Newspaper Page Text
January 17, 1912 ] T U E
Editorial 1
Now that the holiday season has passed, the
regular work may have a chance. After all, it is
the steady, every day work, not the spasmodic
effort and the entertainment and the crowd, that
pays best and produces the surest and most permanent
results. It may be less spectacular and
more tiresome and dull, but its outcome is happiest
and best.
Those who are comfortable and well provided
for should remember just now the special call
that comes to them from the needy in this winter
season. The very high price of living, produceI
hy the increased cost of all the necessaries of life,
joined to the usual mid-winter lack of employment,
makes it a serious question with many
where they shall obtain sufficient to carry them
through.
It is a sad fact, brought out by the recent
censxis returns, that there has been an increase in
insanity greater by about fifteen per cent, than
in the population of this country, during the
decade. That this is to be attributed largely to
the intensity of life that characterizes most
Americans is a ready conclusion from the fact
that the most marked percentage of increase has
been in New York and Massachusetts, the centres
of that strenuous life and deep absorption in
business.
It is a pleasure to welcome to the editorial
fraternity of religions journalism in Richmond,
Rev. Graham H. Lambeth, who assumes editorial
charge of The Baltimore and Richmond Christian
Advocate. Brother Lambeth sncceeds Rev.
.Tames Cannon, the accomplished editor, whose
other increasing duties now absorb his energies
and monopolize his time. Mr. Lambeth wields
a graceful pen, a sweet spirit pervades his writings
and the great Methodist Church may be
congratulated on securing his service. Our
sister churches are supplied with a valiant corps
of defenders of the faith and apostles of righteousness
in the persons of their journalistic representatives
in Richmond. We wish for them all
a prosperous New Year with lengthening subQppinfirtn
llefc on/1 xiti/InniPct inflnowno ?1 ?
Uiiu " iuv....?R .?..tuv,iiv,c iu ucuau
of the great cause of winning souls to Christ,
enlightening them in the knowledge of his will
and inspiring them with increasing zeal for the
glory of his name.
It has long been a source of regret to Christian
people that so large a preponderance of
public bequests, made by Christian men and
women of wealth, have been bestowed upon other
than distinctly Christian objects. Secular colleges,
libraries, art galleries, foundations for sociological
experiment, laboratories, parks, orchestras
and other obsessions have turned the
heads of well-meaning Christian philanthropists
away from the direct work to which the Master
has called his servants, every one. As a result
many millions that might have been consecrated
to the needs of the Church in the prosecution of
her work, have been diverted to secular uses. It
is now said that the tide is turning; tnat observant
benefactors have discovered that gifts to
secular institutions have not yielded the results
intended or expected. The cases are numerous
and appalling in which rich endowments for
Christian education and other service have been
turned against the very faith which they were
intended to sustain. Christian philanthropists
should remember that the Church of God is
Christ's inheritance over which he reigns and to
advance her interests is. in a preeminent sense,
to honor him.
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S(
\otes and
Here is something for most of the pastors in
the Southern Presbyterian Church. Many have
ulready seized the opportunity substantially,
using such methods as they consider most effective.
Many others have not adopted the "inspirational
and educational" method herein proposed
and it is cordially commended to their
wise, loyal and enthusiastic consideration. A
pastor in Texas writes to us: "Gentlemen,?I
hand you in this enclosure a list of the heads of
families in my church and suggest that you mail
two copies of the paper to each in order to secure
subscriptions to the same # * I am intending
to put our paper in every home in my church.
So I am taking this method of accomplishing
my purpose, and ask you to kindly co-operate
with me in so doing." With this request we
cordially comply and will do so in every case
in which the pastor will supply the names of
heads of families and their post-office addresses.
Extra editions of many thousands of copies
will be printed if only our pastors will call for
them in this way. Pastors are writing us that
the increased circulation of The Presbyterian of
the South has substantially aided them in their
work. We want to be the pastor's ally, and we
will if opportunity is given. Let us make this
the best year of all the years of our ministry
except the years that are to follow.
ir. i i ?
iyiucn naa been said of late of the growth of
Unitarianism in this and other lands. It has
spread rather than grown. Some preachers and
rationalizing laymen in evangelistic churches
have incorporated its tenets in their pulpit essays
and in some little volumes of thought-gems which
they have obligingly prepared for the adornment
of current literature. Rev. Daniel "Waldron,
in "A Review of Forty Years of Evangelism
and Philanthropy" in Boston, has supplied
some figures on Unitarianism which do not give
promise of its continued ascendency even in the
little New England world which has hitherto
supplied the most fertile soil for its growth and
the most formidable barriers against the ingress
of evangelical religion. The period of thirty
years covered by Mr. "Waldron's statistics extends
from 1880 to 1910. In the former year
there were in the city of Boston 28 Unitarian
11
, ..u.vi.co, uu?v mere are zz. Congregational
churches have in the same period grown in
number from 23 to 34. Their membership has
more than doubled. The Methodist churches
have grown from 19 to 33, and their membership,
has doubled. The Baptist churches have increased
from 22 to 38, and their membership has
doubled. Presbyterians have had a three-fold
increase in churches and membership, while
Lutherans have realized a sevenfold increase.
The particular dimension of which our Unitarian
friends make a specialty, is breadth; height and
depth are scarcely in the count. Anent this fact
The Presbyterian pertinently remarks, "There is
poor comfort here for those that say the churches
must broaden their creeds if they would prosper.
Tt is a vindication of an old conviction that mere
breadth means shallowness so great that it destroys
efficiency and vitality."
There is much to indicate that the things which
have happened so far in the present revolution in
China, have fallen out rather unto the furtherance
of the gospel. In an interview which the
American Bible Society declares to be authentic,
General Li, commanding the revolutionary
forces, said: "Missionaries are our friends.
Jesus is better than Confucius, and I am strongly
in favor of more missionaries coming to
China. We shall do all we can to assist the
3UTH 7 "' (57) 9
Comments
missionaries and the more missionaries we induce
to come here the better will the republican government
of the new China be pleased. China
would not be what it is today were it not for
these missionaries. The time will come when the
two greatest republics, China and America will
be on the most friendly footing."
IN BEHALF OF PTOUTQ
A great Temperance Convention was held in
December by representative men from every part
of the United States, who assembled in Wash
ington City. A primary design of the convention
was to voice the sentiments of the best people
of the land, irrespective of religious or political
affiliations, in favor of the absolute control
of the liquor traffic within the borders of
the separate states and against interstate liquor
traffic protected by the general government, regardless
of State laws. Governors of States,
senators, congressmen, and other leading statesmen
participated in large numbers. College
presidents and professors, distinguished ministers.
physicians, scientists, authors and editors
were members of the convention. The proceedings
were of compelling interest and marked by
exceptional optimism and conscious power. Yet
the great dailies of the country contained scarcely
a respectful notice of the nrnpppdin"?
- ? ?
Commenting on the facts, The Richmond Advocate
says that with the exception of "a few
special reports there was almost no attention
paid to the convention by the Associated Press.
It is almost impossible for observant persons not
to believe that the management of the Associated
Press is intensely prejudiced in favor of the
liquor traffic, if indeed it is not subsidized in
some form or other by the traffic. Reports were
sent out concerning the trial of a "show girl*'
in New York, of the hanging of a negro in
Georgia, of baseball and football, by the column,
hut some days not a line, and only a few linos
on any nay were sent out by the Associated Press
concerning the great Conference of leading men
from every section of the country. The conspiracy
of silence was carried out hy the Associated
Press management throughout the country."
The domination of the public news service hy
the liquor interests is probably not known as a
certainty by the public, but has long been strongly
suspected and the evidence increases. The
time may be near at hand when the reputable
people of our land shall be compelled, in the
interest of personal safety and public order, to
demand that the public news service shall not
be allied with the promoters of immorality in
the perversion and debasement of our social order,
nor with a gigantic system of foreign ecclesiastical
despotism in conspirine nernin?t >!<?
civil and religious liberties of the American people.
It will become essential that powerful organization
on the part of the enemies of the
cherished, blood-bought institutions of this republic,
shall be met by still more powerful organization
in the perpetuation of moral standards
and the preservation of religious freedom.
Apathy and neglect have too long characterized
the attitude of a great people whose intelligence
has warned them against these two most formidable
and aggressive menaces to their happiness
and prosperity. Indeed it may be that the golden
opportunity has already passed, but the opportunity
of undaunted courage, of wide vision,
of pervasive and matured intelligence, of unfaltering
self-sacrifice, yet remains; and its call
must some day be heard for its tones will be
more appealing and tragic than the clang of a
fire-bell in the night.