SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 95, 30 July 1910, Page 9

SUNDAY READING.

WORLD MISSIONARY CONFERENCE. MEMORABLE GATHERING AT EDINBURGH. There has perhaps never been an event in the history of Christian missions of greater significance than the Worlds Missionary Conference which opened at Edinburgh on June 14 (savs the Weekly Scotsman). The conference was one which had been long preparing. •In 1908 a committee met at Oxford to make arrangements for its work, and to prepare reports for the consideration of its members. During the intervening years eight commissions have baen at work investigating the problem of missions in all its aspects. Each of these commissions consists of twenty members, drawn from Great Britain, America, Germany, Scandinavia, Denmark, Holland, Switzerland, South Africa and Australasia, added by hundreds of correspondents in all the mission fields. These commissions were by no means exclusively composed of workers officially connected with the mission field, but also secured the co-operation of men and women of world-wide reputation in other spheres. Among the names appended to the various reports are those of Sir Robert Hart, Admiral Mahan, the Hon. Seth Low, of the United States, the Hon. R. L. Bordern, of Canada, Lord William Cecil, Sir E. Satow, Professor Sadler, the Education Department's expert, President Mackenzie, of Hartford University, Mrs. Creighton, wife of the late Bishop of London, Bishop Hasse, of the Moravian Church, the Bishop of Birmingham, the Bishop of Southwark, and Dr. Parkin, secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust. Probably never has any gathering, so essentially undenominational, secured more universal support. The Church of England sends an imposing ; array of delegates, headed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and nine Bishops of the Church. From America come the Hon. W. J. Bryan, twice Democratic candidate for the U.S.A. presidency, and reputed to be the most eloquent representative of his nation; Senator Charles Fairbanks, formerly VicePresident; and a host of eminent men. In brief, it may be said that no civilised nation and no nation which has any pretensions to join the international comity of cultured peoples has omitted to send representatives to this gathering. The streets of the Scottish capital •bore ample evidence this week to the cosmopolitan nature of the guests housed within its hospitable precincts. The President of the Conference was Lord Balfour of Burleigh, and the vice-presid-ents were Lord Reay, Sir John Kennaway, Bart., C.8., M.P., and Sir A. H. Fraser, K.G.S.I. THE KING'S DEEP INTEREST. !

The following message from the King was delivered through Lord Balfour of Burleigh:— "The King commands me to convey to you the expression of his deep interest in the World Missionary Conference to be held in Edinburgh at this time. His Majesty views with gratification the fraternal co-operation of so many churches and societies in the United States, on the Continent of Europe, and in the British Empire in the work of disseminating knowledge and principles of Christianity by Christian methods throughout the world. The King appreciates the supreme importance of this work on its bearing upon the cementing of international friendship, the cause of peace, and the wellbeing of mankind. His Majesty welcomes the prospects of this great representative gathering being held in one of the capitals of the United Kingdom, and expresses his earnest hope that the deliberations of the conference may be guided by Divine wisdom and may be a means of promoting unity among Christians and of furthering the high and beneficial ends which the conference has in view."

As soon as the last words of the King were read, the audience spontaneously burst out in heartily singing the King's Anthem. The scene was unrehearsed and unexpected, and the effect upon the audience was electric, filling them el oncea with surprise and delight. ■LORD BALFOUR'S SPEECH. Lord' Balfour was in good voice and in excellent spirits. His speech was suited to the occasion, but the Tefrain of it was "Oh that we had the unity of the Church at home." He began by referring with sorrow to the differences between the churches, but said, amid the ringing cheers of the conference, that we are drawing nearer every day in. our international and ecclesiastical relations, and we are even now united in obedience to the command of Christ, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." He would not belittle the tEingis that keep us apart, but he maintained that we are one in seeking to call the world into one Christian fellowship. His experience was that missionary workers who were once brought together were not easily sundered. The nations, he said, are seeking for enlightenment and liberty, and these are best found in Christianity.

THE PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND, j The Archbishop of Canterbury received I a royal welcome from the great assembly. He did not begin by formally addressing the chair, but in the words, "Fellow-workers in the Church Militant." The Archbishop said the conference *met ior the most serious attempt the Church had yet made to look steadily at the whole fact of the non-Christian world, and to understand its meaning and challenge. None of them bated a jot of his deliberate convictions, and therein lay in part the value of their several contributions to the debates, hut they were absolutely one in their allegiance to therr living Lord. Without any doubt the preI sent opportunity for missionary work ■was almost limitless. It was urgent and clamorous; perhaps also temporary and passing. Aid with the opportunities they had special difficulties—European knowledge assimilated in the East without the sanctions and history and long discipline which had given it birth and nurture and virility for ourselves, material wealth and comfort made the apparent deity or goal of "Christian" na- ' tions, the un-Christian lives of representatives of Christian lands, and, perhaps, above all, the lukewarmness of the Home Church in face of all these possibilities and perils. If the work were to be done men must be made to know and feel, not in abstract theory, but in living, burning fact, that there was none other through whom man could receive health and salvation than our Lord Jesus Christ. Mr. Robert E. Speer followed in a speech of great power and conviction.

THE REPORT. A significant warning regarding the present trend of events in India is given in the report submitted to the conference. The commissioners state: — "The movement in India attracting most attention at the present moment is Nationalism. The new spirit has its natural basis in racial, solidarity and in love of country. It has been quickened into consciousness largely through Western education and development, and has received a fresh impetus from the reports of Japanese progress and success. Though excellent, if rightly guided, it may become a great danger to the peace of tha coantry if directed into wrong channels, as when it is exploited by Anarchist leaders for their own ends.

"At present we hear from all parts that, haiul in hand with the anti-Bri-tish current of feeling, goes a strong anti-foreigh prejudice, which has grown perceptibly " during the last five years. ■Much of this feeling is very vague and unreasoning, and yet, till circumstances co change as to render racial prejudice lesa intense, the missionary will inevitably find himself and his message at a serious disadvantage. The political spirit has engendered a deep suspicion of the •West, and; this suspicion has developed into a race antagonism, and this racial antagonism is closely connected with everything Ithat comes from the West."

Another passage from the same report refers to the threatening advance of Mahommedanism. The report states: "The absorption of native races into Islam is proceeding rapidly and continuously in practically all parts. The commission has had convincing evidence of this fact brought to its attention by missionaries along the Nile, in East Central Africa, in South-East Africa, on different parts of the Congo ibasin, in parts lying south of the Congo, and even in South Africa."

LETTER FROM MR. ROOSEVELT. An interesting letter from Mr. Roosevelt was read. Mr. Roosevelt regretted that -he was unable to attend the conference, and mentioned that had he been able to be present it would have been tts a delegate from the Dutch Reformed Church of America, to which he belonged. Describing the scope of the conference, he said:

fcll e first time in four centuries Christians of every name come together without renouncing their several convictions or sacrificing their several principles to confer as to what common action may be taken in order to make their common Christianity not only known to, but a vital force among, the two-thirds of the human race to whorii as yet it is hardly even a name.

' + ! nite amoun t of work remains to be done before we can regard ourselves as being even within measurable distance of the desired goal, an infinite amount at home in the dark places, which too often closely surround the brightest centres of life, and an infinite amount abroad in those dark places of the earth where blackness is as yet unrelieved by any light. "It is imperative to remember that a divided Christendom acn only imperfectly bear witness to the essential unity of Christianity. I believe that without compromise of belief, without loss of the positive good contained in the recognition of t)he diversity of gifts and differences of administration, the Christian churches may yet find a way to cordial co-operation and friendship as regards the great underlying essential upon which, as a foundation, all Christian churches are built."

MAGNITUDE OF THE WORK. The following figures, showing the magnitude of the missionary work of the world were given:—One year's contributions, £5,070,225; ordained missionaries, 5522; ordained and unordained workers, 98,388; nativg Christians, 5,281,871; women physicians, working as missionaries, 341.