That branch of the Aryan family known as the Anglo-Saxon race occupies a unique position of influence among the world powers. A little over a century ago the historian was guessing what race was to set the world's pace for to-morrow. The contest seemed to be between the four great European states--Russia, Germany, England and France. England had but little prospect and the odds were in favor of France. But to-day the entire world [146] acknowledges the supremacy of the English-speaking people.

      England of old was known as mistress of the seas, and to-day her position is little, if any, short of that. She sends her ministers of state and messengers of commerce in every direction, and they return home laden with wealth from all the world, and yet England's commerce is not her greatest wealth.

      Nature has been most kind to this island empire. Protected by rugged cliff and boisterous ocean which even the Spanish Armada could not defy, together with the stormy English Channel, her coast is almost impregnable against a foreign foe. And yet her natural boundary is not her greatest protection.

      Standing beneath the majestic arches of Westminster Abbey, our souls are moved with profound admiration as we think of the men who are resting there--Chaucer, Milton, Shakespeare, and that long galaxy of the wise and great. As we contemplate these immortal personages our souls cry out with exultant rapture, "I, too, belong to the Anglo-Saxon race." And yet the immortals whose dust moulders in those hallowed confines are not England's greatest glory.

      It is not her rich colonial possessions, her merchant marine, her unique position as mistress of the seas, nor yet her sages and poets and statesmen, that make England's greatest wealth and power and glory. But the supreme element in her national life which has given her leadership and shaped her destiny is England's religion. Westminster Abbey is the burying-place of her men of genius. But Smithfield, the death scene of her martyrs and heroes, is her crowning glory and the birthplace of her power.

      That was a sturdy race formed by combining the blood of the Jute, the Angle and the Saxon. But the acme of race development was not reached even in this combination. However great was the strength of the Greek, the Latin, the Celt, the Slav, the Teuton and the Anglo-Saxon, yet greater still is the American in whom we have blended the sterling qualities of them all.

      Look for a moment upon the unique position of power and influence held by the great English-speaking people. We now dominate one-third of the entire population of the globe. Our wealth has bought nearly all the earth's gold and diamond fields. Our banks regulate the money markets of the world. Outside the great English-speaking nations, our mother tongue is commonly spoken in Yokohama, Hongkong, Cairo, Capetown, Calcutta, Jerusalem, Constantinople, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Paris and Rome. It has practically become the court language of the world. With our incomparable navy and our unparalleled merchant marine we are able to dictate both the political and commercial policies of the earth. The swiftest ships laden with the freight of modern science and invention are ploughing the high seas in every direction, carrying sewing-machines, typewriters, ploughs, steam-engines,

ERNEST J. SIAS.

threshing-machines, trolley cars and automobiles to the farthest ends of the earth, to islands discovered in the last half century, and to forest jungle where a few decades ago the foot of civilization had never trod. The comforts and conveniences of our working people would have caused the Cæsars to turn green with envy, and the costumes and rich apparel of our poor women would make the wardrobe of Queen Elizabeth look mean and contemptible. Our public schools are unrivaled, and our great centers of intellectual culture at Oxford and Harvard and Yale are moulding the world's thought. Throughout the entire world men from English-speaking countries are held in preferment and are treated with the honors accorded to royalty.

      With our wealth unmeasured and our opportunities unparalleled, the ancient prophecy is more than fulfilled in us, that "they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall [147] mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

      It requires no strain of the imagination for us to see the great contrast between our present station and the condition in which Christianity first found our ancestors. As late as five hundred years after Christ our fathers were fierce barbarians roaming the primeval forests of northern Europe, untamed by even the civilizing influence of Rome. Human sacrifice and cannibalism were among their common practices. Living along the seacoast, they developed a race of pirates the fiercest ever known. A Roman poet of the day sang of them thus:

      In the fifth century this race of wild men with long hair and shaggy beards crossed the English Channel, and with clubs and spears, the most primitive weapons, conquered the Britons.

      We are horror-stricken to-day when we read of human sacrifice and human flesh-eating practiced by certain savage tribes, and we sicken at the appalling spectacle. But remembering that five centuries after Paul preached at Ephesus and Corinth and Rome that your forefathers and mine murdered their neighbors, literally drank their warm blood and fattened upon human flesh, we can form some idea of the wonderful transformation which has been wrought in the Anglo-Saxon race. If missionaries had not risked their lives to carry the gospel to our fathers, to-day, instead of meeting in this great missionary convention, inspired with the lofty purpose of making our civilization and religion universal, we would perhaps be met in the fastnesses of a forest jungle to feast our bodies upon the roasted carcass of a belligerent chief.

      The time was when the church at Rome took up collections on Sunday mornings to send missionaries to savage England. One day Gregory, the great preacher of Rome, walking into the slave-market, saw some English slaves with white faces and golden hair. Asking the slave-dealer to what race they belonged, he was told that they were Angles. "Not angles, but angels," answered the preacher. "Who is their king?" he asked. "Aella," was the reply. "Alleluia shall be sung in Aella's land," said Gregory, who from that day was determined that England should be evangelized. It was Gregory's intention to offer himself in person as missionary to these people. But, being unable to carry out his plans, after he was made bishop of Rome, Augustine, with a company of missionaries, crossed Gaul and the English Channel and carried the Word of life to our fathers. From this beginning the small kingdom of Kent sprang into the Christian empire of England, which in turn has carried the gospel to Germany and North America, Australia, India, Africa, and all the islands of the sea.

      To the liberality of the Christians of Rome, to the lives of the missionaries whose names in many cases are unknown--except to the recording angel--to their heroism and devotion, their homesickness and hunger, their prayers and tears and death, are we indebted for our civilization.

[CCR 146-148]