Quiet Talks with World WinnersGordon, S. D. (Samuel Dickey)
Religion
Quiet Talks with World Winners
Gordon, S. D. (Samuel Dickey)
Christian life
<u>A Minority Movement.</u>
Yet, be it keenly marked, these great strides have been made by a
minority, who have followed the strong leaders. The whole Church is not
yet awake. Many protest strenuously against being waked up. The
alarm-clocks bother them. Sometimes one is inclined to think that the
foreign boards are peculiarly placed between a refrigerator and a furnace.
Missionaries come back home fresh from the front fairly aflame with the
fervor of their enthusiasm. Their convictions of what could be done, and
should be done, are apt to be spoken out with great positiveness. They
seem to some to suggest in an uncomfortable way the thought of a glowing
furnace. And many in the home churches seem able to listen with such
indifference as to suggest to these returned men and women the chilling
air of an ice-box. In between the two sits the Church board engaging in
the difficult task of trying to equalize the temperature. But that's
merely a detail in passing.
The great fact to mark is that never has the missionary movement bulked so
large. And never have such broad statesmanlike plans, such aggressiveness
of spirit, coupled with deep devotion, marked the Church in its great
life-mission.
One morning at a popular summer resort on the Long Island Sound coast
thousands of bathers were enjoying the surf-bathing. The life-saving crew
were stationed for duty, on the lookout for any accident. A gentleman
standing by one of the crew asked him how he could tell if help were
needed. There were thousands of bathers, and a perfect babel of noises.
The weather-beaten man, bronzed and toughened and trained to keenness in
his work by years of service, said, "I can always hear a cry of distress,
no matter how great the noise and confusion. There never yet has been a
cry of need I haven't heard."
For a long time the confusion of noises bothered the Church ears. But now
the cry of distress from over the wide seas is being heard again
distinctly, and is being responded to splendidly. The very earnestness of
response and effort is a forerunner of sure victory.
<u>A Great World-chorus.</u>
I recall vividly a scene in Albert Hall in London nearly fifteen years
ago. A remarkable gathering from all parts of the world had come together
to celebrate the jubilee of the Young Men's Christian Association. About
two thousand men had come from the ends of the earth. It was a
world-gathering. There were sturdy Englishmen, cosmopolitan Americans,
canny Scots, quick-witted Irishmen, sweet-voiced, fervid-spirited
Welshmen, and courtly, suave Frenchmen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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