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OUR BRIGHTSIDE LETTER
On Letter Writing.
Now-a-days we do not write letters as
our Fathers and Mothers did, good,
long, full of family and neighborhood
tidings, gossipy, moralizing, and senti
mental epistles; we trust to the newspapers
very much and the more frequent
intercourse of ourselves or of others
and old time letters are not in vogue,
the more the pity. Such epistles were
the literary efforts of a former generation,
giving to many the flue culture of
a literary and frequent expression of
views and sentiments a culture of which
there is in our day little or no exercise
or growth.
What a surprise ?nd pleasure it is to
open a box of old letters and find how
superior was the mental force and the
literary quality of the people of three or
four generations ago. They who never
thought of writing a book, or anything
else for the public eye, wrote letters,'
i.uu Iicna aim i\avn uun iu r.\jiicar>
Ihem 011 a thousand subjects. It was
education and fine cultivation to many of
a class who now write little or nothing,
a few lines or a postal card.
it is a pathetic thing to go back in our
lives, as we read the letters old and
yellow of three or four decades ago.
What memories are stirred, of the
friends of early days, of their love and
faithfulness, of things happy and sometimes
sad, of our little romances, of
details of life that are nearly gone from
memory's tablet. The years had moro
in them than we had ever been aecus
toined to think, more friends, more
events, more times of happiness, more
forces coming to make the remittaut
what we now are. Shall we destroy this
box?full of records of the past? They
are so personal. They can never interest
others as they do ourselves. Perhaps we
had best see them perish before we go
away ourselves.
Letter writing is a fortunate gift with
some people. They write with such ease
and so well, and tell their story so cheerfully,
that unconsciously their letters are
works of finest art. We . envy them
while we admire and enjoy their
epistles exceedingly. One is only a
neighborhood event, one is all about
the absorbing book, one is a little
journey in some strange land and one
is just pure, unselfish affection and
sympathy. They bring sunshine into
shaded lots, companionship where there
is loneliness and warm un tVn? Vi?o..s
that is growing cold.
It is said that a line of division among
letters is that some are so vital, so
thoroughly characteristic that no one
else could possibly have written them.
Carlyle is always Carlyle and Gladstone
Is always himself. While the letters of
Mr. Macauley could have never been
written by any one else. Is it that
character is so intense and forceful that
it goes out inevitably in conversation and
in all the work of the pen?
In modern times there has been a
passion for publishing the private letters
of public men. Sometimes it has been to
their honor'and sometimes to their dishonor.
The idea is that a man in public
V
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOUT
life is altogether the property of the
public; that his fellows have a right to
know the whole story; that if we are to
study history nothing must be covered,
and a man's most private thoughts, aims,
aspirations must be published abroad.
That latter posthumous publicity is one
of the things he has to pay for his
elevation. Perhaps their peril of publicity
is a moral support to the public man
and a protection to the people around
mm.
One need not go back to the far-olY
letters of Abelard and Eloise or to~the
mysterious Junius, or the poor conventionalities
of Chesterfield to his sen, or
the vanities and follies of Horace Walpole,
or letters of Madam D'Ablay. There
' are better epistles than these and very
much nearer; epistles never intended for
the public, without reserve, wholehearted,
with pure and lofty thoughts
and noble desires for those to whom they
are written. In all literature we do not
know of better letters than the private
letters of two noble Virginians, Mathew
Fontain Maury and Robt. E. Lee.
J. P. S.
THE PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER
Wanting to Burn Heretics.
Recently there appeared in a weekly
lnter-denominational paper, published in
New York?and which goes into many
Presbyterian homes?a 'copy of a famous
picture by Geets, showing a beautiful
Christian maiden in 1526, who, Having
been condemned by the Romish council
for holding the doctrines, of Luther,
now being led forth to execution, preceded
by soldiers and followed by long,
white robed, cowled priests, with a
crowd, some in rage, some in pity, looking
on as they crowded the cathedral
steps. This picture, covering about a
third of a page, is followed by an editoiial,
giving a full account of the case
with the following comment:
'It seems inconceivable to us now
that the leaders calling themselves by
?ha noma Ck.Ut u '
vuv tiuuic i/i viii mi lUUIU IlilVt COlldernned
a girl so young and frail" (way
condemn any, young or not, *'fraU" or
not?) "to a death so horrible."
Then the writer tells us that no one
period holds a monopoly of the persecuting
period. To prove this Jatter statement,
and to bolster up the persecuting
spirit, that only now prevails where
Rome dominates, he adds:
"It is but a short time ago that a
Presbyterian said, openly on the platform
of a meeting in Philadelphia: Tf 1
had my way about it,* I would have an
executioner called in to deal with all
heretics and blasphemers. Burning at
the stake would be too good for those
wuu revnc reiigiuu ana laKC mc LjOra S
name In vain. The growth of heresyis
such today that nothing but such
measures as this can stop it'."
As soon as I read this article published
March 3, it impressed mt. as :i
lie out of the whole cloth. One can
imagine that a Jesuit, or a reporter believing
the dogma, "The end justifies
the means," inspired by the church, that
"never changes" (?) and witn the spirit
of the year 152G, hit upon the pian to
implicate the Presbyterian Church. It is
surprising that an editor, of a religious
paper, did not verify his statement before
sending it broadcast.
The correction did not come for three
H. April 21, 1909.
following issues, and only then was It
brought out after two correspondents
had called him to account, assuring him
that 110 such remarks were made. Then,
not as prominently on the page, a3 his
former charge, but at the foot of a column
devoted to questions and answers,
and in fine print. Many a reader would
see the copy of the famous picture and
the prominent editorial, but not so with
the admission that it was "quoted from
certain papers."
Yes, indeed, and no doubt from the
"yellow sheets." As many know rumors
to injure reputations are often hatched
out of the imaginations of reporters,
or concocted by some Jesuit, and
then when proved false, often ar.- not
noticed, or, if so, in some secludc-d place
?it may be among the advertisements.
ii may not oe so evident as it was in
Bryon's tlav of the "magazines," but of
secular journals it may be said:
"A would-be satirist, a hired buffoon,
A monthly scribbler of some low lampoon
Condemned to drudge the meanest of the
mean.
And furnish falsehoods for a magazine.'*
N. Keff. Smith.
James Island, S. C.
REMARKABLE MOVEMENTS IN
KOREA.
By Rev. J. Leighton Stuart.
Over a year ago Rev. Jonathan Goforth
of the Canadian Presbyterian Mission in
n n * * " '
iiuuuu nuimcc wem 10 tvorea 10 siuay
fir3t-hand the remarkable spiritual movements
which had been taking place there.
Great audiences of Christians were being
swept by a common impulse to confess
and make restitution for their sins. One
after another, officers in the congregations,
church-members, children in the
schools, sometimes outsiders even, they
would tell of wrong-doing or wrong thinking
often accompanying their statements
with bitter weeping and every physical
sign of intense mental anguish. Old
grievances and hatreds were wiped out.
and a cleansing and fresh invigoration
seemed to be touching every phase of
church life, spreading from one center to
another, and out into the isolated
villages. Returning home Mr. Goforth
was invited to recount his impressions in
some of the Manchurian churches, when
the audiences who listened seemed to be
swept by a similar Impulse. Day after
day the meetings would progress with
increasing evidence of a strange supernatural
power at work. Every variety of
crime and error would be confessed. Then
those present would carry the enthusiasm
to country congregations and
similar scenes would be enacted. Other
p aces Invited Mr. Goforth to visit them,
and in every place the working of the
Spirit of God was more or le3s apparent.
Last summer Mr. Goforth visited two of
the summer retreats where miss'onaries
assembled and spoke to them of his experiences
bringing new hope and faith to
many a discouraged worker. Among
ethers the missionaries living in Xankine
invited him here and he has just conducted
a nine days' meeting: of remarkable
significance. For weeks before his
coming much definite and earnest prayer
had been offering. We all feel that one
chief reason why the Church does not
grow more in China is because of sin