Christianity

Christianity BY GEORGE D. KIRBY If I were asked what, in my humble opinion, was the most significant event the world has experienced during the past year, I would say that it was the formal request of the newly-formed Chinese republic, a pagan people, that the Christian people dwelling within its boundaries, and all the earth, offer up the prayers of their Christian faith for the success and welfare of the new republic. Only a very small percentage of the people of China are Christians ; it is by no means a Christian country, as we understand and use the term. Never before jn the history of the world has the faith of Christian j: eoples been acknowledged officially by a non-Christian people in s ach a way as to ask their prayers, and it is an indication to mt' that the day is not so far distant when this new republic may become Christianized, for there was surely some mighty influence to believe that the prayers of Christianity to the God of the Christians would result in benefits which their beliefs could not give, otherwise it were a vain request, and one for which no reasonable motive could be given. Many of the churches of America responded to the request, and on April 27, the pulpits of the Christian churches resounded with appeals to the Christian God, for the success and prosperity of a pagan republic. The deep meaning of this appeal from China lies in its apparent recognition of the power of Christianity. A similar act to this was the one which occurred at the commencement of the trouble in California, when a noted statesman of Japan expressed the hope that his people might be treated by the Americans in accordance with Christian principles. We are told that "familiarity breeds contempt." Perhaps it does in narrow minds ; but certainly familiarity breeds carelessness of conditions. To many of the people of the world, the socalled Christianity is so a part of our lives and our customs that we forget what it is. But when eastern countries, which are not familiar with it, look upon this scheme of faith, they see not its petty details about which there is so much wrangling, but only the imposing outline of its grand structure. They perceive from the outside, not as we do from within. They see a lofty ideal for society, personal conduct and life at

CHRISTIANITY 229 large. From the distance the huge outlines of wonderful brotherly love hides from their gaze the warring sects; the clash and narrowness of selfish intolerance. It has been said that one half of any religion is the people who have it. Christianity plus Americans is one thing, plus the Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic races another, plus the Latin races, still another. Both Romanism and Protestantism have been a disappointment to the world ; their breakdown has been no less marked than the successes to which they had attained. The servility and superstition of the Latin peoples, and the hypocrisy of the Anglo-Saxons, have not conformed well with the pure teachings of Jesus Christ. When the Orient becomes Christianized, it will shame us ; it will produce a religion as far in advance of so-called Christianity as we are in advance of Paganism. The Eastern character is more simple, more earnest, more imaginative, more assimilable to the doctrines of Jesus. The touch of the East has brought about every advance of Western civilization. From the East came mathematics, philosophy and most religions ; the renaissance came from the fall of Constantinople and the spread of Greek learning through Italy. If the Orientals, as they bid fair to do, take the teachings of Christ seriously, they will simply and sincerely follow those teachings. The so-called Christians, practically declare that the principles of Jesus are not logical ; that he was a dreamer, that the spiritual laws of Christ are "an irridescent dream," and all the time worship him with their lips but not with the heart. With our armies and our prisons, our worship of force ; our distrust of human nature and the Juggernaut of our business prosperity grinding humanity beneath its wheels of progress, we are likely to turn the ruling of the future over to the simple Orientals, for it is not the violent and cruel, but the meek that shall inherit the earth. SUGAR CITY, IDAHO