SEPTEMBER 15, 1916 



875 



Ai-^oot OUR HOMES 



Editor 



For God so loved tlie world. — John" 3:16. 

 Tliy kingdom tome; thy will be done on earth as 

 it is in he.iven. — Matt. 6:10. 



Please notice, friends, the woid ivuiid, 

 "for God so loved the world." It does not 

 read that God so loved the United States, 

 nor England nor Germany, nor any other 

 nation. It is the whole wide world. It is 

 not the American nor European nor Ger- 

 man, nor the negroes of Africa. God so 

 loved ns all, and sent his only Son to save 

 us all. If that only Son has not yet been 

 }3resented to every land and every nation, 

 we, his followers, are more or less respon- 

 sible. 



Once more, that wonderful prayer the 

 Master gave us is that God's kingdom may 

 come on earth — ^tliis whole planet of ours. 

 God is not only no respecter of persons, 

 but he is no respecter of nations. I con- 

 fess I did not think of this until rjuite 

 recentl3\ In Our Homes for Aug. 15, un- 

 der the head of " True and False Patriot- 

 ism," 1 said " Love of one's country may 

 not only be a mistake but an instigation 

 of the devil.'' After I put it in print my 

 conscience troubled me somewhat. I feared 

 I was putting it too severely. Let me now 

 talk about something else, for just a mo- 

 ment, before we get back to " patriotism." 



Years ago, when I was new in the Chris- 

 tion work, we had a beloved pastor. He 

 was young, like myself; but I was so much 

 in sympathy with all he was trying to do 

 tliat I never missed a word from him in the 

 pulpit, prayer-meeting, teachers' meeting, 

 nor any other gatliering. He was a man 

 of wonderful talent and abilitj', together 

 with a blight cheerful outlook in regard to 

 the work of sijreading the gospel. Well, 

 among many other kind words 1 hold in 

 my hand a letter (just received) from him, 

 which reads as follows : 



My dear Friend: — Almost a lifetime has passed 

 since you and I shook hands for the first time, and 

 I came among you in Medina as the immature pas- 

 tor of your splendid church. I remember, with in- 

 creasing gratitude and gratification, those dear old 

 da,}'s in Medina, and you, my dear friend Mr. Root, 

 were always cordial and appreciative of your pastor, 

 co-operative in every good word and work, and a 

 stimulus and comfort to him. A good many of tlu^ 

 Xjcople that I knew there have passed away. 1 often 

 think of you and your home, and all the friend:s who 

 made my years of service there bright and fairly 

 radiant. 



Gleanings comes to me regularly, and I enjoy it 

 very much. The copy for Aug. 1 reached my desk 

 yesterday, and I turned to the pages of " Our 

 Homes." The tribute to Mr. Ford is impressive, 

 and I think he is worthy of it. It is a mighty good 

 thing to get a little of the phrase as well as the 

 sentiment of the Scriptures in a periodical. 



Please remember mo to any friends who may not 

 have forgotten me, and believe me now and always, 

 Most sincerely yours. 

 New York City, Aug. 5. C. J. Ryder. 



One thing that pleased me about the 

 letter was that he appears to indorse what 

 I said about the possibility of Ford being a 

 Christian, tcithout knowing it. Now, if you 

 please, let us go back to that matter about 

 true and false patriotism. With the letter 

 I speak of came a litle pamphlet, and I 

 am going to make some clippings from it 

 because it so strongly indorses what I said 

 al)out patriotism. Below are the clippings: 



THE WORLD PROBLEMS OF THE A. M. A. 



Secretarial Paper by Charles .J. Ryder, Sec. 



Certain forces which we have thought strong and 

 ade(iuate have proved inefficient in the last few 

 months. Let us note these briefly. 



Patriotism has proved a painfully inadequate 

 element in the redemption of humanity. We look 

 across the seas and witness the horrible slaughter 

 and the great crime of the centuries being perpe- 

 trated. And yet each nation of either group ap- 

 peals to patriotic enthusiasm as an adequate motive 

 for these crimes. Patriotism as a motive power for 

 the uplift of humanity is failing wretchedly and 

 miserably. 



But in the same terrible conflict science has prov- 

 ed disappointing. Instead of devising means solely 

 for the alleviation of human suffering, science has 

 largely surrendered herself to the production of 

 destructive machinery ; of explosive gases ; of self- 

 igniting fire, to the disgrace of the name of science 

 and to the horrible murder of human beings. Sci- 

 ence has failed. Neither the American Missionary 

 Association nor any other great movement can de- 

 pend upon science for its impulses of uplift. 



Again, secular education has failed. It is impos- 

 sible to read the utterances of famous university 

 professors in their disgraceful defense of the horri- 

 ble cruelties and barbarisms without admitting that 

 secular education has failed as a force in the re- 

 demption of humanity. 



It is a question whether organized Christianity 

 is not failing. Now, if we analyze carefully we dis- 

 cover that the real reason why these forces fail of 

 beneficent results is because they have had no larg- 

 er purpose than the advancement of their own power 

 and advantage. The patriotism of the European 

 countries that are plunged in war has been a 

 selfish patriotism, a patriotism that sought the ag- 

 gi'andizement of its own nation — not the benefit of 

 the world — but to crush other nations and enlarge its 

 own domain. Education has been used to suppress 

 rather than promote the interests of all humanity. 

 Artificial barriers have been put up around investi- 

 gation and discovery and research so that the ad- 

 vantages of educational results might be enjoyed 

 only by a single group or nation. 



Even organized Christianity represented by the 

 churches lias often drawn the lines of demarcation 

 and sought narrow and selfish advantage. Prof. 

 •John Brierly emphasizes this fact in the following: 



"And yet the world's greatest spirits have figured 

 often enough as opponents of human law I Again 

 and again we see them setting the might of their 

 personality against a whole system of reirulations, 

 of customs, of authorities. Socrates attacks the 

 .Vthenian orthodoxy and drinks the hemlock Jesus 

 puts his ' I say unto you ' against the old religion, 

 and is condemned by the church authorities; Lu- 



