_Question_. What is your opinion of foreign missions?
_Answer_. In the first place, there seems to be a pretty good
opening in this country for missionary work. We have a good many
Indians who are not Methodists. I have never known one to be
converted. A good many have been killed by Christians, but their
souls have not been saved. Maybe the Methodists had better turn
their attention to the heathen of our own country. Then we have
a good many Mormons who rely on the truth of the Old Testament and
follow the example of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It seems to me
that the Methodists better convert the Mormons before attacking
the tribes of Central Africa. There is plenty of work to be done
right here. A few good bishops might be employed for a time in
converting Dr. Briggs and Professor Swing, to say nothing of other
heretical Presbyterians.
There is no need of going to China to convert the Chinese. There
are thousands of them here. In China our missionaries will tell
the followers of Confucius about the love and forgiveness of
Christians, and when the Chinese come here they are robbed, assaulted,
and often murdered. Would it not be a good thing for the Methodists
to civilize our own Christians to such a degree that they would
not murder a man simply because he belongs to another race and
worships other gods?
So, too, I think it would be a good thing for the Methodists to go
South and persuade their brethren in that country to treat the
colored people with kindness. A few efforts might be made to
convert the "White-caps" in Ohio, Indiana and some other States.
My advice to the Methodists is to do what little good they can
right here and now. It seems cruel to preach to the heathen a
gospel that is dying out even here, and fill their poor minds with
the absurd dogmas and cruel creeds that intelligent men have outgrown
and thrown away.
Honest commerce will do a thousand times more good than all the
missionaries on earth. I do not believe that an intelligent Chinaman
or an intelligent Hindoo has ever been or ever will be converted
into a Methodist. If Methodism is good we need it here, and if it
is not good, do not fool the heathen with it.
--_The Press_, Cleveland, Ohio, November 12, 1891.