Then Cuadra went to see the old man. "Won't you let him return to your home?" he begged. "Never," said the fanatical old man; "never." "Won't you let him come home to see you when I am with him?" "Yes, he can come with you, but he can never come alone." And so they went together and talked to the old Moro. Cuadra told him that his son was willing to sacrifice the home to become a Christian. The old man answered, "If he wants to be a Christian he may, but he must not live here." And so the first convert went home to live with Cuadra and is now preparing to become a Christian minister. At the feast of Ramadan, when the Moros fast all day and eat and worship in their mosques all night, they invited Cuadra to come into the mosque, gave him the central seat, and around him sat the Mohammedan panditos, or priests. He talked with them for an hour about Abraham, Isaac, Moses, and the prophets and Jesus, and then they had a horse waiting for him outside, and he rode to the next mosque and talked for the next hour; then he rode to the next for another hour; and so he passed the whole night riding from one mosque to the next, until day began to break. HE MAY VISIT INDIA AND AMERICA Now I am anxious for Cuadra to visit India and become acquainted with those intense Christians who are doing such wonderful things there; to see the mass movement of the Indian outcastes, and interview Sadhu Sundar Singh, and meet Stanley Jones, and talk with Mahatma Gandhi, and study Mohammedanism in India. We are dreaming that when his brothers and sisters and scores of other Mohammedans have followed his footsteps and become Christian ministers, they will turn down, strong, fearless people that they are, into Borneo, Sumatra and Java, and that over there, the only place where the Ameri L can flag flies over the Mohammedan religion, that formidable foe of Christianity for 1,300 years, Mohammedanism will begin to be unraveled. Cuadra should have finished his last year in Union Seminary this year, but the mission had run out of funds and so he has been compelled to teach. He has been urged by the Moros of Jolo to be a candidate for governor, and would surely be elected by an overwhelming majority if he yielded to their urgent appeals. But he believes that the greatest need is to get the spirit of Jesus into the lives of his people, and that he can serve them best by remaining in the ministry. I have high hopes that he may come to America next year, and if he does, the American people will discover that he is one of the most powerful, impassioned, and moving apostles of Christ that they have ever seen. FOR JESUS IF NOT THE CHURCH BY STEPHEN C. PEABODY Mr. Peabody of the North China Mission has been having some interesting contacts with the Chinese mind ever since he joined the force at Peking in 1924. He has been working particularly through the Frame Memorial Community Center, where Chinese thought is freely expressed. As a friend also of many leading Chinese Christians, he has a right to reflect the best thought of the day in that part of China. ET me name some of the objections to Christianity raised by various members of the AntiChristians and the People's Party in North China, and attempt an impartial evaluation of their merit. (1) They oppose it as a foreign institution in its personnel, buildings, money, methods, and ideals. I feel that there is a great deal of validity in this criticism-we ought to change our ways. We have too often in the past built on our high Western standard of living an organization so complex and expensive that our Chinese friends could not think of taking over. I am asked to give my benevolences to pay the great church's coal bill-whereas I would much prefer to put my money into giving a scholarship to some lad who might be a future leader. A survey was conducted a few years ago in Shansi -one of the richer agricultural parts of China. It was found that the average income per family per year was $72 Mex. ($36 American money). That indicates that people have no surplus to speak ofthe item upon which all education, churches, hospitals, depend. Any untoward event drives such people into starvation, or into being recipients of charity. I believe that here is a basic economic fact-to be kept in mind in all our planning for the church. During the past year the Fenchow Field has had to make that adjustment on very short notice with no little trouble-but we are all facing the necessity, and the transfer of our whole program to an economic basis in agreement with Chinese conditions is under way. Where it has already taken place a much more wholesome spirit is already evident. It means that if missionaries are still wanted, at least it is not because they are looked upon as the foreign Santa Clauses through whom money flows to a financially dependent church. Our American Board has taken a lead in these matters, with the result that there is a naturalness and wholesomeness of relationship between Chinese and foreigners that is very heartening. (2) Another objection is to our schools-that they teach a foreign culture, a foreign religion, and too much of the teaching is carried on in a foreign tongue. Christian education is therefore looked upon as a denationalizing influence at a time when every effort is being used to bring about a national consciousness. The movement to have schools registered, at heart, it seems to me, is but a part of this great movement of nation building. It requires that all schools gear into the national educational machinery. Because the Christian religion and Bible are still distinctly foreign things to them, they also are ruled out. Many of our schools are making application for registration with the Government. (3) Again, the Christian Church is associated in their minds with the "imperialism" and economic exploitation of the Powers. At the times when treaties for special privileges were made with China, the religious leaders had religious toleration clauses included, giving Christians certain exemptions from taxation, etc. The protection that our mission work has received from foreign soldiers within China has very naturally led to resentment. It therefore seems to me that there is a real element of truth in this feeling. True, there are sections of the Church which try to dissociate themselves from this-the National Christian Council last year took a very forward position in this matter-but it is difficult to remove the former impression. A VENERATION OF JESUS It is rather thrilling to me that strong criticism of the Church and its administration is accompanied on the part of many of the leaders with the highest appreciation and even veneration of Jesus. The result is that although these few years are hard years for the church, they may well have a cleansing and pruning effect that will ultimately lead to a more vigorous, indigenous Church. Here again, when I think in terms of scores of years, I am distinctly optimistic. There are hosts of problems: how to make more vital our worship and devotional life; how more effectually to interest young college people in the work of the church; how to make the church more effective in the social issues all about us. But where is the church that does not have these to contend with? Our great hope lies in our young leaders, all too few-but they are great chaps! Most of the résumé comes to me through Chinese friends-one in particular, who does not wish to give his name, though he has written a superb analysis of the situation which I saw a few weeks ago. I feel that the facts he brings out ought to be more widely known-and so, of course, I take the responsibility for all that is said here. CALIFORNIA AS BREWER EDDY SEES IT HE thermometer is twenty degrees below freezing as "I take my pen in hand"-which, of course, suggests the theme of California. The temperature has dropped thirty degrees in a day and a half and that it would not do-in California. Today, after a night of sleet, we marshal the children with snow shovels to clear the porch and steps and paths, and this they never do-in California. And now at my desk, looking out on brick walls, snow-covered roofs, streets of slush and a corner of the State House, but hardly within sight of the codfish above the gilded dome, memories rise of sunrise pinks and sunset greens across the desert and words with sounds strange to New England ears, such as mesquite, prairie dogs, buttes, sage brush and Apaches, troop through my memory. One is always deeply impressed by that rapid transition. from the hopeless desert to the fertile orchards and rich fields where irrigation has transformed the scene. That to me is California. Another thing they have attained-the matchless type of architecture based on the old mission traditions, with every variety of line and soft color. The small bungalow has more attractive lines than the Middle West or New England cottage of today. The $4,000 house out there seems to serve the same purpose as the $12,000 or $16,000 cellared cottage here with us. My friends touch a button in the wall; a low hum beneath the floor follows, and the gas heater takes the chill off the air in five minutes. But it wouldn't work through our New England winter. Streets of palms and flowers; roads broad and smooth, flowing to the horizon and beyond; wonderful rides by day and by night, with Paul Waterhouse or Dr. Kenngott at the wheel and the speedometer anywhere you wished to have it; and in every city hospitality, so cordial, kindly, and Christian that you feel the friendliest folk of all the world have gathered there-in California. TEAM PLAY IN THE STATE Two main points must be considered for just a moment-Churches and Missions. The type of church building conforms to the beauty and novelty of design that is possible in these new cities. Growth, confidence, broad plans and apparent strength are clear impressions received by one who gave twentyfive addresses in these church groups. The State Conference has a well-knit organization that controls the situation more completely than we can understand in Massachusetts and Connecticut, where the freedom of the individual congregation maintains its supremacy. But the Association is able to guide the development of our churches in all of the state with an efficiency and economy and a team play that prove the value of the new state plans. Three speakers were taken in turn to five state associations where, representing Home and Foreign Missions, we had a chance to paint pictures of life and work in foreign fields and of the rural problems existing in some of our own states. To all of us there came the conviction of close coöperation between Home and Foreign Missions in a state conference so well planned and run. The tremendous building activity of our California churches proves their confidence in the future of Congregationalism. They are going from strength to strength and the liberal message is winning an increasing leadership there. MINISTERS BELIEVE IN USE OF FILMS An interesting point was the use of the evening service. Questions were asked of every minister and the opinion was that the films were giving them the best evening gatherings they could secure by any method. A dozen churches spoke frankly of showing clean pictures to audiences of 500 where the pastor believed he would get scarcely fifty or one hundred to out-and-out religious services. "My fifteen-minute sermon to a room full is all I ask," said one. "They are not idlers, but they are average citizens who want a little relaxation and will not come to a solemn, overloaded religious service. One hymn, a few verses, a brief prayer, and there follows an hour of keen enjoyment, with my brief sermon sending them home in thoughtful, earnest mood." Another said, "I note a steady growth of members and of gifts for church support gathered in from the casual audiences for the evening films." There is no pretense that these films are of the Sunday school variety, but they present fine, clean, manly stories of adventure, of romance, and are distinctly above the level of the average sensational newspaper or magazine that would engross the interest of these people if they stayed at home. Several ministers spoke with appreciation of the rising level of clean-minded romance now available in films. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TO TAKE OVER MEXICO The Southern California State Conference is beginning an experiment of unusual interest. sires to take a great project in the American Board's educational and evangelical work in Mexico and to develop a foreign missionary task of its own. The churches are conscious of a growing interest in Mexico. Travelers, business men, and Christian workers are passing back and forth, making for closer acquaintance between the two races. Under the present immigration laws Mexicans are allowed to come and go across the border by the scores of thousands. The orchard-building operations of Southern California employ many thousands of Mexicans, so, naturally, a genuine desire to help Mexico in missionary lines has arisen. Two years ago the state desired to carry on its own work among the Japanese and Chinese which had formerly been directed by the A. M. A. That experiment has proved successful. The American Board has every confidence in the Southern California Conference, and in its ability to carry out this new plan for Mexico. It is too early to dwell upon the details, for they are yet to be worked out by Southern California, but our Prudential Committee believes that this awakened interest will increase the work in Mexico more rapidly than our Board can afford to at present. The Board is willing to serve Southern California in any way desired and will always have representatives upon the committee of management which will direct this work. COÖPERATION BETWEEN THE TWO RACES Over the border there are four schools to be considered, with nearly 1,000 pupils and perhaps thirtyfive organized churches with a group of Mexican pastors, a few of whom are ordained, and all of whom have a good Bible training and experience in Christian work. The new conditions under the Mexican Government demand a board of trustees, of whom the majority shall be Mexicans, in charge of educational institutions. This fact in itself spells coöperation. Friends in Southern California will study the work with great care and decide upon a plan of coöperation under the Mexican law. It is possible that emphasis will be placed upon teacher-training in the future and, if the Mexican Government can found and carry forward primary schools in the villages and towns, there will probably be no desire to compete, but only to supplement and to offer some sound character-training in boarding school years and to carry leaders on further in preparation for Christian service. If relations between America and Mexico are bettered in the next few years, as now seems likely with a new Ambassador, these lines of work will rapidly increase in value. We have the advice and counsel of experienced veterans upon which to count. We have a devoted staff of trained leaders now in conduct of the work and the Board is willing to hand this task over to Southern California upon its own terms, and with earnest prayer for full success and rapid growth in the days to come. A HAND ACROSS THE SEA: ONE PROFESSOR'S CONTRIBUTION NE of the finest examples which has recently come to our notice of the close coöperation between home and foreign workers is emphasized by the recent arrival at the International College, Smyrna, of three more Pomona College graduates to begin their work as members of the staff. This makes, with President Reed and three men earlier appointed, seven Pomona College men on the staff of our well-known college in Smyrna. How have these men been recruited? The answer of this is the subject of this article. Some years ago Pomona College determined to develop a definite interest abroad. The International College of Smyrna, a non-sectarian institution of broad type, was chosen, partly because one of the Pomona alumni, Cass Reed, 1906, was Dean of the college. In 1919 the movement was inaugurated, since which time the "Pomona-in-Smyrna" movement has supported at least one term worker at the Turkey college. At the head of the local committee in Pomona College was placed Prof. Clifford N. Hand, Director of Religious Interests, and himself a Pomona alumnus. At first it was difficult to get men to offer for service abroad, but Professor Hand set himself to call the attention of promising students early in their |