Christian spirit. What all
desire supremely is the salvation of the immigrants. And only a united
Protestantism can present such a massive front as to impress the world.
This work must be large enough to be self-respecting. At present it is
extremely doubtful if there is enough of it to make individual members
of the churches feel its worth and importance. There should be a mighty
advance movement, calling for millions of money and thousands of
missionaries, and reaching into a multitude of places now destitute of
gospel influences. Then the alien in America would realize the American
spirit and purpose and interest in him, and the birth of a new
citizenship would begin.

[Sidenote: Planning Large Things]

This is the day of large enterprises. The home mission movement for the
evangelization of the foreign peoples in America ought to be in the
forefront of the great enterprises. The real hope of America lies in the
success of this work. The best brain of the Christian laity should be
engaged in this business.

[Sidenote: A Million a Year in New York]

In New York City alone the Christian denominations ought to raise and
expend at least a million dollars a year for the next ten years for city
foreign evangelization, and this would be only a start in a work bound
to extend indefinitely. The demand is imperative. The fields are ripe
for harvest. We have seen that the old religious ties are not only
weakened by the Atlantic voyage, but often broken altogether. In some
nationalities this tie is strong, in most of them not very binding. The
great bulk of the new immigration is Roman or Greek Catholic. Thousands
of these nominal church members drift into open infidelity or schools of
atheism, or else into nothingism. Their former Church does not keep
them, and Protestantism does not get them. It is a question whether
their new condition is better or worse, religiously, than it was in the
old country. We should remove that question by surrounding them with
such Christian influences and institutions as will make it impossible
for them to escape the Americanizing and evangelizing environment. Why
should not Christian philanthropy, for instance, build a block of model
tenement-houses in the Italian district, and give the income from
rentals as a permanent endowment for Italian mission work? This would be
a double blessing.

[Sidenote: How to Use Wealth for Country]

There is a magnificent opportunity, an opportunity to fire