Newspaper Page Text
January 10, 19121 N THE
Editorial 1
We welcome to the editorial ranks Dr. James
R. Bridges of Charlotte, N. C., who has been
appointed to succeed the lamented Dr. P. R.
Law as editor of The Presbyterian Standard.
This admirable arrangement will be continued
until a permanent editor of The Standard shall
be secured. Dr. Bridges is an experienced and
accomplished master of the pen, capable of invoking
the muses, or elucidating the intricate
thought and labored expression of a Calvin, a
Bishop Butler, or a Jonathan Edwards. The
time honored truths of our Presbyterian faith
and life will have a friend and loval pxnnnpnt
in the person of Dr. Bridges.
Number one, volume one, of The Westminster
Magazine is now on our table. It is published in
Atlanta and Rev. Thornwell Jacobs, well known
as author and preacher, is the editor. It is
especially designed to stimulate and advance the
activities of Presbyterianism in the flourishing
city of Atlanta. The first number would do
eredit to a magazine of mature years. The publication
is evidently inoculated with the Atlanta
microbe from the start. The name of that microbe
is "hustle" and we earnestly wish for the
Westminster, and all other good things Atlantian,
that it may accomplish every high purpose
that it may form.
The congregation of the church at Columbia,
Tennessee, has sent out an appeal to all our
churches throughout the extent of the Assembly,
pleading that they act together, promptly and
earnestly, in paying off the Foreign Mission
debt. Every congregation is urged to contribute
or subscribe, according to its ability, in
the month of January, that the debt may be
gotten out of the way at once and the Church
may go forward unhampered in its aggressive
work. "We trust all our pastors and sessions
will approve and will act in concert with the
whole Church in making this special contribution
to the great, cause of evangelizing the world.
Union Theological Seminnry is to be congratulated
on the endowment of the James Spmnt
Tior>tnri>e}iir\ nampfl nftop tVio dnnnr o
esteemed ruling elder in the First church of
Wilmington, N. C. Mr. Sprunt has for years
been a liberal friend and supporter of Foreign
Missions and of other departments of the
Church's work. He now provides for the more
ample equipment of Union Seminary graduates
of the future by endowing a lectureship that
will secure special courses of lectures in defence
of the faith and the exposition of Christian
doctrine. The lecturers will be specialists in the
several departments for which the foundation
provides and may be selected from men of
eminent learning in Europe, Canada or the
United States. Mr. Sprunt will receive the
gratitude of the entire Church for this generous
endowment.
What missions have done and are doing for
Africa is indicated by these figures that have
been compiled by Tiie rresuyivnun me population
of Africa is estimated to be 175,000,000,
and among these masses some 2,470 Protestant
missionaries are at work, with 13,089 native as
flistants. The number of adherents gained is
527,800, and the communicants, 221,156; for
whom 4,790 places of worship are provided. In
the 4.000 schools, 203.400 pupils receive instruction.
Nearly one hundred hospitals minister to the
sick and suffering. Sixteen printing presses are
kept busy; and the Bible is supplied in all the
principal languages. In Uganda, one-half of the
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S
\otes and
700,000 inhabitants are Christians. In Cap*
Colony, about 200,000 are Christians.
Says Dr. John Balcom Shaw, one of the
most successful ministers of the day, in an address
on "True Evangelism," "Cut out the
spectacular, give up the passion for publicity,
eliminate the fictitious and artificial, get down
to facts, and preach the real gospel to the
nonnln Kv r*niv?4-/% 4-h. ?? >^ ?
Kfj iu mem y (uiu in mis ^ tiy yuu
will be a real evangelistic preacher who can
obtain results in this great movement for the
revival of evangelism."
Dr. "William Charles O'Connell, writing in
Zion's Herald on "The Future of Methodism:
A. Plea for Insurgency," claims that the time
has come not for modifications in the unique
system of administration of his church, but
for a thorough re-examination of every feature
and detail of the Methodist economy. He
bitterly condemns those who are mere devotees
of precedent, revering their venerable mechanism
as Confucians revere their ancestors.
He says that there is no hope but in insurgency.
Insurgency is already a reality in motive and
spirit." Thus another one of the terms of the
politicians is introduced into the nomenclature
of the church.
The Times-Democrat, of New Orleans, in a
leading editorial, attacks the present day fashion
of having a banquet in connection with
cutcipnse nuii is projected or every
movement for which sympathy or interest is
sought. The secular world is growing tired
of the eating plan of trying to secure results.
Is it any wonder that the church is tiring of it as
well? The banquet plan has been especially
used in connection with the numerous outside
movements which have been trying to do the
work of God's regular organization, the church.
Church people are beginning to put an interrogation
mark by the side of nearly everything that
comes with a proposition to eat over it.
From the Record of Christian Work, a very
high authority, we learn that "the educational
authorities in the Philippines have decided that
'it is not for the teachers in this Catholic country
to encourage the study of the Bible among their
pupils * at any time, even outside of
the school room.' In other words, American
citizens in the Philippines are forbidden to
conduct Bible classes in their homes or in a
Sunday school into which by any possibility one
of the 600,000 Filipinos in the public schools
might stray. We wish that this administrative
ruling might be brought before the courts." It
would seem that the time has about come for the
Christian people of America to issue a commanding
protest to the effect that the Pope of
Rome shall not through Cardinal Gibbons,
through our President, through his administration,
dictate the educational and missionary policies
of the American people.
The writer of a book notice, in dealing with a
certain work on Biblical criticism, says, "Call
biblical criticism by any name you like, 'higher,'
lower, or half-way, the fact remains that there
must be some principles of criticism that are
correct, reasonable, and therefore permanent."
Such language sounds rather smart, but it shows
that the writer needs to turn over the volume
to some one who knows what he is dealing with.
ITis information is hardly sufficient yet to enable
him to notice snch a book. "We doubt if
there is any department of work attended to, as
a rule, so crudely as that of book notices.
4- 1
OUTH "" (?) 9
Comments I
NOTES IN PASSING. I
BY BERT.
We have just entered upon
The Orw/n Tln/lf a nom ? ??" ?J -1?J! *
~ t ? a uvr? jcai, ttiiu siauaing ncre
upon its threshold much depends
upon the spirit with which we look ahead.
There are those to whom the unknown and untried
is always suggestive of peril, possible disaster,
strength-taxing trials, perplexing situations,
loss, defeat. Others, and probably the
fewest in number, take a more cheerful view
and never fail to catch some faint shimmer of
the silver lining behind the darkest of the clouds.
A great deal, of course, depends upon our peculiar
situation when the year opened. If we
happened to be in difficulties our outlook will
most probably be marked by anxious forebodings
; but if all was well the road ahead appeared
all aglow with promise. And yet there is as
little justification for the one impression as for
the other; for the darkness may suddenly lift,
or the sun as suddenly sink behind an impenetrable
bank of clouds. To the angel of the
Church in Philadelphia the Lord says, "Behold,
I set before you an open door."
Some look into the future as if
A Door, not it were a blank stone wall. Bea
Wall cause all behind is hidden from
them it presents a gloomy and forbidding
front, a great wide-reaching stretch of
oianKness, and their imagination is unequal to
the task of making a breach in the wall, and
their courage too weak to make a bold sally to
discover what may lie concealed within. But
it is not a wall, it is not even a closed door, it
is an open door and you are invited to enter
and make the most and the best of the maguificent
opportunities with which you will be
confronted from time to time as the year advances.
Its meanings will be different
Its Meanings to different people. It is a call
from the wrong to the right;
from the weak to the strong; from the godless
to the godly; from one degree of perfection to
another; from duty neglected to duty performed.
To the unsaved it is a call from God saying *
he is offering you another opportunity, extending
you another invitation to settle matters between
you for the eternal interests of your souls. j!
How many new years have come nnd cmnA*
Each one with its open door, which by your
neglect you have closed against yourself. The
opportunities are dwindling, this may be the
last. As you face eternity, as you long for
happiness settle the question, and settle right,
and settle at once.
To the merely nominal Christian it is a call
to a strong stand and a fixed purpose. Nominal
means only in name. A nominal business man
is in line for bankruptcy, a nominal doctor has
no patients, a nominal lawyer has abundance of
time to enjoy his nominality. To be nominal
means to have a name to live and be dead. The
Church is overloaded, water-logged with nominal
believers; she is in greater danger of sink
nag irom mis cause tnan from going to pieces
on the rock of external opposition. The bird
with folded wing is a dead weight, but with
outstretched wing rises to the heavens. Arise,
stretch your wings, be definite. Take a stand,
and take it strong. You will not only rise yourself
but you will raise many with you.
To the earnest follower it is a promise of still
greater victories. After all, your life has not
been so worthless as you feared. The Lord has
been looking with great love upon all your efforts,
and he has added to the thing done hit