Newspaper Page Text
January 19, 1910. THE PRESBYTERL
If the first of these alternatives become true the formal
worshipper is soon indifferent to the claims of the
sanctuary because insensible of its true office. He
abandons it altogether, or becomes a whimsical searcher
for entertainment. A more serious and portentous
effect follows, God withdraws from his own sanctuary.
His warning to his people through Moses was, "If ye
transgress 1 will scatter you abroad among the nations."
This warning was executed in the dispersion.?
But his promise was if they should repent and obey,
"I will gather them from thence and will bring them
unto the place that I have chosen to set my name
*1 "
IUC1 c.
If in many places there is serious decline in church
attendance, the cause may be found in the fact that the
people have in part lost the conception that the church
is God's meeting-house, the place where he meets with
his people and fulfills promises made to them as a
body of united worshipers. A consequence of this is
that the Master withdraws from his appointed meeting
place, or withholds those spiritual gifts which are
the tokens of his presence and the recognition of acceptable
worship.
"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us sro unto
the house of the Lord." "Because of the house of the
Lord our God I will seek thy good."
DR. SAMUEL M. SMITH.
Fastor of the First Presbyterian church of Columbia,
S. C., one of the most eminent divines and scholars in
the South, died suddenly at n 130 o'clock, on Jan. 10,
at his home. The news will be a severe shock to the
whole Church.
The Rev. Samuel Macon Smith, D. D., was born at
Hampden-Sidney, Prince Edward County, Virginia,
July 26, 1851. He was the son of the Rev. Jacob
Henry Smith, D. D., and Catherine Malvina (Miller)
Smith. His father was for forty years one of the most
popular and effective preachers in North Carolina.
Samuel Macon Smith was taught by his father until
he was fourteen years of acre. He then attended fnr
several years the Greensboro (North Carolina) High
School, and the famous Bingham School. He took elective
courses at the University of Virginia in Latin,
Greek, German, mental and moral philosophy and
chemistry, becoming especially fond of Greek, under
that celebrated teacher of the classics, Prof. Basil L.
Gildersleeve.
He was ordained to the ministry by the Orange
Presbytery in October, 1876. He spent a year as evangelist
in Chatham County, North Carolina, residing at
Pittsboro. In the summer of 1877 he accepted a call
to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church in Washington,
N. C., which he served until September, 1889.
While in this charge he received calls to larger
churches, but declined them, until a change of location
was necessitated by the state of his wife's health. In
1889 he accepted a call to the pastorate of the First
Presbvterian Chnrrli nf fnlnmKlo
He married Miss Ella Friend Daniel, of "Ingleside,"
Charlotte County, Virginia, daughter of John W. Daniel,
a leading planter and a member of the distinguished
family of that name, who survives him.
In his early career Dr. Smith was a frequent con
A.N OF THE SOUTH 67
tributor to the theological "quarterlies," his articles
being vvidely read and some of them reprinted in Europe.
He was selected by the General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church to deliver the address on
"The New Theology" in the great celebration on the
4- *??<-? U 1 1 1 !- f ? 1 r
lvvu iiuiiuicu auu mucin anniversary 01 ine westminster
Confession. lie also delivered numerous commencement
addresses and baccalaureate sermons in the
States of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
He was selected to deliver the oration at the unveiling
of the monument to the murdered editor, N. G. Gonzales,
in Columbia. The degree of D. D. was conferred
on him by Davidson College in 1888.
Dr. Smith has several times declined a professorship
in a theological seminary or a college.
fhe five sons of Dr. Jacob Henry Smith have all become
eminent. The four brothers of the subject of
this sketch are Dr. Henry Louis Smith, widely known
as the president of Davidson College, North Carolina;
1 V- ft 1 A O -".1- t r , t -r- , ,
x^i. endues -nipuunsu oiuiiu, proiessor 01 tne Jimgiisn
language in the University of Virginia, recently professor
in the University of North Carolina, and author
of several widely used school books in his department;
l)r. Egbert Watson Smith, for many years past a
minister of eminence in North Carolina, and at present
pastor of one of the leading Presbyterian Churches
in Louisville, Kentucky; and the Rev. Hay Watson
Smith, the youngest of the brothers, now pastor of the
Congregational Church at Port Chester, New York.?
News & Courier.
TYPE OF MINISTER THE NEW CONDITIONS
DEMAND.
Bishop W. A. Candler, choosing as his text, Matthew
xiii, 52: "Therefore, every scribe which is instructed
unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man
that is a householder which bringeth forth out of his
treasure things new and old," preached a sermon be
fore the Methodist ministers of Atlanta and vicinity
on Monday, January 3. It was an able handling of
the type of minister which the new conditions demand.
He said: "The people in your pews are not as well
educated as you imagine. Men and women may be
well dressed without being well educated. Christ selected
but one gentleman for a preacher, and he betrayed
Ilim and committed suicide. Paul, the scholar,
was afterwards selected, but he discarded his worldly
scholarship, and declared to the very center of the
world's learning that he determined to know nothing
among them save Christ and Him crucified.
"You will not solve your problem with improved music.
The cry for the regenerative influence of art is
proven to be a poor substitute for the gospel. Much
of your church music is vocal ignorance. Great organization
is no solution. I would not depreciate the organizing
power of such men as Paul and Wesley, but
they organized the life that existed for definite work.
It's not a system of sanctified oullevs we need.
"The need is a strengthened gospel, a mightier faith I
in the old truths. The newness comes in applying
them. The preacher for today is the man with cour- /
age and powers of endurance cut loose from and non- . ^
dependent upon the world. The preacher begins to be v * aL
timid when he begins to be dependent." 0- 3