 Christians than all the other denominations together. 
 Some of them are now leaving us far behind. What is the 
 reason? They saw before we did that if the Orient is to 
 be evangelized it must be evangelized by orientals. They 
 devoted their primary attention, therefore, to training 
 and educating native preacheis and evangelists. To-day 
 they have much larger staffs of competent, trained men. 
 These are the men who are now reaping the harvest. If 
 no other motive underlies our method, this primary desire 
 for giving every man the message of Christ must compel 
 us to increase very largely our educational work. 
 
 There is another reason that underlies the development 
 of a Christian educational system. If we are to have an 
 influential church in the Orient it must be an intelligent 
 church. We do not mean that it must be composed of 
 college graduates, but that the people must be able to 
 read, write and think. In some of the fields in which we 
 are engaged the illiteracy ranges from 90 to 99 per cent. 
 It is absolutely essential that they shall have sufficient 
 education to interpret the gospel and to apply its prin- 
 ciples to their daily lives. 
 
 The Schools in the Orient 
 
 It is for these reasons that we have established a large 
 number of schools in the Orient. It is for these reasons 
 that the committee believes that the number of these 
 schools should be greatly increased. The majority of our 
 schools are of course of the primary grade. In most of our 
 missions we have also erected schools of the secondary 
 grade, but as yet we have done but little in higher educa- 
 tion. We have one college of our own at Rangoon and 
 we co-operate with the Southern Baptists in the college 
 at Shanghai. We are co-operating with other boards in 
 the support of some other colleges, for example, the West 
 China Union University. If we are to create an educated 
 
 26 
 
ministry, we must devote more attention to our higher 
 education. In nearly all our missions we have schools for 
 training native preachers, but in most of the missions 
 these schools need to be raised to a much higher grade. If 
 we are to make any appreciable contribution to the estab- 
 lishment of a Christian civilization in the Orient, we 
 must create an educated ministry. This is fundamental 
 to the accomplishment of our primary purpose. 
 
 The Committee on Survey therefore recommends that 
 we plan to lay large emphasis upon the development of 
 our educational work during the next five years. We 
 must establish a large number of new schools. This list 
 must include schools of all grades from the kindergarten 
 to the college and seminary. Our college at Rangoon will 
 require an investment of a half million dollars, one-half 
 of which will be provided by the government. Our fine 
 institution at Shanghai will need new buildings and 
 added facilities. As soon as possible our boys’ school in 
 Yokohama must be raised to college grade, involving an 
 investment of $600,000. 
 
 The Education of Women 
 
 In some of our fields not 3 per cent of the women can 
 read or write, but civilization rises no higher than the level 
 of its womanhood. For that reason we are devoting in- 
 creasing attention to the education of women. Our work 
 for girls and women in Burma is unrivaled by any similar 
 work in the Orient. We have studied with intense inter- 
 est the work which our Baptist women are doing in co- 
 operation with the women of other denominations in 
 building schools and colleges for girls. We commend it 
 most highly. 
 
 Another phase of missionary work upon which we wish 
 to lay emphasis is what is called industrial missions. 
 People who are stricken with poverty cannot do much in 
 
 27 
 
the way of supporting churches. If we are to have a 
 self-supporting church we are therefore driven to helping 
 these people learn to be self-supporting. 
 
 Following the Great Physician 
 
 Another phase of the missionary program which has 
 been subjected to serious criticism is our medical work. 
 Why, we are asked, should we, here in America, found 
 hospitals and support doctors in China? The reason is 
 that Christ was the Great Physician. He believed that 
 part of his mission was to relieve human suffering. The 
 church of Christ cannot behold the awful suffering of 
 humanity in the Orient and not be touched with a feeling 
 for its infirmity. We have therefore sent out doctors and 
 erected hospitals. This ministry of healing is one of the 
 clearest proofs to the oriental mind of the divinity of our 
 religion. 
 
 Our opportunity is unlimited not merely to demonstrate 
 the spirit of the Great Physician but also to touch the 
 hearts of men. We need to erect new hospitals, — not 
 less than nineteen during the next five years. We should 
 send out a large number of doctors and nurses at once. 
 
 Equipment of the Mission Stations 
 
 We have been impressed with the need for better equip- 
 ment at most of our mission stations. We need new resi- 
 dences for the missionaries, at least 188 . If no other 
 interest moves us, the protection of our own investment 
 demands this. 
 
 In many of our missions we need to make a large invest- 
 ment in new church buildings. In the cities of Japan, for 
 example, how can we hope, in miserable little chapels, to 
 reach people who are accustomed to associate the thought 
 of religion with beautiful temples and pagodas? The 
 
 28 
 
committee recommends at least seventy-five new church 
 buildings within five years. 
 
 We have been impressed with the efforts being made to 
 reach the educated classes of the Orient through the stu- 
 dents in the great universities. Dr. Benninghoff, in 
 Tokyo, and Dr. Witter, in Gauhati, are bringing the in- 
 fluence of the Gospel to bear upon hundreds of students. 
 We are never going to win the East until we win the intel- 
 lectual classes. To win them we must begin with the 
 students. 
 
 The Missionary Staff 
 
 Every field is undermanned. In many fields a single 
 man is attempting to do the work of two or three. Some 
 fields which should have four or five missionaries have 
 only one family. We have less men on the foreign field 
 than we had five years ago. The committee believes that 
 our program should include a practical doubling of our 
 missionary staff within five years. The constant advance 
 in learning and the necessity that Christianity should 
 reach the highest classes demand that only our best men 
 be sent out. 
 
 The War and Foreign Missions 
 
 Foreign missions have taken on a new aspect as a result 
 of the war. The struggle for democracy has bound all 
 sections of the world in a new fellowship. Nearly all the 
 non-Christian nations were our allies. We sustain a dif- 
 ferent relation to them henceforth. We are deeply con- 
 cerned as to the type of civilization they develop. 
 
 The war has opened many doors among these people. 
 They have a new interest in the West, and everything 
 that comes out of it. The Christian church never faced 
 a day of such wonderful opportunities. If we enter the 
 Orient now with determination and large plans, the East 
 may be brought to a virtual recognition of Christianity 
 
 29 
 
during the next two generations. The Christian civiliza- 
 tion may, without doubt, become dominant throughout 
 these great regions. 
 
 The Situation in Europe 
 
 We have a responsibility to discharge for the Baptists 
 of France and Belgium in helping them to rebuild their 
 ruined churches. Without our immediate help they may 
 be long delayed in rebuilding Protestantism in the deso- 
 lated regions. 
 
 There is another section of Europe which should be 
 studied, the east and southeast. Small groups of Baptist 
 Protestants have arisen frequently in different sections. 
 Men who have been converted in this country have gone 
 back to spread the Gospel. These movements ought to 
 have our sympathy and support. But we should know 
 exactly what the situation is before we enter. The com- 
 mittee recommends that we send a group of men from 
 this country to study the situation in eastern Europe. 
 
 Unoccupied Fields 
 
 In our study of the non-Christian world the committee 
 has been compelled to raise the question as to whether 
 we ought not to enter some of the unoccupied fields of 
 the world. Two great fields immediately loom up which 
 are not adequately provided for: the Mohammedan world 
 and South America. This is a critical hour in the history 
 of Mohammedanism. It has suffered a fearful reverse in 
 the war. Christianity's opportunity in the Mohammedan 
 world is dawning. 
 
 Another great field, South America, a continent of un- 
 imagined resources and teeming with life, has no adequate 
 religion. There are millions of its people still in paganism. 
 Most of its leading men, disgusted with Christianity as 
 they have seen it, have forsworn all religion. 
 
 30 
 
What attitude are we to assume toward these unoccu- 
 pied territories? Our first responsibility is without doubt 
 to the fields which we have already entered. But as soon 
 as these obligations are at all adequately met we must 
 recognize our obligation to the great awakening Moham- 
 medan world and to the peoples of our sister republics to 
 the South. 
 
 Latin America 
 
 Midway between the foreign field and the home field 
 lies Latin America. Our first work in Latin America was 
 naturally in Mexico, where the first Baptist church was 
 founded in 1864. We have made good progress, so much 
 so that when, recently, foreign clergymen were driven 
 from their parishes by the new constitution our churches 
 were able to go on almost uninterruptedly under native 
 leadership. Following the Spanish War we entered Cuba 
 and Porto Rico. It was not until 1910, however, that we 
 began in Central America. In Cuba and Porto Rico our 
 work has been wonderfully prosperous. There is every 
 prospect of building up strong churches in each of the 
 islands. It is too early to record achievements in Central 
 America, where we are just beginning. Central America 
 is going to become a most influential section of the new 
 world; business will center there. We must make those 
 states Christian. The work of evangelizing Latin America 
 must be done by the Latin Americans themselves. What 
 we must do is to help find and train the native preachers. 
 This means that we must build schools. We already have 
 excellent training schools in Cuba and Porto Rico. We 
 are uniting with the Southern Baptists in maintaining a 
 training school in Mexico. We have as yet no school in 
 Central America. This must be established as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 31 
 
The American Indians 
 
 Turning now to the home field, we direct our study first 
 to the American Indians, since the first missionary work 
 in America was done for them. The Northern Baptists 
 are carrying on some missionary work among fourteen dif- 
 ferent tribes, but our staff consists of only twenty-six men 
 and women. There are twenty churches in our various 
 missions. We have a very good school at Bacone, Okla- 
 homa, known as Bacone College. This school gives work 
 of all grades up to the third year in college. There are also 
 schools of the lower grades connected with practically all 
 our mission stations. 
 
 Only 20 per cent of these people are adherents of the 
 Protestant church, 20 per cent are Roman Catholics, while 
 60 per cent of the people are entirely unevangelized. The 
 American church has a peculiar responsibility to these 
 people, a responsibility which is not at all measured by the 
 feeble work which we are doing among them. This work 
 should be decidedly increased. 
 
 The natives of Alaska are closely akin to the American 
 Indians. Our work in that great territory is confined to a 
 small orphanage on Kodiak Island. In the division of 
 territory by the Home Missions Council several years ago 
 we were assigned a section of unoccupied territory, but 
 we have never attempted to enter it. We have a direct 
 responsibility for this field and should establish a new 
 mission at Prince William Sound. We should also open 
 work among the whites and mixed races. Alaska has for 
 generations had the ministry of the Greek Church of 
 Russia. Owing to the confiscation of their funds by the 
 Bolsheviki, the priests are leaving the territory and there, 
 will soon be no religious ministry whatever. 
 
 32 
 
The Negro 
 
 One of the largest elements in our American program 
 is our work among the Negroes. Gradually we have 
 worked out an educational policy in the South. The 
 public schools have been opened to the Negroes, and the 
 support of independent primary schools by the North has 
 largely ceased. The Negro has assumed responsibility 
 for many of the schools of secondary grade. But the 
 South provides no higher education for the Negroes. They 
 must still depend upon their friends in the North to pro- 
 vide the higher education for them. There are now 
 fifteen schools of higher grade which depend on our mis- 
 sionary assistance. The enrollment of these schools is 
 more than 5,000 students per annum. They receive an 
 education which ranges from the seventh grade through 
 the college. More than 4,500 men and women have 
 completed their full education in these institutions. 
 
 Education is the only power that makes an independent 
 race. We cannot afford to have a great and growing 
 segment of our population in ignorance and dependence. 
 The Negro must have the highest education possible. 
 
 Supporting the Negro Schools 
 
 Our investment in this work ought to be increased as 
 far as possible. Our schools need to be improved. Many 
 of the buildings must be rebuilt. New buildings must 
 be erected at several of the schools. The faculties of all 
 these schools ought to be enlarged and salaries increased. 
 
 The Home Mission Society has just entered into a 
 tentative agreement with the representatives of the South- 
 ern Baptists whereby it is hoped that the Baptists of 
 the South will assume part of the expense of maintain- 
 ing these institutions. Every dollar which the Southern 
 Baptists are willing to invest in these schools should be 
 
 33 
 
added to the investment which we ourselves are making 
 and should not relieve us of further contributions. 
 
 The Committee on Survey recommends that we spend 
 $1,305,000 in improving and enlarging the properties, 
 and that we endeavor to raise $1,000,000 as endowment 
 of our educational work, the endowment to be held by 
 the Home Mission Society and not by the schools. 
 
 The Negro in the North 
 
 Most unexpectedly we have had a great migration of 
 Negroes from the South into our northern states in the 
 last two or three years. The number is estimated from 
 200,000 to 500,000. During the period of the shortage 
 of labor owing to the war, northern employers held out 
 glowing inducements to the Negroes to come North. 
 They have been herded together under the most unsani- 
 tary conditions, and in many cities they have become a 
 menace to the health of the communities. We may 
 expect that this migration will continue indefinitely. 
 
 Their presence creates serious problems in the northern 
 states. Many of our Negro churches are overcrowded. 
 These new people must be housed and ministers must be 
 provided. They will be able to provide the local expense 
 of their churches, but they are not in a position to erect 
 the buildings. Moreover the social conditions under 
 which these people are living demand that the Christian 
 church shall begin a social ministry among them at once. 
 We have appointed a special worker, a man of their own 
 race, who is highly intelligent and well trained. It is 
 proposed to open Christian centers in some of the cities 
 where the Negroes are congregating in large numbers. 
 
 The Frontier 
 
 The missionary work in the United States began on 
 the frontier. There are hundreds of square miles of 
 frontier yet, and once off the highway it seems scarcely 
 
 34 
 
to have been broken. Great tracts are constantly being 
 broken up for settlement in the timber lands of the north- 
 west, and in the new irrigation districts the Department 
 of the Interior hopes to open up hundreds of square miles 
 in the next five years. These conditions call louder than 
 ever for the frontier missionary. 
 
 Following all our previous wars the government has 
 opened large tracts of land for the returned soldiers. The 
 government has extensive plans of the same nature at 
 the present time. If Congress will pass the necessary 
 legislation, the Department of the Interior will soon offer 
 inducements to hundreds of thousands of returned sol- 
 diers. If these plans are carried out there will be hun- 
 dreds of new settlements and demands for hundreds of 
 new churches. 
 
 The committee has proposed that 3246,000 be secured 
 within the next five years to build churches in these new 
 settlements, and we have provided 3123,000 in the oper- 
 ating budget of 1923-24 for the support of such new 
 churches. 
 
 The Colporter 
 
 One of the oldest types of minister is the colporter, — 
 the man with his Bible and religious books, who spends 
 his time in the open country. The demand for his serv- 
 ices has constantly increased. In the rural sections of 
 the eastern states are thousands of people who are un- 
 touched by any church. The colporter is the only min- 
 ister of the Gospel they ever see. In the West are thou- 
 sands of ranchers whose people never attend a church 
 service. Except as these people are reached by the col- 
 porter, they will have no vital touch with religion. This 
 is no time to call in the colporter. We believe the num- 
 ber should be considerably increased. 
 
 35 
 
The Evangelist 
 
 We have always felt a special call to the evangelistic 
 work. We now have a department of evangelism. It 
 was part of the original plan to have this system so com- 
 prehensive as to cover all parts of the North. We have 
 never been able to carry out the plan, however, though 
 we have not lost sight of the idea. We should now re- 
 turn to the plan to organize our evangelistic work upon 
 a permanent basis. Our superintendent of evangelism 
 should be given sufficient assistance so that our entire 
 field may be covered. 
 
 Church Buildings 
 
 Throughout our country we are in need of a well-planned 
 movement for the improvement of our church property. 
 Hundreds of our churches could well secure much more 
 adequate buildings. There are many churches, however, 
 that cannot provide all the money for the plant they need. 
 The denomination should go tc the assistance of such 
 churches. We have therefore approved of the National 
 Church Edifice Fund of $1,363,000 to be raised in five 
 years. Our edifice department should employ a com- 
 petent church architect who would devote his entire time 
 to helping our smaller churches to secure adequate plants. 
 
 The New Americans 
 
 The great religious problem in America centers in our 
 new Americans. The estimated population of the United 
 States in 1916 was 1 12, (XX), 000. Of this number, 32,000,- 
 000, or more than one-quarter, may be designated as new 
 Americans. Over 14,000,000 people in the United States 
 at the present time were born outside of it. Hundreds of 
 thousands of these people who have recently come among 
 us are among the very best citizens we have. But there 
 
 36 
 
are thousands of others who are most dangerous enemies. 
 Our whole American civilization faces the greatest peril 
 in all its history. 
 
 There is only one force that can amalgamate all these 
 different elements and that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 As a denomination we have been increasing our work 
 among these people during the last ten years, but our 
 work ought to be very greatly increased at once. All our 
 missionary agencies are now converging on this point. 
 The Committee on Survey is approving a budget which 
 will provide for more than double the present work. 
 
 Our great problem in this whole matter is that of leader- 
 ship. We have already established some training schools 
 for the Swedes, the Norwegians, the Germans, the Italians, 
 the Danes, and some others. We need a strong, thoroughly 
 organized school for men of the Slavic and kindred races. 
 
 Christian Centers 
 
 We are now erecting what are called Christian centers. 
 These institutions are planned in general along the lines 
 of social settlements, only the Christian element is made 
 dominant and the centers are closely related to one of our 
 churches. The plans are now under way for building a 
 large number of these centers at the points where the 
 people are congregating. 
 
 Much better provision needs to be made at once for our 
 churches and missions. Most of these people associate 
 the idea of religion with cathedrals. We clothe our re- 
 ligion in shacks. The process will not work. With proper 
 equipment our missions could multiply the value of their 
 work. We are approving the investment of several hun- 
 dred thousand dollars for this purpose during the next 
 five years. 
 
 37 
 
The American Cities 
 
 If the nation is to be Christian, then the cities must be 
 Christian. Yet the battle is going against us in the cities. 
 In Philadelphia 15 Baptist churches have moved or died 
 since 1870. Twenty years ago we had 28 churches on 
 Manhattan Island. Now we have only 9 self-supporting, 
 white English-speaking churches, and 5 of these are sup- 
 ported largely from their endowments. 
 
 The Christian forces need to be mobilized for a great 
 united campaign to restore the Christian church in our 
 American cities. We ought to have in every large city a 
 Baptist church that will be to that city what Tremont 
 Temple is to Boston. These churches must be supple- 
 mented by churches built distinctly for the new Americans, 
 polyglot churches if need be, where a great social, edu- 
 cational and evangelistic ministry can be carried on, 
 specially fitted to reach these strangers within our gates. 
 In addition we must devote more attention to the new 
 suburbs. 
 
 New Social Conditions 
 
 The war has made all things new. The real social 
 issues are changing rapidly. Our old social contest was 
 a war over wages and hours. The issue to-day is as to 
 whether all capital shall be made public property and 
 whether one man shall have just as much as another. 
 
 What attitude is the Christian church to take on this 
 problem? The new issues are not fundamentally economic 
 but moral. The church therefore has a relation to them 
 of necessity, and the church must be able to speak au- 
 thoritatively. But to do so the church must have ade- 
 quate information before it makes up its mind or offers 
 its advice. We recommend, therefore, that the Northern 
 Baptist Convention take steps to secure the co-operation 
 of other denominations in securing this information and in 
 arriving at conclusions. 
 
 38 
 
The Ministry 
 
 We have rejoiced most heartily in the success of the 
 effort to raise the Morehouse Memorial million for the 
 use of the Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board. But 
 our Board must be in a position in the near future not 
 merely to grant aid to men who are in distress, but also to 
 grant pensions to all our ministers. During the next five 
 years our fund should reach at least 310,000,000. 
 
 But the churches must make more adequate provision 
 for its ministers while they are still in service. A cam- 
 paign should be carried through our churches to secure 
 higher rates of salaries. 
 
 General Education 
 
 If we are to carry through any such program as the 
 committee is proposing, we must make provision for the 
 training of leaders. During the last four years nearly 
 316,000,000 have been added to the equipment and en- 
 dowment of our schools, over 35,500,000 of it to other 
 colleges at home and abroad than the University of Chi- 
 cago. But there ought to be added to the endowment 
 and equipment of our institutions not less than 328,010,000. 
 This is an immense sum, but it is to be scattered among 
 forty different institutions. 
 
 Our program for the next five years must include also 
 a determined effort to increase the number of Baptist 
 boys and girls in school and college. The goal for our 
 five-year program aimed at having 15,000 Baptist stu- 
 dents in college before 1921. That ideal ought to be kept 
 constantly before us. 
 
 The educational advance ought to include also a better 
 training for our ministers. 
 
 Our task is to induce men who are called to the min- 
 istry to enter the colleges and seminaries. 
 
 39 
 
Religious Education 
 
 The term religious education is a comparatively new 
 one, though it does not connote a new idea. In the great 
 commission we are commanded to teach and to train. In 
 the last few years new emphasis has been given to this 
 task. Our great instrument is the Sunday school, though 
 it is not by any means the only one. In the development 
 of the Sunday school we have witnessed the most encour- 
 aging advance in the last few years. Standards have been 
 raised in the matter of grading, of lessons, and in the 
 training of the teachers. We need a considerable staff of 
 men and women who are thoroughly capable and well 
 trained to visit our churches, advise with them regarding 
 their plans of work and help them to put modern policies 
 into effect. The adjustment so fortunately reached be- 
 tween two of our great societies will make possible the 
 investment of large amounts of money each year in the 
 development of our Sunday-school work. It is one of 
 the most significant possibilities in our whole denomina- 
 tional history. We have approved the appointment of 
 seventy-five specialists to this field and the increased 
 budget necessary to finance their work. 
 
 We must now look forward to putting our work in the 
 church schools on an entirely new basis. So long as we 
 confine our instruction in religion to one-half hour a week, 
 we shall always secure unsatisfactory results. Our Sun- 
 day schools must be extended to week-day schools. 
 
 During the past few years encouraging progress has 
 been made in the grading of our schools. We commend 
 our educational department for the determined effort it 
 is making to induce all our schools to rise to the modern 
 basis. We must work toward the day when the church 
 can employ, for part time at least, a staff of teachers 
 whose work the church can control. 
 
 40 
 
We have about 9,000 schools in our territory, yet there 
 are great sections of our country where there are no schools 
 at all. New schools ought to be established in hundreds 
 of places. This requires the time of men and women who 
 are competent to make adequate surveys and determine 
 where schools are needed and can be sustained. We 
 should have a larger staff of workers for this purpose, and 
 we approve the appointment of twenty-four new workers 
 of this type. 
 
 One of the best means of advancing religious education 
 is through the distribution of the Bible. We have had 
 many men in our employ largely for this purpose. The 
 number should be increased, however. At the present 
 time we are engaged in the task of issuing the Bible in 
 various tongues for the use of the new Americans. 
 
 Our publishing department is urged to secure funds at 
 an early date for enlarging the plant, that it may increase 
 its business. We should be constantly issuing books by 
 our own authors and by others which will assist in the 
 development of a strong, intelligent constituency. 
 
 Our Progress 
 
 The number of our churches has increased since 1894 
 from 8,583 to 10,666, while the membership of these 
 churches has increased from 900,193 to 1,494,343. The 
 average number of members per church in 1894 was 104; 
 to-day it is 161. The growth in membership has been con- 
 stant and never more encouraging than during the last 
 few years. From 1894 to 1918 our ministry has increased 
 by 22 per cent. The value of our church property has 
 steadily increased for twenty-five years, having more than 
 doubled in that period. Last year we reported that our 
 property was worth $114,817,300. Our contributions 
 toward current expenses have increased constantly from 
 $5,754,264 in 1894 to $13,978,982 in 1918, an increase of 
 
 41 
 
143 per cent. During this period our total contributions 
 have increased from $8,136,789 to $17,351,524, an increase 
 of 113 per cent. 
 
 Denominational Press 
 
 Our greatest hindrance to advance to-day is that we 
 are not reaching our constituency. We have no way of 
 getting the facts before them. The total circulation of 
 our nine Baptist weekly papers (exclusive of Missions) is 
 less than 50,000. We have 1,500,000 members in the 
 North. We must have a constituency of 2,500,000. 
 Granted that each paper is read by 3 different people, 
 then out of 2,500,000, 150,000 are being made intelligent 
 regarding our denominational work. We can never reach 
 a high goal with this handicap. 
 
 We recommend that the Northern Baptist Convention 
 enter the field of journalism and issue a paper owned and 
 controlled by the denomination. This must be a paper of 
 outstanding strength which will command the attention 
 of our people everywhere. It would be better if the new 
 paper could have a clear field to itself, though this is not 
 necessary. The denomination needs such an influence to 
 unify its thought and action, — an influence that will 
 drive us together in co-operation. With such a paper as 
 this our chance of carrying through this program would 
 be greatly increased. 
 
 Recommendations 
 
 The recommendations of the committee as adopted by 
 the Convention will be found on pages 17-19 of this book. 
 
 42 
 
THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH 
 
 BY MRS. LATHAN A. CRANDALL 
 
 Never since the time of the Reformation has the church 
 of Jesus Christ been subjected to such keen scrutiny as 
 in this decade. The object of scorn on the part of some, 
 of studied indifference on the part of others, of anxious 
 and loyal defence of many and of calm confidence of not 
 a few,- — the church is facing a testing time. This is the 
 day of reckoning for every established organization. The 
 explosion which has shaken the world to its center has 
 left us still bewildered, and men are but beginning to 
 take a new inventory. We find, on the one hand, tre- 
 mendous liabilities of physical death, misery and disease, 
 the erasure of homes and cities, moral breakdowns, hatred, 
 greed, wanton selfishness. On the side of assets we dis- 
 cover a new patriotism, a new and deeper rooted faith in 
 God, a world outlook, a fine unselfishness. Zoroaster 
 conceived of the universe as being in the grip of two 
 powerful warring intelligences: one, “Good,” typified by 
 fire and light, the other, “Evil,” symbolized by darkness. 
 This is a graphic, if crude, presentation of a great truth, 
 a truth of which we are keenly conscious in this day of 
 reckoning. Two forces are at work in the world, one 
 constructive and the other destructive. We call this the 
 time of reconstruction, but we must not fail to take note 
 of the fact that there are those who would tear down 
 faster than others can build up, and, in this crisis which 
 the world is facing, America is a large factor in deter- 
 mining which force shall dominate the world. Some one 
 has said that if America goes down the whole world must 
 
 43 
 
go down with her, and civilization will begin again from 
 the bottom her upward climb. 
 
 To what does America owe her place of prestige and 
 leadership? Any schoolboy would answer proudly, “To 
 her fundamental principle of individual liberty.” Whence 
 came this idea so peculiarly American? Every lover of 
 America’s story knows that it was born of the determi- 
 nation for soul liberty for which our forefathers endured 
 persecution unto death. The ideals upon which America 
 was founded were religious ideals, and by our adherence 
 to those ideals shall we determine the country’s future, 
 and who knows but the world’s future. 
 
 There are those who assert that the church has lost its 
 vitality, and that, whatever may have been its contribu- 
 tion to human upbuilding, it does not fit this age. Not the 
 staunchest upholders of the church maintain that it is 100 
 per cent efficient. Would that it were! But if it is doing 
 something it has vitality and there is hope of increasing 
 strength and usefulness. 
 
 Two questions which suggest themselves are, “How did 
 the church come to be?” and, “Has it still a function in 
 society?” If the church could be wiped out to-day a new 
 one would spring up to-morrow, for where there is a com- 
 mon interest people instinctively group themselves to- 
 gether. It is the abnormal, morbid man who is solitary. 
 Something within the human breast says, “There is one 
 of your own kind; get together;” and the club, the 
 fraternity, the church springs into being, and by the law 
 of associated effort two working together are worth ten 
 standing alone. There seems to be that in the religious 
 motive which binds people in a way that is peculiarly 
 strong and tender. By the same token, religious differ- 
 ences are sometimes the most bitter because they arise 
 from convictions which reach the deepest wellsprings of 
 life. 
 
 In the days when Christianity was young it was perse- 
 
 44 
 
cution which cemented the little band together, and, 
 through the centuries, when a Catherine de Medici or a 
 Philip of Spain seared the land with fires of inquisition, 
 the psychological truth became a maxim that “The 
 blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” 
 
 The unquenchable vitality of the church would seem to 
 suggest that it has a mission to perform. The primary 
 mission of the church is not to preserve its own life for its 
 own sake but to saturate human society with the spirit 
 of Jesus. This was the mission of Jesus himself, and to 
 His followers He committed the extension of the work 
 which He began. 
 
 To create personalities in likeness to himself was Jesus’ 
 aim, not to give formulas and symbols nor rules of con- 
 duct. For some of us, at least, the Christian life would be 
 a far simpler thing than it is if we had rules of conduct for 
 each day or each new problem as it arises. In the school 
 days of our elders printed rules were supposed to govern 
 every possible contingency, and the positive commands 
 were exceeded in number only by the prohibitions. 
 Modern methods in the college and in the home are 
 gradually being changed according to the philosophy of 
 Jesus, that the only true way to form character is to grow 
 it from within rather than to secure outward conformity 
 by the use of a police force and penalty for disobedience. 
 Jesus said, “Except your righteousness exceed the right- 
 eousness of the scribes and Pharisees,” which consisted in 
 strict adherence to prescribed formulas, “ye cannot enter 
 the Kingdom of Heaven.” He wanted that personal rela- 
 tionship with His followers that would lead them to do 
 right without being told, because they were right at heart. 
 So he gave not rules but principles, not mechanical formu- 
 las but the impelling power of love. It is far easier to 
 teach people to obey rules than principles, to live in the 
 field of legalism than on the plain of inspiration, as it is 
 easier to create an army of puppets than an army built of 
 
 45 
 
men of initiative, but the results are not so satisfac- 
 tory. 
 
 Jesus tells us that His object in coming to this world 
 was to establish the Kingdom of God. We will leave to 
 theologians the technical discussion of the meaning of this 
 term, but Jesus made so clear what constitutes that King- 
 dom that the wayfaring man may understand. He came 
 to a people who were hoping for a renewal of the Kingdom 
 of David, which, to them, was synonymous with God’s 
 reign on earth. Jesus gave them an ideal and a hope so 
 much higher and broader than that upon which their 
 hearts had been set that they could not readjust their 
 minds to the new conception; also its very simplicity was 
 baffling to them as it oftentimes is to us. I suppose Jesus 
 used the word “Kingdom” so frequently because it was 
 the expression which would inevitably catch their atten- 
 tion and strike a responsive chord, and also because 
 through the familiar and cherished thing He would lead 
 them up to the fuller and spiritual conception of the same 
 thing. So by parables He taught that the Kingdom of 
 Heaven is the mastery of God over the human heart. 
 Wherever His teachings take root and His spirit rules in 
 the heart there is God’s Kingdom. 
 
 He said, “Except a man be born from above he cannot 
 see the Kingdom of God.” Evidently a change in man’s 
 fundamental nature, a renewal of life, is essential even to 
 seeing the Kingdom of God. The history of the race fur- 
 nishes proof that man needs such a renewal. Persecu- 
 tions, wars, class hatred, barbarities we can no longer 
 ascribe to a benighted past alone. When we were feeling 
 content with our progress and dreaming of universal 
 brotherhood, came the collapse of the structure, and we 
 discovered that a part, at least, of the foundation was 
 sand. Out of the ddbris arises what was permanent and 
 stable, and society can be rebuilt only in harmony with 
 those eternal truths. 
 
 46 
 
The test of membership in Christ’s Kingdom He placed 
 on the plane where men live. So practical and common- 
 place is it that no charge of mysticism can be brought. 
 By teaching and by example Jesus shows us that service 
 is the badge of His Kingdom; not greatness but humility, 
 not eminence but helpfulness. And He told us that with- 
 out His spirit, His attitude toward life, we are none of His. 
 We cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven with heads high 
 and exacting our rights. 
 
 What is the trouble with the industrial conference that 
 it should end in a fiasco? If each side in all industrial 
 disputes were asking, “How can we help each other?” 
 and “How can we serve humanity?” would it be so hard 
 for them to come together? Jesus’ attitude toward life 
 must be our attitude. His ideal of life never changes and 
 it fits all circumstances. Listen to His stern rebuke of 
 Peter, which follows surprisingly close upon that gracious 
 word of approbation, “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona.” 
 The rebuke was severe because Peter’s words which called 
 it forth were a stab at the very heart of Jesus’ ideal of 
 life. Peter would shake Him from His immovable purpose 
 to accept the cost of His high aim; and in the voice of His 
 friend He hears an echo of the words of the enemy spoken 
 in that hour fraught with such measureless meaning to 
 the human race. In that hour Jesus marked out the path 
 for Himself and for all who would follow Him. It is the 
 path which crosses self-interest and exalts service to hu- 
 manity at any cost. Society will be recreated and recon- 
 structed only as the spirit of service becomes controlling 
 and general rather than sporadic and exceptional. In 
 Atlantic City some months ago the United States Cham- 
 ber of Commerce adopted the following minute: “The 
 principle of service is basic in international relationships.” 
 This finding of the Chamber of Commerce, composed of 
 the leading business men of our country, is one of many 
 
 47 
 
evidences that the leaven of the spirit of Jesus is working 
 as He promised it would do. 
 
 Out of the war has come a great emergence of unselfish 
 service. Looking back upon those terrible days when 
 cruelty was rampant, the otherwise universal gloom was 
 relieved by glorious unselfishness. “Dollar a year” busi- 
 ness men, physicians, nurses, Red Cross w r orkers gave 
 themselves in unstinted service. An American major who 
 fell in battle wrote but a little time before his death, “Self 
 lies buried on the fields of France.” Men like him have 
 created an atmosphere in which it should be easy to follow 
 in the path of self-forgetfulness. It is the first business of % 
 the Christian church to bury herself in service to the 
 lonely and the friendless in our great cities of America, 
 and to the needy throughout the world. This is the psy- 
 chological moment for Christianity to capitalize the leisure 
 time which has been discovered in the last four years, and 
 the self-effacing devotion which has kept hearts from 
 breaking under the strain of war. The Red Cross can in 
 large measure be supplanted, thank God! by the White 
 Cross. Instead of making sponges and folding gauze for 
 our wounded boys, the urgent call comes for skilled fingers 
 to prepare similar dressings for emergency work in Chris- 
 tian centers, for hospitals in Mexico, Central America, 
 and in China, India and Africa. Our young men and 
 young women who have returned from war service may 
 find a new world opening up before them. Latin America, 
 “the converging point of the world’s commerce,” presents 
 a fascinating field for service. Beautiful for situation, 
 with a future of untold possibilities, its people are showing 
 a new interest in religious things. Not long ago a repre- 
 sentative of the Mexican government, speaking at a dinner 
 given by a certain civic and commerce association, said, 
 “Don’t send us guns; send us teachers and missionaries,” 
 and this to a group of business men considering political 
 and economic relations. 
 
 48 
 
The weaker, struggling nations beget a type of patriot- 
 ism that America does not develop. Citizens of America 
 have had such sublime confidence in her success, her 
 strength, her ability to cope with her own problems 
 and with all the world, if necessary, that the sort of 
 patriotism which says “My country needs me ” has not 
 been awakened in any large degree. We are beginning 
 to find that our beloved America needs every one of us, 
 and the slogan of the hour for clubs, schools, factories, 
 and churches is “Americanization.” This is a real job, 
 not one to play at; and it offers a serious undertaking to 
 every one of America’s citizens. We must make friends 
 for our country of the foreign born, and of those who are 
 American born but not American in spirit. Secretary 
 Lane has said: “America can no more exist one-third 
 foreign and two-thirds American than in 1861 it could 
 exist one-half slave and one-half free.” Except for war 
 work, no such call to enlistment for service has ever been 
 sounded by our country. Our Home Mission Societies 
 are offering a splendid program for Christian American- 
 ization, soul-stirring in its appeal to every Christian 
 patriot. 
 
 America’s principle of the separation of church and 
 state has been so strongly emphasized that, peradventure, 
 the church has gone to the extreme of neglect in its failure 
 to be heard in national affairs. There are critics many 
 and prophets of disaster not a few, but how often from 
 any Christian organization do we hear one constructive 
 criticism or a suggestion that into labor disputes there be 
 introduced some of the pronouncements of Jesus regarding 
 the conduct of life? If, as is so often said, the world’s 
 industrial workers reverence Jesus, while deriding the 
 church, why could not the experiment be tried of attempt- 
 ing to come together in the practice of Jesus’ teachings? 
 It would be the day that would change the world. 
 
 I can still hear the ring of Mr. Raymond Robbins’ voice 
 
 49 
 
when he cried, “America has yet time. She still has time, 
 but not too much time.” He was pleading for Christian 
 people to face the crisis that is staring us in the face, and 
 by putting the “Christian conscience in action through 
 and through our national life” to avert the upheavals 
 which he had seen in Russia. Shall the church remain 
 aloof and silent while political forces attack these great 
 problems alone? Bernard Shaw is reported to have said: 
 “In the practice of the principles of Jesus is the only 
 salvation of society.” 
 
 In a democracy such as ours neither church nor state 
 will dominate the other, and yet the spiritual forces which 
 shall preserve the foundations of our national structure 
 must emanate from those who are in vital union with the 
 Head of the church. One of the best thinkers of our day 
 has made this suggestion: “That the Northern Baptist 
 Convention (a) take the initiative in securing the co- 
 operation of such other denominations as may be later 
 determined, in organizing and supporting a permanent 
 commission for investigation into and report upon near 
 and remote causes and details of any economic class con- 
 flicts which may develop in this country; ( b ) that the 
 commission be instructed to study such conflicts on the 
 ground, not as attempted arbitrators but as accredited 
 representatives of associated churches, with the aim of, so 
 far as possible, exhausting all the material facts in the 
 given case, especially those which have any appreciable 
 bearing upon the principles of justice.” The writer in 
 further detail sets forth a practical working plan for the 
 application of “Christian principles to the special con- 
 flicts of ideas about justice which develop under our 
 present form of industrial organization.” May the day 
 speedily come when Christians of every creed shall see the 
 urgency of getting together for such a service to humanity! 
 Would that those who long for the establishment of God’s 
 Kingdom in the world might see, as disruptive forces have 
 
 50 
 
seen it, the tremendous truth in the idea, “We can do 
 anything in this world if we get together.” And, under the 
 leadership of God, “anything” is sure to be the right thing. 
 
 With our convictions as to the separation of church and 
 state, our children know less about the moral principles 
 which underlie this so-called Christian nation than do the 
 children of any non-Christian country about the ethics of 
 their race. As children are trained less and less within 
 the home, more and more within the school, has the 
 church no voice of admonition regarding the most im- 
 portant phase of the development of our youth? By our 
 very silence on this vital matter the valuation which we 
 place upon the ethical training of our future citizens must, 
 in their judgment, be nil. A few days since in one of the 
 daily papers was an editorial containing this sentence, 
 “All will not be right with the world until men are domi- 
 nated and motivated by the spirit that means religion.” 
 With increasing frequency does the secular press stress 
 the spiritual side of life, and we must not fail to stress it in 
 the life of our young people. 
 
 Historians tell us that the framers of our Constitution, 
 after four weeks of seemingly fruitless debate, were about 
 to adjourn in disgust and despair. Differing convictions 
 concerning what should constitute the theory of our 
 government appeared to be irreconcilable. At the opening 
 session of the fifth week, facing the determination of 
 many to abandon the momentous undertaking, which up 
 to this day animates and glorifies the life of this great na- 
 tion, Benjamin Franklin, not known for the display of his 
 piety, made this remarkable statement: “Mr. Chairman, 
 we have been groping for four weeks in darkness, searching 
 for the political truth, and have not found it. How is it 
 that we have not invoked the divine guidance of the 
 Father of light upon our proceedings? The longer I live 
 and the more I know, the more I believe that God governs 
 the affairs of men, and if the sparrow cannot fall without 
 
 51 
 
His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without 
 his assistance? ‘Except the Lord build the house, they 
 labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this and I 
 also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall suc- 
 ceed in our political building no better than the builders 
 of the tower of Babel. I therefore move you that from 
 henceforth we open our daily deliberations with morning 
 prayer.” “And from that moment,” says a commentator, 
 “they began to make progress in the framing and adop- 
 tion of that fame-crowned document.” 
 
 When Jesus had finished his earthly career, he left His 
 disciples custodians of great principles to which all genera- 
 tions of His followers, whether in the visible church or 
 not, have become heirs. It is the union of these followers 
 of Jesus in a common aim which shall create an atmosphere 
 favorable for the extension of the principles of Jesus. A 
 home has its atmosphere, due to father and mother, or 
 to the controlling spirit of that home. A college, a com- 
 munity, has its atmosphere which gives that school, that 
 community an air of hospitality to those of like purposes. 
 What boundless possibilities has the church of Jesus 
 Christ to create an atmosphere which shall be a medium 
 for His influence! “The Kingdom of Heaven is in the 
 midst of you.” When the Master uttered these words 
 that invisible influence was so slight that people were not 
 aware of its great power, nor that the atmosphere being 
 created by those who were partaking of His spirit would 
 ultimately permeate the entire world. 
 
 The method of Jesus was that of a propagandist. We 
 are accustomed to think of propaganda as the spreading 
 of an idea; but it is only as ideas take hold upon life and 
 result in action, harmful or helpful to society, that propa- 
 ganda becomes a vital force. Ideas that stop in men’s 
 minds are ineffective. Jesus was the giver of great ideas, 
 but, more than that, He gave and still gives power to the 
 human heart to live those ideas and to change society by 
 
 52 
 
their operation. The church may be the greatest propa- 
 gandist of the age for two reasons: First, the church has 
 the machinery for reaching all the people. No other or- 
 ganization is in its appeal absolutely unlimited by race, 
 color, occupation or by intellectual or financial advantage; 
 and every believer in the church should, by example as 
 well as by precept, attest the fact that the church is the 
 most perfect and far-reaching democracy conceivable. 
 Second, the church has unequaled opportunity for her 
 propaganda because of the nature of the propaganda 
 itself, which concerns the most vital interest of the human 
 heart. There is no life to which does not come, sooner or 
 later, the question of God and his relation to our life now 
 and hereafter. After the little lad, Abraham Lincoln, had 
 seen his mother laid away under the pile of stones that 
 marked her resting place on the lonely hillside, he lingered 
 for months by the spot, thinking over what she had told 
 him about God and Heaven, for she was his only pastor and 
 teacher. And to the infrequent passer-by the little 
 Lincoln would put this question: “Be you a preacher- 
 man?” To the answering question, “Why, my boy?” he 
 would say, “Because my mother is dead.” Humanity’s 
 heart turns to the source of help and light when darkness 
 falls and sorrow; and the love that responds to humanity’s 
 need sets no boundaries to its outreach. 
 
 Love, moreover, always seeks to express itself by some 
 tangible demonstration. Mary would anoint the feet of 
 her Lord, not so much to show Him her devotion as to 
 satisfy the love welling up within her own heart. The 
 mother who gave her son for humanity’s sake was not 
 content with providing for his comfort to the utmost of 
 her ability, but her love took in all the boys, and the 
 deeper her anxiety, the more untiring was her activity. 
 And father, who perhaps had not time to live out his love 
 for his boy, suddenly found time to work for the Liberty 
 Loan, to drive his car for the wounded, to cut and fold 
 
 53 
 
bandages. And then when that awful day came when 
 they knew that never on this side could they go to meet 
 their son, they tried to hide their grief while they gave a 
 glad welcome to hundreds of other boys. Thousands of 
 longing hearts have learned the vicariousness of giving as 
 well as of suffering. 
 
 We have learned, too, to visualize those whom we 
 never expect to see and to take their burdens upon our 
 hearts and to help, if may be, to bear their griefs. We 
 can never lose the world vision having seen the destitute 
 of Armenia, of Belgium and of France. We can never 
 be content with ministering only to those who pass over 
 our own threshold. We have been ministering to the 
 whole world and we cannot cease. Jesus knew us better 
 than we know ourselves when He said, “Inasmuch as ye 
 have done it unto one of the least of these ye have done 
 it unto me.” Love that reaches down to the depths of 
 the soul reaches out to the ends of the earth; and love 
 that is begotten of Jesus Christ is not content with less 
 than giving the best. With some it has become rather 
 the fashion to substitute the good gifts of social better- 
 ment for the greatest gift of social regeneration. Jesus 
 said, “I am come that ye might have life.” A purpose 
 so great that it brought the Son of God to a life of min- 
 istry cannot have secondary place with those who are 
 continuing His ministry. With Him the life of the spirit 
 was of paramount importance. 
 
 A Buddhist priest in India was the victim of thieves 
 who stole his clothing from the shrine where he served. 
 “I must leave this village and go where the people are 
 good,” said the priest. Into this very neighborhood, not 
 long thereafter, came a Christian missionary and planted 
 a church. Thieves were no barrier to him. On the con- 
 trary, it was for such that he had left home and friends 
 in the spirit of Him who said, “I came not to call the 
 righteous but sinners to repentance.” The Buddhist 
 
 54 
 
priest, consistent with his religious views of life, was 
 occupied solely with the process of self-purification. The 
 Christian missionary, following the example of his Lord, 
 thought last of himself. What is true of the individual 
 is true of a cult. A religion which is concerned primarily 
 with its own self-preservation is a waning force. Chris- 
 tianity in its advance is demonstrating the great truth 
 that “He that loseth his life for my sake, the same shall 
 find it.” The church of Christ will shape the world’s 
 life in the measure in which she follows her Lord and 
 accepts His valuations of life as her own. 
 
THE LOCAL CHURCH PROGRAM 
 
 BY REV. A. W. BEAVEN 
 
 We are told that the world faces a bigger crisis now 
 than during the war; that the principles it adopts in the 
 settlement of its problems in the next five years will deter- 
 mine its trend for generations to come. We are told, too, 
 that no other body of principles offers so constructive a 
 program for the solution of the political, social and eco- 
 nomic problems of the time as the principles of Christian- 
 ity. If these things are true, and no one of us can doubt it, 
 then the church of Jesus Christ, as the institution in 
 society specifically organized for the purpose of getting 
 these principles before society, and getting them adopted 
 in its life, has both the most tremendous opportunity and 
 obligation of its entire existence. 
 
 It is in the light of this situation that we see the various 
 denominational agencies undertaking programs that would 
 have staggered us a few years ago. Our Methodist breth- 
 ren have undertaken with amazing success an immense 
 program. Our Presbyterian friends are in the midst of an 
 enterprise that is a credit to them and a challenge to the 
 Christian world. Our own Baptist Board of Promotion is 
 challenging us with great plans and objectives. None of 
 us can but thank God it is so. The one thing we could not 
 stand now would be for the church to have no real plan 
 for a great contribution in a day like this. If our denomi- 
 national leadership were to offer us no program which 
 called for the largest effort and greatest sacrifice now, we 
 would lose our self-respect and “Ichabod” would soon be 
 written over our churches. But the one thing we must 
 
 56 
 
remember is that denominations do not move as a mass; 
 their plans must fail unless they actually reach the local 
 church. It is there the whole system touches the people. 
 
 The Place of the Local Church 
 
 As Baptists and church members we need to say this 
 over and over again to ourselves. The whole forward 
 movement of the Kingdom of God depends on how far 
 the local church can apply its methods, spirit and purpose 
 to its individual members. No matter how splendid the 
 outline may be, if we cannot gear up our local church to 
 it the plan must fail. It would be like having an army 
 with a fine general staff, and a fine service of supply, but 
 which would fail in having soldiers at the front who would 
 actually do the fighting. 
 
 Every pastor and church member in the Northern 
 Baptist Convention needs to sit down and have a session 
 with himself, and realize that, first and foremost, as far 
 as he and his church are concerned, the whole movement 
 is a success or failure in so far as he and his church succeed 
 in applying it to themselves. We can tell whether we 
 really want it to succeed, not by our pious wishes or gen- 
 erous platitudes, but by our honest efforts to make it 
 work in our field. We need to stand under the scrutiny 
 of such questions as the following: If every church in 
 the denomination treats the suggestions from headquarters 
 as we treat them, how much co-operation could be de- 
 veloped,? If every other church did as we are doing, 
 would it make the denominational effort a success or 
 failure? Before the God who challenges us to live up to the 
 fullness of our opportunity; and before our brethren in 
 other churches who are sacrificially attempting to make 
 the great effort in our denomination a success, can we 
 do other than determine that if a devotional and prayer- 
 
 57 
 
ful spirit, thoughtful planning and abounding sacrifices can 
 make our local church do its share then, by God’s help, 
 our part shall be done? 
 
 What to Do 
 
 But when we have once determined that our part of 
 the effort is to be a success, what steps do we need to 
 take to achieve that success? Certainly three things are 
 involved: first, to develop a church consciousness as to 
 what is our share of the task to be done; secondly, to 
 devise ways and means of doing it; and thirdly, to generate 
 the devotion, the enthusiasm and consecration that shall 
 achieve the goal. 
 
 General Organization 
 
 Why not let every church, big or little, city or country, 
 appoint the best promotional committee it can, putting 
 the task before its strongest men and women as even a 
 larger chance for leadership than the leadership of the 
 great war activities we have been through? Surely we 
 can honestly do this if only on the basis that these needs 
 are constructive and for the uplifting of the world, while 
 many of the others were destructive or, at the best, works 
 of mercy to ameliorate the effects of destructiveness. 
 Let the committee dedicate itself to its task as solemnly 
 as the boys on the battlefield dedicated themselves to 
 the task that was upon them. 
 
 Point out to them that in this “war after the war,” 
 which, in many ways, is more serious than the military 
 war itself, we are dealing with spiritual and moral factors, 
 and that the chance for big administrative leadership 
 now lies with any group that can affect the spiritual 
 elements of society. Show how the church has such a 
 chance, and that it needs its best men and women to 
 devote themselves to service as they did in the war. 
 
 58 
 
This appeal can be patriotic as well as religious, for who 
 does not feel the peril to the country at the present 
 time of a relapse into cold materialism, which seems to 
 threaten us, and who does not recognize the danger of 
 the wild, whirling and godless theories which can only 
 be counteracted by thoughtful, constructive, moral and 
 spiritual leadership? 
 
 Get the committee to feel the heroic missionary spirit 
 of the enterprise. The first meeting together should be 
 strongly devotional and marked by the spirit of conse- 
 cration. It should be a miniature “haystack prayer 
 meeting” so far as the spirit is concerned, and the pastor 
 could well afford to give large thought to the preparation 
 for this first meeting from this standpoint. Perhaps it 
 might be well, if possible, to get some outstanding de- 
 nominational leader who might be near by to come in 
 for this meeting. 
 
 One of the first steps that should naturally be taken by 
 the committee, as soon as it is organized and attains 
 self-consciousness, is to proceed as the denomination has 
 proceeded and conduct a church survey. This simply 
 means that we get clearly before ourselves what we are 
 now doing. The various departments of the church 
 activities should be given to the various members of the 
 committee to investigate and report findings. For any 
 church, large or small, these investigations should at 
 least cover some such departments and questions as the 
 following: — 
 
 /. Membership 
 
 What proportion are resident and what proportion nonresident? 
 
 What is being done to solve the nonresident problem? 
 
 What proportion of the resident membership is represented by an aver- 
 age morning congregation? 
 
 What proportion is absolutely worthless to the church? 
 
 What proportion is actively engaged in any work in the church or under 
 church auspices? 
 
 Is the membership increasing or decreasing? 
 
 59 
 
What proportion of accessions to membership are on confession of faith? 
 
 Is any definite instruction given to new members about church obliga- 
 tions or church history so as to make them intelligent in their church 
 duty? 
 
 2. Evangelism 
 
 What definite steps are being taken to create the evangelistic spirit in 
 the church? 
 
 Is there a personal workers’ class? 
 
 Does all the personal work depend on the pastor or are others engaged 
 in it? 
 
 Are there prayer groups? 
 
 Does the church capitalize the Easter period for ingathering? 
 
 3. Stewardship 
 
 How many tithers in the church? 
 
 What proportion of the membership give to current expense? 
 
 What proportion of the membership give to benevolence? 
 
 What proportion of the money given to either cause is given by the ten 
 largest givers? 
 
 What definite steps are taken to instruct the people in stewardship? 
 
 Are new members given any adequate information on this point when 
 they enter the membership? 
 
 4. Community Responsibility 
 
 What opportunities for community service are afforded near the church? 
 
 Is there a foreign-speaking settlement near by? 
 
 Is there any special work being done for it? 
 
 Are there adjacent fields where new Sunday schools should be estab- 
 lished ? 
 
 Is the church co-operating with any of the neighborhood agencies for 
 social betterment? 
 
 Is any worthy attempt being made to secure and train workers for com- 
 munity enterprises? 
 
 ' 5. World-wide Effort 
 
 Has the church any missionaries from its membership? 
 
 Is any definite attempt being made to get young people to give their 
 lives to mission work? 
 
 Does the church support any missionaries? Could it? 
 
 How much larger are church offerings toward world-wide causes than 
 five years ago? 
 
 How many mission study classes are held among men? Among women? 
 
 How many mission study classes among the young people? 
 
 How many subscribers to Missions? 
 
 60 
 
Questions that will lead to normal survey of the Sun- 
 day school are indicated in the standard which your 
 county Sunday school convention will furnish you. In 
 case this fails, write the American Baptist Publication 
 Society for Sunday school standards. 
 
 Standards for Young Peoples’ Societies can be secured 
 from the Baptist Young Peoples’ Union headquarters, 
 through the Publication Society, or at the headquarters 
 of the Christian Endeavor at Boston, as the case may be. 
 
 Many other departments of the church’s life and ac- 
 tivities should be investigated. The above list is not 
 given as exhaustive but merely suggestive, to get before 
 us the facts of our present situation. 
 
 A Church Standard 
 
 When we know what we are doing we should, naturally, 
 next inquire how it compares with what we should be 
 doing if we did our share. In formulating our standard 
 it is necessary to know what others are doing. We may 
 get some help from our own ideas, but it will also be 
 valuable to look around. Our Baptist denomination has 
 too often taken the form of being smugly satisfied with 
 what we are doing and failing to realize how absolutely 
 inadequate it is. 
 
 Many a church has gone on complacently securing few 
 decisions for Christ; securing few additional member- 
 ships; securing no young people who would give their 
 lives to the Master in the ministry, or in the mission 
 field; rendering no community service; and has been 
 satisfied with itself because it has been keeping the field 
 going, keeping the church open, when if it had looked 
 around it could not have helped but be ashamed that 
 others, with no better opportunities, were passing it at 
 every point. Others are no better situated and yet have 
 great ingatherings; are no richer and yet give many more 
 
 61 
 
times per capita; are no more obligated to their com- 
 munities and yet render vastly more service. 
 
 We are not to approach this task mainly to try to sur- 
 pass some other church, but we ought to be ashamed to 
 look our brethren or our Master in the face if we are con- 
 tent, because of our laziness and ignorance, to sit back 
 and complacently pat ourselves on the back over what 
 we are doing when what we are doing is all out of pro- 
 portion to our share, and we are simply by our attitude 
 asking some one else to do our part of the work and pay 
 our part of the bills. 
 
 The Liberty Bond and War Chest quotas at least taught 
 us how to be keenly ashamed of ourselves if we did not 
 stand up to our part of any task that was being attempted 
 by the whole group. 
 
 Financial Standards 
 
 In looking around to find a standard by which to test 
 ourselves we find that one has been pretty well set up, 
 along financial lines, by our apportionment. But even 
 here a church may be apportioned a smaller share than it 
 should raise, in fairness, simply because one of the ele- 
 ments considered in making up the apportionment is 
 what the church has been doing. If it has been niggardly 
 and giving little, its apportionment is, to a certain extent, 
 smaller than if the church had been previously generous. 
 
 A standard for our Sunday school and our Young Peo- 
 ples’ Society has been referred to above, but, as yet, we 
 must depend largely on ourselves to develop our local 
 church standards along other lines. 
 
 The committee can, in many cases, determine a sort of 
 minimum standard along some lines by comparing their 
 achievements with the average of the denomination at 
 large, or with other denominations. Care should be taken 
 here to recognize that a church may be obligated by its 
 position to do vastly more than the average. 
 
 62 
 
The committee will also be able to determine whether 
 its church is at all meeting its opportunity by contrasting 
 it with the notable achievements of other churches, situ- 
 ated in a somewhat like position. Some suggestions for 
 standards might be secured for a rural church from a book 
 by Warren H. Wilson on “The Church at the Center,” 
 secured from the Missionary Education Movement of the 
 United States and Canada, in New York City. Standards 
 for churches in the city and elsewhere might be found in 
 books on church efficiency by Dr. Agar of our own Board, 
 or from a book, entitled “Modern Church Management,” 
 by McGarrah, published by the Revell Co., New York City. 
 
 The Church Goals 
 
 Whether what we do is equal to what others are doing 
 at this time, however, is a small matter contrasted with 
 what we are going to do. The great task is to set the goal 
 for what the church will undertake in the light of the 
 stupendous enterprise which our denomination is facing. 
 It should be some one’s duty to estimate carefully what 
 would be the church’s share. Our faith and generous de- 
 termination in the face of the great world task should be 
 the things which guide us rather than our fears, or simply 
 the church’s past record. We will need to create great 
 goals, big enough to stagger us and challenge every per- 
 son in the organization. These goals should be assembled 
 into a sort of program to be adopted by the church for 
 either one or five years ahead, as the case may be. 
 
 The Church Program 
 
 This program may not be as elaborate in one place as 
 in another, but surely much of the inefficiency of our 
 church life has been due to the fact that we have drifted 
 along from year to year, living from hand to mouth, doing 
 the next thing because we had to, rather than moving 
 
 63 
 
consciously toward some well-defined purpose, or accom- 
 plishing some new and splendid objective. 
 
 These goals and this program may be worked out in 
 various ways. It might he done simply in the committee. 
 The essential thing is to have it cover the needs of the 
 church and at the same time secure the widest possible 
 interest and enthusiasm in its achievement. The larger 
 the number of people who can be interested in its formu- 
 lation the wider the sources from which suggestions will 
 come. It may be far better to work it out publicly. 
 
 One church has adopted the following method of pre- 
 paring its program and goals: It selected a number of de- 
 partments of its work in which it felt a special need of 
 getting started in advance steps which needed to be taken, 
 such as its Sunday-school work; its responsibility to its 
 community; the need for wider denominational co-opera- 
 tion; the obligation for advance stewardship develop- 
 ment; the holding and developing of its local member- 
 ship; the increase of attendance at public worship. 
 
 The pastor was asked to devote a number of Wednesday 
 evenings in the prayer meeting to the discussion of vari- 
 ous forward steps that, in the conviction of the people, 
 should be taken in connection with these various depart- 
 ments. The subjects were widely announced. People 
 were asked to come, giving their best suggestions, to speak 
 any sense of failure which was felt in the present achieve- 
 ment; to tell the best thing they felt some one else was 
 doing along that line; to speak the finest objective they 
 felt the church should hold before itself. 
 
 Some member of the Promotional Board was delegated 
 to make note of each of the suggestions. The announce- 
 ment was made that out of the various suggestions offered 
 the Promotional Board would formulate a tentative pro- 
 gram to be later laid before the church for discussion and 
 adoption. It was also stated that while not all the sug- 
 gestions might be included in the program, particularly 
 
 64 
 
among the first objectives, yet they would all be seriously 
 considered. In this way a program was formulated that 
 developed rather naturally out of the ideas and the en- 
 thusiasm of the people. It had a popular flavor and had 
 the advantage of gaining the response of the congregation 
 more than a program could have which was formulated 
 entirely by a committee and brought to the church. 
 
 The program would normally include, as we have pre- 
 viously indicated, some definite attempt to achieve a defi- 
 nite goal in church attendance, in Sunday school, and pos- 
 sibly in church membership. It would include some 
 stewardship goal, such as a certain proportion of people 
 giving and definitely committed to some form of propor- 
 tionate giving. It would normally include some settled 
 goal in regard to Sunday school, not simply for size but in 
 quality of work being done as tested by some of the various 
 Sunday-school standards. 
 
 It certainly ought also to include some very definite 
 objectives for the relating of the church to its community 
 task, either the founding of new Sunday schools, or the 
 developing of people in various social agencies of the town 
 or country; group classes for study of various problems 
 and training of people to meet them. 
 
 It should also include definite goals for the relating of 
 the church to the great world enterprise. Recruiting of 
 life among the young people, training through education, 
 and the matching of their sacrifices, or of others like 
 them, by adequate giving on the part of those who cannot 
 go but can give. Other objectives will naturally suggest 
 themselves in local situations. 
 
 The great point of emphasis here is that every church 
 should have a definite program, with great objectives. 
 Our work will be vastly better off, more constructive and 
 lasting. It will not only be more efficient, but will much 
 more largely command the respect and the backing of 
 
 65 
 
the church and the community if it is felt that we are 
 attempting to achieve certain definite results. 
 
 The Spirit to Achieve 
 
 When the program is outlined it should be presented 
 to the church for adoption. Such preparation should be 
 made for the meeting as to insure making it one of the 
 most profoundly impressive, spiritually, of the gatherings 
 of the year. It should be a time of consecration as well 
 as of determination. 
 
 When the program has been finally adopted the method 
 of its application should have been prepared by the 
 Board of Promotion. Some form of parish organization 
 should have been developed. The suggestion is made by 
 our own Board, and by others as well, that a group form 
 that will make some one person in a section responsible 
 for certain of the families who live in that neighborhood, 
 not making any one person responsible for more than ten 
 other families, would be a good method. It is preferable 
 that the leader of the ten should have an assistant. For 
 these leaders the most capable and responsible persons of 
 the congregation should be selected. Where the parish is 
 widely scattered, the leaders of these various groups must 
 be united in a larger divisional group such as the North- 
 east, the Southern or Western division. The heads of 
 these various larger divisions, also the group leaders, 
 should be together often enough at the beginning to 
 familiarize them thoroughly with the parts of the pro- 
 gram which they are expected to help carry out, and, 
 even more than this, to enable them to catch the spirit in 
 which it is to be done; to make them feel it is their task 
 for the Master. It hardly seems necessary to warn our- 
 selves against dependence upon organization at this stage 
 of our development. We have come to realize that we 
 only need to adopt the right kind of organization (enough 
 
 66 
 
of it) to make it the tool of the great spiritual purpose 
 that is back of it. 
 
 In many a church with a limited membership it is quite 
 probable that it may seem wiser to make the heads of 
 these various groups, together with the pastor, the Pro- 
 motional Committee. In churches with larger member- 
 ship it would seem better to divide the work and have 
 the Promotional Committee work at the center, with the 
 responsibility of the individual families falling upon others. 
 The group unit plan has proved of remarkable power as 
 tested in different denominations and in different circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Conclusion 
 
 The suggestions here made, it is recognized, are not 
 applicable to every specific situation, but it is hoped that 
 they may be sufficiently suggestive in their broad outlines 
 so that no church, wherever located in the confines of the 
 Northern Baptist Convention, will feel that it can afford 
 to be without some definite knowledge about its present 
 situation or without a program which will mark an heroic 
 attempt to do its part in the big advance that the denomi- 
 nation is going to make. 
 
 If we were different companies in an army that had 
 been ordered to advance into a great fight, where great 
 issues were at stake, and the future of the nation depended 
 upon whole-hearted, unanimous response to the orders of 
 the commander, we should always feel chagrined beyond 
 measure if our company did not do its part. We cannot 
 afford to allow this to be the case with our church. 
 
 No matter how much we can say “our situation is dif- 
 ferent,” “our church has reached its limit,” “our church 
 is too small, or too poorly located, or too poor, or too hide- 
 bound to be part of this movement,” let each pastor and 
 each man of vision in the congregation closet himself with 
 the Christ who dared to look across the ages, when He 
 stood alone and even His friends and family failed to sup- 
 
 67 
 
port Him, and still believed in the coming of the Kingdom 
 when God’s will should be done on earth as it was in 
 Heaven. Let us saturate ourselves with His belief until 
 we know that we can solve the problem of our local situa- 
 tion. Let us closet ourselves with Paul till we come to 
 know, as he knew, that we are working together with God, 
 and that with Christ all things are possible. 
 
 This is the testing time of our history. When the years 
 go by and we look back at it, no matter how many excuses 
 we can offer to ourselves why our church did not do its 
 part, the one great outstanding thing that will stare us in 
 the face, if we fail, will be that we were not in the great 
 attempt. Surely, God is saying to us, as He said to the 
 great leader of old: “Speak to the children of Israel that 
 they Go Forward!” 
 
 68 
 
THE ENLISTMENT OF LIFE 
 
 BY P. H. J. LF.RRIGO 
 
 What Roosevelt said about the Christian Ministry 
 
 “ I consider the Christian Ministry the highest calling 
 in the world, most intimately related to the most exalted 
 life and service here and destiny beyond, and I consider 
 it my greatest joy and glory that, occupying a most exalted 
 position in the nation, I am enabled, simply and sincerely, 
 to preach the practical moralities of the Bible to my fellow- 
 countrymen and to hold up Christ as the hope and Saviour 
 of the World.” These words were uttered by Theodore 
 Roosevelt in talking with Dr. Iglehart regarding the lat- 
 ter’s son who was sailing for missionary service in Japan. 
 They are indicative of the estimate which “ The Great 
 American” placed upon the Christian ministry as a life 
 calling. New emphasis is laid not only upon the ministry 
 but upon the need for men and women in every phase of 
 Christian activity by the great advance programs which 
 are now being undertaken by the evangelical churches. 
 
 The Significance of the Baptist World Program 
 
 The compelling significance of the Baptist World Pro- 
 gram of Advance is not its ambitious financial goal so 
 much as its insistent call upon the personal powers of 
 Christian men and women. The great forward movements 
 of the day indicate the church’s determination to con- 
 serve the moral and spiritual gains of the world war, to 
 combat the retrograde tendency toward license and self- 
 ish indulgence which accompanies the letting down of the 
 
 69 
 
war tension, to make the period of world reconstruction a 
 great era of triumphant progress in world evangelization, 
 and to provide the spiritual dynamic which shall render 
 effective the provisions of the League of Nations. 
 
 Coincident with the close of the war, perhaps as an out- 
 growth from it, a quickened understanding of the need of 
 the world and the opportunity of the hour has come to 
 the church, and has given rise to a new determination to 
 put forth efforts commensurate with the magnitude of the 
 task. That the church has the powers to meet the need 
 is unquestioned, but they have hitherto lain dormant and 
 unused. To awaken these latent powers and organize 
 them for service is the immediate need. 
 
 Not a Financial but a Spiritual Task 
 
 The great program calls not only for large sums of 
 money, but also for the consecration of life. In its essence 
 it is a spiritual and not a financial task. Already there 
 are indications that the mature men and women of the 
 denomination are glimpsing the glory of the great work 
 and are preparing to supply the means to make it possi- 
 ble. Coincidently there must be a great outpouring of 
 life resources upon the part of our young people, without 
 which the consecration of wealth would be ineffective. 
 
 The war has added a new dignity to the Christian calling. 
 Every battle crisis stressed the spiritual nature of the 
 basic principles of the conflict, and viorale came to be 
 recognized as the outstanding factor in success or failure. 
 The man who could bring spiritual power and high cour- 
 age was indispensable. In this hour following the war, 
 when the conflict is transferred to social and economic 
 spheres, when broken nations need reconstruction and 
 awakening people need guidance and support, the need for 
 men and women with a vivid Christian experience and a 
 vigorous Christian message is paramount. 
 
 70 
 
The Christian Ministry as a Constructive Force 
 
 The message of the Christian minister is of the highest 
 possible constructive value. It is not perhaps generally 
 recognized that the movement for the suppression of the 
 liquor traffic, now reaching its culmination, had its origin 
 in a minister’s message. Mr. Hugh S. Fullerton recounts 
 the story of the beginnings of the W. C. T. U., and speaks 
 of the picturesque crusade of the women of Hillsboro, 
 Ohio, who literally marched and prayed liquor out of their 
 town and initiated the movement which has well-nigh 
 driven it from their country. The man under whose 
 ministry the women received inspiration for their great 
 work was Dr. William McSurely. In a sermon preached 
 in June, 1874, to the women of the crusade, he says: 
 “ This movement must more and more become political. 
 The contest finally will be between American ideals of 
 liberty and right and the German infidel idea of uncon- 
 trolled license, not only in regard to temperance but to 
 all the principles of truth for which our Puritan ancestry 
 braved the terrors of the New England wilderness and 
 which they sealed and established with their blood.” In 
 commenting upon the development of the movement, Mr. 
 Fullerton adds: “ The temperance workers in Hillsboro, 
 as in the whole country, discovered finally that they could 
 not make the country dry by prayer and persuasion, and 
 in 1892 they went into politics, united behind the Anti- 
 Saloon League, and won.” It should be noted that here, 
 as in many another case, the spiritual impulse came from 
 the message of the man of God. He deals with the springs 
 of action in bringing men face to face with the ideals of 
 right, and sets in motion great forces by putting men in 
 contact with the source of power to do the right. 
 
 71 
 
Getting Out of the Commonplace 
 
 There is vital need of men who have this power of 
 bringing others face to face with the real issues of life. 
 The multitude of interests which touch the lives of men 
 to-day is bewildering. It beclouds the mind and makes 
 clear thinking impossible. So, for lack of power to con- 
 centrate upon the worthy, men fall under the spell of 
 the unworthy and vicious, and the greatness which might 
 have been theirs is lost. 
 
 The great mass of men and women permit themselves 
 to drift into the commonplace. The line of least resist- 
 ance in life leads to crystallized inferiority. James Lane 
 Allen says of one of his characters that her ideas were 
 like three or four marbles on a perfectly planed floor; 
 they roll equally well in any direction in which you push 
 them. Professor James says that the average man is an 
 old fogy at twenty-five. But it is our own fault if our 
 spiritual faculties thus atrophy. The very difficulties of 
 life will develop power in us in direct proportion as we 
 strenuously combat them. It is a pusillanimous soul that 
 lies down before the unpropitious. 
 
 What God can Do with the Ordinary Man 
 
 A friend of mine who has fought a winning battle could 
 not well have started with greater handicaps. Personal, 
 social and financial difficulties beset him, but he worked 
 his way through college and seminary in spite of them. In 
 process of time he found himself pastor of the leading 
 church in a thriving rural town. It was here the man’s 
 fighting spirit developed. His lower jaw took charge of 
 things. He conceived that beside preaching a vigorous 
 gospel his commission gave him authority to attack organ- 
 ized vice wherever he found it, much to the moral benefit 
 of the town. About this time the railroad undertook to 
 inaugurate winter sports and to bring to town week-end 
 
 72 
 
excursions from the city. Realizing what this would 
 mean in the way of debauch, license and Sabbath break- 
 ing, he did not hesitate to go to the owner of the ground 
 to be leased, and, notwithstanding the fact that the rail- 
 road had already issued its advertising, he was able to 
 bring such pressure to bear as to cause the abandonment 
 of the plan. A fighting man clear through, yet there 
 developed in his character a sweetness and power which 
 were felt far beyond the confines of the town itself. Sev- 
 eral neighboring school houses and churches came under 
 his ministry, and on Sunday a Gospel team of his young 
 men conducted services in an adjacent lumber camp. 
 Victrola concerts, entertainments and literature were 
 added to the sum of helpful ministrations to the lumber- 
 men, and the cook of the camp testified that it was the 
 first time in twenty vears that he had seen a sober Christ- 
 mas in the camp. 
 
 The Need for Christian Leaders 
 
 Thousands of similar towns need this type of Christian 
 leadership to-day, and in the regular ministry, as well as 
 in every branch of home mission work, there is a demand 
 for men who will give themselves with the same determina- 
 tion and unselfishness to the task. There are the en- 
 trenched powers of organized vice to attack. There are 
 great groups of the untutored and misled from overseas to 
 be Americanized on the broad pattern of a vigorous Chris- 
 tianity. There are great areas of the West responding 
 rapidly to the impulse of modern social and industrial 
 development. Populations flood them almost overnight; 
 industries spring into being. With the outlining of social 
 and political life under the powerful stimulus of modern 
 thought, it is imperative that Christianity should not be 
 an afterthought, but wrought into the ground plans of 
 the new order. 
 
 73 
 
A World-wide Framework of Christian Service 
 
 And in addition to the almost unlimited calls for Chris- 
 tian effort in this our own land is the clarion voice from 
 beyond the sea. More than a hundred years of the mod- 
 ern missionary enterprise have passed. The century has 
 been characterized by humble, Christlike service in 
 church, school and hospital on the far fields. At its close 
 we find ourselves with a great framework of Christian 
 construction erected throughout the world. The task is 
 not completed, but its outlines have been drawn and we 
 are now able to comprehend its extent. The work of the 
 past has sketched in bold outline the task of the future, 
 and it seems apparent that we are now entering upon a 
 period when the filling in of the picture may proceed with 
 relative rapidity. But this will require men and women 
 in large numbers, — pastors, evangelists, teachers, physi- 
 cians, nurses, agriculturists, industrialists, builders and, 
 indeed, workers of well-nigh every type and qualification. 
 
 The Average Man and the International Task 
 
 This is the age of internationalism, but comparatively 
 few are ever called to secular world tasks. Religion is 
 almost the only thing which will give the average man 
 world-embracing interests and power to influence distant 
 peoples for good. The world sphere which is natural to 
 youth’s idealism is that prompted by the missionary enter- 
 prise. It is through obedience to the command of Him 
 who said “Go ye into all the world,” that we are able to 
 break the ties which bind us to tasks of lesser significance 
 and enter the sphere of world activity. 
 
 Key Men in Great Centers 
 
 There is an expansion of power which comes with obe- 
 dience to the Great Commission. We determine the 
 boundaries of our own souls; whether we shall live in a 
 
 74 
 
large or a small world lies within our own volition, and 
 the choice we make will determine the future of our own 
 life. Many a young man entering upon a life of service 
 on the broader world fields has discovered his life taking 
 on unexpected significance. He becomes, little as he 
 might have anticipated it, the hub of a great wheel of 
 influence. 
 
 One such is the link between America and a great Jap- 
 anese university having twelve thousand students. 
 Another is the center of a Christian social settlement in 
 Shanghai, with an annual budget of $12,000 underwritten 
 entirely by the Chinese. Another is the confidant and 
 counsellor of more than a thousand university students in 
 India. Still another is affecting the economic conditions 
 of an entire province by means of a great industrial work. 
 One of our young women missionaries is mothering a brood 
 of a hundred boys and girls, the possibilities of whose 
 lives are beyond reckoning in usefulness to their own people. 
 One might multiply instances indefinitely. Our new pro- 
 gram calls for not less than 636 young people to occupy 
 similar points of strategic importance abroad. The sur- 
 vey puts the figure at 228 families and 180 single young 
 women. 
 
 The Personal Power of a Great Life 
 
 The broad usefulness of a life given to world service is 
 well illustrated by the experience of Dr. Nichols, one of 
 our veteran missionaries to Burma. His life has branched 
 and fructified on every side. His work among the Sgaw 
 Karens reads like a romance. The British commissioner 
 came one day to examine Dr. Nichols’ schools. Observing 
 that the boys were doing well in their studies, he asked 
 why they were not taught a trade. The response was that 
 equipment was lacking. The commissioner was so well 
 impressed with the work that he undertook to put twelve 
 boys in the government railway shops to learn the machin- 
 
 75 
 
ist’s trade. Here the boys spent five years, and gained a 
 thorough knowledge of the industry. During all this 
 time they retained their membership in the church, and 
 although the superintendent of the shops tried to make 
 them work on Sunday, the commissioner upheld them 
 in their stand against it. 
 
 The next step in the development of Dr. Nichols’ in- 
 dustrial work was the purchase of a sawmill. It stood on 
 certain “made” land in Bassein, — land which had been 
 constructed by the ballast taken from the holds of steam- 
 ships from the river Thames in England. One hundred 
 and forty village churches clubbed together to buy the 
 sawmill. Mr. O’Brien, an Irish pilot, sympathizing with 
 the work, advanced the needed cash at the auction sale. 
 The churches undertook a campaign to raise the money, 
 asking each member to pay ten rupees, and when the mill 
 was purchased, presented it to the school. 
 
 The next need was for a steamboat to enable them to 
 take advantage of the ramifying rivers which intersected 
 the 5,000 square miles of adjacent territory. By this time 
 the apprentices had graduated from the government 
 shops, and one of them undertook to build the steam 
 launch, or, rather, the task was thrust upon him, owing 
 to the fact that the foreman having charge of the work 
 struck for higher pay. The young man, however, devel- 
 oped higher powers than the former incumbent, and pro- 
 duced a steam launch admirably suited to the needs of the 
 work. 
 
 The launch proved so useful that Dr. Nichols was soon 
 asked by the natives whether he would sell it. This he 
 did, building another for the mission. Thus an industry 
 developed. They have now built and sold thirty launches, 
 making a profit of $10,000. The launch has become an 
 indispensable aid to the work in this section of Burma. 
 Pastors, members of the church, the evangelistic band and 
 the school’s brass band embark in the boat and gooff for 
 
 76 
 
a tour. Approaching a village upon the river bank, the 
 boat whistles and the pastor at this point packs his bag 
 and is ready as soon as the boat reaches the wharf to join 
 the party on a visit to all the neighboring churches. At 
 every stopping place a remarkable service is held. Pastors, 
 laymen and students contribute their testimonies. Man 
 after man takes up his Bible and gives his message, and 
 thus, far into the interior, the work extends. But it 
 should be remembered that, under God, it is the life of the 
 key man, Dr. Nichols, which is multiplying itself in this 
 far-reaching influence through school, industry, evangel- 
 istic effort and village preaching. The possibilities of 
 such multiform sendee are illimitable on every mission 
 field. 
 
 Roosevelt on Missionary Service 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt had this further word to say in 
 talking with Dr. Iglehart concerning the call to mis- 
 sionary sendee: “As high an estimate as I have of the 
 ministry, I consider that the climax of that calling is to 
 go out in missionary sendee, as your son is doing. It 
 takes mighty good stuff to be a missionary of the right 
 type, the best stuff there is in the world. It takes a good 
 deal of courage to break the shell and go 12,000 miles 
 away to risk an unfriendly climate, to master a foreign 
 language, to adopt strange customs, to turn aside from 
 earthly fame and emolument, and, most of all, to say 
 good by to home and the faces of the loved ones, virtually 
 forever.” 
 
 A Challenge* to Youth 
 
 The call, both for service at home and on the farther 
 fields, is a challenge to youth. Youth owes to middle age 
 the obligation of keeping before it the vision of the ideal. 
 A great offering of youth and life to meet the world’s 
 need will stir the more mature to action as nothing else 
 in the world. The success of our great forward movement 
 
 77 
 
is dependent upon the response which is met among the 
 young people. The climactic hour of our great national 
 conventions is always when the young people who are 
 giving themselves to world service speak out of their 
 hearts the burning desire which is leading them to farther 
 fields. There is a high courage about consecrated youth 
 which makes the pulses beat more quickly. They are 
 bound upon the quest for the far horizon of the soul’s 
 desire. And let no one suspect that such ambition is des- 
 tined to disappointment and disillusionment. Rather, 
 youth chooses in the high moment of clear vision the better 
 part, and the decision then made determines the trend of 
 life, and the coming days bring ever fuller blessing and 
 greater enrichment of soul. 
 
 Enlisting Life 
 
 Recognizing the magnitude of the world task before us 
 and the imperative need for greatly increased numbers of 
 recruits for the ministry and missionary service at home 
 and abroad, it becomes the obligation of every Christian 
 leader to give careful thought and earnest effort to the 
 matter of leading our young people to face the great need 
 and to enlist for the battle. 
 
 How to Go About It 
 
 There must be a carefully thought-out plan. Churches 
 produce missionaries when the conditions are right. It is 
 not to be expected that young people will offer themselves 
 to the service of God unless they are enlightened regard- 
 ing world needs and given specific training to that end. 
 The program should include enlightenment, instruction, 
 inspiration and prayer. There should be a survey of the 
 church’s resources, counsel regarding preparation, help in 
 financial difficulty, and the creation of a warm spiritual 
 atmosphere which will tend to crystallize purpose and 
 encourage perseverance. 
 
 78 
 
A Survey of the Church Life 
 
 One of the first steps is to carry out a careful survey of 
 the young life of the church. Just as we are giving a close 
 scrutiny to the financial resources within the power of the 
 membership of the church, with a view to a challenging 
 appeal to God’s people to bring adequate support to the 
 great forward movement, so there must be a similar 
 stock taking of our resources in young life. This can- 
 not be done with a brass band. It will require the most 
 painstaking judgment upon the part of church leaders. 
 The pastor’s cabinet, composed of those responsible for the 
 various departments of the church life, should take the 
 lead. If the church is too large for such a group to go 
 over its entire constituency themselves, they should com- 
 mit it in sections to carefully chosen committees who will 
 give detailed study to the section assigned them and de- 
 cide which among the boys and girls show such promise 
 as to render it wise to encourage them to prepare for 
 definite Christian service. 
 
 How to Bring about Decisions 
 
 Such a careful choice having been made, counsel should 
 be had with their parents and Sunday-school teachers, 
 but it cannot be taken for granted that these boys and 
 girls will always be ready to follow the lead of their elders 
 in this respect. For the most part it is wise to refrain 
 from using any persuasion to induce them to do so, nor 
 is it generally desirable to conduct meetings in such a way 
 as to lead to hasty decisions under the stimulus of emo- 
 tion. It is better to seek to put before the young people 
 at proper intervals the need for Christian service and the 
 opportunity of the ministry and mission fields at home 
 and abroad without eliciting either verbal or written 
 pledges. These may be obtained later when the young 
 people have had an opportunity to think the matter 
 
 79 
 
through. Enlistment cards may well be left in their 
 hands, if used at all, to be signed alone in the presence of 
 the Master. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that the age from fifteen to 
 eighteen is the time when most men and women decide 
 for Christian service, and if a decision is reached during 
 these years under the direction of the Spirit and free from 
 the over-urging of friends, it is likely to give permanent 
 direction to the life, and we need have no fear that it will 
 be subsequently regretted. This whole matter of survey 
 and presentation of life work must be carried out in the 
 atmosphere of prayer. We are dealing here with a phase 
 of Christian work of the utmost moment, and constant 
 guidance from above must be sought. 
 
 Preparation for Christian Service 
 
 It is not enough, however, to lead our young people to 
 a decision for Christian service. They must be given 
 direction and help in preparing for such service; and 
 here the utmost discretion and the broadest vision are 
 needed. We are living in days when the demands upon 
 Christian workers, especially pastors, are greater than 
 ever before. Popular education has raised the scale of 
 ordinary intelligence far above that of other days. In 
 every sphere of life the highly trained man is in demand. 
 The Christian minister or missionary must needs be not 
 merely a leader, but a leader of leaders. To a profound 
 Christian experience should be added the fullest possible 
 intellectual preparation. High school or academy should 
 be followed by a full college course as a preparation for 
 the more technical training suited to the particular branch 
 of work the individual has chosen to enter. In prepara- 
 tion for the ministry, a theological course will follow col- 
 lege. Medical missionary work requires four years in the 
 professional school, which should be a class A institution, 
 and one or two years in a hospital. Teachers, whether 
 
 80 
 
men or women, should supplement their college training 
 with special work in a graduate school and with one or 
 more years of practical experience. Nurses, kindergart- 
 ners and others in special lines of work should take the 
 regular courses in their own specialty and a year or more 
 in one or the other of the well-equipped denominational 
 training schools. The impatience of youth to be at the 
 life task needs sometimes to be reckoned with, but we can 
 do our young people no greater service than to show them 
 the importance of thorough equipment for the great work 
 which lies before them. 
 
 Financial Difficulties 
 
 In many cases we shall discover that financial diffi- 
 culties of a serious nature impede the securing of the 
 necessary education. The church should be prepared to 
 give sympathetic aid in such cases. Not infrequently 
 individual members of the church are prepared to assume 
 part of the burden. I know of several cases where men 
 of moderate means are making it a part of their own 
 Christian service to help young people contemplating 
 Christian work to secure their education. 
 
 Summer Conferences 
 
 Another important step in the enlistment of life is to 
 put the young people in touch with the representatives 
 of the work they contemplate entering. Such contact 
 will have great value in helping to strengthen their pur- 
 pose and direct their preparation. The value of summer 
 conferences and young peoples’ conventions is very great. 
 The missionary committee of the church should give 
 careful study to the various gatherings of this nature 
 held each year in their vicinity, and should plan delega- 
 tions to those which best meet the need. If necessary 
 the committee can lead in a plan to raise the expenses 
 
 81 
 
of such delegations. It is the right of our young people 
 to have the world outlook presented to them, and the 
 influence of the summer conference is frequently decisive 
 in determining their future course. 
 
 Do not Abandon your Missionaries 
 
 Above all, every effort should be made to establish 
 and strengthen the ties between the home church and 
 world fields. Do not abandon your missionaries when 
 they have gone from you to enter their life work. Hang 
 enlarged photographs of them upon the walls of the 
 church in several places. Purchase a great world map, 
 mark their stations, whether in this country or abroad, 
 and use colored ribbons to indicate the tie between their 
 fields and the home church. Have a service flag made 
 and let stars indicate the young people of your church 
 who are serving at home and abroad. Refer to them 
 often in pulpit and in prayer meeting and let your prayer 
 both public and private gather about them and their 
 activities. Be sure to secure frequent news from the 
 fields occupied by your own young people, and see that 
 letters, pictures and magazines bearing upon their work 
 are circulated freely among the Sunday-school classes. 
 Make prayer definite. Let there be a program of prayer 
 which leaves none of them out, and let every new item 
 received from the field be a subject of praise or petition. 
 All this will take care, effort and expense, but in no other 
 way can that atmosphere be created in which young 
 people will see the glory of the great work and give them- 
 selves to it. 
 
 General Koch’s Commandments 
 
 In these post-war days it is not unnatural to transfer 
 our military phraseology to the Christian warfare. For 
 it is a bitter battle we are waging, and those who would 
 
 82 
 
enlist have need of “the whole armor of Cod” as well as 
 the determined courage which the presence of the Cap- 
 tain inspires. There is wisdom for the Christian warrior 
 in the last three of the ten commandments which General 
 Foch prepared for his soldiers: — 
 
 Do your best to keep your head clear and cool, your body clean and 
 comfortable, and your feet in good condition, for you think with your 
 head, fight with your body, and march with your feet. 
 
 Be of good cheer and high courage; shirk neither work nor danger; 
 suffer in silence and cheer the comrades at your side with a smile. 
 
 Dread defeat, but not wounds; fear dishonor, but not death; and 
 whatever the task, remember the motto of the division: “It shall be 
 done.” 
 
 83 
 
“PRAYER, THE -DYNAMIC OF THE NEW WORLD 
 MOVEMENT ” 
 
 BY CHARLES W. GILKEY, HYDE PARK BAPTIST CHURCH, 
 CHICAGO 
 
 The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray. . . . 
 Matt, ix: 37, 38. 
 
 It is the last conclusion that we American Christians 
 would ever have drawn from such a situation. Here 
 were great fields white to the harvest and waiting for 
 reapers: a very big job needing to be done at once. To 
 us energetic and practical moderns the thing to do under 
 such circumstances looks so obvious that we should think 
 of only one possible conclusion as following from Jesus’ 
 description of the present crisis, and we should probably 
 state it in familiar American phrase: “The harvest truly 
 is plenteous, but the labourers are few,” — get busy. 
 
 Any one who has been attending recent religious con- 
 ventions, or who knows the lingo and technique of present- 
 day religious movements, will have no difficulty in giving 
 to this “American revised” text some very definite and 
 up-to-date applications. “The harvest truly is plenteous, 
 but the labourers are few,” — organize. “Start a cam- 
 paign; raise money; secure strong men for promotion 
 secretaries; open an office; get adequate publicity; survey 
 your harvest field; enlist and train your workers; plan 
 your work to avoid duplication and secure maximum 
 efficiency; work your plan.” That is the way we have 
 of handling a white harvest field. And if for any reason 
 these large scale methods of reaping seem not to apply, 
 we have another conclusion ready. “The harvest truly 
 
 84 . 
 
is plenteous, but the labourers are few,” — at the very 
 least hold a mass meeting to arouse public sentiment, 
 and form a committee to consider and report on a harvest 
 program. 
 
 These are no doubt perfectly proper and promisingly 
 efficient ways of meeting the problem of a ripe harvest 
 field where laborers are few, but we cannot miss the fact 
 that they are not Jesus’ way. He evidently approached 
 the task of reaping a spiritual harvest from a different 
 side and applied to it a different logic. And we who 
 call ourselves after His name Christians, and believe that 
 He knew even more about spiritual sowing and reaping 
 than we do, will surely do well to examine His approach 
 and see if it does not lead closer to the heart of the matter; 
 to study His logic and see if it is not profounder than ours. 
 Our methods are doubtless all right when it is western 
 wheat fields that are to be reaped, or even when it is a 
 political or civic campaign that is to be organized. But 
 Jesus is looking into the hearts and lives of men, and 
 seeking there a spiritual harvest for the Kingdom of God; 
 and His directions for such an undertaking are very ex- 
 plicit: “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers 
 are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that 
 he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” 
 
 The first thing to be noticed about these directions is 
 that plainly Jesus was no idle dreamer who thought that 
 harvests whether agricultural or spiritual could be gath- 
 ered by anything else but hard work. The sharp contrast 
 between our instinctive conclusion face to face with a 
 plenteous harvest that the immediate thing to do is to get 
 to work and His that the urgent need is prayer, does not 
 come from any visionary idea on His part that “mere 
 praying,” as we sometimes shallowly call it, will by some 
 magic or miracle avail to get this reaping done. He knows 
 just as well as we practical Americans that what such a 
 situation calls for is hard work and plenty of it; and the 
 
 85 
 
last part of His directions, with its emphasis upon laborers 
 going forth to toil in the harvest field, is as definite and 
 practical as any modern organizer could wish. But He 
 knows also what we busy folk so often forget, that in all 
 spiritual service some other things are just as important as 
 numbers and activity, if not more so; that work to be 
 effective must be of a certain kind and done from a certain 
 motive. He plainly believes that prayer has everything 
 to do with getting that kind of work done; and so He puts 
 behind the work that has to be done in the harvest field 
 the prayer that alone can make it adequate and effective: 
 “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will 
 send forth labourers into his harvest.” 
 
 The reasons why Jesus believes that prayer is an essen- 
 tial prerequisite to the right kind of work in the harvest 
 field also appear in this explicit direction. Our modern 
 inclination is constantly to think that the reaping of spir- 
 itual harvests, the extending of the Kingdom of God on 
 earth, is our human responsibility; 'and so, with the best 
 brains and organization and effort we can summon, we try 
 to make it our human achievement. Jesus reminds us 
 here that the same God who, in ways not only past our 
 imitation but also past even our understanding, caused 
 the grain to grow from the seed and ripen into the head 
 is also “Lord of the harvest.” It is His enterprise and 
 therefore His responsibility; and we men can only find our 
 rightful place in it as we put ourselves under His direc- 
 tion. God has His plans for the harvest as truly as for 
 the sowing and the ripening of the grain; and His direc- 
 tion and blessing is as indispensable for the one as for the 
 other. There is a glimpse here into Jesus’ view of the 
 spiritual processes of history, and of the progress of the 
 Kingdom among men, which we self-confident and pre- 
 cipitate moderns greatly need. We feel sure we can rush 
 out and bring in the Kingdom with some grand cam- 
 paign or efficiency program of our own device. Jesus re- 
 
 86 
 
minds us that God’s direction of the harvesting is just as 
 necessary as His blessing upon the sown seed. The plan 
 of campaign, if it is to be successful, must be His rather 
 than ours; and we must place ourselves at His ordering, 
 as must all other laborers, if the work is to be rightly done. 
 This is the deeper meaning of Jesus’ insistence upon 
 prayer as the essential preliminary to the right kind of 
 work in the harvest field. Only through prayer can we 
 discover God’s program and go forth to our own part in 
 it with His commission. 
 
 A meaning deeper yet in Jesus’ emphasis upon prayer 
 appears when we look for the nature of this divine com- 
 mission which He insists is essential to successful work. 
 The word translated “send forth” is in the Greek a very 
 strong one, fairly to be translated “thrust forth.” The 
 vigorous impulse which it implies surely cannot be that of 
 outer compulsion, for Jesus never represents God as forc- 
 ing His servants to work like a slaveholder. It is an inner 
 impulse that God quickens in the hearts of all His true 
 servants in every age, — the thrust from within that Paul 
 felt so powerfully when he said, “The love of Christ con- 
 straineth me.” This is the only motive power to Christian 
 service that is commensurate with the size and difficulty 
 of the undertaking. Jesus makes it plain that it is God 
 himself who thus equips His workers with the inner en- 
 dowment which is necessary for the adequate performance 
 of their task; and that it is prayer which opens the hearts 
 and lives of His children to receive this indispensable 
 commission. 
 
 We can easily imagine that Jesus had seen in the re- 
 ligious workers of His own time abundant reason for 
 insisting on this inner equipment for spiritual service 
 which alone can make it effective. There was no lack in 
 His day of those who thought they were doing the Lord 
 service. One considerable company of them — the scribes 
 and Pharisees — were very careful to go through the mo- 
 
 87 
 
tions of religious service with special attention to correct- 
 ness of form. But Jesus and every one else saw that their 
 laborious activity was absolutely without real influence 
 on the lives of their fellows or the progress of the King- 
 dom; it lacked the inner impulse of spiritual vitality, the 
 contagious spirit of sincere good will, which God quickens 
 in the hearts of His fellow workers, and which alone makes 
 their work prevail and endure. From that day to this 
 there have been those who have laboriously or energetically 
 gone through the motions of Christian service with simi- 
 larly barren results. In our time it is not so much, per- 
 haps, the punctilious formalism of the Pharisee as it is 
 the galvanic activity of those who think they can save 
 the world and themselves by much busyness about re- 
 ligious interest and undertakings that reminds us again 
 how utterly spiritual service depends for its value on that 
 quickening spirit of reality and vitality which men can 
 never achieve for themselves, but only God can create 
 and bestow. How sorely we Christians of the early 
 twentieth century need to pray to be delivered from the 
 futility of mere mechanical busyness! For that never 
 saved any soul nor really advanced the Kingdom, nor 
 ever will. 
 
 Then Jesus knew full well, also, that company of short- 
 winded enthusiasts who in His time, as in every age, have 
 been quick to take up the Lord’s work and as quick to 
 drop it when the burden grew heavy or the road long. 
 The gospels tell us that at the opening of His own ministry 
 He was surrounded by great multitudes who hailed His 
 preaching, were carried away by His personality, and 
 wanted to follow in His train; but when He began to 
 lead them by that way of the cross on which He frankly 
 said all His friends must expect to follow Flim, they 
 “went back, and walked no more with him.” He has 
 himself given us the perfect picture of this short-lived de- 
 votion in His parable of those whose hearts have no 
 
 88 
 
“deepness of earth,” the seed which falls there springs up 
 quickly enough, but they have no “root in themselves” 
 to endure the test of difficulty or adversity. What pastor 
 does not know their modern successors; quick enough to 
 enthuse over the new idea or the new leader, ready enough 
 to respond to the urgency of the friend whose invitation 
 to serve on his committee they cannot refuse for personal 
 reasons; but rarely there to the finish of the long, slow, 
 spiritual task. Jesus knew well enough that the work of 
 the harvest field to which He summoned men would not 
 be done by midmorning or even by noon, and that only 
 the inexhaustible inner impulse with which God thrusts 
 men forth to service (so wonderfully pictured in His own 
 parable of the unfailing well of living water within the 
 soul) can suffice to sustain His fellow workers in their 
 arduous and continuing toil: “Pray ye therefore the Lord 
 of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his 
 harvest.” 
 
 In other words, the work of the Kingdom is at once so 
 delicate in its nature, so vast in its extent, and so exact- 
 ing in its demands, that it calls for more than human wis- 
 dom, effort and organization. Misguided activity must 
 fail to advance it, no less than indifference and indolence. 
 The Kingdom for which we hope and work and pray is so 
 essentially God’s that we cannot expect to serve it except 
 under His constant direction and by His continuing in- 
 spiration. Only He, by that secret entrance and influence 
 which He possesses within the hearts of men, can thus 
 call and equip for His service an adequate number of 
 really effective laborers. The man whom Jesus has taught 
 enough about “the mysteries of the kingdom” to realize 
 this will see that Jesus’ call to prayer in the presence of 
 the white harvest field is really the only adequate first 
 step toward getting that harvest reaped; for it will put 
 the man who prays under the immediate direction of the 
 “Lord of the harvest” for whatever service he can render; 
 
 89 
 
and in ways that he may not fully understand it will open 
 the hearts and lives of others for whom he prays to that 
 same inspiring and enabling presence. 
 
 A spiritual truth so simple and yet so profound as this 
 is often plainer under the form of a symbol. Jesus taught 
 us that the perfect relationship between men as brethren 
 and God as their Father, which He came to establish in 
 the Kingdom of God, is not simply a one-sided ethical 
 relation between man and man, nor yet a one-sided re- 
 ligious relation between man and God, but rather a tri- 
 angular relationship, linking men with their brother men 
 beside them and with God above them. Jesus insisted 
 that when the three points of this triangle (ourselves, 
 other folks and God) are linked up together in a mutual 
 relationship of confidence and love, spiritual forces will be 
 released around that triangle, as around a closed electrical 
 circuit, greater and more powerful by far than men iso- 
 lated from their fellows and their Father can ever guess. 
 He continually declared that prayer is, or rather releases, 
 such a force, so that men can not only serve one another 
 directly by acts of love, but can through prayer (by way 
 of God, so to speak) bring blessing into other lives; and 
 so that God can not only do things for men directly through 
 His mercy, but through other men, whose lives have been 
 made His channels through prayer on their part, can send 
 His blessings by way of human agencies. In such a world 
 of spiritual relationships, the man who wishes to forward 
 the Kingdom of God will look not only for opportunities 
 for personal service to his neighbor, but for occasions for 
 prayer on their behalf. And in the presence of fields 
 white to the spiritual harvest, he will realize as Jesus 
 said, that prayer to the Lord of the harvest alone can 
 open the way, for himself and for others as well, to really 
 effective work as a reaper. 
 
 What now does all this mean for our “New W’orld Move- 
 ment?” Not that we are to abandon our machinery, give 
 
 90 
 
up our organization, stop asking for money, or sit idly by 
 while the opportunity of centuries passes. Rather that 
 the sense of the crisis through which our world is passing 
 shall drive us not so much to hysterical, and therefore 
 spasmodic, activity but to our knees for a deeper under- 
 standing of God’s great purposes and our own part in 
 them, and for an inner equipment to play that part in 
 His sufficient strength. Prayer in this spirit will not dis- 
 pense with work or organization but will vitalize them. 
 The one thing we modern American Christians need to be 
 very sure of is that our prayer is really a preparation for 
 our planning and our working and not simply an after- 
 thought. Never were fields more white to the spiritual 
 harvest than those that stretch the world around to-day. 
 Never was there greater need, in our own hearts or in the 
 hearts of hungry men who know not what they seek or 
 where, that we should follow Christ’s program for the 
 reaping: — 
 
 The harv'est truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye 
 therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into 
 his harvest. 
 
 91 
 
CHRISTIANIZING THE NATION’S BANK ROLL 
 
 BY EDWIN M. POTEAT 
 
 The Size of the Roll 
 
 On the 9th of June of this year the comptroller of the 
 treasury said: “The wealth produced in the United 
 
 States in the year 1918 is estimated as not far from 
 $60,000,000,000, or more than two-thirds of the total 
 wealth of the whole German empire at the outbreak of 
 the war.” Estimates of the national wealth vary from 
 $250,000,000,000 to $320,000,000,000, and for a consider- 
 able period the annual production was put at $20,000,- 
 000,000. If we had had our present wealth in George 
 Washington’s day we could have bought every foot of 
 ground on the earth’s surface, paid cash, and had money 
 left in the bank. Of course we have no way of con- 
 ceiving these enormous figures. There is more wealth 
 in dollars in the United States to-day than there have 
 been seconds of time since the Garden of Eden. On 
 November 1, 1917, the comptroller of the treasury re- 
 ported the resources of our national banks as aggregating 
 $15,520,000,000, exceeding by $1,000,000,000 the com- 
 bined resources of the Bank of England, France, Russia, 
 Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Switzer- 
 land and Japan, and the United States national banks 
 for the first time reported a surplus and undivided profits 
 equal to their capital stock. Said the secretary of the 
 treasury: “We have been transformed from a debtor to 
 a creditor nation. This is not the opening of a new 
 chapter in our economical history, but the beginning of 
 Book II. When the war began there were five creditor 
 
 92 
 
nations; that is, nations that had capital to lend, — Great 
 Britain, France, Germany, Holland and Belgium. All 
 others were borrowers, including our own. Now Ameri- 
 can capital is being loaned in all five continents and the 
 United States dollar is a more important unit in inter- 
 national exchange than the English pound sterling. The 
 money center of the world has shifted to New York.” 
 
 The “Manchester Guardian,” writing in 1917, said: 
 “This year America’s foreign trade will amount to $8,000,- 
 000,000, one-fifth of the foreign trade of the whole world. 
 Her foreign trade in 1916 is one-half again as great as in 
 1915, and twice as great as in 1914.” 
 
 The United States Congress which expired March 4, 
 1919, appropriated $57,000,000,000, and authorized $22,- 
 000,000,000 in Government bonds. 
 
 The savings banks of New York State on the 1st of 
 January, 1919, reported $225,000,000,000 of deposits, 
 $65,500,000 more than on the 1st of January, 1918. 
 
 In three months of the winter 1918-19 a single trust 
 company in Boston reported an increase in deposits of 
 upwards of $2,000,000. 
 
 While we were at war we laid by in perfectly good 
 savings, at a good per cent of interest, $1,000,000,000 a 
 month in Liberty Bonds. 
 
 Congratulations or Commiserations? 
 
 Are we to congratulate ourselves or commiserate our- 
 selves on these enormous and inconceivable figures? John 
 Ruskin raised the question whether wealth might not 
 better be called “illth,” as tending to our ill-being rather 
 than our well-being, and certain it is that every great 
 civilization which has perished, perished after a period 
 of great prosperity. Byron has put the fact in unforget- 
 able lines: — 
 
 93 
 
Here is the moral of all human tales, 
 
 ’Tis but the same rehearsal of the past, 
 
 First, Freedom, then Glory, when that fails. 
 
 Wealth, Vice, Corruption, Barbarism at last, 
 
 And history with all her volumes vast 
 Hath but one page. 
 
 Carlyle was forever insisting that the pursuit of wealth 
 is not a human bond, and Mr. L. P. Jacks, commenting, 
 says: “Seekers of buried treasure invariably quarrel 
 
 among themselves for reasons which are manifest to a 
 child. It makes no difference whether it is hidden in a 
 pirates’ cavern or in the bowels of the earth. They may 
 arrange a most equitable scheme for the division of the 
 spoils and seal their mutual loyalty with fearful oaths, 
 but before the voyage is over the captain will be dangling 
 at the yardarm and the deck will be slippery with the 
 blood of half the crew.” Ruskin has given us the same 
 warning in one of the most eloquent sentences ever writ- 
 ten: “Since the dominion of man was first asserted over 
 the ocean three thrones of mark above all others have 
 been set upon its sands: the thrones of Tyre, of Venice 
 and of England. Of the first, only the memory remains, 
 of the second, the ruins; the third, which inherits their 
 greatness, if she forget their example may be led through 
 a prouder eminence to a less pitied destruction.” Tyre 
 fell after a period of great prosperity. At one time the 
 sails of the commerce of the queen city of the Adriatic 
 whitened all the Mediterranean, but her wealth became 
 her doom. And Ruskin’s warning to his native England 
 is more pertinent and solemn to us of the United States 
 to-day than to any other nation on earth. 
 
 A Sign of Promise 
 
 There is a sign of promise in the fact of the tremendous 
 outpouring of life and treasure in the war, for late as we 
 were in entering it the war gave us our supreme oppor- 
 
 94 
 
tunity to prove to ourselves and to all the world that we 
 value an idea — democracy — more than we value gold 
 or life; that our alleged worship of the almighty dollar is 
 a libel, and that once we were given the chance to choose 
 we chose in the spirit of the men of ’76 and ’61. Kipling 
 has spoken for us all in the lines: — 
 
 Then praise the Lord most High, 
 
 Whose strength has saved us whole; 
 
 Who bade us choose that flesh should die, 
 
 And not the living soul. 
 
 But it is worth while to remind ourselves that all our 
 war charities — Red Cross, War Work Drive, Salvation 
 Army, War Chests, etc., — probably fell short of $700,- 
 000,000. That is to say, they did not equal in amount the 
 interest of a single year on our Liberty Bonds, money 
 which we laid by in savings only because we were at war. 
 
 Of course it is impossible accurately to assess the amount 
 of the wealth of the nation in Christian hands. In the 
 year 1916 there were upwards of twenty-five million mem- 
 bers in evangelical churches in the country, with adher- 
 ents of twenty-five million more. It is fair to assume that 
 these persons are as industrious and as saving as any other 
 sections of our population. We cannot be far from the 
 facts if we say that half the total wealth of the nation is 
 in the hands of the members of evangelical churches. 
 
 The $167, (XX), 000 subscribed by the Methodists in their 
 great centenary drive, when analyzed, is shown to amount 
 to 11 cents per week per member. If all the evangelical 
 population of the country did as well, we should pile up a 
 total of $910,000,000. 
 
 How to Christianize our Money 
 
 We have been engaged through centuries in the task of 
 Christianizing our theology and our church polity. We 
 must now advance to the harder task of Christianizing 
 
 95 
 
our money. And unless Christ’s people take the lead 
 here they will forfeit the leadership of an industrial and 
 commercial age. Unless we can spiritualize our material 
 resources, that is, unless we can invest them with spiritual 
 values and subordinate them to spiritual ends and direct 
 them to spiritual objectives, they will materialize us and 
 our last state will be worse than the first. A man wrote 
 his own epitaph as follows: — 
 
 Born a human being, 
 
 Died a wholesale grocer. 
 
 The pastor was leading a candidate into the baptistry. 
 The candidate suddenly remembered that he had his 
 pocketbook in his pocket. “Oh, I forgot to take my 
 pocketbook out of my pocket!” The pastor answered 
 quickly: “Never mind, let it be baptized too.” 
 
 First. — We begin to Christianize our money when we 
 see the peril of accumulation and frankly acknowledge it 
 as a peril. We must see not merely that the poor and the 
 dispossessed will become increasingly angry at sight of our 
 luxurious ease, but that character itself rapidly deteriorates 
 under accumulation. A faithful deacon once said to his 
 pastor, “The more I have the meaner I feel.” It was a 
 perfectly sound judgment of the man’s conscience on his 
 character. Said Bishop Spalding: “The ability to make 
 and save money carries with it the destruction of the im- 
 pulse to give it away.” I do not decide here whether that 
 saying is true, but it sufficiently indicates the peril alluded 
 to. Or as Oliver Goldsmith put it: — 
 
 111 fares the land to hastening ills a prey, 
 
 Where wealth accumulates and men decay. 
 
 Second. — It will help to prevent this decay if we face 
 and answer the question, Who makes the money? 
 
 What are the factors in production? Adam Smith 
 (1723-1790) will answer, land, labor and capital; and the 
 
 96 
 
answer has entered so completely into the thinking of a 
 hundred years that it is almost impossible to revise it, or, 
 indeed, to get serious attention to it. It must be said 
 with all positiveness that such an answer can no longer 
 satisfy. All production of wealth is a co-operative enter- 
 prise in which God, society and the individual are the 
 co-operating factors. God contributes all the original ma- 
 terials of wealth. “The sea is his, and he made it; and 
 his hand formed the dry land.” “In the beginning God 
 created the heavens and the earth.” “The earth is the 
 Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” Thus the primary capi- 
 tal together with the laws of nature, including the laws of 
 health and all intelligent action, are God’s contribution 
 to the joint product which we call wealth. 
 
 Society makes its contribution in two ways: It gives 
 to wealth the character of wealth. There can be no 
 capital without society. Immanuel Kant said: “If a 
 man were alone on the earth, between himself as person 
 and all other objects as things there could be no relation.” 
 That is to say, isolated man could not have wealth. The 
 presence of others constitutes the opportunity of exchange 
 and calls for a medium of exchange. If Mr. Carnegie, 
 when he sold his business to the United States Steel 
 Corporation, had taken his 3500,000,000 in a single cer- 
 tificate and started upon a voyage around the world, so 
 long as he was in society, that is, a member of the ship’s 
 passengers, he could be said to have wealth. But let 
 the ship be wrecked, and let Mr. Carnegie find himself 
 alone on an island in the South Pacific, and his $500,000,- 
 000 would be worth exactly nothing! He would starve 
 to death unless, like Robinson Crusoe, he developed 
 sufficient resources to get food and shelter on the island. 
 That is to say, when a man drops out of society his wealth 
 ceases to be wealth. 
 
 But society contributes in another way. It enhances 
 the value of our accumulations. Manhattan Island was 
 
 97 
 
sold by the Indians for #28. To-day the land represented 
 in that transaction is said to be worth #325,000,000. 
 Who made that money? The answer is, society. In one 
 of our large cities a man paid #25,000 for a tract of land; 
 a few years afterward he was offered #125,000 for the 
 same tract, and he wrote a book to prove that he did 
 not make that #100,000. The general movement of 
 population created that increment. The owner certainly 
 did not earn it by any labor of his brain or hand. 
 
 But we saw that labor is one of the factors in the pro- 
 duction of wealth. This is the contribution of the in- 
 dividual. Does he contribute anything else? Nothing, 
 except what he contributes as a member of society. One 
 man told me he attempted to calculate the amount of 
 his contribution to his own prosperity. He ran an ice 
 plant, an electric-light plant, a dairy and an ice-cream 
 factory, and he was very prosperous. In repeated cal- 
 culations he had never got his contribution above 5 per 
 cent, God and society contributing the other 95 per cent. 
 
 Third. — Preachers must grow the courage to teach 
 the New Testament on the subject of money. The mind 
 of Jesus is abundantly indicated on this subject. “Lay 
 not up for yourselves treasures on earth” is as plain an 
 injunction as “Go ye into all the world and make dis- 
 ciples of all the nations.” Indeed it is easy to see that 
 the two injunctions hold together in his mind, for men 
 who are bent upon piling up wealth for themselves and 
 for their children are not likely to be in earnest in the 
 task of bringing the non-Christian nations into disciple- 
 ship. Whereas those who obey the second injunction 
 “Go” find that the first injunction, “Lay not up,” is 
 almost unnecessary, for when one makes it the aim of 
 his life to share the light and peace and power of the 
 Christian salvation with those who do not know it, he is 
 not likely to be interested in laying up treasure for 
 himself. 
 
 98 
 
Fourth. — Our people must be willing for the mind of 
 Christ about money to be preached. Indeed many 
 Christian men are in real perplexity because this teaching 
 has been so long neglected in the ministries of the churches. 
 A Christian conscience entirely adequate to a transaction 
 between neighbors is not certainly ready at once to pass 
 judgment upon business transactions which involve 
 myriads of human lives and run out in their remoter 
 bearings to the ends of the earth. And one can see that 
 much of the confusion of our times is due to the failure 
 of the Christian pulpit to interpret and enforce the New 
 Testament ideals in the making, handling and distri- 
 bution of money. 
 
 When all is said and done, our only hope of Christian- 
 izing our money is in carrying the whole body of American 
 Christians back to the scriptural teachings about money 
 and its rightful use by us as stewards. Our property 
 and all our property interests are included in the re- 
 demption which is in Christ Jesus. “Ye were bought 
 with a price.” Men begin with subtracting a tenth and 
 devoting it sacredly to the maintenance of public worship. 
 They go on and on and on to living on the tenth and 
 distributing the nine-tenths. Or as a Christian jurist, 
 the best-loved lawyer in his metropolitan city, said to 
 me: “I have no interest whatever in making money 
 except as I can give it away.” 
 
 99 
 
MINISTERIAL COMPENSATION 
 
 BY D. C. SHULL, PRESIDENT OF THE NORTHERN BAPTIST 
 CONVENTION 
 
 Conditions actually existing cannot be long ignored. 
 We can inveigh against them; can claim they will soon 
 change; that the old order will be restored if we simply 
 have patience; but in spite of our protestations and our 
 determination not to recognize facts, the thing which 
 really does exist confronts us, — will not be put down, — 
 and we finally must admit its existence. 
 
 We have been hoping the matter of compensation for 
 the ministry of our church would right itself, — that it 
 would automatically reach a satisfactory basis which at 
 least would be somewhat similar to that heretofore obtain- 
 ing. We have been so used to the sacrifices and economies 
 of the minister and his family that we seem to have got 
 the idea those sacrifices and economies must continue, — 
 we don’t know how; that they are too much a part of the 
 ministry, so absolutely necessary to its functioning, too 
 sacred, ever to be changed. Besides, our ministers were 
 taught in the theological schools and in the churches theirs 
 was to be a life of sacrifice, of self-abnegation. Their 
 wives, also, of course, knew such limitations were to be 
 imposed upon their husbands and families. Therefore how 
 disappointed they would be if any other conditions should 
 ever arise! Our denomination has been schooled in this 
 sort of thinking, — to think thus costs nothing; it was 
 very economical and we liked it and still like it. 
 
 No one seems to know just why the minister and his 
 family must always have a life of hardship, why his par- 
 ticular service to the church and community requires it, 
 but, nevertheless, it has been so, is now so, and of course 
 
 100 
 
must be so in the future. In matters of education, business 
 and pleasure there must be radical changes all the time, 
 but in the mode of living and home environment of the 
 pastor the rules are different, — these must always go on 
 as of yore! 
 
 In the business world to-day, every one admits com- 
 pensation has to be on a different basis from what it was 
 formerly. Why? Not because business desires to in- 
 crease compensation, but because it is forced to. Few 
 compensations in the business world have been increased 
 voluntarily; conditions, over which those who pay these 
 increased compensations had no control, required them. 
 We have reached a time in the history of our denomination 
 when tremendous increases in the compensation of our 
 ministry have to be made, — not because the churches 
 want to make such increases, not because the ministry de- 
 mands them, but because the life and the future of the 
 denomination and its work cannot get along without them. 
 Our ministry has made no demands. It has patiently 
 plodded along, hoping conditions would change. Our 
 churches, as such, have not considered the matter, al- 
 though, of course, individual churches have acted. The 
 minister has felt he could not make demands, and that 
 for the time he had to w'ork he w r ould do so without com- 
 plaining if the compensation was merely increased to 
 cover the actual requirements; and I think this is a splen- 
 did attitude on the part of our ministry to-day. 
 
 The situation, however, is not one of which the young 
 man who ought to go into the ministry and the young 
 woman who ought to go into the mission work are un- 
 mindful. You say: “These young people are too materi- 
 alistic. They do not have the courage of the young men 
 and women of the generations past.” And you berate 
 them for their lack of desire to economize and sacrifice. 
 Let us consider this phase for a moment: Have the former 
 sacrifices and the miserable economies of our ministers, 
 
 101 
 
their wives and families been of any permanent benefit 
 to the denomination and the churches? It has been a 
 grievous burden to those upon whom it rested, but has it 
 created a corresponding compensation anywhere? Has it 
 been appreciated? On the contrary has it not belittled 
 the ministry itself and placed it in a wrong light before 
 those whom it served, and brought us to our present in- 
 defensible position? Viewed from this angle, is not the 
 idea of our young people toward this matter eminently 
 just, and, as a matter of fact, correct? 
 
 Our denomination must face the issue. We must solve 
 this problem correctly if we continue to live. Young 
 people cannot always analyze a given state of facts and 
 say why a thing is so, but they can see actual results and 
 act accordingly. The Baptist denomination cannot exist 
 — much less function efficiently — without its ministry. 
 I know this is a disputed question in some localities, where 
 the laymen think they can successfully take the place of 
 the minister, but I want to reiterate, as my own positive 
 conviction, our ministers are essential to our denomina- 
 tional existence. If so, we need strong, virile, capable, 
 efficient men and women. We must, therefore, have the 
 finest boys and girls of our churches. These are not only 
 our salvation, but they make the future possible. These 
 young men and women whom we need, whom we must 
 have, will measure the future of the denomination by what 
 it is doing now and by its plans in the present, making for 
 the future. Just as the parents of to-day are shaping the 
 character and marking out the future of their children, 
 so also the churches of to-day are making the ministers 
 and missionaries, and fixing the limitations and possibil- 
 ities of the services they will render in the future at home 
 and abroad. 
 
 We must, therefore, take a great stride forward in our 
 idea of compensation for our ministry. It is useless for us 
 to raise large sums for other purposes and neglect this. 
 
 102 
 
A new standard must obtain. VVc must not simply pay 
 a wage or a salary as low as we can possibly arrange, but 
 we must make a compensation for these services upon a 
 basis of what is just. I do not like the term “wages” or 
 “salary” of a preacher. It sounds as if he were hired on 
 a mercenary basis on the best terms obtainable. Let us 
 put this whole matter upon a basis of compensation, 
 thinking not only of how it affects the pastor who now 
 serves, but of the impression it gives to those who might, 
 and we hope may, serve in the future, thinking of justice 
 and hoping for correct results. The denomination must 
 have the best. The best must be attracted. Just com- 
 pensation to those who serve us now will be the best guar- 
 antee that we will be just to those who consecrate their 
 lives to our service for the future. 
 
 It has been thought by many that we have a more 
 consecrated ministry by reason of its forced economies 
 and sacrifices than otherwise we should have. I cannot 
 but believe that the carrying of the burdens and sorrows 
 of the people of our churches, which will always be the 
 inheritance of our ministry, will be sufficient cross for 
 them, and that the needs of themselves and those whom 
 they love, and their dependents, ought not to be added. 
 
 The individual churches of our denomination know 
 whether the compensation now paid is just or not. The 
 amount paid in the past should not be the standard now. 
 I appeal to the churches to consider this matter, not only 
 as it affects your present pastorate but also as it affects 
 the denomination’s great future. Reconsider this whole 
 matter in the light of the present conditions, the existing 
 facts, the necessity for preparing now for our future 
 ministry, and make an increase to your pastor, not as a 
 wage or salary but as a just, fair and reasonable com- 
 pensation for a service which cannot be measured by 
 either a wage or salary, and which is so far-reaching in 
 its influence that we cannot now estimate its importance. 
 
 103 
 
PRESENT DAY EVANGELISM 
 
 BY JAMES A. FRANCIS 
 
 “Do the Work of an Evangelist” 
 
 Evangelism is the work of presenting Jesus Christ to 
 men, women and children in such a way as to secure 
 their hearty acceptance of Him by faith and their open 
 acknowledgment of Him as Saviour and Master. Christ 
 is the whole of Christianity. The soul’s relation to him 
 is the first and last article of a saving creed. Evangelism 
 is not the whole of the churches’ work, but it is the heart 
 of it. Nothing can be a substitute for it. No campaign 
 of education or social service, important as these are, 
 can take the place of personal persuasion to close with 
 Christ. The church that ceases to be evangelistic ceases 
 in any true sense to be evangelical and to that extent 
 ceases to be Christian. Let us not deceive ourselves 
 with excuses.. The Master’s command to “Go and make 
 disciples” is absolute and imperative; unless with all 
 our other forms of Christian activity we are persuading 
 men to the decision for Christ and so furthering His 
 program in the world, we are sadly missing that mark 
 at the very center of things. The church that is having 
 no conversions ought to be possessed with a divinely 
 wrought discontent till the case is remedied. The min- 
 ister who is having no conversions has a right to a holy 
 desperation concerning both himself and his ministry. 
 Let him not say, “The special gift of the evangelist is 
 not mine.” It is his business to discover the evangelist 
 that is in him and bring him out. 
 
 There is not only the individual ambassadorship of the 
 man called of God in the special work, there is also the 
 corporate ambassadorship of the church as the body of 
 
 104 
 
Christ. The New Testament ideal is that all who know 
 Christ as Saviour are to go or send to all who do not so 
 know Him and make Him known in such a way as to 
 secure discipleship. It is neither a side line nor an 
 occasional spurt of effort, but the main trunk line in 
 constant employ of the church that lives inside the mind 
 of Christ. 
 
 Occasionally we find a church that has the evangelistic 
 atmosphere constant and abiding. The welcome of Jesus 
 for the lost, — the shepherd heart of the great seeker is 
 in evidence and breathes through the whole worship and 
 life of the church. Why not make this the norm and make 
 all our churches so? 
 
 A church where conversions are always in order and 
 always expected is about as near Heaven as we shall ever 
 get on this side of the river. The compensation and 
 satisfaction of this work are beyond words. 
 
 Hearts I have won of sister or of brother. 
 
 Quick on the earth or hidden in the sod, 
 
 Lo! every one awaiteth me, another 
 Friend in the blameless family of God. 
 
 It will be but a little while till we stand in His very 
 presence. To know then that we have helped Him win 
 His own and remake His world, what will it be? 
 
 What now do we mean by “present day evangelism?” 
 We mean the presentation of the ancient presage in the 
 thought forms and speech of our own time so as to make 
 it intelligible and effective with the men of to-day. The 
 message changes never. The expression of it changes 
 constantly. The sermons of Charles G. Finney, which 
 shook communities in the New England and Middle States 
 as with an earthquake two generations ago, would not 
 shake these communities to-day if preached by the same 
 man and with the same earnestness. He knew his day 
 and fitted it. It is ours to be as wise in our day. 
 
 105 
 
Phrases like coins get smooth from use, and need to be 
 reminted. The supreme lesson of the incarnation of Jesus 
 Christ in the flesh is adaptation. He gets at mankind so 
 that mankind could get at Him. He is God coming to 
 men in such a way that men can come to God. “To 
 bring us to God” was His mission; to bring God to us 
 in such a way that we could understand Him with head 
 and heart was His method. The task of present day 
 evangelism is to bring Christ to the modern mind so that 
 men can be induced to come to Christ. The presentation 
 which fitted and drew men once may be “an unknown 
 tongue” to the mind of to-day. Our blessed Lord knew 
 how to present His message so that “the common people 
 heard Him gladly.” 
 
 Happy is the man who knows how to popularize the 
 ancient message and thus socialize the highest and best 
 God has given. “For their sakes I consecrate myself.” 
 The message fits the heart of man in the twentieth cen- 
 tury as well as it did in the first, and we find the key. As 
 we give ourselves to this task of interpreting Christ to 
 our own day we learn anew what it means to love God 
 and men “ with all our mind.” 
 
 Into the consideration of the work of evangelism three 
 things naturally enter: the message, the messenger and 
 the method. Let us look at each in turn. 
 
 The Message 
 
 God, moved by holy love, has revealed Himself in 
 Jesus Christ for man’s salvation, and he who comes into 
 the relationship with Christ of the obedience of faith 
 finds forgiveness for the past, help for the present, and 
 hope for the future. 
 
 The supreme item and issue in the presentation of the 
 message is Christ himself. All sides of His gracious ac- 
 tivity, all the offices He fills, and all the forms of love He 
 wears should be set forth in relation to himself as center. 
 
 106 
 
We preach not simply an incarnation, but the in- 
 carnate one; not simply a message, but a divine mes- 
 senger; not simply a body of teachers, but the great 
 Teacher; not simply a beautiful example, but Christ 
 our example; not a cross only, but Christ crucified; not 
 a doctrine of a resurrection from the dead, but a risen 
 Lord; not a certain type of life or way of living, but 
 “Christ who is our Life;” and not simply a judgment 
 day, but “Christ as judge of the quick and the dead.” 
 The more keenly we can lead our hearers to feel that they 
 are face to face with a person who waits unseen their 
 answer to His wooing, the sharper persuasive edge our 
 message will have. It is easier to lay aside a doctrine 
 than to turn away from a friend. Beyond all doubt the 
 central converting message of the Gospel is Christ cruci- 
 fied to preserve to man as Lord the one who was crucified 
 for him, — is God’s ultimate. This is the limit of abso- 
 lute love. This is the most difficult and the most effective 
 of all preaching. In preaching Christ crucified we pro- 
 claim by implication the awfulness of human sin. It 
 must be a fearful element in human life that called for 
 such a remedy as the death of the Son of God. Here God 
 gets His stronger grip on the conscience, — the mortgage 
 of an immeasurable gratitude. A crucified Saviour redeems 
 us into the very consciousness of our need of Him. Here, 
 too, is the strongest motive for repentance. “One died 
 for all, that they who live should not henceforth live 
 unto themselves but unto Him who for their sakes died 
 and rose again.” Once get a man to feel that he is sinning 
 against an infinite lover and he will break away. 
 
 Here, too, is the strongest motive for consecration. 
 When the stern call of duty is reenforced by the sense of 
 love, religious motive reaches full tide. In the cross of 
 Jesus, God’s mercy and human need meet. The most 
 powerful moral motives ever released in human life are 
 born here. 
 
 107 
 
If you want to effect real contrition for sin, real awaken- 
 ing of conscience that will plough through long-settled 
 habits, real joy of the soul’s new birth, real personal love 
 for the Saviour, real self-sacrifice in living, then fearlessly 
 preach Him crucified and risen again. The four Gospels 
 tell us the story of His wonderful life; but the message 
 that changed the Roman world was the Gospel of a 
 Christ in the skies, who had left an empty tomb behind 
 Him, and who carried in His glorified body the marks of 
 a nail and a spear. The death of Jesus is as central in 
 His career as He is central in human history. Fellow 
 worker, we need a message of arresting power; here it is. 
 Inseparable from the message of His death and its mean- 
 ing is that of His present indwelling life. He lives beyond 
 time, but He may live in time. He died for us that He 
 might live in us. Redemption is mightier than natural 
 causation. Divine grace is stronger than habit. Life is 
 reenforced from on high. Something comes across from 
 Him to us that is life’s finest asset. This something 
 quickens the conscience, strengthens the will, illuminates 
 the mind, awakens the emotions, and creates a perennial 
 springtime in the soul. His death saves us from the 
 death of sin. His life saves us from the life of sin. For 
 us believers, eternal life has begun. The powers of the 
 age to come are already in operation. “Christ died for 
 me” issues in “Christ liveth in me.” Here is forgiveness 
 for the past as complete as God can make it, and help 
 for the present as strong as the full tide of His life. 
 
 Here, too, is hope for the future as bright and sure as 
 a contract of grace by a faithful God can make it. Life 
 now has a rainbow in the evening sky, our anchor is 
 already within the veil, and death will but change our 
 post-office address. The human soul is built on the scale 
 of two worlds, so is our Gospel. Our front windows look 
 out across the river into a far eternity. Jesus was not 
 ashamed of “the joy that was set before Him,” and did 
 
 108 
 
not hesitate to say, “I go to prepare a place for you, 
 that where I am there ye may be also.” In the face of 
 modern science, men grow timid about faith in the future 
 life. Yet most folks do care what comes after the funeral. 
 It is ours to bring this longing and the authority of 
 Christ together. Very powerful are the motives that can 
 wisely be drawn from the future. The true evangelist 
 will not hesitate to use them with discriminating cburage. 
 
 Many a life that has never felt a sense of need arising 
 from a crushing weight of guilt, does feel a pathetic need 
 arising from a sense of incompleteness, inefficiency, in- 
 adequacy, just a baffled sense of not getting there. To 
 such our message is a Gospel. Jesus is “God with us.” 
 No figure of speech, this, but life’s greatest and most 
 practical asset. He makes life worth while. 
 
 Closely coupled with this is the great assurance that 
 He will enable us to help others. He shows that He is 
 adequate by making us adequate. He enables us to get 
 something across and not to beat the air with pious 
 wishing. 
 
 But the message has a range beyond the individual 
 life. The cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ consti- 
 tute the foundations of a new order in human society 
 known as the Kingdom of God. The purpose of God is 
 to pervade every realm of human thought and activity, 
 every custom and organization of human society with the 
 spirit of Christ. Good and evil are incarnate not alone 
 in individuals but also in traditions, ideals, customs, 
 organizations and groups. Christ came not simply to 
 redeem men but society. At the same time we summon 
 men to Christ, we summon them to the program of Christ 
 without reservations. Nothing worth while in human 
 life is outside His realm. Christ is the Saviour of the 
 world. 
 
 109 
 
The Messenger 
 
 What kind of men and women are fitted to bring such 
 a message to their fellows? Other things being equal, they 
 are best fitted who have most deeply experienced the 
 power of Christ in their own lives. Being an able man 
 with a logical mind, a vivid imagination and a ready and 
 pleasing utterance by no means fits one to convey this 
 message. The messenger is a witness not only for his 
 Master, but of what his Master has done for him. It 
 may be the best to say little about one’s own personal 
 experience. The important thing is that it be there. The 
 fact that we have tried it out and found the reality gives 
 a moral authority in our words that nothing else can. 
 “We believe and therefore we speak.” If our lives are 
 radiant with power and joy, many imperfections will be 
 either overcome or unnoticed. One who ever heard Mr. 
 Moody at his best knows how little the audience cared 
 about his errors in grammar or diction. He was face to 
 face with reality, his soul was bathed in a vision, he was 
 pouring out what God was showing to him. Criticism 
 slunk away ashamed. 
 
 Next to being ourselves the subject of saving grace 
 and, indeed, as an outcome of it we should be hearty 
 lovers of mankind. We do people good as we are gen- 
 uinely interested in them. There is but one royal road 
 to this love for men, it is to live with the supreme lover. 
 Love is caught not taught. You cannot expose yourself 
 to it constantly under right conditions but it will take. 
 His tenderness to you will make the whole race look 
 different. You will not need to pile up endearing terms 
 to prove your good will; you cannot hide it. 
 
 Add to these two, live above reproach, avoid as poison 
 the love of money and desire for reputation. Be above 
 jealousy of fellow workers. Avoid professionalism, 
 posing or patronizing. “What hast thou that thou didst 
 not receive?” Be a true democrat. 
 
 110 
 
You are simply a man who has found “the pearl of 
 great price,” and you are putting a fellow traveler on the 
 clue that he may find it also. Know your message. Be 
 better acquainted with it than with anything else in 
 literature or life. Hunt for illustrations as you would 
 for gold. The best ones are from the common life. If 
 addressing college people you may glean them from 
 science, art, literature; but be sure that for all classes of 
 people the homely is the forceful and the commonplace 
 comes closest to the heart. Be like a sheet of plate glass 
 that lets the light clear through. 
 
 The Method 
 
 Naturally in speaking of method one must have in 
 mind both platform and personal effort. In either case 
 rules for procedure are useless, even ridiculous. Some 
 general observations may be of help. (1) Seek to secure 
 in the church what for want of a better term we call the 
 evangelistic atmosphere. This is but a way of saying, 
 help the church to cultivate the shepherd heart and 
 mind of Christ. Do not wait for this before going directly 
 to work. Sometimes a few earnest sermons directed to 
 the now Christian portion of the community, coupled 
 with a few real conversions, will awaken in the church the 
 very thing we are longing for. (2) Be earnest but do not 
 let it degenerate into a harangue. Be a brother speaking 
 to brothers. Be direct in appeal, but never take ad- 
 vantage to embarrass. (3) In every address make the way 
 to God through Christ plain. Appeal to the best in your 
 hearers. Take for granted in spite of their sinfulness that 
 conscience is still alive and that they often long for the 
 better life. (4) Give opportunity for acknowledgment of 
 Christ openly, but do not publicly divide your audience 
 into saints and sinners. If you do, you will manufacture 
 more cheap hypocrites than anything else and repel the 
 very people who would be worth most to the King. (5) 
 
 111 
 
In personal approach be a friend, respectful, sympathetic, 
 humble. Do not try to take charge of another’s life. 
 Rather offer to share the knowledge of the good thing 
 you have found. Be transparent and sincere. Assume 
 nothing you do not feel. Your friend will be much more 
 conscious of what you are than of what you say. 
 
 Above all things, however, let us go to work and keep 
 everlastingly at it. The worst mistake is to shirk. You 
 may not mine the richest ore, but mine some. What is 
 wanted is not a spurt but a spirit, not a dash but a cam- 
 paign. This is the very core of our great five-year program. 
 The spirit that will lead us into this work and keep us in 
 it till we master this higher art will at the same time lift 
 us over the bog of selfishness and self-seeking out into the 
 deep ocean of God’s fullness, and there shall not fail for 
 us one good thing of all that He has promised. 
 
 No. 215. Ed. 1. 150 M. 11-19. 
 
 112