Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

IfrHE PRES I of the ; i VOL. I. ATLANTA, GA., I This Week ? SGreetlr.j! Af '.cr Christmas Farewell, Old Year. / Numerical Responsibility. / Growth of Home Missions. Durant College. Home Missions in Texas. * Plumtree and the Boys' School. jBt A New Year's Prayer for Christ. Church-Going a Necessity of Life. V The Aim of the Acts. The Red-Headed Boy. 'ICoddling saints or capturing sinners; which should the'Preacher be doing?" is a striking way of putting a4> ver\\ practical question. The ministry is set for the edificaf'on ?f God's people and for the proclamation of ilhe fcruth- Unfortunately a good many of the saints \av^\P be petted and run after and "coddled" to keep k*^linP W llPTP A? 1 * ' * fu ^? > vajjcli iuu mucn 01 tins it ? a wa^teiS^ time f?r the pastor to try to meet all their jVesires'.\ ThN^orst of it is that those who demand it |Vet into ^the habSt ?f expecting it, and they grow mighti|fy in th^ir demands- It takes a wise pastor in such jtases noj to do ^?? much of it. j It is said that j Memphis is being overrun with bums pnd gamblers whj have been run out of "dry" Alaba^^-~ Georgia, and MisVss*PP'- that is one i 11 ivils. Any Statej?r community whicfcf^-p tolerate the fcvils of gambling and the saloonJ^fic hmmd to be. c?m^ the dumping ground to^he States and communities which have ^Jj^4^?fe^Knsdom to eret rid of such jpvils. The do in such cases, the remedy to ^pply is not to Complain but to take steps to get rid of the same undesifrabie ciass. ii That quiet, Jarnest talk which the Savior and Nicofaemus had .v/as doubtless very much longer than the record of itlby John would indicate. It probably covered several| hours and embraced many topics in a very full unfoldirlg Qf the subjects of the conference. It is | |ore than likely that what is given us is merely the (uiitile conversation, the principles of the matters about v\lbich the little company of two were concerned. Cer|-a;niy Nicodemus was satisfied, for, though ie did not all once come out and announce himself, he .ppears to hLve been a believer in Jesus long before fie tragic hot^r jn which, when others were falling away ^nd even Chl.ist's disciples were standing afar off, he iBYTERIAN South JANUARY, 6, 1909. NO. I. took part with Joseph of Arimathea in the burial of his Lord's body. Love proves itself by what it does, by what it gives, and by what it gives up. It uses all its activity in doing everything that is happiest and best for its object. It goes beyond obligation to bestow what mere duty or justice do not demand. It surrenders its own to fill the want, to enrich the life, to beautify the character of that which is loved. Thus the three expressions for it, love, grace, mercy. The richest expression of all these phases is that rendered in Christ's own words, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life." Conscious ignorance is a proof of growing knowledge. One does not really begin to know until he knows the fact, that he does not know. Paul's paradox, "When I am weak, then am I strong," applies here. The man that is wise in his own conceit, who thinks that "he knows it all," is so encased in his own ignorancfe that he resists and prevents the approach of knowledge. The man who is conscious of his emptiness is ready to be filled. Receptivity and knowledge do not live apart. Each in the real sense produces the other. The ggople who are moving from one neighborhood ?Or community to another and who do not at once identify themselves with the church where they go may be, as many think, hardly worth looking after. Those who have to be hunted up and coaxed to do their duty may be, it is true, of very little account. Yet they have souls to save. Because they are very maimed and halt and blind is the more reason for searching them out and compelling them to come to the feast. Their failures are no excuse for others for neglect. A serious evil which affects all the churches is that of professed Christian people going to large cities to live and leaving their church membership behind Lacking the sense of religious responsibility in their new home, they soon drop out of line altogether, and are in a few years entirely lost to the church. Pastors whose members move to the cities should carefully notify some minister there, that people of this kind may be looked after at once. This may result in taking names off the village or country church rolls, but ^^may save many a soul from dropping into indifference and finally disappearing altogether from the cnurcn.