Newspaper Page Text
October 11, 1911]
MOBE MISSIONARIES THAN MONEY.
The best straight-forward statement
regarding the debt of the Executive
Committee of Foreign Missions we have
seen is that found in the editorial columns
of the Times-Dispatch, Richmond,
Va., of September 25. 1911. Belipvinc
that it will be of special interest to
the Presbyterian of the South, and that
wide publicity given to this editorial
will be helpful to the cause of foreign
missions, which will, during October, be
the special object of the benevolence of
the Church, we are pleased to publish,
with an expression of appreciation to
the editor of the Times-Dispatch for the
able editorial.?Ed. The Missionary.
"Next Sunday, or the Sunday after, or
some Sunday goon, a special collection
will be lifted in the Presbyterian
churches of the Southern General Assembly
to help the Committee on Foreign
Missions out of the rather awkward
and embarrassing position in
which it has been placed. The commit
tee, wnich is the Church in this case,
is in debt to the extent of $121,871. It
has been running behind for five years.
In 1907 it was short $27,618. In 1908
the debt had increased to $40,687; in
1909 the committee was still further in
debt to the amount of $86,951, and this
year the committee, which js the Church
?don't forget that?is casting about for
$121,871 with which to meet its past
due obligations, besides enough additional
funds to carry on its activities in
the foreign field. During this debtmaking
period, the annual receipts of
the church for foreign missions has in.
creased from $276,000 to $452,000, and.
without explanation the ordinary business
man would say that the church
was doing more business than Its capital
would permit; but this is not so, as
Dr. Cecil explained In a very satisfactory
and businesslike way to his congregation
yesterday.
A very large part of the contributions
made in recent years was made for specific
purposes, and could not be used for
the general work in the foreign field,
but under the terms of the gifts had to
be applied to the special purposes for
which they were designed. Any business
man, or business lawyer, will say
that the committee pursued a strictly
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THE PRESBYTER! ?
business course in so using these gifts.
Banking on the church or upon the
pledges of the church members, which
is the same thing, in a sense the committee
has gone ahead with its work, increased
its force in the foreign field?
it iB nearly twice as great now as it
was five years ago, and cannot be
Aln 4U-. It- -- " *
waiuicu iuai me committee in lengthening
its cords and strengthening its
stakes among the heathen was doing
anything that an ordinary business man
would not have done in the circumstances.
Debts of honor are always
paid, and the subscriptions which are
made for church purposes may be regarded,
we should say, as debts of
honor of the most binding character.
When the present Assembly year began
the committee, which is the church, had
on jts books pledges from congregations
and individuals amounting to more than
$340,000, and it looked like good business
for it to go ahead with its operations
on the larger plan which It
had drawn. At the close of the year
iiic vuiniiiiii.ee loiuiu mac mese pieages
$147,000 had not been redeemed. The
committee could not help that; but it
would seem that as a matter of common
honesty the people and the congregttons
which put down should put up. Tf
thev should sell all they have before
they would sell all they have before
they would allow anybody to say that
they had not made good. Tt would appear,
therefore, that the deht of the
Presbyterian Committee on Foreign
Missions is up to the Presbyterians
and to such of their well disposed
friends and neighbors who may feel disposed
to be neighborly in a matter of
such vital importance. Tt was with the
object of making this matter very plain
to his paticular people that Dr. Cecil
preached to them yesterday from the
text: "How much owest thou to my
Tord?" The question will be answered
next Sunday, or the Sunday after, or
some other Sunday to be hereafter appointed
for the answer.
Of course, this is not a proper subject
for the meditations of a secular
newspaper; it is "none of our business,"
we know that, but it has a great deal
of human nature in it, and concerns
millions of people in this and other
lands. One of the cloth, but not of the
Presbyterian persuasion, though really
of the Presbyterian raising, said yesterday
he believed that all of the churches,
or denominations, as you please, were
very much in the same condition as the
Southern Presbyterians?their activities
in mission work have exceeded their
means, and he attributed this situation
to the Laymen's Movement in considerable
measure; from which it would
seem that the laymen also have a great
work to do. They have been so effective
in getting men to promise, that they
should make it their special business
Now to make them perform."
The apostle teaches us that the performing
of his appropriate function, by
every member of Christ's body is essential
to its completeness. 'It is therefnro
a cnrinua m otfor frv m a r Viia hntlv hv
1U1 U M DV1 l\/UO UJUIVVI tv ?'"? wo UJ
our personal deformities.
"Underneath are the everlasting
arms." We begin: "Underneath"?then
comes that eloquent silence which our
utterance is to fill. What shall we now
put into that space? Some would write
trouble, bereavement, sickness, temptation.
Then the sentence would read:
"Underneath trouble, . . . temptation,
are the everlasting arms." Let
ovorv r*np nut in fnr hlmaplf fho dnnn.
eat and most Inveterate fact he knows
as needing the sustaining support, or
help to throw off. Dr. A. J. Lyman,
in his "Underneath Are the Everlasting
Arms."
.v i.*a**....
\ N OF THE SOOTH
THE FUNDS FOB THE AFRICAN RELIEF
EXPEDITION.
Edward S. Lane.
The Southern Presbyterian Church is
in danger of writing one of the saddest
chapters in her missionary history.
Our missionaries, on the Congo River,
in Africa, the continent that has claim/X/1
4L>. A l-l-.j - * " -
cu ou in u v;u U1 LLie t'UUlteBt U1UOU OI 1116
church, are toiling under great trials.
Efficient, wise and devoted, they are
seeking to make a few men and women
do what dozens ought to do, and that
too under the pressure of unceasing
work and the enervating influences of
a tropical climate. But the difficulties
which confront them are too much for
them. They tell us that they cannot
hold out much longer, and that if help
is not soon sent, some of them must
die.
Our church will send out the African
Relief Expedition. But will it be
done soon enough or will it reach the
Congo after loyal men and women have
fallen at their posts? Since June 1,
1911, $1,224.59 have been contributed for
the African reinforcements, enough
possibly to send out one missionary.
One missionary, however, is not an adequate
relieving force. Enough recruits
should be sent to replace the overworked
men and women now on the field. Will
the three hundred thousand Southern
Presbyterians Presbyter'an know in this
their day the things which belong unto
that peace and give of their uncounted
gold to send relief in time?
During the long months of 1884 the
noblest man of his generation was
closely shut up in the entrenchments at
the forks of the Blue and White Nile.
All the resources of a great military genius
were being called into action to stay
the advance of the Arab hordes. A leaf
from a soldier's diary picked up after
the fall of Khartoum tells how Gordon
took hundreds of yards of cotton and dying
it earth color, had it stretched out
in long sloping lines, that at a distance
it might appear as earth works, and so
deceive the Arabs while the real earth
works were constructed further back.
He literally made money from an exhausted
treasury. He fed the poor, visited
the sick, and prayed with the dying.
There are forces, however, against
wh'ch even a hero cannot contend. The
supply of food daily lessened and the
garrison faced famine. Rats, mice, the
leather of boots, the gum of the mimosa,
the inner fibre of the palm trees were
all eagerly devoured?and the black
hosts of the enemy steadily closed in on
the beseiged city.
Sentences from his letters and leaves
from his diary give us Gordon's thoughts
during those last tragic months at Khartoum.
Writing to his sister he tells her
he is "quite happy, thank God!" and
"like Lawrence I have tried to do my
duty." To another friend he says,
"the catastrophe," so soon to take place,
"would not have happened if our people
K Q/1 f O lr An V* Aft Af n 1?AA A 11 t i An O Villi Vl in
iiciu lancu ucuci pictaunuuo, uui iiua
is 'spilt milk.' Good bye." The last
entry in his journal can rnver be forgotten.
"I have done the best for the
honor of our country. Good bye. You
send me no help though vou have lots
of money." Every morning just as the
sky was flushed with the dawn of the
coming day, Gordon could be seen on
the tower of the governor's palace gazing
along the winding Nile, and across
the yellow sands of the desert for the
advance guard of the long promised
relief expedition, and through the long
wearisome days his yearning, appealing
eyes looked and watched for the help
that npvpr ramp
No more plaintive appeals can be sent
us than those from Luebo. They almost
seems to re-echo the last message from
Khartoum?"You send us no help though
you have lots of money." Let It not be,
that the eyes of the faithful soldiers we
(977) 17
sent to the Congo to carry the message
of the risen Christ will grow faint and
close in death, looking and longing for
the help that never came.
(Contributions should be sent to W.
H. Raymond, Treasurer, Nashville, Tenii.
with the statement that they are for the
relief of the African missionaries. The
funds will be used as designated and acknowledged
through the church papers.)
ChristiansburK. Va.
CONFERENCE ON SYSTEMATIC BENEFICENCE
IN ENOREE
PRESBYTERY.
ReT. T. H. Law.
Every 'member of the Permanent
Committee on Systematic Beneficence
of Enoree Presbytery, consisting of two
elders and one minister, attended the
confrence of committeemen on this
subject at Montreat, July 28-30, and
under the enlightenment and stimulus
of that most excellent and helpful
conference they determined to hold on?
in the Presbytery during its fall sessions.
To this end they secured the
promise of the presence and aid of
Dr. W. J Martin, of Davidson College,
whom they know to be a man of power
in this cause. And in order to extend
me gooa innuence of the Presbyterlal
conference as widely as posible, they expressly
invited the deacons of the several
churches as far as practicable to
attend, a circular letter to this effect1
being sent out to the Diaconate of every
church in the Presbytery.
At the opening session of the Presbytery
this plan of its committee was unanimously
approved, and as much of the
third day of its meeting as might be
needed was set apart for the conference,
the hospitable people of Lourens
where we met having in advance promised
entertainment to as many as might
come.
At the appointed hour Dr. Martin was
on hand; and given the floor, he defivered
the most illuminating, comprehensive
and forcible address on the
Assembly's plan that I have ever heard.
For an hour and a quarter we listened
to him with rapt attention and unflagging
interest, and I am sure the impression
made was profound. I could
not but wish that every minister, elder
and deacon?indeed ever congregation?
in our Presbytery could have heard
him. Really, my desires went further,
and I thought what a great thing it
would be if our Assembly's committee,
were It possible, could send Dr. Martin
throughout the length and breadth of
our church to expound and urge this
plan, just as Dr. Lilly was sent out a
few years ago under the auspices of
the Laymen's Missionary Movement.
I believe that it would do much to promote
the Assembly's Plan and to transform
our faulty methods of Reneflcence.
But to return to our Conference: After
Dr. Martin's admirable and masterly
discourse many questions were
put to him, which he answered with
no tlonnn ~ ? -1 J "
. ?. 0 Clearness illiu W13UOII1,
and the free and easy conference continued
until everyody seemed satisfied.
What the outcome will be it is
impossible yet to tell; but I am persuaded
that our churches, both town
and country, will lay hold on the new
plan with a clearer understanding and
a much better appreciation of it. Our
committee proposes to seize the advantage
gained and press its adoption by all
our congregations.
It is a noble and great thing to cover
the blemishes and to excuse the failings
of a friend; to draw a curtain before
his stains, and to display his perfections;
to bury his weaknesses-In silence,
but to pryclalm his virtues on the
housetop.?Robert South.