There is no escaping the fact that a prodigious amount of difficult lifting must be done in order to elevate the aliens to the American social and religious level. But the very vastness of the home mission task is inspiring rather than discouraging to heroic souls. As someone says, "The American loves a tough job." Difficulties will not hinder him a moment when once he is moved with the divine impulse, sees the thing to be done, and sets himself with God's help to do it. Present conditions call to mind that passage in "Alice in Wonderland," where by the seashore
The walrus and the carpenter were walking hand in hand, And wept like anything to see such quantities of sand. "If seven maids with seven mops, swept it for half a year, Do you suppose," the walrus said, "that they could get it clear?" "I doubt it," said the carpenter, and shed a bitter tear.
It must be confessed that what has been done, in comparison with what has to be done, would not be unfairly represented by the seven maids, and that some people think the conversion of the foreigner as hopeless as the carpenter did the sand-sweeping job. But seven mops are better than none, and the pessimists are few. Souls are different material to work upon from sand. By and by the Christian denominations will stop sweeping around the edges of this great missionary enterprise, and take hold of it with full force. This will come to pass when the real conditions and needs and perils are widely known; and in making them known the young people have their opportunity to render signal service to foreigner, country, Church, and Christ.
Now that we have completed our study of immigration, necessarily limited by time and space, we are in position to draw some conclusions with regard to the outlook. Our study shows that there is plenty in the character and extent of present day immigration to make the Christian and patriot thoughtful, prayerful, and purposeful. On the surface there is enough that is appalling and threatening to excuse if not justify the use of the word "peril." The writer confesses that when he lived, years ago, in western Pennsylvania, and came close to the inferior grades of immigrants, and witnessed the changes wrought by the displacement of the earlier day mining class, he bordered for a time on the pessimistic plane. Nor was his condition much improved during residence in New England, where the changing of the old order and the passing of the Puritan are of vast significance to our country. But closer study of the broad subject has led to a positively optimistic view concerning immigration, and some of the grounds of this optimism may properly close this chapter and volume.