The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1909-1931, December 01, 1909, Page 2, Image 2

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2 THE PRESBYTERIA1 COLORED EVANGELIZATION. The month of December has been set apart by our church for the offerings to the great work of Colored Evangelization. In the face of difficulties which are well nigh immeasurable, the Church has been prosecuting this work for nearly four decades. Thirty-three years ago one of its chief features, a school for the training of a colored ministry, was established at Tus caioosa, under the charge of the late Dr. C. A. Stillman. Following Dr. Stillman, Dr. A. L. Phillips devoted his time and talent to the great work, in the secretaryship of this cause. "Then Rev. D. C. Lilly, pastor of the Presbyterian church in Tuscaloosa, was elected Secretary, and for awhile gave much time, while still pastor, towards arousing an interest in the work. He was ably assisted by another most godly and consecrated man, Rev. O. B. Wilson, then a teacher at the Institute. It has been said of Mr. Wilson, that, 'When one of God's workers has been removed another is always ready to take his place?but so far there has been found no other Wilson.' When Mr. Wilson was killed bv lieditninp whil?? talL-ino O o * """b w * vl telephone to Dr. Lilly, and the latter's life was spared, he felt called as if by God, to give his entire time to the work. He shortly afterwards resigned the pastorate of the church to give himself fully to the Secretaryship." Since 1903 Dr. J. G. Snedecor has had charge of it, and the work has grown apace. In the past six years the contributions of the church have increased nearly one hundred per cent. The departments of work, or lines of effort, of the Committee of Colored Evangelization, are the following: 1. To educate and train good, sensible preachers at Stillman Institute; 2. to assist in building neat churches: 1 to cimonMco ???? ?j - - ?? , u. ? tnvuuidgc, ana partially support the pastors of colored Presbyterian churches; 4. to organize Sunday-schools taught by white people; 5. to have an Executive Secretary, giving his whole time to pushing forward these various lines of work, having special charge of Stillman Institute; 6. to establish parochial and industrial day schools taught by our colored pastors. This outline, given us by the Secretary, indicates the compass and purpose of the work and tells the church what it is that they are asked to support when the call is made for contributions to this cause. While all the results desired have not yet come, there has been splendid product from the efforts of the church in this department of its Master's work. If there were no oth#?r miicnmo * ! .??? __ v??vv.xv, inai gi cat mission on the Congo would be enough to justify all that God's people have given of interest and money to this cause. Dr. Stillman and the professors of the Institute overtured the General Assembly, in 1889, to establish the African Mission, the next year one of its graduates, W. H. Sheppard, was sent out, with the sainted Lapsley, and from that time to this day the Mission has been conducted largely by those who have obtained their training in the Institute. The Mission in the Congo Free State is one of the marvels of the day. The largest congregations known in all the extent of our church gather in that land and receive the gospel which our church has sent out as the result of its interest in colored evangelization. M OF THE SOUTH. December i, 1909. In his strong appeal for contributions in the month of December, the Secretary makes several wise suggestions to his brethren. He urges, among other things, that in their appeals to the generous and devoted people of the church, they should not discuss the race problem, that they do not discuss the future or the past of the Negro, that they do not discuss educational and social problems, that they stick to missionary lines, that they take the strongest pro-Southern position. God has made the races. It is for us simply to recognize the fact. The past and the future of the race is not our concern in spiritual matters. Our duty .a utici iiuucu oy present conditions. The general educational or social problem is not the concern of the church, beyond providing enough training to enable the Negro to preach sensibly and to hear with understanding. THE BENEFACTIONS OF MR. KENNEDY. The papers, secular and religious, have taken pleasure in recording the generous gifts of Mr. John Stewart Kennedy, recently deceased in New York. He possessed the rare combination of being one of the richest men and at the same time one of the most modest men in that city. His bequests to religious purposes amounted to about twenty million dollars. Yet when the reporters of the New York dailies wanted to print a copy of his picture in the daily papers they were HHQKIP fn ? ?1?*- ? 1 r M*.uiy?v IU OV.CLI1 t d puuiograpn irom which to copy. He had given a hundred thousand dollars at a time, during his lifetime, yet the public rarely' or never heard of his gifts. Under his will nine colleges receive a hundred thousand dollars each. Among these are Hampton, in Vir. ginia, and Tuskegee, in Alabama. Nine others receive fifty thousand dollars; among them are the Anatolic College at Marsovan, Turkey, and the Northfield Seminary and Mount Vernon Boys' School, in Massachusetts. To Robert College at Constantinople, he gives a million and a half; to the Presbyterian Boards of Foreign Missions, of Home Misisons, of Church Extension, two million and a quarter to each. The Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, Center College and Berea College in Kentucky, each come in C A? C? ? .... iui iwcuiy-nve mousand dollars. We have been thinking what these benefactions mean to the various benevolent works. In the field of Home Missions, how many congregations are there, on the borders of our land, in which a dozen pioneers have united to organize a church, and are struggling feebly for the want of a house of worship. All the world over, human nature leads hesitant neighbors to hold back from joining a church that has not a sanctuary, lest they be called on too freely for money with which to build. This bequest will enable the Home Mission Committee to lend or to give to many a struggling congregation a contribution sufficient to complete its sanctuary free from debt, and in this the work of Missions will be wonderfully promoted." In the foreign mission field the laborers have suffered for years from the lack of proper dwellings in unhealthy localities. We have seen one mission family