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AMERICA’S OPPORTUNITY IN RUSSIA
By REV. JAMES M. GRAY, D. D.,
Dean of The Moody Bible Institute
I
BELIEVE the Christians of the United States should lead in the
evangelism of Russia at the present crisis, because I believe we
have an entree to the hearts of the Russian people such as is not
granted to any other nation. We are told on good authority that the
American Red Cross is the only institution of the Allies that the
present ruling powers in Russia really trust. Diplomats and mili-
tarists one after another have been turned down by the government,
but the Red Cross has overcome all the difficulties to co-operation thus
far, and both the government and the people back of it are beginning
to see that it represents no underhanded scheme to accomplish the
downfall of the former. It has found a point of contact with the
powers that be, and so far as its operations carry, it is creating an
atmosphere favorable to this nation.
But back of the Red Cross stands the official utterances of our
Government. When Japan raised the question as to whether in the
event that Russia signed a separate peace with Germany, the Allies
would consider her neutral or an enemy, our Government replied that
we would regard her neither as a neutral nor an enemy, but as an
Ally. Russia’s present leaders cannot have forgotten that; and if
they have, the still more recent words of President Wilson must be
remembered where, in his New York speech, he said that the United
States proposed to fight for Russia as well as Belgium. The remark
was unpremeditated in the midst of an extemporaneous address, and
he was surprised and delighted to see the great audience jump to its
feet, and come out into the aisles to cheer the promise to the echo.
And the President was careful to add, in reporting the incident after-
ward, that the people before him were not the proletariat, but the
well-dressed, and well-fed and well-housed part of the community.
For these, and for other reasons that might be named, we may believe
that Russia would look with kindly eyes on any effort we would make
on her behalf, and especially such an altruistic one as that represented
by this conference on evangelism.
II.
But this is an opportune time for the United States to take the lead,
speaking only in the political sense, because if we may believe the best
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