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A GREAT MISSIONARY PROGRAM FOR
RUSSIA
By PASTOR WILLIAM FETLER
MUCH blessing has come to the lands across the sea from this
country in the years gone by. One of the blessings which
has come also to Russia has been through the American
hymnology, the hymns which have arisen in revival times in this
country, especially in those days of 1857-59, when the great revival
was in England, Ireland and Scotland, and also in this country, and
when the noon-day prayer meetings in Fulton street were crowded
with hundreds of earnest seekers for salvation. Many of those
hymns are living to this very day. The other day I asked you, friends,
as many as were then present, to sing a verse of one of the hymns which
arose in those days and was translated into the Russian language
and is being sung all over Russia by the Christians. I do want to sing
this hymn with you, just a verse, not simply because the hymn has
traveled into Russia, but because of the intrinsic value of the hymn.
I believe this conference on behalf of Russia has been founded upon
the green hill outside of the city wall; that we have pitched our tents
around Calvary, and that we are looking at the great sacrifice of the
Son of God as He left everything, gave up the bosom of the Father
and came down here to seek the poor Americans, the poor Japs and
the poor Russians, in order to bring them back, with pierced hands
and with a head crowned with thorns. This love manifested on
Calvary has drawn you out of your miry pit, out of your former sins,
like these Russian young men here. (Most of them have been
drunkards before they became candidates for missionary work in
Russia; they are no more drunk with wine, but are now being filled
with the Spirit, which is much better.) I believe it was this thought
of Calvary which inspired somewhat the great Russian musician
Tchaikowsky. Many of you who know music know something about
him.
Spirituality of Russian Music
The Russian music is especially interesting to me because of the
tremendously deep spirituality in it, the spiritual note underlying
the music. The Russian people had been for four centuries under
the yoke of the Czars, and then in those four long centuries the Rus-
sian people, ignorant of the true salvation, not knowing much about
God, the real Father, having an altar built up unto an unknown God,
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