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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