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4 THE PRESBYTERIAl GREETING! "The Presbyterian of the South" salutes you! You are asked to recognize in it old friends and well wishers. The journals which it embraces and for which it now stands have not passed away. All of them greet you here. Instead of looking into the face of one, you are bid to see all of them. The new simply comprises the old, but brings to you the old larger, better, fuller, more helpful. Do you ask where "The Presbyterian of the South" stands and for what its testimony and work will be given? It hesitates not a moment to reply that it stands for the old faith and for our Church. Its purpose is to maintain the principles and standards of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, to do its part to preserve the integrity and the doctrines of that Church. It Uot- liicfrvrl^ nffif nrla liac Kppn fllllv IHQtl Utnv v mat nvi uutvuv/ aiviiuuv, uwi* j v*wv. fied. It believes that the perpetuation of her existence and principles will make for the glory of the kingdom of Christ. The old faith is well worth battling for. The object is of sufficient dignity and importance to justify the struggle. A divinely inspired Bible as the sole source of authority, a divinely devised scheme of grace as the , sufficient means of redemption, a divine Spirit as the new creator by regeneration, the efficacy of the blood of Christ as a substitute, the gift of faith and repentance, 4-1?a /-> C 4-U a cA/vAttAt-nfa U aa rf f U a /* a?* LliC lliuvuigd ui lug utati, iuv auouiuic vtitainty of future reward and punishment, the impossibility and unscripturalness of either a probation after death or a remedial power in the sentence of the justly condemned, these are old truths. But no truth is weaker for age. The years only show its mightiness and significance. Our Church has been given a mission in the world. It is said, not in boastfulness but because it has been f rvf f OCCA?*f A/1 A /*N ? 4-0 4- ! ? ? ? - 4-ln r> C h ??* /-* tl Arv OV utivu AU uy IUU3C UU13IUC, I Hell LUIS V^limit.11 lcpresents today the purest type of Presbyterianism indoctrine and polity in the world. In this day, when many have departed from the line which God has set in his Word as to the Church's function in witnessing, and especially in witnessing for the fundamental principle of the spirituality of his kingdom, our Church has maintained a firm and consistent position. This testimony became our Church's first duty, and to this day she stands distinctively for this. Her history as a sep <n ciic organization nas been linked into this duty and doctrine. In that vital connection she has had success and has been given a place in the sisterhood of Churches. The time has not yet come for her to disconnect herself from this great principle and testimony in order that she might get herself into a more imposing company, a greater marshalling of hosts. And not alone as to the theological principle of the spirituality of the Church, Christ's kingdom, is there need for her to testify. She has occasion just now to lift her voice against that form of the denial of this ciple which is found in the too common resort to humV means and methods to strengthen and propagate the Church and her faith and to build up her numbers. She is to set her face like a flint against any over-organizaV N OF THE SOUTH. January 6, i^og. tion and over-methodizing which may obscure the\(|j? vine organization and the divine method or which mLy menace our reliance upon the Spirit of God to do thie work. She should be in full sympathy with all progresA and should be willing to adapt herself to all changes iii conditions around her with sanctified common sensd and with loving, Christian charity towards all who dif* fer from her, but she is never for a moment to forgey the cardinal fact, "Not by might, nor by power, bufi by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." With this declaration of its fundamental principles and position, the combined paper again greets you! \ AFTER CHRISTMAS. Now that the season is past, may it not be asked ir all seriousness if Christmas is not coming to be a little} overdone? Are there not too many expectations arousec | in connection with it? Have not too many come to regard certain features of it, in which they share ana profit, as a matter of course? Is there not an overpliJs of toil and care and worry and expense? Is not the <jr[y over-observed ? ' 1 Not for a moment should any one desire to call a halt on its expression or exhibition of love, nor sliced any wish to lessen the brightness of it to little or cijder hearts. Scant sympathy is due those who in < >Vermuch conscientiousness would do away with Slanta Claus or who deem the happy Christmas fiction h sin. Those who would lessen the love and joy of thfjfseas0n are men in whose breasts is little of the mill^jf human kindness. Any who would take from Jflie children, ^ especially, the brightness of the time bfy casting over them the gloom of their own hearts ^vould soon sour that milk by their very looks should; it happen to be about them. Those who regard the myth of Sanj.a as a sjn forget that it is but a figure, a poem in it^ beauty and ex^iat resolves a principle^ jnt0 a person, a beautifuTi^pS^?"ation of an ideV Thcy should throw away theiN^"7an. for. the ?ama reason for I which they would e^e that naPPy embodiment of affection and kindness ^Jjichjdu^hild WOrld has come to regard as the great dispens^^fi?j^??^ things to good children. The very myster^N^ the fictitious personage is a happy setting of the jVinciple l?ve giving without recognition, the left haffd not knowing what the right hand has done. Theri *s no danger of idolatry in it. It is not so much pa^&n'srn as it IS poetry. V Yet for all this there is danger of overdofn?- Christmas itself may be worn out, as one has puti it? by being overworked. The extraordinary work andl worry ar>d waste put into it may cause a reaction. T^be element of surprise may be taken entirely away ffrom it > in" deed, it has already been taken away in |be main. A return to sane methods will tend to presferve it as a happy, sweet season of loving deeds rafttier than splendid gifts, of kind acts rather than! ?* priceless gems, of home coming and home gatherirwS"' reunion and rejoicing, rather than of added toil atd care- S.