Foreign Missions
Performed by William H. Taft
Recorded August 5, 1908
I have known a good many people
who were opposed to foreign missions. Ive known
a good many regular attendants at church, consistent
members, that religiously, if you choose to use that
term, refuse to contribute to foreign missions. I
confess that there was a time when I was enjoying
a most provincialism, that I hope has left me now,
when I rather sympathized with that view. Until I
went to the Orient, until there was thrust upon me
the responsibilities with reference to the extension
of civilization in those far distant lands, I did
not realize the immense importance of foreign mission.
The truth is we have got to wake up in this country.
We are not all there is in the world; there are lots
besides us and there are lots of people besides us
that are entitled to our effort and our money and
our sacrifice to help them on in the world. Now no
man can study the movement of modern civilization
from an impartial standpoint and not realize that
Christianity, and the spread of Christianity, are
the only basis for hope of modern civilization in
the growth of popular self-government. The spirit
of Christianity is pure democracy; it is the equality
of man before God. The equality of man before the
law, which is, as I understand it, the most Godlike
manifestation that man has been able to make. I am
not here tonight to speak of foreign missions from
a purely religious standpoint. That has been and will
be done. I am here to speak of it from the standpoint
of political governmental advancement. The advancement
of modern civilization, and I think have had some
opportunities to know how dependent we are on the
spread of Christianity for any hope we may have of
uplifting the people whom providence has thrust upon
us for our guidance. I suppose I ought not to go into
a discussion here of our business in the Philippines,
but I never can take up that subject without pointing
the moral. It is my conviction that our nation is
just as much charged with the obligation to help the
unfortunate peoples of other countries that are thrust
upon us by faith onto their feet to become a self
governing people as it is the business of the wealthy
and fortunate in the community to help the infirm
and the unfortunate of that community. It is said
that there is nothing in the constitution of the United
States that authorizes national altruism of this sort.
Well of course there is not, but there is nothing
in the Constitution of the United States that forbids
it. What there is in the Constitution of the United
States is a breathing spirit that we are a nation
with all the responsibilities that any nation ever
had and, therefore, when it becomes the Christian
duty of a nation to assist another nation, the constitution
authorizes it because it is part of national well
being.