Chapter XI: Our Government in the Conference

What is the position that our government should take in the conference? While exercising all due courtesy and exhibiting every care possible for the feelings of those in attendance, it should still have the Christian courage to face the facts as they have been and as they are, and to insist upon it that all the nations present see those facts and, basing their actions upon those facts, adopt so far as possible the Christian methods that will promote the welfare of all the peoples of the Far East, including Japan, so far as these problems of the Conference are concerned. If this is done, it does not mean that Japan's future or China's future is endangered. It means that every militaristic policy must be abandoned, but that the industrial, social, and even political future of all the nations, including Japan, will be better secured than can be possible in any other way. It will mean that the welfare of the inhabitants of China, including Manchuria and Shantung, of Siberia and of the islands of the Pacific, will be promoted by encouraging in every way possible their industrial development, by protecting them if necessary by joint international influence against aggression from without, and so far as possible by encouraging within those countries policies which will secure order, peace, and the development of the individuals toward acquiring a capacity for self-government which they seem to have been attaining so far only to a most unsatisfactory degree.

Above all, the guiding spirit, with its clear-sightedness and rigid adherence to practical conditions as they are, should be the spirit of peace and righteousness.

THE BROSS LECTURES

The Bross Lectures are an outgrowth of a fund established in 1879 by the late William Bross, lieutenant-governor of Illinois from 1866 to 1870. Desiring some memorial of his son, Nathaniel Bross, who died in 1856, Mr. Bross entered into an agreement with the "Trustees of Lake Forest University," whereby there was finally transferred to them the sum of forty thousand dollars, the income of which was to accumulate in perpetuity for successive periods of ten years, the accumulations of one decade to be spent in the following decade, for the purpose of stimulating the best books or treatises "on the connection, relation, and mutual bearing of any practical science, the history of our race, or the facts in any department of knowledge, with and upon the Christian Religion." The object of the donor was to "call out the best efforts of the highest talent and the ripest scholarship of the world to illustrate from science, or from any department of knowledge, and to demonstrate the divine origin and the authority of the Christian Scriptures; and, further, to show how both science and revelation coincide and prove the existence, the providence, or any or all of the attributes of the only living and true God, 'infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.'"

The gift contemplated in the original agreement of 1879 was finally consummated in 1890. The first decade of the accumulation of interest having closed in 1900, the trustees of the Bross Fund began at this time to carry out the provisions of the deed of gift. It was determined to give the general title of "The Bross Library" to the series of the books purchased and published with the proceeds of the Bross Fund. In accordance with the express wish of the donor, that the "Evidences of Christianity" of his "very dear friend and teacher, Mark Hopkins, D.D.," be purchased and "ever numbered and known as No. 1 of the series," the trustees secured the copyright of this work, which has been republished in a presentation edition as Volume 1 of the Bross Library.

The trust agreement prescribed two methods by which the production of books and treatises of the nature contemplated by the donor was to be stimulated:

1. The trustees were empowered to offer one or more prizes during each decade, the competition for which was to be thrown open to "the scientific men, the Christian philosophers and historians of all nations." In accordance with this provision, a prize of $6,000 was offered in 1902 for the best book fulfilling the conditions of the deed of the gift, the competing manuscripts to be presented on or before June 1, 1905. The prize was awarded to the Reverend James Orr, D.D., professor of apologetics and systematic theology in the United Free Church College, Glasgow, for his treatise on "The Problem of the Old Testament," which was published in 1906 as Volume III of the Bross Library. The second decennial prize of $6,000 was awarded in 1915 to the Reverend Thomas James Thorburn, D.D., LL.D., Hastings, England, for his book entitled "The Mythical Interpretation of the Gospels," which has been published as Volume VII of the Bross Library. The announcement of the conditions may be obtained from the president of Lake Forest College.

2. The trustees were also empowered to "select and designate any particular scientific man or Christian philosopher and the subject on which he shall write," and to "agree with him as to the sum he shall receive for the book or treatise to be written." Under this provision the trustees have, from time to time, invited eminent scholars to deliver courses of lectures before Lake Forest College, such courses to be subsequently published as volumes in the Bross Library. The first course of lectures, on "Obligatory Morality," was delivered in May, 1903, by the Reverend Francis Landey Patton, D.D., LL.D., President of Princeton Theological Seminary. The copyright of the lectures is now the property of the trustees of the Bross Fund. The second course of lectures, on "The Bible: Its Origin and Nature," was delivered in May, 1904, by the Reverend Marcus Dods, D.D., Professor of Exegetical Theology in New College, Edinburgh. These lectures were published in 1905 as Volume II of the Bross Library. The third course of lectures, on "The Bible of Nature," was delivered in September and October, 1907, by Mr. J. Arthur Thomson, M.A., Regius professor of Natural History in the University of Aberdeen. These lectures were published in 1908 as Volume IV of the Bross Library. The fourth course of lectures, on "The Religions of Modern Syria and Palestine," was delivered in November and December, 1908, by Frederick Jones Bliss, Ph.D., of Beirut, Syria. These lectures are published as Volume V of the Bross Library. The fifth course of lectures, on "The Sources of Religious Insight," was delivered November 13 to 19, 1911, by Professor Josiah Royce, Ph.D., of Harvard University. These lectures are embodied in the sixth volume. Volume VII, "The Mythical Interpretation of the Gospels," by the Reverend Thomas James Thorburn, D.D., was published in 1915. The seventh course of lectures, on "The Will to Freedom," was delivered in May, 1915, by the Reverend John Neville Figgis, D.D., LL.D., of the House of the Resurrection, Mirfield, England, and published as Volume VIII of the series. In 1916 Professor Henry Wilkes Wright, of Lake Forest College, delivered the next course of lectures on "Faith Justified by Progress." These lectures are embodied in Volume IX. In 1921, the Reverend John P. Peters, Ph.D., of Sewanee, Tennessee, delivered a course of lectures on "Spade and Bible." These lectures are embodied in Volume X. The present volume is comprised of lectures delivered November 3 to 6, 1921, before Lake Forest College, on the occasion of the inauguration of the President.

HERBERT McCOMB MOORE,
_President of Lake Forest University_.

LAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Mr. Frank Vanderlip has expressed the same view in his
_What Next in Europe_: "The prerequisite for that is
a change of spirit, and I believe we can do a great deal
to allay the suspicions, the hatreds and the selfishness
of European people. We can help them see the necessity for
unity; help them apprehend the terrible cost of selfishness.
They must understand that the reconstruction of Europe is a
comprehensive task. Only united effort, and a recognition
that the welfare of individual nations can be achieved
through general international good-will, can accomplish it.
We could largely aid in developing such a spirit.

Our first duty, as Mazaryk said, is to understand!"

[2] Published in _Scribner's Magazine_.

[3] A few facts should be kept in mind: (_a_) Some Japanese
writers as well as foreigners claim that Japan is not at
all overpopulated now, considering that she is becoming
an industrial nation. Japan proper has 394 inhabitants to
the square mile; England and Wales, 618; Belgium, 665;
Netherlands, 534; Italy, 332; Germany, 325. (_b_) Japan has
urged claims on Shantung of which the density of population
is 525 to the square mile. Of course she has not desired to
settle that country, only to control and manage its mines,
railroads, ports, commerce--and this would give practically
political control. (_c_) Certain writers claim that the
Japanese soil is not now properly cultivated to produce the
best results agriculturally. Large preserves are held out
of cultivation in crown lands, as was done earlier in Great
Britain and Germany. The people are expert in rice culture
and wish to eat rice. They might use to excellent advantage
much other land than they do, land entirely suitable for
other food production, though not for rice.

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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:

Punctuation has been standardised.

Italic text has been denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=.

Characters in small caps have been replaced by all caps.

Non-Latin characters have been given an English transliteration:
'oe' ligature --> oe

This book was written in a period when many words in the text had not become standardized in their spelling or hyphenation. These have been left unchanged while obvious typographical mistakes have been repaired. Other changes are noted below:

Pg 89 - 'Plummer' replaced with 'Plumber'
(hired as the Plumber professor)
Pg 102 - 'benevelence' replaced with 'benevolence'
(governed by benevolence)