Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (1896)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 Excerpt: ...for the Churches in Europe. V. Foreign Missions.--1. India.--From four to five million of the people of India in one capacity or another were engaged in the war These millions are now returning from France and from Mesopotamia and from Egypt and from Salonica, imbued with new thought and enlarged conceptions of life. A new atmosphere prevails, and a new response..Sir Bartle Frere, after service as Governor of Bombay, said: The teaching of Christianity is effecting changes--moral, social and political--which for extent and rapidity of effect are far more extraordinary than anything you or your fathers have witnessed in modern times. 2. China.--Civil war has not yet subsided in China, yet nothing explosive has occurred during 1918. The Church has secured a position that commands the respect of the educated and better classes. Chinese Christians are beginning to display high qualities of leadership, which with their better understanding of Chinese character enables them to adjust difficulties and to maintain proper relationships between missionaries and people. How to overcome China's illiteracy is one of the most difficult problems. A phonetic alphabet of 39 symbols has been adopted for the Chinese language. It is not intended that the Chinese character should pass away, but as China is now the only large country using an ideographic system of writing the likelihood is that this is the beginning of the end. 3. Latin America.--There is a new hunger for religion among our southern neighbors. Most of the educated classes before the world war had concluded that religion could be eliminated from modern life, but many have come now to realize that they must have a spiritual basis for personal and national life. South America has evidently caught the spi...