Newspaper Page Text
January 31, 1912 1 THE
Editorial i
"The longer the spoke, the greater tho tire,"
was the striking way in which a Sunday school
speaker lately put a very familiar matter. Those
who are making addresses, and sometimes the
preachers in the pulpits, would do well to take
the hint.
It is not easy to obey the Bible injunction as to
"hilarious" giving. The only way to make it
easy is to practice a great deal. Constant repetition
of a difficult but possible feat so adjusts
fhp faenltips. wlipt.her nhvsioal mpntnl or moral
to the task to be performed that the effort soon
looses its arduousness. And, back of the repetition.
a loving heart will oil the joints and make
them work without creaking.
It is to be regretted that, so far as reports
come to us. there is no wide-spread, concerted
effort to compass the Foreign Mission Debt
problem. Is it not time for something very active
and very positive to be donet We are within
less than two and a half months of the end of
the esslesiastical vear with nrobablv not more
than twenty-five thousand dollars secured on
the church's obligation of one hundred and
twenty-one thousand. Does the church wish to
cover the debt by a great retrograde movement,
the closing of missions, the withdrawal of missionaries?
A suggestive sketch was given some time ago of
the labors of Rev. Mr. Carnahan, of thp Presbyterian
Church U. S. A. He was honorably retired
by the Presbytery of Arkansas after a
ministry of forty-five years. He had been pastor
of one church for forty-one years and supplied
several others in connection with it. To supply
these churches he had 'traveled on horseback or
in a buggy more than 100,000 miles, had preached
more than 5,000 times, had lived in his own
house thirty-six years, had paid his own traveling
expenses and never had but one month's
vacation. He had labored on an average salary
of 300 dollars a year, and at the rate of 500 dollars
a year 8,000 dollars would still be due him.
His chief regret is that he has not done more for
the honor of his Lord and says that he conld not
have done what he has bnt for the unfailing helpfulness
of his wife to whom he has been married
forty-nine years. There is a rare opportunity
for friends far and near to eelebrate a golden
wedding.
The Protestants in Ireland are confronted
with a peril which they are preparing to resist
to the utmost and against which they are making
extraordinary demonstrations. Huge massmeetines
are being held and resolutions adopted
which indicate their apprehension of disaster
and their indomitable pnrpose to avert it. The
impending peril is no less than the parliament
bill which proposes handing over the civil and
ration mm liberties nf Trish Protestnnts to the.
tender mercies of the pope. The great majority
of the voters of Ireland are Roman Catholics,
who have always been controlled politically
by the priests and always will be. Bnt the intelligent.
prosperons and responsible elements of
its population are Protestant, who in case of
. Home Rule for Ireland wonld bear the burdens
of taxation, wonld be compelled to support
Catholic institntions with state revenues and
wonld be excluded from authority in the affairs
of the state. Portions of the secular press in
America are ridiculing the action of Ulster and
other Protestant Irishmen in resisting to the utmost
the passage of the parliament bill providing
fpr Irish Home Rule, which they know means
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S<
Notes and
Rome Rule. Certain daily papers sneer at the
protests and appeals of Ulstermen, well knowing
that Ulstermen are of the very flower of the
British nation. Presbyterianism in America very
largely owes its strength and influence to the
courage and conviction of the forefathers of
these same Ulstermen who are now desperately
resisting the government's policy to hand them
over to Rome rule. These same dailies may already
know something of what it is to be subject
to the dictates of Romish principalities and
powers.
Here is a statement from the "Journal and
Messenger" that ought to fit all standardgauge
Presbyterians snugly. It would bf well
for others who are broad-gauge or narrowgauge
according to grade, to try to adjust
themselves to it. And then there are others
who don't recognize any gauge at all, but believe
in the go-as-you-please highway, that
might acquire symmetry and stability by giving
it their attention: "The cornerstone of the
Calvinistic edifice is the absolute sovereignty
of God. Had Calvin all his life taught nothing
else, the Church would nevertheless be forever
indebted to him for the irresistible logic and
the unconquerable zeal with which he upheld
this truth which, next to the very existence of
God, is the fundamental doctrine of the Christian
religion."
The wide circle of friends of "Washington
and Lee University are to be congratulated
on the election of Dr. Henry Louis Smith to
the presidency of that institution as successor
to Dr. George H. Denny. Dr. Smith is the
well-known president of Davidson College
where, during his service of ten years, he has
achieved signal success in developing the resources
and increasing the patronage of that
splendid institution. President Smith is a member
of a North Carolina family that has furnished
to the Church and State and other states
an honorable group of ministers and teachers.
Of these Dr. C. Alphonso is Professor of
Literature in the University of Virginia; Dr.
Egbert W. is Secretary of Foreign Missions in
the Southern Presbyterian Church, and Rev.
Hay Watson is a minister in Little Rock, Ark.
President Smith is a graduate of Davidson College
and received the degree of LL. D. from the
University of North Carolina. Davidson is one
of the most meritorious and influential educational
institutions in the South, but the friends
of Washington and Lee hope he will decide
that their great historic university offers a
still wider field for usefulness and has a substantial
claim on his persistent energy, his
talent, experience and exceptional equipment
for the responsible service to which he is called.
A somewhat extensive experience on the part
of those who are making special effort just now
to secure special contributions for the Debt Fund
of our Foreign Missions Committee, shows very
clearly and very practically that the attitude of
the pastor has a great deal to do with the success
of the work. "Where the pastor is ready to
co-operate, not necessarily by taking personal
part in the work, by opening the way from his
pulpit and letting the people know that the call
is that of the church, the workers meet with fine
success. It is only as the entire church grasps
the fact that this is a special work for all, and
appealing to every person in it, that the great
obligation under which the churoh rests ean be
met.
N *
)UTH (105) 9
Comments
THE CHATANOOGA CONVENTION.
One purpose of the Chattanooga Convention,
in connection with the Laymen's Movement for
Foreign Missions, is to help to solve some of the
problems of our executive agencies in the work.
Perhaps the greatest problem just now, certainly
the one which is causing the greatest anxiety, is
that of the Foreign Missions debt. The Convention
will do well to do its finest and best on this.
If it will find some way of relieving the situation
it will confer an obligation upon the church at
laree which the latter will nevpr bp nblp ndp
quately to thank it for. It will give rest to the
minds of our devoted workers, at home and
abroad. It will take away from the church at
large a certain stigma which is upon it as the
result of the presence of such a debt. It will
clear the way for larger liberality and fewer excuses
on the part of those who are too ready to
grasp and use any supposed reason for not doing
their duty.
There is one special reason which should move
the Convention to handle this problem vigorously.
It is the fact that the missionary work did
not receive last year a very large sum which was
pledged to it, and these pledges were many of
them made through the Laymen's Movement.
It is to be remembered, of course, that the
churches were the responsible ones, and that
they should be looked to in the matter, and that
npon them rests the discredit of the failure to
do all that they promised. The Laymen's Movement
was the agent, however, to a large extent,
in this matter, and has it within its power to do
more perhaps than any others towards pressing
these churches to the mark which was sec. The
total amount of special pledges last year was
above three hundred thousand dollars. There
was lacking, according to the report of the
Foreign Missions Committee of our church the
great sum of more than one hundred and forty
thousand dollars of the amount pledged. Were
this in hand the church could easily meet her
obligations and have a good surplus left.
We helieve that the zeal and wisdom of the
brethren gathered at Chattanooga can handle
this problem and show a way to its solution,
W11Vi ttiA 1 nrcrn nnm}io? nP rtVinon +V> n t- m!11 V?
.. v?v ^v/ winwva wl V'imii unr.i Hint wiii ur
represented. with the enthnsiasm which will
come from the gathering and fellowship of minds
and hearts knit together by snch a great canse as
that which it will he its pnrpose to fnrther, we
are snre that a way ont of onr diffienlties will
he shown and that the Chattanooga Convention
will jnstify itaelf to any who may donht its valne
and importance. The problem is large enongh to
engage the mast serions attention, and no more
vital one will be before the meeting.
It, is very gratifying to ns. and we are snre it
will he the same to the entire chnrch. to learn
that the "Missionary Snrvev" is making rapid
progress in seenring snhserintions and a wide circulation.
Dnring December over 2.500 names
were added to its mailing list. The character of
the magazine makes it thoronghlv worthy of the
largest patronage on the part of the chnrch. A
cony should he in every family. The information
which it gives as to the activities of the
ehnrch is snch as can be had nowhere else, and
is of a natnre to interest and stimnlate every one
who reads it. Both the intelligence end the loyaltv
of onr ehnreh shonld see to it that the vainable
monthly is read hv all onr people. The
nrice is so low. in clnbs of five or more onlv
flftv cents a year, that none need feel that it is
nnt of his reach. In addition, the "Richmond
Committee offered special preminms. of considerable
valne for clnbs.