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The Crusading Church at Home and Abroad*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Gaius Glenn Atkins
Affiliation:
Auburn Theological Seminary

Extract

The first fifteen years of the twentieth century may some day be remembered in America as the Age of Crusades. There were a super-abundance of zeal, a sufficiency of causes, unusual moral idealism, excessive confidence in mass movements, and leaders with rare gifts of popular appeal. The people were ready to cry “God wills it” and set out for world peace, prohibition, the progressive party, the ‘New Freedom’ or ‘the World for Christ in this Generation.’ The air was full of banners and the trumpets called from every camp. It was a brave time in which to be alive.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1932

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References

1 See “Modern Evangelistic Movements”—a ‘group’ book edited by “Two University Men,” Doran, George H. Company, New York, 1924—introduction generally.Google Scholar

2 This section is deeply in debt to memoranda by J. Campbell White and Dr. S. Earl Taylor graciously furnished by Dr. Cavert, Executive Secretary of the Federal Council.

3 I have translated the article rather freely. It was more literally a sympathetic account of the scope and aim and efficiency of The Men and Religion Forward Movement.

4 The Epic of America, page 341.

5 About this time George F. Baer—“The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for, not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God, in His infinite wisdom, has given control of the property interests of this country.” Adams, op. cit., page 347. But the papers once discussed this at length. It produced a famous satiric poem.

6 See Moral OverstrainAlger, George W., Houghton, Mifflin & Company, Boston, 1906.Google Scholar

7 Making Religion Efficient—Edited by Barbour, Clarence A., D. D., Association Press, New York, 1912, page 8.Google Scholar

8 Pastor of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, New York, and at that time President of the Society for the Prevention of Crime.

9 Our Fight With Tammany, Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, D. D., Charles Scribners' Sons, New York, 1895, pages 8 ff.Google Scholar This section is based on Dr. Parkhurst's narrative.

10 It would need to be documented from the local press of the nation—a colossal undertaking.

11 Dr. Parkhurst smelled the battle from afar and sent down his maledictions to Tammany from Lake Placid.

12 Dr. Charles S. Macfarland, General or Executive Secretary of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, supplies, in an appendix to his book, International Christian Movements, Fleming H. Revell Co., New York, 1924,Google Scholar a directory of international and inter-church organizations. These include the Federations and Councils of the United States, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, China and Japan, Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work, The (then) World Conference on Faith and Order, Central Bureau for Relief of the Evangelical Churches of Europe, International Missionary Council, Committee on Cooperation in Latin America, American Bible Society, World's Sunday School Association, World's Christian Endeavor Union, World's Student Christian Federation, Salvation Army, World Brotherhood Federation, Alliance of Reformed Churches throughout the World Holding the Presbyterian System, Baptist World Alliance, Lutheran World Convention, Ecumenical Methodist Conference, International Congregational Council, Lambeth Conference Commissions of the Federal Council on International Justice and Good-will, Relations with Religious Bodies in Europe and the Eastern Churches, World's Committee of the Y. M. C. A., World Committee of the Y. W. C. A., National Board of the Y. M. C. A., Church Peace Union, World Alliance for International Friendship through the Churches, American Friends Service Committee, American and Foreign Christian Union, American McAll Association; I have omitted two or three organizations which are subdivisions or variants.

13 Some of these languages are now obsolete. In a few the Scriptures were prepared principally for philological purposes. The whole Bible has been printed in 172 languages, the New Testament in 179 more, and portions, consisting of at least one book in about 470 more. From 1920 to 1930 some portion of the Bible has appeared in a new language at the rate of one in four weeks. The British and Foreign Society has been the chief producer, the American Bible Society next. These facts and figures by the courtesy of the American Bible Society.

14 Macfarland, op. cit., page 63.Google Scholar

15 Building Bridges—World Student Christian Federation, Geneva, Switzerland, 1930.Google Scholar I acknowledge, gratefully, help and literature from Francis P. Miller, Chairman.