THE FOREIGNER IN AMERICA.
By Samuel McBride
[Rev. Samuel McBride, D. D., in Converted Catholic.] THE conditions that prevail in this land to-day are without a parallel in history. Never since God started the human race in the earth has there been such a mixing of races of peoples. To the United States they have come from every nation under heaven. The Sun is authority for the statement that sixty-three languages are spoken in New York City. And they are coming to-day in unprecedented numbers. The tide of immigration does not seem to have reached the flood. All records are being broken. Last year 915,000 came, including those from Canada; more than 500,000 of the total was from Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Russia. Large numbers of these are illiterate, and the vast majority of them utterly ignorant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The incoming of these unchristianized hordes is a serious matter, whether looked upon from the standpoint of patriotism or piety. They are a menace to our country. The stream of humanity that flowed down from northern Europe and destroyed the Roman Empire was a rivulet compared with the stream that is flowing in upon us. The issue, as has been stated, is evangelization or demoralization. Their coming makes this the greatest field on earth, and imposes on the Christians of this land immense obligations. I believe God is in this movement, and that He is saying to His people: "I am sending the heathen to your very doors. Give them the Gospel of My grace." The divine purpose seems to be to evangelize the world through America. It is our plain duty, as well as our exalted privilege, to give these people the Gospel in their own tongue. In their own countries they are practically unreachable. There is something here, whether in the political conditions or in the air we breathe, I can not say, but there is something that makes a man begin to broaden as soon as his heel strikes American soil. His point of view changes immediately.