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December i, 1909. THE PRESBYTER!
Contributed
PATIENCE.
Esther Jackson Wirgman.
Do you but look how yonder baby boy,
With sudden anger flashing in his eyes,
Flings to the ground the long desired toy;
Its impotence discovered, spurned it lies.
So we, of larger growth, ofttimes as fretted,
Impatient throw our much soueht hanhlps hv
At their first use, the very wish regretted,
Though we go on for other moons to cry.
Yet the fact that we grow by the same losses
Is but as careful pruning of the knife,
For that most perfect fruit whose seeds are crosses,
The golden apple of the tree of life.
A strong, sweet patience. A fruit, once tasted here,
Flavors all this fretful world with Heaven's atmosphere.
Romney, W. Va.
THE PECULIAR MISSION OF THE SOUTHERN
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
By Rev. D. D. Little.
What is the peculiar mission of the Southern Presbyterian
Church? Of course we share with all other
Christian bodies the obligation to carry the gospel of
Christ to every nation. This obligation we have ac
knowledged before the world and have assumed responsibility
for 25,000,000 people in seven different
countries. But until every person in the world becomes
a Christian, each separate church will always
have a definite work at home as well as its share in the
work abroad. Let us look over our territory and see
if we can find out what our peculiar home field comprises.
The sphere of influence of the Southern Presbyterian
Church may be considered as covering thirteen
States?the eleven States of the "Confederacy," together
with Kentucky and West Virginia (the majority
of Presbyterians in the other border States belong
to the Northern connection). The population of
our field is approximately 24,000,000, of whom there
are 16,000,000 white people and 8,000,000 negroes, that
is to say, about two white persons to one negro. But
when viewed from a missionary standpoint the ratio
is very different. The great majority of the white neo
pie of the South belong to what we call the "better
class," that is, they have enough intelligence and education
to manage their own affairs without outside
help. There are only three classes of wihte people in
the South who need missionaries?the mountaineers,
foreigners, and the laboring class?and not all of these.
mere are approximately a million and a half foreigners
in the South, but at least a third of these belong
to the educated class. Of the four millions usually
enumerated as "mountaineers," at least half live
in the towns and wide valleys of the mountain region
and are in no sense a missionary population. Of the
laboring class it is only the unskilled and floating element
that are in need of help, and in all the South there
are not more than a million of these.
Giving most liberal estimates everywhere we believe
that the following figures would cover all the white
people of the South who need religious help from the
outside:
4 * 4
4 i
i -
AN OF THE SOUTH. 5
Mountaineers, 2,000,000; foreigners, 1,000,000; laborers,
1,000,000; a total of not more than 4,000,000.
There are within our bounds 8,000,000 negroes. The
most ardent admirer of the race would not say that
more than one-fourth of them have reached the point
...T it ? '
YYncic uncy arc capaDic ot selt-government either in
church or state. This leaves about 6,000,000 dependent
on the help of the more intelligent people of the community.
Summing up what we have said, the intelligent white
Christians of the South owe a religious responsibility
to ten million people at home, four million of their own
race and six million negroes, and if this responsibility
were equally divided among all denominations we
would each have about 50 per cent, more negroes to
look after than white people of all classes put together.
But there are some things that would indicate that
this responsibility is not equally divided; some
churches seem to be better fitted for certain work than
others.
Among the foreigners, one church seems to succeed
about as well as another, but among the mountaineers
and among the laboring classes in our cities and around
niihlir wnrlrc AvTpfIrto A D??? *? -?
,??? ..w.iuvmvuisu anu uttjjiisis arc iar more
successful than Presbyterians. We have lost our hold
on the country people at large.
This is not a pleasant confession to make, but it is
a fact. Take for. instance, the State of Alabama. There
is not today one single self-sustaining country church
in our entire Synod, and I know of only two self-supporting
groups of country churches. The same condition
prevails in Mississippi, Georgia, and nearly every
other State of the far South. Even in North Carolina,
our banner State, we are largely out-numbered.
Within the past fifteen years the Baptists have organized
about fifteen new churches in Tuscaloosa county,
Alabama; the Presbyterians have organized one.
The mass of the people both in country and in town
who do not belong to any church are of Methodist or
Baptist families, and can be most easily reached by
minict#?rc r\( tlioir ni"" t*i 1
.......wv.au v> iiiv.ii uiMi uviiuuwiidiiuu. i utsc are piain
facts. The ratio of Presbyterians is not growing.
Among the classes just mentioned, we are simply holding
our own.
The peculiar mission of the Southern Methodist ana
Baptist Churches seems to be to carry the gospel and
Christian education to the mountaineers and to care
for the spiritual interests of the laboring people in our
towns and mining camps.
The Southern Presbyterian Church is made up almost
altogether of ex-slave holders and their descendants.
It is a well-known fact that negroes have more
respect for and are more easily influenced and controlled
by the old slave-owning class of the South than
by anybody else in the world.
By heredity, environment and training our people
as a whole are better fitted to give a well-rounded
Christianity to the negro than any other denomination.
We would expect this theoretically, and the facts
substantiate the theory. The Presbyterian Church has
established and maintained for many years a number
of successful mission Sunday-schools among the ne