We shall never accomplish anything until we
realize that the coming of these alien millions is not accidental but
providential.
_II. Missionary Beginnings_
[Sidenote: Alien Accessibility is Home Mission Possibility]
The first human touch put upon the immigrant in the new environment is
vastly important in its effects. He is easily approachable, if rightly
approached. Alien accessibility makes home mission possibility. The
approach may not at first be on the distinctively religious side, but
there is a way of access on some side. A living gospel incarnated in a
living, loving man or woman is the "open sesame" to confidence first and
conversion afterward. Make the foreigner feel that you are interested
in him as a man, and the door is open beyond the power of priestcraft to
shut it. The priest may for a time keep the Catholic immigrant away from
the Protestant church but not from the Protestant cordiality and
sympathy; and if these be shown it will not be long before the
immigrant, learning rapidly to think for himself, will settle the
church-going according to his own notion. A kind word has more
attractive power than a cathedral. You will never win an Italian as long
as you call him or think of him as "dago," nor a Jew while you nickname
him "sheeny.
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