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6 THE PRESBYTERIA
groes under the direction of white people. If any
other church lias done this, 1 have not heard of it.
What does all this mean? The conclusion at which
we arrive may at first sound revolutionary, but is it not
the fact that our peculiar mission as a separate branch
of Christ's Church is to make intelligent Christians of
the negroes in our midst?
At present we are giving about $300,000 toward the
evangelization of our white population and $15,000 to
the evangelizationof the negroes. We can out afford
10 aDanuon our Home Mission work that has been
started. It is largely due to this expenditure of $300,000
on Home Missions that our number has increased
$30,000, or 12 per cent, in the last five years, and doubled
in twenty years.
But we give these figures to convey some idea of the
magnitude of another task that lies at our doors as yet
almost untouched. If it costs $300,000 in money and
the time of hundreds of men to do our small share in
the Christianizing of 4,000,000 of our own race, what
will it take to do our big share in a similar work among
6,000,000 negroes?
Our church as a whole has never seriously consid#>rpr1
! ?? rmrtf 1 1 "
^.^v. ijuvaiiun ui tuioreu evangelization. Individuals
have been interested, but practically all that has
'ever been done, has been done by about one-tenth of
our membership.
Brethren, a wide, fertile and really inviting field lies
before us. The negroes are reaching out in every direction
for new ideas, for anything that will lift up
their race; they welcome us in their church courts, at
their educational conferences, and as confidential advisers
in personal matters.
The Yankee school teacher of the past generation is
gradually losing interest in the negro, and now is the
time of all times for us to step in and offer to guide
them into the light that they are groping to find. The
a.~?: ? '
nn.ti itau negro s nisiory nas been a strange one. Taken
from his native wilds and forcibly taught the arts
of civilization and learning the true religion at the
same time, he has within two centuries become an integral,
yet entirely separate, part of his new environment.
It can not be that God brought about this
strange state of affairs for nothing. At present it
seems to us that His purpose was through them to
evangelize Africa.
The negro now has the rudiments of the Christian
religion. He has definitely abandoned idolatry, and
hp hplipvec tKof
uwi viiiisiiaiiii)' is me one aivine religion.
A start has been made in the higher education of the
race. It only remains for us to build on this foundation,
to give them thorough insruction in Christian
doctrine and Christian practice. Within one more generation
or less they ought to be sending out from their
own ranks great numbers of missionaries to the land
of their fathers. Our exr>erienr#? has cVir*?7?
native African can be best reached by an African'.
There are now nearly 175,000,000 souls in Africa without
the gospel. For us to teach the American negro
and through him bring into Christ's kingdom the multitudes
in Africa?is not this a task worthy of an effort
scarcely inferior to that which we are now making
to do our part in the evangelization of the world?
Tuscaloosa, Ala.
N OF THE SOUTH. December r, 1909.
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THE CHURCH?
By E. C. Gordon.
The answers to this question are almost as numerous
and as varied as the answerers. Amid the multiplicity
of voices that of an anxious inquirer may challenge
some attention.
Negatively, it is not the matter with the Clutreh
that it is set in a "deadly conflict with the world, and
the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience." That is the
position in which the Church's Lord has placed her.
It is to her honor and credit that she holds it.
It is not at all the matter with the Church, in any
blameworthy measure, that the conditions of a godless
society retard and hinder her growth; that men generally
are mad in their rush after money, pleasure and
power; that they violate any and all of God's laws;
that they scorn and reject his gospel. Paul was anxious
to reach Corinth ; but he wrote to that church:
"I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost: for a great
door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are
many adversaries."
The only thing for which the church can be justly
blamed is that it is not doing all in its power to preach
the gospel in all the world, and to teach all it can
reach to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded.
Hence, positively, this is precisely what is
the matter with the church : It is not obeying fully,
up to the measure of its ability, the great commission.
Some particulars may be mentioned:
1. It does not cast out of its communion those who
notoriously and flagrantly corrupt the gospel; who
preach another gospel, which is not Christ's but the
devil's.
2. It does not deal faithfully with its members who
persistently refuse to be taught to observe all things
that Christ commanded.
3. The gospel itself is not preached in its simolicitv
r J
and fullness. Its great essential facts and doctrines
are not proclaimed to the people with painstaking
plainness and frequency. We are having a vast amount
of so-called evangelistic effort, but the people within
and without the church are not evangelized.
To illustrate and prove this statement: When did
any reader of these lines hear a sermon or address oi
this or any parallel word of God? "Christ has become
of none effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified
by the law. Ye are fallen from grace." Here is a primary
truth, viz.: that the object of saving faith is
Christ alone. Not any Christ, the creation of the vain
imaginations of men; but the Christ of the Bible. Not
Christ together with anything that a sinner can be or
do or experience, but Christ alone. In other words,
salvation by works and salvation by faith in Jesus
Christ are mutually and utterly exclusive. So that if
a sinner put anything alongside of Christ as the object
of his trust, he falls from grace, and remains a lost
and helpless soul? *
How often do men now hear sermons on the innate
depravity of each and all the sons of Adam; on the
nature and imperative necessity of the birth from
above; on the derided truth that the first efficient in
any one's salvation is the sovereign election of God?
We have had recently innumerable addresses on Cal