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2G TH
Ecclesiastical
ONE WAY OF BEING GOD'S MINISTER.
Hon. Alpheus Hardy, the liberal Christian.
who educated the great Japanese
Christian, Joseph Hardy Neesinia, once
told this thrilling story of his experience
:
"I am not a college man, and it was
the bitter disappointment of my life that
1 could not be. I wanted to go to college
and become a minister; went to
Philips Academy to fit. My health broke
down, and. in spite of my determined
hope of being able to go on, at last the
truth was forced on me that I could not.
"To tell my disappointment is impossible.
It seemed as' if all my hope and
purpose m life were defeated. ,'I can
not be God's minister,' was the sentence
that kept rolling through my mind.
"When that fact at last became certain
to me. one morning?alone in my
room?my distress was so great that 1
threw myself flat on the floor. The voiceless
cry of my soui was, 'O God, I can
not be thy minister!' Then there came
to me, as I lay, a vision, a new hope,
a perception that I could serve God in
business with the same devotion as in
preaching, and that, to make money for
God might be my sacred calling. The
vision of this service and its nature as
a sacred ministry was so clear and joyous
that 1 rose to my feet, and with new
hope in my heart, exclaimed aloud, 'O
God, 1 can be thy minister! I will go
back to Boston. I will make money for
God, and that shr.ll be my ministry.'
"From that time I have felt myself
as much appointed and ordained to make
money for God as if 1 had been permitted
to carry out my own plan and
been ordained to preach the gospel. I am
God's man, and the ministry to which
God called me is to make and administer
money for him, and 1 consider myself
responsible to discharge this ministry
and to give account ol it to him."
Perhaps you have had a desire to
preach the gospel. Regret may (111 your
heart that you did not give your liie
to that high calling. It may be too late
now for you to change your course. Why
not help some worthy young man Into the
ministry? The demand for consecrated,
able ministers was never so great, the
fields were liever more inviting nor
more promising of immediate returns.
The Savior said, "Say not ye there are
yet four months and then cometh harvest!
Behold, I say unto you, lift up
your eyes and lork on the fields; for
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mcjr ai c nunc aucauj' iu uai ?coi.
The Presbyterian Church has always
and rightly demanded a high grade education
for her ministry.
The cost of a four years' course in
college and three years in the theological
seminary is great, and many of the
candidates come from homes of limited
means.
The Committee of Education for the
Ministry is the agency of the church for
enlisting candidates and aiding worthy
men of small means, who actually need
assistance, recommended by the Presbyteries,
through a full course of preparation
for the ministry.
r r
EB PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOUT
For further information, address Rev.
Henry H. Sweets, Secretary of the Executive
Committee of Ministerial Education
and Relief of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States, 122 Fourth
avenue, Louisville, Ky.
TO THE SYNOD OF VIRGINIA.
Let me say a word in behalf of this,
your institution. Many of you. 1 ant persuaded,
are not acquainted with it?The
Presbyterian Orphans' Home. It ' has
been in operation about seven years, and
in that time a great many of the
churches have not contributed a cent toward
its support. The Presbyterians of
the Synod of Virginia, in session assembled.
,bv the vote of Ihoir niiniotorn
and elders, solemnly authorized the establishment
of this Home for the fatherless
and homeless. Now, one would
naturally suppose two things: First,
that the cause of the orphan would be
a perpetual appeal to our Christian people,
needing not to be pressed, to be
remembered; and second, that the ministers
and elders of the Synod would,
as honorable men, have felt that they
and their people should, share and
share, bear this self-imposed burden.
Yet, as a matter of fact, pastors and
sessions of many of our largest churches
have refused to allow the needo nt ?htu
Home to be set before their congregations!
This seems strange for the servants
of that God who says concerning
himself, "A Judge of the fatherless and
the Husband of the widow, is God in his
holy habitation," and who defines "pure
religion and undefiled" as "visiting the
fatherless and the widow in their affliction."
From one of our Presbyteries I have
not received a contribution from a church
or Sunday school.
From one of the largest and richest
Presbyteries only three churches and
three Sundav schools have sont a nnn.
trihution. Another Presbytery, one-third
larger in number, is represented by
only three churches and perhaps six
Sunday schools. So near to the close
of the ecclesiastical year, this would
seem to indicate that there is alarming
and unaccountable indifference on the
part of pastors and sessions as to the
claims of this l-Iome. May I not again
urge the delinquent churches to attend
to this cause at once? Surely, if only
the opportunity is given, the people will
give to the fatherless and the homeless.
One of our most prominent pastors
wrote, "Our session has concluded
to allow you to present the cause of the
orphanage." That sounds like it was a
concession after a struggle. I hope it
was not; but it does seem to me when
God reveals his attitude tnmani
helpless and fatherless, that the church
ought to be heartily in line with him.
It would be interesting to know just
what is the attitude of many of our ministers
toward the Synod's orphanage. A
prominent elder lately wrote: "If the
pastors of the Synod will present this
cause, as they should, to their congregations,
there will be ample funds supplied
the orphanage. I am perfectly confident
of this. If your orphans suffer it
will be due to ministerial neglect." And
this witness saith true.
Brethren, our revenues have greatly
H. March 31, 1909.
diminished, our supplies have run low,
our farm expenditure is greatly increased
.at this season. The case i3 with you.
But a last word: A few weeks ago a gentleman
in New York wrote me that he
would pay the tenth part of our debt of
$8,000 if the Church will raise the balance
by the first of January, 1910.
Ought not the Presbyteries, at their
spring meetings, to take active tneas
uifs 10 meet inis generous offer, and put
this Home on its feet?
Yours in the work,
J. C. Painter, Act. Supt.
A SUNDAY SCHOOL THAT HAS
A Children's Day Every Month.
Let me tell the children and everybody
else who Is gping to have a part in
the Children's Day collection for our Industrial
School for Hoys in Mexico, about
a Sunday school that has a children's
day every month. Well, they don't call
it by that name, but the first Sunday
morning of every month the Sunday
school at Matamoros, Mexico, takes a
collection for the boys' school.
They began that ten months ago, at
which time they promised $100 of their
.iiuiicj. Aimougn tncre has been an
average attendance of only forty-three,
they have given daring these ten months. ,
$128.28. And last Sunday they promised
another $100.
H. L. ROSS.
H. Matamoros, Mex.
THE EDUCATIONAL CRISIS IN
KOREA.
In recent years various forces have
been working together in Korea to produce
an educational crisis of the most
acute kind. Of the 2,000 groups of Christians
quite a number have been organized
into churches and are calling for
the ministry of educated pastors and
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.......j g.uujra ?in soun oe reaay tor organization.
Of the 1,000 Christian primary schools
many cannot find teachers competent to
teach other branches than the Chinese
language Of the 25,000 children in these
schools, some are already asking for high
school and technical training. Who shall
supply these demands? Shall we adhere
to the principle of self-support and say,
"Let the Koreans furnish their high
schools as they do their primary
schools." Impossible! To do what they .
are now doing costs them privations of
which Americans know nothing. To
carry the evangelistic work and the primary
schools is all they can do at present.
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mould the Korean character, and that is
the Japanese government.
At all important centers large, well
constructed, well equipped government
school houses invite the ambitious Korean
youth to come in and sit at the
feel of Japanese teachers. If these were
Christian teachers we might well rejoice;
but. alas, in most msps
cept and example, they are anti-Ohrlstian.
For the American church not to
provide higher education would be to
turn It over to such teachers as these
with the result that the bright, ambitious
scholars would be lost to the church,
that atheism would pass as a mark of