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THE PRESBYTERI
VOL. I. ATLANTA, GA.
??This Week-=
Page
The Council of Reformed Churches 4
Prince and Pauper 5
Church Advertising 6
What Christian Influence Can Do s. 6
tu? e..n^iw r -?
lie ouppi/ ui uanuirjaiga (
Education for the Ministry 7
Close ana Peculiar Partnership 9
Impressions of California, etc 9
Is the Episcopal Church Being Romanized? 16
A Sociai Program for the Church 16
The Presoyterian Hospital in Georgia 22
Editorial Notes
Wc arc approaching the end of March, the close of the
Church's fiscal year. Treasurers will do well to gather up
all collections and forward them to the proper central
treasurers in ample time to be credited by the last day of
the month.
Dr. Brooks, of "Thf? Philadelphia Pre<shvterian " and
Dr. Clarke, of "The Cumberland Presbyterian," of Nashville,
were members of the Council of Reformed Churches
which met last week in New Orleans. It was a pleasure
to meet both of them.
?
The next gathering in the round of organizations
designed to bring together those who are of similar faith
and order will be the meeting of the Ninth Council of the
Alliance of the Reformed Churches throughout the world
holding the Presbyterian system, on June 15-20, in New
York City. About eighty Presbyterian bodies will be
represented. The time, it .is feared, will not be favor
able to a large attendance.
The great work of the Church on its aggressive side
is to go and preach to any part of the world that is
Christless. Whether this is close at hand or far away
matters nothing. The duty is to tell of Christ. Distance
or place have no relation to missions. The "home missionary,"
as we sometimes call him, is fulfilling the law of
ihe kingdom no less than the "foreign missionary.' Both
deserve the support, the interest, the sympathy, and the
praise of the Church.
From the Almanac of Missions issued by the A. B.
C. F. M. we find the statement that the number of
stations maintained in heathen lands by the evangelical
churches in the United States exceeds eleven hundred
(1,105), and that the number of out-stations exceeds
ten thousand (10,110). Of missionaries tehre are two
thousand men and four thousand women, with twentySeven
thousand native helpers. This is a good army
working for the Lord.
I
AN OF THE SOUTH
, MARCH. 24, 1909. NO. 12.
As the fruitage of their work, there are 5,745 churches
anil 672,000 communicants. This means far more than
a like number of member's in thi* ennntrv Wnnsp r?f
? w
the care which is used by the missionaries not to receive
any who give weak evidence of conversion. In
this there is great encouragement.
The growth of the evangelical churches in the United
States last year, was at the rate of one and a half per
cent, but on the mission field the increase in membership
was equal to twelve per cent. There were 157,574 new
communing members received into mission churches during
year or 450 each day. The contribution to Foreign
Missions in America was increased by $602,000, while the
decrease in Great Britain was $96,000. There are 19,875
Christian missionaries in foreign fields, of whom about
5.000 are ordained ministers, 3,000 laymen, and nearly
ten thousand women, wives, widows and unmarried
women.
__
In the "Presbyterian"' of Philadelphia, we read that
Eleanor Van Dyke, aged nine years, recited the whole
of the Catechism perfectly in twenty-two minutes to
her father. Eleanor learned the Catechism in three
weeks, while confined to her room convalescing from
illness. The fact suggests that good results can be
attained in this direction, if parents will give attention *
to the matter.
The substitution of method for spirit, of machinery for
personal consecration and work, is bouAd to react unhappily
upon the Church. Its unnaturalness, its fever
ishness, its undue magnifying of human and depreciation
of divine organization, its appeal to the emotional
and sentimental rather than faith in the sure word of
God and in the promised presence of Christ, make it
ephemeral. The enthusiasm associated with it cannot
be sustained. The habit itself cultivates increased'
taste for its indulgence. As with all such habits,
each instance demands something more pronounced the
next time, yntil the condition becomes morbid.
If the outlawing of the liquor traffic deprives some
people of employment and makes a few vacant corner
houses, why not set over against these results the increased
trade in good groceries and clothes and shoes
for the families of the men whose weakness has been
preyed upon by the saloons? If the saloon men make
less, the other dealers make more money. If the saloonists
employ fewer people, the other industries em- '
ploy more. The wages of all honest workers remain
just the same. With the saloons gone, however, these
wages and earnings simply seek new directions. Comfort
in homes and deposits in savings banks tell thehappy
tale.
* 4- '