to overflowing the three-room tenement home, one room of which was
without means of light or air. She lifted to her arms the youngest
child of less than a year, clad in one ragged little garment, while
she seated herself to tell in broken English and with many gestures
her story to the deaconess who came to see if she could help about
the oldest boy, who was giving trouble. The woman said she had been
married in Italy when only fourteen years of age and was now thirty-one.
She had come to America when her second child was a baby. Her husband
was a longshoreman and earned twelve dollars a week for the support
of the family of twelve. They were looking forward soon to the help
of the earnings of the oldest child, a boy not quite fourteen. This
boy was the problem! To escape the uproar and confusion of the crowded
rooms he spent his time when he could escape from school, on the
street. A gang adopted him. He was ill-nourished, and his teachers
suspected him of receiving and using cocaine. Poor little scrap of
humanity! with a hungry, craving body and no room for soul, mind or
body to develop but the corrupting street, with its saloons and its
gangs! From such a childhood he is destined soon to join the ranks
of labor. Will he add to the number of America's criminals or can he
possibly enter the ranks of good citizenship? If he were simply an
individual case it would still be inexpressibly sad, but, alas, he
stands for thousands in our land.
The deaconess will do her utmost for his rescue, but we cannot
wonder at her feeling that great fundamental, preventive measures
must be taken by the church and society to wipe out the city slums
and all that they stand for of pestilential evil.
Of great significance are the disintegrating efforts of certain groups
of socialists and anarchists who by means of Sunday-schools gather
children of immigrants largely to inculcate in them the peculiar
principles and doctrines of anarchism and their brand of socialism,
as well as to crush out of their thought all idea of God and love
and obedience to Him. These Sunday-schools, so destructive of all
that is best and highest in the child soul, flourish in New York,
Brooklyn, Chicago and other large cities.
* * * * *
The foreigners who stand perhaps in greatest need of the
understanding sympathy and the harmonizing influence of the church
are those isolated in the great mining regions, where the conditions
of living are so hazardous and where maladjustments of every sort
contribute to an atmosphere which breathes of hatred and discontent.
It is estimated that our present industrial system, through criminal
negligence, takes the huge toll of 45,000 workers killed every year.
One miner of every hundred dies because his employer cares less
for the lives of his men than for the few extra dollars, the cost
of proper safety arrangements.
"In the course of the Pittsburgh survey it was discovered that by
industrial accidents Allegheny County alone loses more than five
hundred workmen every year, sixty per cent of whom are young men
who have not yet reached the prime of life. This loss falls not
upon the people who determine the degree of protection from injury
and decide about the introduction of safety devices, but upon the
widows, the orphans and the aged parents."
Here the resourceful Home Missionary is an inestimable help. She
is often a Slavish or Bohemian girl, knowing from actual experience
all the sordidness, the monotony, the tragedy that envelop the mine
and its workers, for in many cases she herself has been a part of it,
herself Christianized, educated and trained by Home Missions. She
speaks the language of the mines, she knows its innermost life. When
the frequent accidents, throw their desolation and fearful economic
burdens upon the homes, she comforts and sustains. She helps the
stricken wife and children to keep to decency and right. She teaches
night classes in English, and mothers' classes, sustains reading and
club rooms with games and wholesome amusements to hold the boy miner
from the lure of the saloon. She conducts the Sunday-school and is
herself a peripatetic Christian settlement, with all that it implies
of sacrifice, service and the salvation of soul and body.
A commentary on the need of Home Missions in the mining sections
is forcibly presented in the following testimony.
Before the Commission of Industrial Relations (February, 1915)
Mrs. Dominiki from the Colorado mines, speaking of the general
labor conditions in the district in which she lived, said:
"I never saw a church in any of the coal camps except Trinidad.
There were no halls where people might meet but there were always
plenty of saloons.
* * * * *
"Hotels, boarding houses of many descriptions, stores, saloons
and gambling dens, are visible on every street. Everything suggested
money-making and money-spending." [Footnote: The Outlook--February
17, 1915.]
This typical mining town does not pretend to have any sacred days
or sacred hours. Business, money-making and sporting are the great
aim of life. The mines work seven days each week and twenty-four
hours each day. The great concentrators know no pause; the cables
are ever busy transporting the mineral from the tunnels to the
mills.
The streets are full of busy teams on the Sabbath, just as on
any other day; the same is true of all the stores but one, the
proprietor of which put out as his first advertisement, "This
store will be closed on the Sabbath." The saloons and gambling
dens boom in iniquity on the Lord's Day as well as on any other
day.
The first service was held on the street. A wagon answering for
pulpit, platform and choir-loft, the noble few, interested and
willing-hearted, were organized for Christian work; and after a
long, severe, self-sacrificing struggle, with help of friends here
and there, a comfortable meeting house was completed, even to a
bell in its tower. The Sabbath bell is now heard, What a message
it declares! What memories it awakens! Who can tell what its
influence shall be?
"'The next thirty-five miles is an American Sodom,' said the
conductor.
"What did the converted coal miner find, when he accepted this
difficult trust? Saloons in abundance--in one town eleven in a
row--each saloon with its attendant gambling den, dance house, etc.
He found this region a hotbed of infidelity. He saw multitudes of
young people of all nations under the sun making holiday of the
sacred hours of the Sabbath, and, saddest of all, knowing no better.
There were no gospel services, nor Sunday-schools, for there was no
place to hold them.
"While I have spent much time in visiting the five towns of this
neglected field, I selected one place as a center for extra effort,
and here I commenced a series of gospel meetings. The result is a
church of seventeen members and a Sunday-school of fifty scholars.
As all these towns are dreadfully cursed with saloons, we are trying
to create a temperance sentiment. Fifty have already signed the pledge,
among them some of the worst drunkards in the town. Forty-five children
have joined the 'Children's Band' and are trying to keep their lives
clean. We have bought half an acre of ground, whereon to build a
church and parsonage. Work is already commenced in good faith."
* * * * *
"With the opening and development of the hard coal mines of
Pennsylvania in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, a
large migration of Welsh miners began to arrive in the state. They
were Protestants and fervently religious. Immediately the organization
of religious life began. In 1831 different denominational elements
gathered together and began Sunday-school and church life in Carbondale,
Pa. The Congregational Church there has been a steady factor of
religious life ever since, first among the Welsh exclusively, but
later among all classes.
"In similar manner churches were organized all over the anthracite
district. To-day fully two-thirds of the churches of the Congregational
faith in the state are of Welsh origin, and barring a few in agricultural
regions all are among miners or mill hands, joyfully affording the
privileges of the Gospel to the poor.
"These churches have made a large contribution to the religious
life of the state; they are fervently and effectively evangelistic.
It is probably true that the Welsh people are the most thoroughly
evangelized of any in the state to-day. Twelve churches have
received one hundred or more members each on confession of faith
within a year.
"In these later months these Welsh Christians are pressing into
the evangelization of other nationalities, which constitute a very
large part of the population in the anthracite regions, and their
splendid zeal helped to make the 'Billy Sunday' campaign in
Wilkes-Barre and Scranton the most wonderful, even that spectacular
man has ever conducted. As personal workers they are unsurpassed,
and since the revivals they have organized workers' bands and Bible
classes, and have gone out into all the country for fifty miles
around holding meetings in which singing, personal testimony and
prayer have been made marvelously effective, while their earnest
labors in local churches which they have joined as members, have
in many cases verily revolutionized the life and multiplied the
power of the churches." [Footnote: Rev. A.E. Ricker, Congregational
Home Missionary Society.]
* * * * *
The Italian immigrant is perhaps more widely distributed throughout
our land than any of the other nationalities composing the immigration
of the past twenty years.
From New Orleans, with its 60,000, to New York with its nearly
half a million, scarcely a city is without an Italian colony, and
even villages and rural districts show a quota of these ubiquitous,
hard working, promising new Americans.
Italy, the land of art and beauty, contributes to us citizens with
an enormous capacity for industry and economy, warmth of nature,
response to beauty and openness to religious appeal, with a tendency
to crimes of passion and, in general, a most un-American attitude
toward the child, using him at the earliest possible age as a
commercial asset for the family.
Physically they are of marvelous vitality and strength, and like
other hardy peasant stock have great endurance and are very prolific.
Early marriages, arranged by the parents, and large families, are
the rule among them.
All of these factors are of greatest significance to us as a
nation, though we can not here enter into a discussion of the grave
potentialities involved in the absorption by our nation of a virile,
prolific, though not highly intelligent class.
We cannot, however, fail to be impressed with the urgent necessity
of imparting to such a people the ideals and standards essential
to their adoption into our body politic.
The church is qualified beyond all other agencies to accomplish this
end, and to give spiritual direction to the Italian-Americans who are
turning from the superstition and inadequacy of the religion which is
fast losing its hold upon them in Italy, as well as America, and from
which they are rapidly drifting into indifference and unbelief.
In a late investigation made by the Italian government into conditions
in southern Italy the beneficial effect of the returning immigrant
was expressed in the strongest terms.
In effect this report said that "greater than the benefit any laws
that the government could pass, better than any training which the
government could give the people was the beneficial influence of the
returning immigrant. Not merely did he bring new wealth into the
country, but what was of still greater importance than the imported
wealth, he brought with him the American spirit of intelligence, and
enterprise which made of him a much worthier and more helpful citizen."
[Footnote: The Immigrant Problem--Jenks and Lanck.]
* * * * *
He came of generations of Waldensian Protestant ancestry in Italy,
this alert, efficient, cultured Italian pastor. He found the parish
to which he was assigned composed of several thousand of his countrymen
in a Hudson river town; the building to be used for church purposes
a dirty, run-down old hall, a part of the most disreputable corner
of the town.
There was not one Italian Protestant, or sympathizer, so far as he
could discover, in the community and there seemed to be the greatest
apathy to the Mission on the part of the old aristocratic church of
the town.
Several blocks away a fine new brick church was in process of
construction, to be used for Italian Catholics. Truly the prospect
was not encouraging for the Protestant Mission.
However, generations of those who endure and overcome had written
deep within him an unfailing courage and a conquering faith.
He began to cultivate Italians in their stores, on the streets, in
their homes, wherever he might. His charm and sincerity opened the
way and won true friends. In his discussions with them he found
those who were questioning the authority of their former faith; it
seemed out of harmony in this new land, and they were turning from
it to unbelief.
Here was the opportunity for him to offer them the new faith
and the One who said "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life," and
compellingly he did it.
The story that follows is of absorbing interest, but we can only
touch it in outline and record-how the groups of converts joined
the pastor in repairing, painting, electric lighting of the
building, until it became truly inviting.
How there came to be a library with books in English and Italian,
and evening classes, and meetings, and wholesome amusements to
compete with the dance halls and saloons for the young people.
There were at times stereopticon lectures on things historic and
civic, and dramatic presentations of the Prodigal Son and other
Bible stories which the pastor himself prepared and trained the
people to present.
How a wonderful Sunday-school grew and glowed with happiness and
enthusiasm, even though threatening priests sometimes pressed in
ordering out the children and shaking excited fists in the faces
of the teachers.
How beyond all else in depth and influence were the beautiful
church services, reverent and meaningful, bringing close to
waiting hearts the burden-lifting, life-giving Jesus the Christ.
Did ever the precious hymn, "What a Friend we have in Jesus"
seem quite so fraught with joy and sweet companionship as when
the familiar music was sung by this Italian congregation.
_Quale amico abbiaino in Cristo!
Sempre pronto a compatir
Ogni nostro pensier tristo
Tutto il nostro gran fallir!
Ma qual pace noi perdiamo,
Quali pene noi soffriam,
Sol perche non confidiamo
Tutto a Lui mentre preghiam_.
Already from this Mission sixteen earnest Christian members have
returned to Italy, each having two Bibles, one to give away.
Who can measure the leavening force of the gospel carried by the
many who return and who are scattered up and down throughout all
the lovely land of Italy.
Home Missions is not bounded in its results by the seas surrounding
the home land, but reaches far away into the heart of the old world
across the seas.
It is not possible here to differentiate the various races and
peoples in our land, each of whose particular circumstances and
need and reaction upon our national life makes an urgent claim
upon the integrating power of Home Missions and the church.
* * * * *
Passing mention only can be made of the special needs of the
Mexicans in the United States, thousands upon thousands of whom
are voting citizens and yet are quite unable through deep
ignorance, and lack of standards of life to take their places as
part of the people who govern.
El Paso, Texas, shows 40,000 permanent Mexican residents; Southern
California, 80,000. They form one-half the population of Arizona
and more than half of New Mexico and are found in other Western
and Southwestern states.
Home Missions is giving a very valuable and varied service to
these Americans from old Mexico.
* * * * *
The Orientals of America form a distinct group. Marked racial
differences and their background of the mystic, age-old East leave
them separated and apart in a conglomerate civilization whose
assimilative power is the wonder of the age. They form thus far
the largest body of "irreconcilables," to use Prof. Lowell's term,
found in our land.
"It is indeed largely a perception of the need of of homogeneity
as a basis for popular government and the public opinion on which
it rests, that justifies democracies in resisting the influx in
great numbers of a widely different race.
"One essential condition to a democracy is that people should be
homogeneous to such a point that the minority is willing to accept
the decisions of the majority on all questions that are normally
expected to arise." [Footnote: Public Opinion and Population
Government--A. Lawrence Lowell.]
The German poet, Goethe, a most penetrating thinker, declared that
the prime quality of the real critic is sympathy. There is no
other realizing and understanding approach to a man or a race.
"The significant ideals, the organized energy, the sustaining
vitality of an alien people must be sought and understood in order
to come into sympathetic touch with them." This is the only key to
mutual understanding and respect.
It is especially needful that the Oriental should be considered
from this standpoint: in varying degrees, according to their race
and standard, they lay a grave responsibility upon Home Missions.
By the tens of thousands they are here, Hindus, Chinese, Koreans,
and Japanese, bringing their ancient faiths, raising their temples
in our Christian land. Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Confucianism,
Brahmanism, and many other alien and heathen faiths count their
adherents by the thousands, while many one-time Christian folk are
turning to the modern forms of these religions.
The fact that rescue homes for Chinese slave girls are a feature
of Home Mission work among Orientals tells its own story of
degrading customs transplanted to America's shores.
Through colporteurs, evangelists, deaconesses, schools, homes,
hospitals and churches, Home Missions is giving the Christ to the
Orientals; and they, returning, carry the "new life" gained in
America to their great awakening lands where rests so much of the
world's future destiny. A great international evangelism is being
poured out by Home Missions; for these Christians that are
"scattered abroad go everywhere preaching the gospel."
A noted Japanese evangelist, Rev. Kiyomatsu Kimura, for six years
pastor of the Congregational church of Kioto, known as the Moody
of Japan, because of his great power as a soul winner, has been
visiting this country, preaching to his own people (January,
1915).
In Hawaii, as a result of his three months of labor, one thousand
Japanese and Koreans accepted Christ.
In New York City his brief stay admitted of only three evening
meetings, when twenty decided for the Christian faith. Probably
just as remarkable results will attend his efforts in Chicago and
the far West.
Rev. Mr. Kimura received his training in personal and evangelistic
work in the Moody Institute of Chicago.
"An American artist on the wall of a library building has striven
to represent the spirit of America by a procession of men, women
and children.
"They are all marching together with eager expectation on their
upturned faces and the morning light shines on them."
Yes, America offers hope, a future, the upward path, to the
crowding millions, but only as the light of God illumines and
makes clear the way and His voice stills the hate of race and
class, saying "Come unto Me," and "Bear ye one another's burdens."
VI
SOURCES OF POWER
Lover of souls, indeed,
But Lover of bodies too,
Seeing in human flesh
The God shine through;
Hallowed be Thy name,
And, for the sake of Thee,
Hallowed be all men,
For Thine they be.
Doer of deeds divine,
Thou, the Father's Son,
In all Thy children may
Thy will be done,
Till each works miracles
On poor and sick and blind,
Learning from Thee the art
Of being kind.
For Thine is the glory of love,
And Thine the tender power,
Touching the barren heart
To leaf and flower,
Till not the lilies alone,
Beneath thy gentle feet,
But human lives for Thee
Grow white and sweet.
And Thine shall the Kingdom be,
Thou Lord of Love and Pain,
Conqueror over death
By being slain.
And we, with lives like Thine,
Shall cry in the great day when
Thou comest to claim Thine own,
"All hail! Amen."
--W.J. Dawson.
* * * * *
"Thy kingdom come--Thy will be done on earth."
Fundamental in all projects for the upbuilding of a worldly or a
spiritual kingdom, or an individual character, lies the ideal.
Action, growth, conduct, spring from the creating ideal and in the
process of development they advance and enlarge together.
"The ideal is the primary moving power in the human spirit,"
Professor Gidding says; "into his ideal enter man's estimate of
the past and his forecast of the future--his scientific analysis
and his poetic feeling, his soberest judgment and his religious
aspiration."
Our ideal then for our country, for the work and place of Home
Missions in it, for ourselves as Christian patriots and believers
in Home Missions, is essentially a basic source of power. Into the
ideal for our country must enter the inspiring conception of the
nation which will include the background of its yesterday.
America means not only the cultural institutions, the multiplied
industries, the vast wealth of farms (four crops in the year 1915
were valued at $4,770,000,000), mines and forests, but the genius
of an Edison, a Burbank, a Goethals, a McDowell, the devotion of a
John R. Mott, a Frank Higgins, a Jane Addams and the long honor
roll of men and women made great through their service. America
also embodies all that was wrought by those early comers who
endured hunger, disease, suffering, that they might conquer a
wilderness and make it a land of opportunity. It holds the fruits
of service and sacrifice purchased by those later ones who
willingly faced death "that government for the people and by the
people" might replace tyranny and oppression, and the imperishable
glory of those others who counted not their lives dear but laid
them down that sweet freedom might be the right of every man, of
whatever race or color. Beside all these stood the strong, true
women who suffered, endured and triumphed with them.
The rich heritage bestowed by a Washington, a Lincoln, a Lee, a
John Eliot, a Charles Sumner, a Marcus Whitman, a Sheldon Jackson,
a Harriet Beecher Stowe, a Frances Willard, and a host of others,
constitutes the infinitely precious treasury of our national life.
Bayard Taylor expresses the peculiar genius of America in his
national ode:
From the homes of all, where her being began
She took what she gave to man.
Justice, that knew no station,
Belief as soul decreed,
Free air for aspiration,
Free force for independent deed.
She takes but to give again
As the sea returns the rivers in rain
And gathers the chosen of her seed
From the hunted of every crown and creed.
In one strong race all races here unite.
Tongues meet in hers, hereditary foemen
Forget their sword and slogan, kith and clan.
'Twas glory, once, to be a Roman:
She makes it glory, now, to be a man!
Our ideal for America is summed up in this--that it may
increasingly become the kingdom of God. What do we mean by
"kingdom"? St Paul says "the kingdom is righteousness and peace
and joy" which being interpreted might read, the kingdom--Christ's
rule on earth--will bring to all the Father's children the
opportunity of knowing Him and His saving love expressed through
Jesus Christ; it will mean the transforming of human society so
that ignorance, greed, disease and injustice shall be overthrown;
so that "the bitter cry of the children" shall no longer be
drowned by the whir of the wheels of industry; so that the
sisterhood of women shall be established and that through the
dominance of righteousness men shall cease to invoke war and
strife, and, released from crushing burdens, into life and labor
shall come joy and an increasing sense of spiritual values.