and Redeemer; shall give their lives up to his control, and shall be new-charactered in his likeness. It is quite possible for children to come into this loving discipleship of Christianity so early that they can never remember when they had any other attitude. They were trained to be Christians from infancy. It is quite possible for others to make deliberate choice of him and his way of life at eight, or ten, or twelve, or fifteen years of age. The church aims in its nurture to secure such a choice, and will gladly enroll such young disciples, like Polycarp and Watts and Spurgeon, in the goodly fellowship of its members.

Great is this work of spiritual nurture of the young. It is an arduous and exacting work. It demands on the part of the one who undertakes it, either in the home or in the church, a broad intelligence, a sympathetic heart, a determined purpose, a fertile ingenuity, incessant thought, and constant self-denial. But it is the best paying work in the world. It will give us immediately an added beauty in the children, and later it will give us noble men and women, filled with the ideals, the principles, and the spirit of Christ, vitalized by him who is the life, and radiating blessing on all about them. It will give us strong and trusty workers for the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven.

FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN AMERICAN CIVILIZATION.1

BY REV. H. A. SCHAUFFLER, D. D., SUPT. OF SLAVIC MISSION WORK FOR THE CONGREGATIONAL HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

A dire calamity has befallen our nation. One feeble man, crazed by the baleful influence of anarchistic teaching, and filled with senseless hatred of all government and social order, took the life of our noble Chief Magistrate, just as the beloved head of our nation was helping to celebrate the peaceful triumph of industry, art, and commerce of all the Americas. The sound of that fatal shot reverberating through our land has rudely shocked and awakened it from its dreamy optimism. We have had warnings before. But we have almost forgotten the Chicago Haymarket tragedy. Never yet have we realized, as now, the danger that threatens us in this land of freedom and golden opportunity. We have fondly imagined that, because this country is governed by the people and for the people, and because all have a better chance for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" than in almost any other country on earth, all would heartily unite in supporting the government and furthering the welfare of the Commonwealth.

Bresci and Czolgosz have undeceived us! Like smoke and sparks issuing from a ship's hold, they have revealed the existence of secret forces of terrifically destructive nature.

The fact that Czolgosz is a Pole, that the Paterson anarchists are Italians, that Emma Goldman is of foreign parentage, most naturally and necessarily calls attention to the European origin of anarchy in this country, and to the whole subject of the foreign elements in American civilization, which the Buffalo tragedy has opened up anew.

In the last "North American Review," Charles Johnson says: "This movement is the tragical harvest of ancient seeds of evil sown long ago in medieval Europe and now coming to life and growth, not only in Europe but in America." He says it has become very evident that the masses of certain European immigrants sent forth from their mother lands by the grinding deprivations of their lives, have brought with them not only their languages and mental idiosyncrasies, but the whole psychic atmosphere of their

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homes, so that we have whole districts of certain European countries with all their bitter memories carried bodily through the air to this country.

Our theme is a very great, practical, and deeply interesting one. To treat it adequately in all its aspects, tendencies, and results would far transcend the limit of time allotted to this paper. It would involve enumeration of all the various races and nationalities that crowd into our land, with a description of their various characteristics, physical, mental, social, and moral, and a discussion of how far these are adapted, or are becoming adapted, to beneficially promote the creation of a virtually new nation, or to injuriously affect its future. I commend this fruitful theme to some able student of ethnology and history, who can devote a book to its treatment. Neither can I undertake the grateful task of enlarging on the great and manifold benefits accruing to this young nation from the incoming of many of the very best and most useful elements of other nations. All I can attempt to do in the time allotted me is to present some facts and considerations concerning our population of foreign origin, which should lead our body of churches to take a deeper and more active interest in "the stranger that dwelleth with us," to perceive more clearly his needs which we can supply, the dangers which the presence of certain large foreign elements create, and our responsibility and duty with reference to them.

Let me first call your attention to the all-important fact that the future weal or woe of this vast country depends in large measure on what the Christian churches of our land do for our population of foreign parentage. The Church of Christ has been called of God to solve many a difficult problem, but never was it asked to solve just this great and difficult problem which confronts us. No country on earth ever witnessed such stupendous influx of foreign peoples, and that of races differing so widely as the Frenchman and the Chinaman, the Scandinavian and the Italian. Never was there such a commingling on so vast a scale of peoples of such various physical, mental, and social characteristics, of such diverse languages, habits, and religions. Never has the experiment been tried of admitting such multitudes of immigrants to the rights of citizenship so soon after their arrival, and giving them the right to help make laws, govern the country and work out its destiny.

The task is a stupendous one. To overcome racial, social, and religious prejudices; to break down heaven-high walls which super

stition and error have reared; to wage successful war with dead formalism, with the ghostly influence of a priesthood that claims the power to send to heaven or consign to hell, with a blasphemous infidelity that would dethrone God and destroy all sacred family ties; to fight intemperance, Sabbath-breaking, worldliness, and lawlessness; to persuade men who know nothing of it that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which demands repentance and a pure, unselfish life, is the only remedy for all the ills that afflict mankind, that the liberty with which Christ makes men free is the only liberty worthy of the name, and that obedience to his commands alone can produce the ideal social state; to win for the only true ideal of Christianity and citizenship all the dissimilar and partly conflicting elements of our heterogeneous population, and to create a new, homogeneous, harmonious, and righteous nation, this is the task that God has set his church in this land of freedom, privilege, and high opportunity. Having taken a general look at the nature and size of the Godgiven task, let us next see what census figures tell us of the numerical size and the composition of our foreign parentage population.

Size of population of foreign parentage, i. e., foreigners and their children of the first generation born in this country. The 1900 census figures just issued, show a total population of 76,303,387. The foreign born are 13.7 per cent, and the native whites of foreign parentage are 20.6 per cent of the total population, making together 34.3 per cent. The population of foreign white parentage, i. e., foreigners and their children born here, are 38.5 per cent of our total white population. The population of native white parentage is only 53.8 per cent of the total population. So that for every five and one-third white persons of native parents, we have nearly four white persons of foreign parentage. It is very significant that our native white element of foreign parentage has, during the last decade, increased twice as fast as the native whites of native parentage.

Then remember that this enormous population of foreign parentage is massed in the northern half of our land, there being a very small foreign population in the Southern States. In the seven States of the South Atlantic division the foreign parentage population is not quite six per cent of the whole. It follows that the percentage of population of foreign parentage in the Northern, Middle, and Western States is very much larger than the average for the whole country. This becomes strikingly manifest when we look at the

percentage of foreign population in a few of the Northern States as given in the census of 1900. Massachusetts had 63.6 per cent of population of foreign parentage, Rhode Island, 64; New York, 59.3; Ohio, 33.9; Illinois, 51.1; Pennsylvania, 38.3; North Dakota, 77.1. In all these States, except Ohio and North Dakota, which show a small decrease, the percentage of foreign parentage has somewhat increased since 1890, notwithstanding the great decrease of immigration in consequence of financial depression. Immigration is again on the increase. In 1898, 229,299 immigrants landed on our shores; in the year ending June 30, 1901, the number was 487,918.

The character of the addition to our population is changing. We are receiving much smaller numbers from countries whose people are nearly allied to us in race and religion, and much larger numbers of nationalities less easily assimilated. From "The Congregationalist" of Aug. 24, 1901, I take the following significant

The editor says: "Those who come now are Roman and Greek Catholics, and are adherents of forms of religion not fashioned after the democratic model. We have no reason to believe that the process of assimilation of the Latin and Slavic peoples will be any less thorough than the assimilation of the Celtic and Teutonic peoples. But it will be a more difficult and longer process; and the responsibility of the Protestant churches for supporting just such work as the Congregational Home Missionary Society has in its admirable foreign department will be as heavy a responsibility as it has been in the past, if not heavier. But if the burden is assumed joyfully, the victory will be speedier and more thorough."

It is important to notice the exceedingly diversified character of our immigrant population, and their distribution in large groups. The incomplete 1900 census tables not affording the means for a fresh statement, I have recourse to a magazine article by J. E. Chamberlin, which, though not new, gives a correct view of the general present situation. He says: "A glance at the map, in con