Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/354

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JOHN B. MOTT 331 and here. Besides the Chinese Bureau which has its head- quarters at Washington, Dr. Mott also has taken much of the oversight of these students at the request of the Chinese gov- ernment. Mr. Mott believes that the inevitable result of Christianiz- ing the world will be the unifying of the churches. On this point hear what he himself has to say: ^^Just as war fuses together a great and complex nation, even its different and conflicting political parties, so a true and vivid conception of the vastness and difficulty of the undertaking of world con- quest for Christ will serve to draw his followers together. It is well that we recall that Christ has commanded us to give all men now living an adequate opportunity to know Him. He has called us to Christianize the races and nations in every de- partment of their life. He has summoned us to the recon- struction of the non-Christian world. It is His wish that the impact of the so-called Christian nations upon the non-Chris- tian world be Christianized. ' ' Under his leadership the work of coordinating the operations of the churches has gone for- ward with leaps and bounds. Within recent years Mr. Mott has won extraordinary dis- tinction as the presiding officer in a number of great conven- tions. Every four years the Student Volunteer Movement holds a convention at which representatives from practically all the colleges and universities in the United States and Can- ada meet together for counsel and inspiration. In 1906 there was a great gathering of this sort at Nashville, Tennessee, and four years later another such convention met at Bochester, New York. At these conventions nearly four thousand dele- gates represented seven hundred and thirty-five universities and colleges. Again in January, 1914, the greatest of all the gatherings of this movement met at Kansas City, Missouri. Over five thousand students were in attendance, and messages were read from England, Switzerland, Turkey, Bussia, Japan, China, and South America. From China came a cablegram signed by C. T. Wang, former vice-president of the Chinese Senate, saying, ' ' China choosing her destiny ; why not make it Christ f Turkey's message read, ** Stricken Turkey realizes