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2 THE PRESBYTERIAN
THE ASSEMBLY'S HOME AND SCHOOL.
The collection in our churches on the last Sunday in
.December is to he given, if the Assembly's schedule
he followed, to the most useful and beautiful work,
that of the Assembly's Home and School.
It is to he feared that when the Assembly first took
..K-uiuuuii liiiu us Keeping, it aia it very carelessly
and with little thought. It was in 1894, and we remember
with what little concern or interest the matter
Avas taken hold of. It did not really take in the importance
of the work it was doing. Each passing year
has quickened that interest, however, and the actual
1 -1 TT ' " * *
vguus n<i.\c siiuwn max tne nome ana School tills a
most unique and important place in our benevolent
system. It is not an orphanage merely. It is a home.
It cares primarily for the children of our missionaries,
and for the children of deceased ministers. In caring
for the latter it combines its benefactions in such a
way that the widows of ministers find it a training
place for their fatherless little ones. Thus it reaches
out and touches the relief work of the Church and
supplements it in such a practical way that many a
poor mother who could not educate and feed her
children on the little sum given by the Church through
its relief fund, can here combine the two and find a
home for her helpless flock. The Home and School is
the right hand of the Ministerial Relief Fund.
There were during the last fiscal year eighty-four
children in the Home and School, of these twentyeight
were the children of missionaries out in the
foreign field, who must needs send these children back
to this country, or leave them here, that they might
be educated. What better or more fitting than that
the Church take these children, separated thousands of
miles from their beloved parents, who are our representatives
to her vpry heart and give them a home and
a training back here in the home land?
'I'l,u .cr^ ? ...
^ ..v jvillaining iniy-six were orpnans ot ministers.
Arkansas and Kentucky Synods furnished one each;
Alabama and Mississippi, four each; South Carolina,
seven; Georgia, nine; North Carolina, twelve, and Virginia,
eighteen. Of the funds contributed to the support
of the institution by the churches, a total of
$10,133, the Virginia Synod contributed $4,386, which
was more than two-fifths of the whole. North Carolina
gave $1,141, and South Carolina $802.' The other
Synods contributed from $604 down to $111 each. The
administration of this great charity, of our Church has
been eYrppdinorlv 1 '?1 1 "
vwiiuuuvai. x~ 11iccii nunureu aonars
covers all that was paid for salaries, although the most
capable hands were in charge. These hands had great
hearts behind them, else the work could never have
been done.
In a recent interview, on the Ferrer case, King Alphonso,
of Spain, is represented as expressing himself
very bitterly on the Ferrer demonstrations abroad. He
is quoted as saying, "To listen to certain Frenchmen.
one would think we were savages and live in the time
of the Inquisition, instead of a constitutional monarchy."
It is refreshing to know that a Spanish king,
and a great supporter of the Romanist Church at that,
is willing to acknowledge the savagery of that age in
Spanish history and of the church to which he belongs.
f* OF THE SOUTH. December aa, 1909.
WHEN MEN DO ATTEND CHURCH.
One of the popular monthlies of the day has raised
the question: "Why men do not attend church?" And
a symposium of answers from a variety of standpoints
has been published. The implication that it a fact
that men do not attend church has been vigorously
ucincu dv xne sunaay :>cnooi limes and other papers;
and from our point of view, correctly. In the conservative
Southland we believe that the number of men
found in the sanctuary has increased, and not decreased.
as may be true in other sections. Worldliness,
commercialism, absorption in business cares,
some degree of unbelief begotten by certain claims of
popular literature, have their influence, producing in
difference. Physical and mental weariness on the
Rest Day lead to self-indulgence. And at the heart
of all these things is the national unbelief and "the
offense of the Cross."
Put it is true we believe that outspoken hostility to
religion and the Church is not found to the extent to
which it once prevailed in many communities. It is
rare that a fewer are now found who are outspoken
in their denial of the Truth and the claims of Christianitv.
W'e helipvp that aninnof tli?
J-, "I HI
moral classes of society, respect for the Church is
almost universal and is growing.
The increase of loyalty and faithfulness to Christian
obligations on the part of men within the Church
is having its effect upon men without. The Men's
Movement in the churches, in Bible classes, in Brotherhoods,
in missions, in civic reform and in charities
has been an impressive witness for the truth. The
public men in America who confess Christ before the
world, presidents, governors, senators, mayors, are
many, able and outspoken, and their testimony has
been heard by multitudes and is bearing fruit, in silencing
opposition and increasing respect and confidence
for religion, its churches and its ministers.
Undoubtedly the type of man demanded in the pulpit
and pastorate in our day is the manly man, masculine,
with a robust Christian manhood, honest, candid,
brave, self mastered and self-devoted; not the effeminate
and weak and self-indulgent, aesthetic'and emotional.
Men are not convinced or attracted by the
man whose mind is on his clerical dress, the flowers on
his pulpit or the success of social function. Out of
the pulpit, on the street, the minister who is human
otirl nofiteol ' ' ? ? ? - 1
nuiuiui, vyiiiic iic ia gcuuc ctiui a gentleman, wno
pays his debts, lives within his means and asks no
privileges or discounts, and while cordial and friendly,
has self-respect and modesty; this is the minister who
wins the respect of men without the Church, and
this is the man whom they are willing to hear on the
great claims of God and his word.
in the pulpit, the minister who attracts men, is honest
in dealing with all truth and the facts of life. And
Iw n A moono /loop oi?.<K " -?-?? ? a- 1~ ? A p
,,J . .v. mvana uui.i) ouv.ll a Iliail 1USC II1C CSICCIH OI WOmen
and the love of children. Me has convictions of
the great realities, and faith, strong and courageous,
in the message he is sent to deliver. He is seen evidently
to fear God and not man. He is absorbed and
controlled by the solemnity and authority of divine
truth. He is unaffected, direct and fearless,
The preaching which affects and draws men is intel