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Show 26 The Missionary Herald January 111.-standing above the rice fields of Persia. All this simply represents the hopeless attempts of trade to catch up with the foreign missionary. A complete history of the economic development of the world can no more leave out Livingstone of Africa, Hamlin of Turkey, Judson of Burma, and Coan of Hawaii than it can leave out the Standard Oil Company and the United States Steel Corporation. The American trade expert goes everywhere, but he finds the footprints of the missionary wherever he goes. And the organizer of advertising campaigns, selling campaigns, and "follow-up" movements in the world of trade simply follows the methods of missions. Every citizen of the world today has a real, personal stake in the success of Christian missions. If you doubt this, think for a moment of the tin shields on the cables of ships from the tropics, lying at the docks of New Orleans, just 717 miles from St. Louis. These are to keep rats infected with bubonic plague from leaving these ships and bringing the disease ashore in New Orleans. Bubonic plague flourishes among heathen populations. There is no city in the world where the natural laws governing public health are made efficacious by ordinances backed by public opinion, except where Christianity has prepared the way by popularizing the Christian conception of human brotherhood and the precious-ness of the individual. Those tin shields on those cables are a tribute to heathenism, and Christian missions are only another instance of "safety first." In Christianizing the world we shall incidentally rid ourselves of the menace of cholera, typhus, and bubonic plague. The world of trade believes that all men are neighbors, and that the Chinaman, the Hindu, the Arab, and the Turk ought to be bound up in a circle of interest with us through the interchange of goods. Shall we have commerce in products and not in ideas? Shall the human element-the element that sends out "get-acquainted" trains through St. Louis's trade territory- be present when we trade with the man in Oklahoma City, but absent when we trade with the man in Peking? Cholera was threatening the region of Bombay. The British officials were nonplused, for the natives believed that the sanitary squads purposed to desecrate their sacred places. The head of the province was appealed to. "Send for Dr. Ballantine," he ordered. When an American medical missionary went with the soldiers the resistance of the natives ceased. It is for our profit to send the heathen kerosene and sewing machines and cotton print goods and agricultural and milling machinery and antiseptic solutions. But shall we neglect to send him the Parable of the Good Samaritan and the missionary who turns it into modern practice? The Laymen's Missionary Movement says no. A TYPICAL SCENE Fifty laymen of a city church seated at supper in the parish house-trustees, deacons, prominent business men, average age about forty. The leader rises and says: "Now, men, at two o'clock next Sunday afternoon twenty-five automobiles will start from the church door, and between that time and five o'clock every family and member of this parish will be visited and asked to participate in the finances and benevolences of the church for the coming year. The plan has been explained to them in advance and they will be looking for you. Come to church next Sunday morning and let our pastor set us apart for this service. It will be one of the greatest days in the history of this church. Each team of two will now review their cards and assignments." The pastor sits by and a look of sweet content comes into his face. He is in the background tonight, but he worked hard and prayed some that this thing might be done. This scene is from life and may be located on Euclid Avenue, Cleveland. It is typical of a new day. |