Dangers that Threaten Us.
C. L. WOODWORTH, in the American Missionary of October, 1870, speaks as follows of the growing and threatening evils with which Christianity must contend, even in this land of light and liberty. The picture is not a very encouraging one for those who think that the church, with the agencies now at her command, is commissioned to convert the world. He says:— “The immense tide of foreign immigration, coming largely from the very poor and dangerous classes of the Old World—the infidelity which marches in the forefront of this immigration, scoffing at the Sabbath, the Church and the Bible—the Romish Church, hostile to whatever has come of the Puritan faith and culture, spreading over the land, and boasting its purpose to take possession of it within the next thirty years; Mormonism with its gospel of lust, and heathenism with its one hundred thousand invaders on the Pacific slopes, and finally eight millions of our own kith and kin, south of Mason and Dixon’s line, who, to say the least, do not love us—are enough to make us serious, and lead us to ask whether we have not all that we can do to save the land for Christ, and liberty, and truth. The first duty of the churches would seem to be to strengthen their position, and secure their defenses against all the craft and power of Rome and the devil. It may be accepted as the common consent of mankind that the great moral battle for the world will be fought in this land, for the simple reason that every enemy of Christ and truth, is here concentrating. . . . Our peril is not from foes without, but from foes within. There is among us a spirit of diabolism that must be exorcised, or it will destroy us. The conflict will come, and it will be decisive. Hence we plead with our people to see to it that the positions of the evangelical churches are made so strong as to defy every assault, come from what quarter it may. If as Christian men, we have any wisdom for a time like this, we shall put in array every Christian power, and set in motion every Christian influence, to meet the enemy who is coming in upon us like a flood.” Of the wonderful field presented by this country for the preaching of the gospel to all nations, he then speaks as follows:— “God has brought the world to our doors, and why should we think we do nothing for it unless we seek men abroad? The heathen are moving in upon us ten times faster than we have shown any capacity to save them in their own lands. We have in the blacks and in the Chinese the representatives of two great heathen races; and it ought to be easier to save them here than under the darkness of heathenism, while their salvation would insure the salvation of the nations from which they come.” “There is, too, this immense gain in doing the work here. We preach to these races in our own tongue, which they are compelled to learn, instead of learning theirs after years of study, and babbling in it ever after. No time is lost, therefore; the moment we face the work, that moment we preach the glorious gospel of Christ. We are startled almost when we think of it, as if we saw the shadow of the Almighty, that in the English language, packed with religious ideas, and holding the best Christian literature in the world, we can, at our own doors, preach the gospel to every nation under heaven.”