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THE PRESBYTER!)
VOL. I. ATLANTA, OA.
1 his Week=
Page
Effectiveness of the Religious Press 4
The Emptiness of Spiritualism 4
The Solution of Moral Problems 5
The Persecution On the Congo River 6
Boys' School for Mexico 7
The Discipline of the Church 8
Ministerial Education and Relief 16
A Proposed Overture on Adjustment 17
The Assembly, Rates, etc. 17-18
Presbyteries 20-21-29
Editorial Notes
' I
Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the great home missionary
of the Northern Church, identified especially with the
development of Alaska, died last week, in Asheville. N.
C., aged seventy-five years. Few men have led more
active lives or done a larger work. He^ magnified the
home work. His name will rank in the history of the
^ Northwest with that of Whitman.
At the spring meeting of Bethel Presbytery, in South
Carolina, there were enrolled eighteen ministers and
thirty-six ruling elders! That looks like business and
. Presbyterianism. Good for old Bethel! What Presbyters*
can show its etiual in faithfulness nf the
ship?
The increase of $19,507 in our Home Mission receipts
is very fine and causes great rejoicing for the
sake of the work. Let it be noted, however, that the
churches have not yet done their full duty, and that
they are not to have the credit of this increase. The
I increase in legacies over the previous year is $21,039
leaving the actual contributions of the churches really
\ a little lower than the year before.
I11 church erection, the Atlanta committee donated.
during the year just closed, to Texas churches, $1,650;
to Oklahoma churches, $1,850; and to Arkansas, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Missouri, and South Carolina
churches, $1,000. Loans were made to Texas churches,
$1,800; Oklahoma churches, $2,324; Georgia, Mississippi
churches, $1,700. These donations and loans helped
many a church into life.
In the May number of the "Home Mission Herald"
special attention is paid to the people of foreign speech
who are living amongst us. Louisiana Synod has overtured
the General Assembly to enlarge the operations
of the Home Missions Committee so as to give special
attention to this large class of our population. The
Atlanta rnmmittpp !c olrm/tn I- *'? ?'
auvau;, ill IIIC SJJ1I11 OI IIUS OVCr*
ture, greatly enlarging its work in this direction. In
Louisiana and Texas together there are more than half
a million foreign speaking people. They bring home
and foreign work combined right to our doors.
... a, !L.. *
IN OF THE SOUTH
? MAY 12, 1909. NO. 19.
In Atlanta we have had a musical festival that aroused
great enthusiasm. As an outcome of it, there is a
proposition to maintain the organization of the musical
chorus and give concerts in the Auditorium on Sunday
afternoons. With these concerts we hope the Christians
in Atlanta will have nothing to do. The ?abbatli
is the Lord's day; the holding of such concerts is not
for the Lord, but for earthly- pleasure. They have noplace
on the Sabbath.
"Small matter!" Did we hear some one say that a
Sunday afternoon concert is a small matter? Let us
not forget that when the devil wants to sever a man
from right and truth, he seeks a wedge with an
exceedingly fine edge. Such an instrument as this
would suit him well because the wrongfulness of it is
to some persons hard to perceive. But be it remembered
that in other cities in years past, when a "sacred
concert" has been tolerated on Sunday nights, the
"sacred concert" effectively opened the way for "Sunday
theatres" and that these theatres are now in full blasts
Let the Sabbath be maintained as "the Lord's day."
- - r . i- - i . .. .
\> c gcL a suggestion oi ine coiossai proportions ot
the ravages of strong drink in Great Britain from the
statement of Professor Orr, of Edinburg, to the effect
that all the missionary enterprises conducted by alt
the churches of the world during the entire nineteenth
century had been conducted at a less financial cost than
the amount spent by the British people in one year
for intoxicating liquors. When we realize to what extent
the liquor habit has produced the degeneracy of
the British nation and threatens to produce its downfall.
and reflect unon the henefirent inflnerire? mic
sion enterprise on the welfare of the whole world, how
eloquent and how tragic this statement appears!
The brotherhood movement has its imperfectionsdoubtless,
but that it is wonderfully virile, appealing
to popular intelligence and judgment, is apparent. It
has taken a vigorous hold in Canada and Great Britain.
Thirty-five brotherhoods have been organized in and
around h-dinburg, Scotland, with a membership of
75,000. Prof. George Adam Smith regards it as the
"most important movement since the Reformation.""
Closely allied to it, and based upon the same broad conception
of personal responsibility and concerted effort,,
is the Laymen's Missionary Movement. Of the recent
Laymen s Congress in Toronto, Secretary J. Campbell
White says, "Never before has there been such an ex
hibition of interest by men in the evangelization of the
world." Fifteen hundred ministers and over twentyfive
hundred laymen were registered as commissioners.
In June, 1910, there will be held in Edinburg, Scotland,,
a World's Missionary Conference, which is expected
to give added impulse to the great enterprise of giving
the Gospel to the whole world in this generation.