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gregation that will appreciate this opportunity
and supply this need in connection with our
leading theological seminary?
THE SOUTH IN THE BUILDING OF THE
NATION.
It is with extreme pleasure that we have found
and have for days been poring over a great work
of twelve volumes, recently published by the
Southern Historical Publication Society, of Richmond,
bearing this very title. They have revived
thoughts and wishes which have long sought expression.
They have renewed the memory of the
motives which so stirred General D. IT. Hill, of
North Carolina, shortly after the war, that at
it expense of time and money and energy he
published, for some years, that little magazine of
ni<|ue name, "The Land We Love."
The South has always suffered from the lack
of a literature prepared on her own soil and doing
full justice to that which is so clearly distinctive
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in ner lire ana couanions, ana especially 01 a
carefully prepared and popular historical literature.
She has not been fairly or adequately dealt
with in the publications of other sections. The
bulk of the information given even to our children
in the schools has been passed through
hands controlled by none too much love of the
South, and has insidiously depreciated much of
the institutions and principles peculiar to that
section. Thus it has come about, especially in
historical studies, that great events in Southern
history have been allowed to dwindle into insignificancy
or to be ignored or forgotten all together,
while incidents of far less importance but occurring
elsewhere have been magnified into overwhelming
interest and value. For instance,
where in all the annals of the New England colonies,
boasted originators and agents of the first
struggles for freedom, were there such manful
and heroic sruggles as those of the plain old
North Carolina patriots who used no disguise as
Indians when they dumped the tea into the Cape
Fear River, or the Edenton "Tea Party," where
the women openly resolved that they would drink
no more of the stamped commodity, or the organized
resistance of the Regulators to the British
encroachments in taxation under Governor
Tryon, or the Battle of Alamance, fought nearly
four years before Lexington and Concord, by no
mob of outlaws as some have tried to make us
believe, but by men some of whom had been or
were members of the Province's Assembly, strongtiearted,
determined men fighting for their rights,
with their very ministers with them and leading
their prayers, the night before the fight, to "the
God of battles," that he would be pleased to give
them the victory the next day, or the courageous
act of the Mecklenburg men who on May 20,1775,
passed their Declaration of Independence, from
which many think that even Jefferson himself
copied some parts of the famous declaration of
July 4, 1776, or the heroic fight at Cross Creek,
near Wilmington, in February, 1776, where the
first victory over the British was won, or the
heroic warfare, almost unknown and unheralded,
of Governor Galvez, of Louisiana, in fighting
the British and beating them, at Baton Rouge,
Mobile and Pensacola, and acting really as the
American rear-guard through a goodly part of
the Revolution? Had these incidents, and they
are by no means all that might be named, occurred
near Boston, the latter's famous "Tea
Party," the ride of Paul Revere, and the fence
post and barn corner fighting out towards Lexington
and Concord would have been nnshed
back into the insignificance which they deserve,
great as they are by themselves, when compared
with these heroic but unheralded deeds in more
remote and obscure corners of the land.
Tbe South's history has needed to be written,
RESBYTERTAN OF THE EG
because it has never been written in proper form,
because it has to a large extent been ignored in
the general histories in use by our children, because
first-hand information about it has not
been sought and scrutinized, because all the general
histories thus far written have been from the
Northern point of view. These reasons are
strengthened when it is remembered that American
civilization and American literature began in
the South, and that the peculiar conditions there,
especially its political, economic and social unity,
as well as intellectual ability, have always given
it power beyond other sections in shaping the
nation of which it is a part, and in contributing to
it the largest and finest part of its political and
constitutional history. Thomas Nelson Page has
forcefully voiced this in his address on "The
Want of a History of the Southern People." Said
he, "What of our history is known by the world
to-day? What is our position in history? How
are we regarded? Nothing or next to nothing is
known of our true history by the world at large.
By a limited class in England there is a vague
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urnei iounaea on a sentiment tnat the South was
the aristocratic section of this country, and that
it stood for its rights, even with an indefensible
cause. By a somewhat more extended class its
heroism is admired sufficiently to partly condone
its heresies. But these are a small part of the
public. By the world at large we are held to
have been an ignorant, illiterate, cruel, semi-barbarous
section of the American people, sunk in
brutality and vice, who have contributed nothing
to the advancement of mankind; a race of slave
drivers, who, to perpetuate human slavery, conspired
to destroy the Union, and plunged the
country into war."
It is true that history cannot be properly
written without. ? nprsnp(>tivo on/1 tlioi ;*o ?
...? ? ~ ? rv.U[/ww?v, uuu mat i in VV 1 ILCI
must stand far enough away from the events narrated
to enable him to see how they blend together
or stand apart, how they are knit into
each other in cause and effect or how they belong
to classes apart. It is true that ignorance of this
principle accounts for the fact that no thoroughly
scientific history can be written close on
the heels of the events recorded. The distance
needful however, must not be that of locality and
difference of interests so much as of time and
capacity to see and study cause and effect.
Standing too far off in space and interests, deprived
of the proper nexus of sympathy and
proximity, one cannot write a history which will
do justice to the underlying principles connected
with its development.
Hence we repeat the statement of the intense
pleasure with which we have been delving into
the twelve splendid new volumes coming fresh
and sound and wholesome, and withal with that
sympathetic touch which gives them the warmth
and movement of life, from th#? h flnHu nf mini.
, -mmvM VI OUU11
men as Presidents Venable, Kirkland, Tyler,
Mitchell, Brooke, Snyder, Matheson, Benedict,
Mullins, Mell; from such editors as W. E. Gonzales,
H. Irving Brock, Norman Walker; from
such jurists as Levering and Walter Clark; from
such professors as Portier, Mims, Latane, Fleming,
Henneman, Henry E. Chambers, Henry
Alexander White, Pierce Butler, Charles Poster
Smith, and a host of others, who have taken in
hand the great project of preparing a Southern
history by Southern men. The faithful and elabamoIA
m
mate tcoLimvujy nere given, atter the most complete
research, to all the best and most potent
that has characterized the South is a task worthy
of the fine hands that have gathered and deliv
ered it. We congratulate the publishers upon
their courage and intelligence in undertaking
such a huge enterprise, and wish them the most
complete success in it as their well deserved reward.
I OTB t October 25,1911
A FEDERATION WORTH WHILE.
Our vigorous-thinking coteinporary, the United
Presbyterian, says, "We have long wished to see
federation thoroughly tried out. We have had a
theoretical federation of the churches of Christ in
America and also of the Reformed churches. But
neither of these forms of federation have been
v orked very hard. The thing has been mostly
theory and plan and fervid convention speeches."
Mention is nmrlo nf n mnvprripnt lirtrlfr wn\ in
>.' vv York which contemplates a working organization
representing a number of denominations,
with a view to a systematized effort "to save the
city." The Churches included in the proposed
combine are Presbyterian, Reformed, Congregational,
United Presbyterian, Reformed Presbyterian
and Reformed Episcopal. The prospectu*.
of the movement proposes that these churches,
"while maintaining their present position as integral
elements of their respective communions,
shall unite loyally and pray, plan and work together
as one church in this city."
This looks like a kind of federation that means
something. It is not a merging of creeds, governments,
or even policies. Much less is it the formation
of a central federal official group to decide
for the churches what they ought to do. It
contemplates intelligent, systematic and united
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vyiiiKtiiau wurts. in n givuu lucaiuy oy me use or
the means ordained for winning souls to Christ
and confirming them in the faith of the gospel.
Such community of service appeals to the conservative,
enlightened judgment of the Church.
To decline such united effort on the part of
evangelical churches may suggest the absence of
zeal for the great work to which the Master has
called his servants. The body of believers is as
leaven that must work until the mass is leavened.
They have a given quality which is possessed by
all and that quality should be a harmonious, and
a mutually helpful basis of expansion.
Could not our people in the conservative cities
of the South unite in such obviously consecrated
work? "WVint \XT QC'toC fVlOWA A?a
.. .< uokxo ?u?tc QIC 111 SCUUUllS Ul UU1
cities that are untounched by the representative
churches of those cities; the work left to feeble,
and in many cases crude missions, which ought
to be done by the best talent, the most consecrated
men and women, r.y.l the most effective
methods that the Church can employ.
We know well that our prosperous churches
are not brought into being simply for their own
edification or even for their own individual expansion.
God's people are the light of the world
and if those who are in darkness do not derive
light from them from whence shall they be illumined?
Suppose that all the evangelical churches
should organize a system of visitation by means
of which the spiritual needs of the entire population
could be made known. Suppose that suitable
persons should be aeW.tAri
I lUUtlUg kUVOtwho
would welcome friendly visits and Christian
instruction and prayer. Then substantial missions
could be judiciously located and sustained
by the regular intelligent work of our church
people. Such are the methods by which the great
Bethany church of Philedalphia was developed
and the adjacent community transformed.
The organization and promotion of churches,
however, would not be the end in view, but rather
the saving of souls and their nourishment in
spiritual life. Church advantages would be afforded
as a conseauence. Tho ***?
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sionaries have been successful chiefly among the
neglected classes, and in the ministry of our
Lord a distinguishing characteristic of the religion
that he taught was described in the words,
"To the poor the gospel is preached."
The church loses its true character and ignores
its well .defined mission when it neglects those