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10 (586) THE]
QUEEN MARY.
Coronation day at Westminster Abbey is
at hand. King George V. will receive his full
meed of praise; let us honor the Queen. There
is much reason to hope that womanly grace
and dignity combined with the fine talents and
culture of Queen Mary will entitle her to rank
with the most admirable women of any age or
station, and make her a blessing to society at
large, a promoter of Christian ideals and a
powerful supporter and patron of the institutions
of the Christian faith. For instance it
is said by her admirers that she is striving to
bring about a return on the part of the women
who come under her influence to the simpler,
more genuine and purer phases of life.
We are told that "among the extremes of
fashion against which she has set her face
' ' ' 1 ? UI_ U?4?
are nonoie ana narem skii-us, uig n?i?, ciuu?
length sleeves, uncollared afternoon dresses
and other feminine foiblesets of the moment."
This will be gratifying to many who are zealous
of their gravity but find it difficult to
maintain in the presence of some of the ludicrous
outfits that appear as womanly costumes
in the passing throng.
More important still are these interesting
particulars of the royal family given by David
Williamson in his recent book entitled "Our
King and Queen."
"Sunday is, as far as possible, a day of rest.
Their Majesties are punctillious in attending
Divine Service. The Queen is anxious that
the staff at the Palace should have opportunities
of going to church, and the routine is carefully
arranged with this in view. On Sunday
evening the Royal children 'choose hymns,'
and, as in the happy far-off days at White
Lodge, the Queen plays her favourite hymns
on the piano. Her Majesty reads many devotional
books and is acquainted with most of
the biographies of Christian leaders which have
appeared in recent years. If she likes a volume
she will order several copies for distribution
among her friends. * * A cynic said,
after King George's accession, 'This will be
a nursery reign.' He was right, if he meant
that the King and the Queen believe in the
home as the chief foundation of the State."
MEMORIAL DAY.
Southern Memorial Day at Arlington Cemetery
was observed with splendid eulogies and
elaborate floral tributes offered by hundreds
of loving and loyal hearts as they stood beside
the last resting places of the Confederate dead
who are buried there. Among the many floral
otterings was a magnificent wreath sent by
President Taft as a token of respect for the
memory of the aons of the South whose bodies
sleep in Arlington. This gift was doubtless
the expression of sincere sympathy and
prompted by noble, generous impulse.
As the years pass the reverence of the
Southern people for the memory and deeds
of their slain defenders increases, and with
greater eagerness and enthusiasm they celebrate
the valor of those who gave their lives
in defence of their homes, their cherished institutions
and the sacred principles of government
bequeathed to them by their fathers.
Our youth arc being trained to perpetuate
the memory of the courage and loyalty of those
who went before them. In our schools they
are taught the merits of the great issues involved
and on Memorial Day throughout the
South our boys by thousands swell the ranks
of those who mingle tears for the departed
with praises for their deeds.
The armies of the South were composed of
the eons, brothers and fathers of our South
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE 8C
ern homes. They fought against an equal
number of hirelings from foreign lands and
negroes who were their former slaves, to say
nothing of natives of the North; but the men
who fell in the ranks of the Confederacy were
not simply lost to the armies of the South, but
lost to our homes. As a rule they were the
flower of our manhood in intelligence, social
position, patriotism and high ideals of charftP.tfir
flnrl QPTvinP Tt io nnf ofron 4-V?o?-? fliof
V. uv/m. .?w? AV AO uw OH Uil^\; n c* I
our people cherish the memory of their dead
with growing devotion as time passes, and it
is scarcely to be conceived that the time will ever
come when succeeding generations will fail
to have their blood warmed and their spirits
fired by the record of the valor, the devotion
and achievements of those who responded to
their country's call to resist the overwhelming
forces of invasion.
FALSE AND MISLEADING.
Under the caption, in large black letters,
"Presbyterian Bigots Censuie the President,"
the Morning Star, of New Orleans, evidently
with a purpose and desire to mislead and prejudice
its readers, says, "At a recent meet
ing of the Presbyterian Assembly at Atlantic
a tutiuu ujcu-m-iue-wuoi xresDyienan
bigot' named Paynter, of Virginia, introduced
a resolution 'condemning the pernicious activity
of Catholics,' and asking that the 'Assembly
pass a vote of censure upon Wm. H.
Taft, President of the United States, for appointing
a Catholic and a pupil of the Jesuits
to the exalted position of Chief Justice of the
United States.' " The Morning Star then
proceeds to deliver one of its characteristic
diatribes, as usual based upon an absolute ignorance
or perversion of the factB of the case.
We wish it were possible to reach all the
readers of that misleading journal, that they
might know the following facts: (1) The
quotation marks of the Morning Star would
lead its readers to believe that that paper is
quoting from the resolution referred to. The
paper is not ingenous enough to say that it is
quoting from some newspaper reporter. (2)
No mpntinn wliotmrow ?'?? '
,v-j. nan uiaue iii uie resolution
referred to of either President Taft or
Chief Justice "White. In stating that such a
clause or any request that the Assembly pass
a vote of censure upon Wm. H. Taft, etc., was
in the resolution, the Morning Star tells what
was not the truth. (3) The resolution in question
pronounced no judgment whatever for
the Assembly, but asked, reasonably, and as
every member in good standing has a right
to ask, that inquiry be made into certain alleged
facts. The resolution was the expression
of the opinion of the one who presented
it, seeking, of course, to secure a similar expression
from the Assembly. Like all reasonable
inquiries or resolutions it was referred to
a committee, and its request for an ad interim
committee to report next year was duly granted
on the recommendation of the present committee
to which it was referred. (4) As minor
matters, but showing how very careless the
Morning Star is about ascertaining the facts
before it indulges in its diatribes, it. mnv
mentioned that the incident incorrectly reported
did not occur in the Assembly at Atlantic
City at all, but in the Assembly at Louisville,
Ky.; and that no resolution was introduced
by any man named Paynter, but a resolution,
hardly recognizable in the form given and
under the quotation marks used, was introduced
on his own personal authority and right
by Kev. ,T. C. Painter.
The fact of the case is, regardless of whether
the Assembly will regard the matter as one
10 T H t June 21, 1911
in which it can or cannot take action, that
there was so much of truth in the allegations
of the brother who introduced the resolution
that those whom it struck have shown this
truth by the way in which they have winced.
STICK TO YOUR LAST.
Let the shoemaker stick to his last I Just
as the religious papers sometimes make a mess
ol it when Ciey undertake to handle purely
political matters, and by their interference
bring upon themselves sharp and oftentimes
deserved criticism, so the secular papers, when
' they attempt to handle ecclesiastical matters
many a time misapprehend the whole situation
and thereby mislead their readers. Unfortunately,
too, in their misapprehension of
it they read into the situation their own desires
or predisposition, even sometimes their
temper and a little unconscious enmity.
The "Heresy Trials" in the Presbyterian
Church are just now the butt of the ridicule and
criticism of some secular journals. As
fine a paper as the Daily States, of New Orleans,
usually so careful and so correct In its
statements and judgments, turned aside last
week to editorialize a little on the subject,
and to denounce the course of the Northern
Presbyterian Assembly in finding Dr. Grant
guilty and suspending him from the ministry
of the Presbyterian Church, pronouncing it a
hard penalty for "little more than a spurt of
sensationalism in the pulpit," and closing its
editorial with the words, "All things consid
ii.i xi / t- i i
cicu it aceiiiH mi?l me ways 01 neresy tnais
are past finding out."
Now, if our unliable neighbors of the Daily
States will kihdly take note of them, there
are three things to which their attention may
be called and which they should duly consider
before they pass so oracular a judgment.
The first is this: The word "heresy" is
never once mentioned in these trials. It is a
term used and applied altogether by those
who comment on the matter. Dr. Grant and
others are put on trial, after reasonable ground
appears for the same, and according to the
constitutional provisions which they themselves
have agreed to in their ordination en
gagements, for holding and propagating certain
views which are contrary to the views
upon the basis of which the Presbyterian
Church gave them authority to go out in its
name as representatives of its institutions and
principles. No effort is made to restrain them
from thinking and preaching what they please.
The effort made is to restrain them from that
dishonest and unworthy thing of masking in
the Presbyterian cloak while holding and proclaiming
views at variance with the Presbyterian
principles which they professed at one
time and on which they were commissioned as
representatives of that church. The Presbyterian
Church is the last body in the world to
attempt to throttle free thought or free expression.
But it very sensibly says to those
whom it commissions, "You have to get out
and cease your work in our name if you no
longer hold to our credal or ecclesiastical constitution
as you declared when we commissioned
you." Disbelievers in Presbyterian
doctrine have plenty of room in which to hold
and proclaim their views, but that room is not,
either in decency or common sense, in the
T* i
i-resoyterian Church itself.
The second is this: The plea that Dr. Grant,
one of the men on trial, when he "declared
that he made use of loose, picturesque, and
startling expressions for the purpose of stirring
up the members of his congregation and
gaining their attention," was the defendant's