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March 9, 1910. THE PRESBYTERIA
sion managerial expense. But waiving the consideration
of the worth of this analogy, if it be true that the
management of our causes be relatively economical, it
remains true also, that, as handling the Lord's funds it
is obligatory 011 the Church to consult economy as far
as is compatible with the highest efficiency. Now, a
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representatives of the causes as we now have on it, would
he at much less expense than the Executive Committees
are today. The items of office rent, clerical force, etc.,
would he materially reduced. The money now consumed
in this needless expense could he used in lengthening
the cords of Zion and strengthening her stakes.
On the other hand, to put over our Executive Committee
another Executive Committee to control them
would involve additional expense.
Third. Such a Commission would give us machinery
most commendable for its simplicity. Either an Executive
Committee over our present Executive Committees,
or an Executive Commission over them to restrain them
from too great competition and to fix their ideals and
regulate their conduct would render still more complex
machinery far from simple now, as well as to add to the
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Xo simpler Presbyterian device could be fixed upon
than a compact Executive Commission, to push the
causes of the Assembly itself, and itself, be immediately
answerable to the Assembly for the way in which it did
its work.
To establish the Executive Committee or the Executive
Commission, over our present Executive Committees
would also be to bring back in principle the
old Board against which the fathers in our Zion waged
a Godly warfare. Nothing should stand between the
Assembly's agent for carrying on the work and the
Assembly itself. The Executive Agents of the courts
should get their directions from the courts themselves.
The courts should discuss and determine policies. This
is the ideal given in the New Testament. We would do
well not to try to improve upon it. The Montanists,
the Quakers, etc., are not the only bodies of Christians
who act as if the age of inspiration of revelation endured
yet. Believing as we do that the book of Revelations has
been finished, we look for the inspiration of illumination
alone. Let us pray for this inspiration of illumination
and, studying the word, endeavor to conform or
keen conformed, our Church to the ideal cet un il-,^
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Word, which gives to whole Church organized in courts
the task of carrying on our Lord Christ's work.
Fourth. Such a Commission would make, after a little,
the jealousy likely to obtain between the different
Executive Committees impossible. In the Northern
Church it appears that there is irritating competition
between certain boards, or at the least, "the symptoms"
of such competition. (See Minutes 1908, p. 146.)
There is suspicion in the minds of some that there is
irritating competition between some of our Executive
Committees. This competition is as natural and almost
as inevitable, however excellent the committees may
be in Christian character, as it is unhappy and deploralllp.
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sum named by the Assembly, it is likely to use all the
levers it commands without considering whether it is
entrenching on the rights of other committees or not. I
have heard of a teacher in a certain school who magni
N OF THE SOUTH. 295
fied, according to report, his own department so that he
made exactions on the time of the students to such a
degree that they had not left a fair proportion of time
and strength to give to other departments. Similar
charges are made against one or more of our Executive
Committees.
Now suppose the Assembly should lay upon one Ex
ecutive Commission the duty of conducting Home and
Foreign Missions, Publication, Ministerial Relief, and
Education for the Ministry, etc., the Commission would
be equally responsible with regard to all the injunctions
of the Assembly. If it saw that one cause was growing
out of proportion to the others, according to the Assembly's
planning, it would feel bound to put forth increased
exertions in behalf of the lagging causes, that
in every cause it might carry out the desires of the
Church as voiced through the Assembly.
It may be objected here that as on the Executive
Commission we would necessarily have one man representing
specially Foreign Missions, another Home
Missions, another Publication, and so on, that in the
commission itself this jealousy would break out. The
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Executive Commission of the Assembly each of these
representatives would have his burden of responsibility
for the conduct of every other cause. He would be better
informed about the needs of the Church in other
lines than the one he represented and the less likely to
push his cause disproportionately. He would feel that
he could look to his colleagues on this Commission for
no help for his special cause beyond the proper proportion.
He would become aware that the representatives
of other lines of work in the Commission would
unitedly put themselves against him in case he should
endeavor a disproportionate boosting of his cause, and
mat such members of the Commission as were not special
spokesmen of any particular cause would feel a proportionate
responsibility for all of them. Such a Commission
as we advocate would come to have necessarily
a breadth of mind which has not always been shown by
Committees devoted to a single cause.
A possible objection to this scheme proposed is that
in doing away with competition, we might also do away
with zeal for the several causes. To this it may be replied
that the zeal born of competition is not an unqualified
good ; and that the having special representatives of
the several causes on the Commission would go as far
as is consistent with right toward the cultivation of zeal
in the behalf of the causes severally.
(To be continued.)
ON THE OTHER SHORE.
"It seemeth such a little way to me
Across to that strange country, the beyond;
And yet not strange, since it hath come to be
ine nome or them of whom I am so fond.
They make it seem familiar and most dear,
As traveling friends bring distant countries near.
"And so to me there is no sting in death,
And so the grave hath lost its victory.
It is but crossing with abated breath
And white, tense face, the narrow neck of sea.
To find the dear ones waiting on the shore
More precious and more beautiful than before."