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J 00 What Has Been Done to EvangeUzc Russia?
we think our country is fairly large, but we have only a little over
three and a half million square miles. Russia has nine million square
miles of territory. We consider our nation great in population. We
have in round numbers 110 million people. We generally say Russia
has 180 millions. I think it is more than likely that Russia has 200
million people. I judge the census is not fully taken in Russia. There
are large parts of that wonderful land, where it is not perfectly safe
for people to go unless they are under armed protection. So I think
we may say in round numbers that Russia has about twice as many
people as we have here, and we think that we are quite a nation.
Religious but Superstitious
Then when we look at these people again we are reminded of a fact
which I have already mentioned, but which I wish to repeat,—the
Russians are an extremely religious people; and, as Dr. Brooks was
just saying, if a man has a religious faith which is not based on the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, he has a religious faith that will not
only not do him any good; but that will actually do him harm.
I was leaving the State Capitol in Springfield one time, when we had
a state teachers’ meeting there; and I stopped in a little store where
they carried fruit and stationery and so on, and I said to the young
man behind the counter, "Are you a Christian man?" He said, "Yes."
I said, "Well, I am a Protestant. Do you think I can get saved?"
Well, he thought perhaps I might be saved. I said, "Supposing I was
not a Christian, could you tell me how I could get converted?" "Why,
yes." "All right," I said, "tell me." "What you want to do is to make
a confession and receive absolution and do penance, and then you
will get saved." Now one of my young women came to me and stood
by my desk one day, and I said to her, "Where do you stand on this
great subject of religion?" "Well," she said. "I am a Catholic." I
said, "Maybe then you can tell mc the difference between the Catholics
and the Protestants." No, she didn’t think she could. "Would you
like to have me tell you, then?" Yes, she was anxious to know; and so
I said, "The difference is just here. Both the Catholics and the Protes-
tants teach that we are saved through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
but the Catholics say that in order to get the benefit of that sacrifice
you need the offices of a priest and the sacraments of the church; and
the Protestants teach that wherever a poor sinner is sorry because he
has sinned, and looks up to God in Jesus Christ, and says, ’Father,
I am sorry, I pray you to forgive me for Jesus’ sake,’ we teach that he
gets pardoned right there, without waiting for any priest, without
waiting for any sacraments." This dear young woman had been
anxious about her soul for some time, and when I said that to her, she
said, "That is what I believe." She said, "I believe that when we re-
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