The field is the world

Front matter

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Chapter I A Bankrupt World

ON A SUMMER NIGHT of 1929 I had a long interview with Dr. Herman Lieu, president of Shanghai College. He told me much about his country. Among other things he said: “China is greatly troubled. This creates Christianity’s opportunity in China. Where there is no trouble, there is no need of Christianity. I am most optimistic as to the future of the Christian religion in my country, for it is the only thing that can meet our needs, solve our problems, and cure our troubles.”

What this cultured and distinguished Chinese leader and publicist said of China is true of the world. It is a troubled world, and Christianity can cure its troubles. This creates Christianity’s peerless and undying opportunity.

Paul paints the picture of a bankrupt world in Romans 1:18 when he says, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness.”

He is looking out upon a world on fire. The conflagration burns to heaven. It threatens hope itself. Civilization is on the rocks. Society is bankrupt, credit is gone. The treasury is empty. There is no blacker picture than this which the great apostle paints in the opening chapter of his letter to people living in the world’s capital, and who saw daily with their own eyes the truth of what he said. He seems to make an inventory of the world’s insolvency. He names one after another the things which had brought about the breakdown of civilization. Swiftly he sketches the ruin of the race.

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A World on

Fire

He says the world is bankrupt because it has fallen into the hands of plunderers, of ungodly and unrighteous exploiters, who by wickednéss’ hinder truth, and against whose impious deeds the wrath-of God; is loosed.

It is not because these robbers of human hope and happiness are ignorant, for whatever is to-be’known of God has been. made plain: to'them!” The trouble is they treat the truth with ‘contempt? They dotiot-care. ‘They defy the Almighty and’ ke to. scorn Fils ever aieae i and divine being. 3d OT 2 TOG,

“They are foolish, data over fale shewdlgaie! Ghat thei clouded minds grow dark‘as night and theif’ evil hearts black “as hell’ And°these ‘are ‘people who. have climbed into power and are trying to run the world.”

They have gone so far as to make gods. for themselves. They have exchanged the glory, ‘of immortal God for. the likeness of mortal man-. Some of them fancy. ‘God. i a bird, others, a dog” or a.cow; still others, a. snake. ie pe

Tes ‘not to be wondered that such. people | live like. ani. mals. Casting all restraints aside they give themse ves over to a carnival “ot ‘sexual vice. "Since “peo ote ate ae than the gods they worship, ‘earth’ fills 3 up wit moral perverts. Mankind becomes a race of degenerates, Lust flourishes, The flesh has the right of way. Bests i “Being filled with all ‘unrighteousness, wickedness, se etousness, - ‘maliciousness; full of. envy,. “murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbitérs, hateful! tooGod, insolent, haughty, boastful, inyentors, ‘of evil things, disobedient. ‘to parents, ‘without. understanding, covenantbreakers,» without natural affection, . unmerciful; who knowing the ordinance. of God, that ‘they that ‘practice such things are worthy of. death not only, do. the, same, but also: consent with them that RFANCE,. them.” 7 iSO td LRG

Could there be a darker picture? It is a bankrupt world. Who would want to live in such a world? Gehenna has run over and inundated earth.

It is still a bankrupt world. Despite all our material progress, what Paul said of the first century may be said of the twentieth. Indeed some of the colors are The Picture darker with age. The world has grown old Holds and wrinkled in sin and misery. Sophistication seams deeper its lines of depair. Its bosom seethes with the agony of a more feverish unrest. As I write this, Russia, uncured, unhappy, stained with the blood of innocents, plundered of sane leadership by ruthless assassinations, holding out unclean hands which other nations are not yet willing to clasp, Russia moans and tosses still like a man in a bad dream.

And in other nations there smoulders the fire which might make of every nation another Russia. It waits but the chance to break into flame. Once lit, it will burn down and consume not only despotism and autocracy but human happiness and hope.

The debts which have unloaded on war-mad nations not only imperil prosperity and lay staggering burdens on the shoulders of unborn generations, but threaten international complications and menace world peace.

Strife and jealousy and suspicion refuse to subside. One would think the world had learned its lesson, that beggared peoples had enough, that the world was cured forever of the folly of war, but there is little to encourage such a hope.

Even here in America, the nation that has fattened beyond the wildest dreams of men, the country that holds in its coffers half the wealth of a world, what greets us but industrial unrest, the strife and clash of classes, lawlessness unprecedented, contempt for courts, mobs and riots, gang wars, strikes, violence, hate? Opportunity dies before our eyes, for with our own hands we kindle the fire that consumes hope.

Add to all this the ravage of disease, the collapse of ethical standards, the falling away of moral restraints, the prevalence of sexual vice and its inescapable penalties, the increase of insanity, of moral perverts and degenerates, the menace of the present and future integrity of the race until conditions are created which a twentieth century reporter might record in the story Paul sent to Rome two thousand years ago.

Mr. Wade H. Ellis, former assistant attorney general of the United States and member of the American Bar Association’s Crime Commission, says crime costs the United States thirteen billion dollars annually, or about as much as the total debt of the World War. Seven out of every one hundred thousand of the population are murdered each year. There are thirty thousand criminals at large in New York City and ten thousand in Chicago and proportionately as many in the other cities of America.

Such is the condition of the richest nation in the world, the nation that brags of being the best governed, and that boasts of possessing the most power.

No, China is not the only nation in trouble. Rome is not the only capital whose liabilities transcend its assets. It is a bankrupt world.

The world has plenty of assets, and is probably doing a

bigger business, and has more to show in the way of human progress than ever before.

Bankrupt Despite Jt has more laws. It is better gov-

Assets erned. Autocracies are dead or doomed. Human liberty is the posses-

sion of the common average man. Slavery is tabooed. The barriers of race and creed and sex are down. Mankind is free.

The world is richer. It has wealth untold. Huge fortunes, amassed in a single generation, break all records and stagger the imagination. Poverty has gone out of fashion as either a curse or a bar. People get better wages, live in better houses, wear better clothes, eat better food, are better educated.

Human life is better equipped for achievement. Inventions have been multiplied, machinery has been provided, power has been harnessed until nothing seems impossible. Let but the goal be set and a way will be found to reach it. Let but the enterprise be named and the equipment will be assembled to translate it into reality.

The world knows more. This is the scientific age. The veil is lifted. The great secrets are being found out. Man seems to know about all he needs to know. He has conquered not only sea and land, but the air. He has harnessed the invisible forces of the world, wiped out distance, talked around the earth, and all but stormed the gates of heaven itself.

And yet, despite all this, it is still a bankrupt world. There are things its money cannot buy. There are people its laws cannot control. There are slaves its mandates have not emancipated. There are miseries its culture cannot cure. There are burdens its power cannot lift.

A concern goes bankrupt, not because it lacks assets, but because its assets are not equa! to its liabilities.

The rich fool in the Gospel story thought himself never more solvent. He was building bigger barns, erecting larger warehouses, increasing his capital stock, getting ready for bigger business. Absurd to call him insolvent! He could buy up the town. Yet as God looked at him, the man’s back was to the wall. “This night thy soul. shall be required of thee.” ere

He had plenty of baggage, but he was short on lifes He had everything for his body, but he was bankrupt spiritually. That is the insolvency that stares the world. It is full of rich people, and it is just.as full of discontented people. It knows how to measure the universe and take the temperature of the stars, but it does not know how to find God. It has discovered the Arctic and the Antarctic Poles, but it is still hunting for the secret of happiness. It has plenty of assets, but not enough to meet the liabilities of a being who must live forever. Mr, Oe! ee

The striking thing is Paul was not'cast down. He painted his picture with a steady hand. He talked about it in level tones. He looked. on unscared.

What Shall We Say in Fe faced a ruined world and did the Presence of a so with a soul buoyant with hope. Bankrupt World? It was. not because he was queer | enough to be elated by defeat.

Nor was it because he was callous to human suffering, for there never was a man more human. Paul kept his head because he felt he had the secret of making a-bankrupt world solvent. | SOC SRR) Se ae

As he looked on. he said: “I am, not ashamed. of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” He was not ready to salvage civilization. He was out to save it. He had something that could do what government was futile to accomplish, gold unable to buy, andscience, education; invention and trade powerless to produce. He had that which miracle-working ‘steam, ‘electricity ‘and

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[ 16 | radio failed even to suggest. He had the Powmeh of God. He had the Gospel of Christ. |

“Paul believed the Gospel could get dvilization off the rocks, could meet the needs of society in ruins, could extinguish the fires that were burning up the world, and restore to sanity a race crazed with lust ‘for power and mad with passion for pleasure. Paul felt the gospel could quell the storm and bring peace; could strike a light in the darkness and show the path home. He. was satished it could make a bankrupt world solvent, and its HReOD 5 safe and friendly and happy:

He’ believed this so thoroughly eat he himself went bankrupt for his conviction. He gave up‘all he had for the chance 'to proclaim the gospel to a broken world. This is what he meant: He was ready to pay any price, to put in pawn any possession, to welcome bonds, imprisonment, death, just for the chance to give to the bankrupt’ world eh gospel v which i is the porien of God unto salvation:

By srhiting sin to its ec Sint is fhe worm ptilee priate ‘a the near of the world until the tree of life withers and | rots to its roots. Sin must be slain. How Can the Gospel This is why the’ wrath of God is Make the Bankrupt revealed from heaven against all World Solvent? nungedliness and. righteousness of men. It would bean awful thing

ae ron to Taok.on.at sin with unconcern, to see the riot of lust.and not loose the lightning of His fierce anger. The gospel shows man the peril of sin, tells him he must cleanse his life, commands him to quit, plundering and.be decent. By keeping hope alive. We are saved by hope. Hope is seeing what the world will be when God has His way with it; and living as if God already had His way with 4t. Hope is not the futile speculation of fools. Hope is not the mood of devotees at the shrine of a bird god or a cow god or a man-made deity. Hope is not the product of an age of invention or of science or of trade. Hope is a vision of the throne of the Almighty. It is a glimpse of God building His world. It is sensing morning at midnight. The gospel gives us this. Its creed is “The morning cometh.”

By changing human nature. The fundamental need is not to change conditions but people. Change the people and they will change the conditions. What is needed is not a better world to live in, but a better race to inhabit the world we have; not larger opportunities, but worthier efforts to improve existing opportunities. The gospel changes the individual. It makes man a partaker of the divine nature. It changes the social order by changing the social units. It makes the world solvent by making people trustworthy.

By supplying inward moral restraints when outward restraints fall away. The world is moving toward freedom. Man will never be satisfied with anything else. But freedom becomes license without self-mastery and self-control. Russia and China and America must have more than good laws. They must have citizens who respect the laws and obey them.

By substituting the law of love for the law of hate; the golden rule of good-will for the iron rule of greed; brotherhood for competition; the Sermon on the Mount for homilies on self-culture; service for self-interest; a cross for a crown. This the only thing that will cure race hate and class pride. Love is the cure and the gospel proclaims and provides it!

These are some of the things Paul had in his message as he faced a bankrupt world. No wonder he was unscared. No wonder he said: “I am not ashamed.”

To be a missionary at home or abroad, in China or in America, in a slum whether urban or rural, to human beings whether they be called Christian or To Bea pagan—to be a missionary is to face a bank- Missionary rupt world with the gospel of Christ. It is to be appreciative of all present world values, of the triumphs of industry and trade, of the achievements of science, of the progress in government, education and art, of all that is represented by wealth and culture, by adventure and exploration; but while not discrediting the worth of these things, it is to discover that they are powerless to satisfy the soul that is hungry for life. It is to see that God alone can meet the needs of our natures, and that in the gospel of His Son He has provided the complete solvent for a lost world.

To be a missionary is to incarnate the gospel. It is to embody in one’s life the Sermon on the Mount. It is to practice in all of life’s relations the Golden Rule and to strive in every way to translate into human life the teachings of Jesus.

It is to invest what one has in the proclamation of the gospel. It is to give money that the bankrupt world may start up again in business. It is to give to the broken world that which will heal its open sore. “Then shall the lame man leap as a hart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.”’ Then—when he hears the good news of the gospel.

There is no investment to compare with this, none that yields such returns. Here is the thing that is dynamic for redemption. If one is out merely to salvage civilization, to scrap the wreck, he may stop at half-way measures, but if he is after salvation, if he seeks a new world that can meet its obligations and pay one hundreti cents on the dollar, he must push on to Calvary.

To be a missionary is to proclaim the gospel, to spend one’s life preaching the one thing that will make the world solvent. It is a-calling that angels might envy. Yes, the stipend is small, but the reward is measureless, for the task is divine. "There is nothing that can compare with it. For the sake of it one may well strip himself of every earthly ambition and ‘be willing to face fire and blood, hunger, chains:and death.

~ Ifone would:do the biggest thing within mortal reach, here it is. It is to:spend: his: life making the bankrupt world solvent.’ It is to‘be a missionary. Poor, underpaid, obscure; “in labor and>travail; in: watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in-cold and nakedness,” butiaworldibuilder? Alan in bonds, clanking his chain, but an ambassador (in-bends). So poor he cannot afford to lose an old.cloak-left at Troas, and. yet.so rich that he can feed and clothe wath joy ant ehiope: ani courage the worn and weary world... | | Yes,-it-is great.to-be-a missionary. oli is sublime, it is divine! “Whom shall I send and wae will. go for us?” oh TS am I, and, PSs eau

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DdAM, PROBLEM OF THE RACES. IN AMERICA

Tu) PROBLEM op ae races, in a eried 3 is-a-cross section of the world field..\It,is foreign missions. at’ home. Really there isno! difference between, home and foreign missions. The task is one::; We merely divide the one task into two sections:for: the sake of administration: But he;who:arrays them ~“gainst each other is'the friend of neither: He who offers Biocls for service in the foreign field but who has shown. noyinterest in, the. extension of .Christ’s kingdom at:home,lacks.the. qualifications for, a, missionary.: And he whois zealous-for home! missions but cam find ‘no.toom: in his: heaft for the needy’ peoples 3 in Ae Capen ot He raven has: laid: his ‘cien Boose iol pba noo bas ewol tuods 19iqsido dinst oi to se10v dttlows ods nt bas .msidoig ons The’ ‘problert ae ithe’ races * Hae: faye? beeit/a’ asrobletd packed with? peril. It is thvested'at once’ with much that is good and much that is bad. It is easy to A Reopen of ...mistake. the -evil.for..good and .sanctify Peril, . + iy » iniquity under. the guise.of serving. virtue. syed? edoer> If weocould -get-at-the -basic cause: of -injustice: ane unrest We) should: splat nce find it 18> or aeial ees and suspicions: : [oa 331 |

Christ’ s plea for ‘unity, and the subsequent’ ands a the apostles based on Christ’s plea and enjoining good-will on all aimed not so much at ecclesiastical as at. racial-differences. Indeed if the racial antagonisms could be cured the ecclesiastical would be greatly reduced. |

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A close study of that storm centre of human unrest among the little nations in the Near East, Turkey and the Balkan States, will discover that the troubles there are racial. Of course they are religious also, but the two antagonisms have fed each other.

Paul grew up in this atmosphere. His life was saturated with the clamor and strife incident to the problem of the races. He is prepared, therefore, and of his own experience, to tell us how to approach the problem, and whether the gospel can furnish a solution. If the gospel could lift him out of the narrow jealousies and suspicions of race hate into cosmopolitan sympathies and international concern, we may be assured the gospel can solve the problem of the races.

The gospel made Paul a citizen of the world. He seemed to leap at once from a provincial into a cosmopolitan. His very title, “Apostle to the Gentiles,” is significant of his racial sympathies. In all he had to say to the Romans about Jews and Gentiles, he is making his approach to the problem, and in the twelfth verse of the tenth chapter he names the cure: “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all and is rich unto all that call upon him.”*

To God, people are people, whether Americans or Asiatics, whether Anglo-Saxons or Africans, whether Occidentals or Orientals, whether Hebrews or Greeks. There is a solidarity about the race which must be recognized in any approach to race relationships. God’s message to the white man is His message to the black man. His gospel for all men is the same. “God hath at the end of these days spoken unto us by his son,” and the message in Christ is not national but racial.

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The fact of race solidarity, however, does not solve the problem of the races. The gravest, greatest, most ominous,

most unsolved problem which confronts America Menace js not that of trusts or labor unions or tariff re-

vision or crime or prohibition. It is that raised by multitudes of the foreign-born who come to America with ideas and ideals of human rights and human freedom alien and hostile to those of America. This creates at once a political, financial, industrial, economic, educational, social, ethical, and religious problem. It is a problem into which are packed wellnigh all other problems. The size of the stream of immigration is itself a menace. It has been colossal and is still great, despite the operation of the law limiting it to definite percentages of our present foreign-born population. It is estimated that forty per cent of our present population is either foreign-born or of foreign-born parentage.

The character of the immigration in recent years leaves much to be desired. We are still suffering from an era when the tide came chiefly from southern Europe, composed of people who were desirable neither for their native land to retain, nor for their adopted land to acquire.

The ease with which the alien is clothed with citizenship adds to the menace. Yet his ballot counts for as much in shaping and settling the destiny of the Republic as though the traditions of America were dissolved in his blood.

The fact that aliens settle for the most part in largely congested centres of population makes the problem more serious. Plague spots are thus packed with peril. Crime centres become saturated with undesirables.

Many of them belong to strains that do not easily assimilate. They are stubborn in their resistance of American customs and cling with a dogged tenacity to the very evils from which they flee.

The melting pot that can reduce these diverse and hostile. elements to.a harmonious:whole fitted for shape and use in American life must poasese miracle working power

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Theis is an easyigoing: optimism Sieh flies. the flag t on the Fourth. of July.and imagines, the country. is sayed; .. which scatters flowers on’ Memorial, Day,and Time to Be - regards itself.as patriotic; which makes.a con- Alarmed... tribution to missions once a year and feels it has done its.duty to the underprivileged, Ths

creed of such people is that God takes care of fools.'., +. _It:is impossible fora nation. to receive. what has, notes to America through the large influx of foreign populations and remain unaffected. The fact, that ours.1s compatatively a new country makes the matter all Eng more serious. We are still in the making... .;. uo to To be sure much of our best hae come to, us through Ellis Island. America would be.poor indeed. had it ‘kept out Steinmetz, the great,electrical: genius, and hundreds of others whose names readily occur and whose achieyements. have. added to the glory of America. Jc ae There is also an industrial and economic, need for 4 people in over-populated countries to come to sparsely settled sections here in America, where land ‘may ‘still be had at nominal cost and waits to yield good returns to the” industrious. Many such colonies: have already come and are twice blessed, blessing him that gives ‘and him’ that takes.

And yet it‘is a fact’that alien influences are gravely felt — | inthe perilous’ drifts ‘that give concern’ to those’ who’ seriously ‘consider conditions in America’ today. This'alien stream shows itself in ‘politics, in labor agitation, in ‘the collapse of the, home, in social and dae anyerbh and in, efforts to. promote communism. dij. sie vad fic!

dt is. very nice to discuss the glory of our n feed ‘nstinttio: bit declamation will not preserve them., Any one who

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seriously studies the ‘situation must feel that Ellis Island presents problems not’easily solved, and if the worst comes tothe worst, we must close the gates. |

‘This has been the view of some.of our most patriotic leaders. Washington questioned the advisability of admitting any more immigrants except such tradesmen as were needed to develop the country.

Jefferson. wished “there. were -an ocean of fire between this country and Europe, so that it might be impossible for any more immigrants to come hither.”

Roosevelt said: “I do not think that any immigrant who will lower the standard of life among our people should be admitted.” «-..

And so good 2 a man as as Phillips Brooks vaid: “Tf the hope which this country holds out to the human race of permanent and stable government is to be impaired by the enormous and unregulated inroad. of poverty and ignorance which changed conditions of transportation have. brought upon us, then for the sake of Europe as well as for the sake of America, the coming of these people should be checked and regulated until we can handle the problems that are facing us.’

It is precisely this check we are seeking to enforce in

our present legislation on this subject. We have not shut tight the gate but: we have greatly narrowed the opening. And yet closing the gate is really no solution. It is like locking the' cell after the culprit has escaped. - Besides, is:it a Christian ‘solution? Does it harmonize with the doctrine Paul taught centuries ago, and which is fundamental to Christianity, when he said: “There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is rich unto all that call upon him.”*” 7

- America ‘cannot, if)it would, be:a hermit nation. The scidin is past for ap nation to bar itself off from the rest of mankind. In these days of wireless telegraphy and universal language and aerial navigation and the radio, the pulse-beat of the race-kin cannot be ignored. It is increasingly evident that God has made of one blood all men. There are no longer any desert solitudes. The races have become the people.

“The blood of the people! Changeless tide through century, creed and race,

Still one, as the sweet salt sea is one, though tempered by sun and place.

The same in ocean currents and the same in

sheltered seas; Forever the fountain of common hope and kindly sympathies.

“Indian and Negro, Saxon and Celt, Teuton

and Latin and Gaul,

Mere surface shadow and sunshine, while sounding unifies all!

One love, one hope, one duty theirs!

No matter the time or kin,

There is no separate heart-beat

in all the races of men.”

Closing the door does not solve the problem. Barring the gate is no solution. It is evading the problem. Shutting your eyes does not diminish the trouble in a

The Closed bankrupt world. A man has not solved the Door problem of poverty when he has barred his door to the street and sat down with wife and

children in sheltered comfort and ease. What of the povyerty that is still crying in the street, moaning in the hovel, ostracized in rags and want? What of faces black with the plague and homes crouching under the fear that stalks ? Shutting one’s eyes and barring the door and closing the gate is no solution of the race problem, certainly not to

[ 26 | one whose pulses beat with the race-kin, and who has made Paul’s great doctrine his creed.

There is but one solution of the problem, and that solution is not exclusion but assimilation. Those who come to us from other climes must be taken up into our national life and made a part of our country in the truest sense. They must be made Americans. We do not want a little Italy here in America, or a second Russia, or a western Germany, or even a new England. The millions who seek a new home under the Stars and Stripes, if we are to bless each other, must be of us as well as among us. Assimilation is the solution, and it is to be brought about, not by legislation, not chiefly by education, certainly not by industry and trade, but pre-eminently by religion.

And so the problem of the races can be solved only by the gospel of Christ. We are not afraid of any shipload of for-

eigners who come to us loyal to the cross Christianity of Christ. They cannot come too soon nor

too often. We welcome them. If they are sincerely Christian, we are willing to trust them with our institutions as freely as we trust these institutions to citizens who are indigenous.

But what if they are not Christian? What if they are merely nominal Christians? What if they are the kind who build a church and make it a tomb of religion? Is it not evident that our solution as a nation depends upon our making them Christian? There is a stronger bond than love of country; it is love of Christ. When men find Christ they are one “though they come from the ends of the earth.”