Home Missions in Action

The general topic for the text books for 1915-16, as first chosen by the "Committee of Twenty-eight," was "The Church at Its Task." This committee is composed of representatives from the four missionary organizations: the Home Missions Council; the Council of Women for Home Missions; the Conference of Foreign Mission Boards and the Federation of Women's Boards of Foreign Missions.

The outbreak of the great war of the nations brought new duties and questions of adjustment to the Christian church; the Committee has recognized this in changing the original topic to "The Church and the Nations."

This book is written from the standpoint of the words chosen as the key note for the year, "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth." It recognizes the fact that the Kingdom cannot come to our land, or to the world unless all social conditions are drawn within its scope; it emphasizes the desire of Home Missions and the church to work toward this great end, and the recognition of their responsibility for its accomplishment. But unless the nations of the world are trending toward the day when peace shall reign and hatred and strife cease among men, these desires cannot be realized. With this in view the portions dealing with social conditions and peace possibilities have been written.

That this book may reveal the far-reaching potentialities of Home Missions as a dynamic force for reclaiming, educating, healing, and integrating our nation into a land over which the Christ shall reign and that from Him it shall also draw its ideals and its power, is the hope and the prayer of the author and the Council of Women for Home Missions.

CONTENTS

I. A NATIONAL FORCE

II. A RECLAIMING FORCE

III. AN EDUCATIVE FORCE

IV. A HEALING FORCE

V. AN INTEGRATING FORCE

VI. SOURCES OF POWER

I

A NATIONAL FORCE PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH

O God, we pray for thy Church, which is set to-day amid the perplexities of a changing order, and face to face with a great new task. We remember with love the nurture she gave to our spiritual life in its infancy, the tasks she set for our growing strength, the influence of the devoted hearts she gathers, the steadfast power for good she has exerted. When we compare her with all other human institutions, we rejoice, for there is none like her. But when we judge her by the mind of her Master, we bow in pity and contrition. Oh, baptize her afresh in the life-giving spirit of Jesus! Grant her a new birth, though it be with the travail of repentance and humiliation. Bestow upon her a more imperious responsiveness to duty, a swifter compassion with suffering, and an utter loyalty to the will of God. Put upon her lips the ancient gospel of her Lord. Help her to proclaim boldly the coming of the Kingdom of God and the doom of all that resist it. Fill her with the prophets' scorn of tyranny, and with a Christ-like tenderness for the heavy-laden and down-trodden. Give her faith to espouse the cause of the people, and in their hands that grope after freedom and light to recognize the bleeding hands of the Christ. Bid her cease from seeking her own life, lest she lose it. Make her valiant to give up her life to humanity, that like her crucified Lord she may mount by the path of the cross to a higher glory.