Newspaper Page Text
February 21, 1912 ]
The Assembly's Jw
By Her. A. M. Fraser, D. D., 1
"The ability with which this plan has
been wrought out, the relief it offers
from a recognized evil, and the farreaching
effect of such a change, demand
for it the highest respect and
the most careful consideration. If It Is
to be adopted, every care should be
given to the details, to Insure its satisfactory
operation. In this spirit of
appreciation, the following suggestions
are made:
"1. The amendment contains no provision
for filling a vacancy. The
Synods are to nominate quadrennially.
Slinnosft that within ftio tnnr.roor
period, a member of the commission
dies, or resigns, or removes to the
bounds of another Synod, or that in any
other way a vacancy should occur,
would the Assembly or the Synod fill
the vacancy? Would it not be better for
the law to say explicitly how the vacancy
Bhould be filled? Now, if instead
of the Synod's nominating one minister
and one elder, it were empowered
to nominate several men and commend
them to the Assembly as eligible
for appointment, that might be a good
solution of the problem. In the same
way alternates, who are overlooked in
the amendment might be provided for.
"2. If each Synod nominates only
one minister and one ruling elder, the
Assembly has no opt'on as to the appointment.
It must accept the men
nominated, and the commission ceases
to be a commission of the Assembly
end becomes a commission of tbe federated
Synods. The fact that the
Synods are to pay the traveling expenses
of these representatives emphasizes
the fact that the commission Is
the servant of the Synods. The mere
formality of the Assembly's "comm'sslonlng"
and "charging" the Tribunal
does not make It In any real sense the
organ of the Assembly. The Assembly
has no choice as to the personel of
the commission and no choice as to referring
the cases to It. except when
doctrine Is Involved. Now the appeal
from the lower court Is to the Assembly,
and the Assembly should either try the
case Itself or refer It to a commission
that Is an organ of Its own. This difficulty
might also be obviated by allowing
the Synods to nominate a number
of ellglbles.
"3. Would It not be better not to
require the unconditional attendance of
the tribunal upon all the meetlngB of
the Assembly, but let that attendance
depend on whether there Is business for
It or not? If there are no judicial
cases to come before an Assembly, why
require the members of the tribunal to
waste time and money In attending?
This difficulty might be met by requiring
clerks of Synods to notify the
Stated Clerk of the Assembly not later
than fourteen davs before the Assembly
meets of all Judlc'al business to come
before that body, and by requiring the
Stated Clerk of the Assembly to give
due notice to the members of the Judicial
commission.
*4. After all, we cannot escape the
conclusion that the proposed judicial
tribunal would be "the addition of another
court or. tribunal to our present
series of graded courts."
The ad Interim committee, which reported
the plan, acted In accordance
with the Assembly's Instructions In
malting it sucn. it naa Deen instructed
by the Assembly "to prepare and submit
a plan for the erection of a separate
tribunal for the hearing of Judicial
cases." and It did so. The tribunal Is
a court, and yet It Is neither 8easion,
Presbytery. Svnod nor Assembly. It
la not the organ of any of these, but
represents a federation of 8ynods The
THE PRESBYTERI
dicial Commission.
In Union Seminary Magazine.
only connection of the Assembly with
the cases referred to the commission is
that of passing on the regularity of
them and "commissioning" and "charging"
the tribunal. The members of the
commission are not members of the Assembly,
unless by coincidence. These
members are not even chosen by the
Assembly. The commission need not
report to the Assembly which referred
the cases to them, and it is not clear
that when a report 1b submitted, the
Assembly has any discretion as to accepting
and recording the decision. If
then it be a court, and not one of the
four existing courts, nor the organ of
any one of them, it must be "another
court." It is not here contended that
the Church has no r'gbt to erect "another
court." That is the Assembly^
own postulate. A new court introduced
between any two of the existing courts,
or in the line of extension of the
graded system to a still higher tribunal,
such as a Federal or Ecumenical
Council, would be clearly logical. Nor
is the writer prepared to affirm that
it would be inconsistent with the
geniuB of our system, if the Church
were to erect two co-ordinate supreme
juridlcatories, provided the business as.
signed to each were clearly defined.
"R Rn*. 1"
v. nuj i ame an luetic questions?
If the object In view In advocating
this judicial tribunal Is to
save time and to Insure more satisfactory
treatment of judical cases, are
there not simpler ways of reaching the
same results?
"(a) Suppose that Instead of assembling
another court to try these cases,
the Assembly make up Its mind to protract
Its own sessions long enough to
try cases Itself. That would save the
Synods the expense of sending twentyeight
additional commissioners to the
place of meeting, and it might really be
easier for the church entertaining the
Assembly to entertain the whole body
a few days longer In the homes already
provided than to provide additional
homes for the twenty-eight
members of the tribunal, (b) Or If
that plan does not commend Itself, why
not let the Assembly appoint a commission
from its own membership with
the understanding that it is not to sit
wh'le the Assembly is In executive session.
Some meetings might be held in
the recesses of the Assembly and some
while popular meetings occupy the
body. Some cases are short and could
be disposed of with all proper seriousness
before the Assembly adjourns.
".ror longer cases, let the commission
protract its sessions after adjournment
and report to the next Assembly
Just as the pending amendment provides.
That would require some slight
changes in the wording of the book.
This last plan would require the community
to entertain twenty-eight men
for a somewhat longer period than It
keeps the whole Assembly, but that
would be no greater tax than the entertaining
of the same number of additional
men while the Assembly was In session."
Barnabas and Paul were not the first
or the last of the friends whose quality
has been tested by a change In
there relative Btandlng in the esteem of
their fellow men. Among the credentials
of a man chosen of God and worthy
of the name of friend Is this abil
lty to put the cause he loves above himself.
Trusting In Christ gives the worst
man access to the court of the King,
eternal and Immortal.
AN OF THE SOUTH
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND
STATE IN INDIAN SCHOOLS.
An order has been Issued by the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs directing
that sectarian garb and insignia be not
used by teachers In Federal schools.
Tbe wisdom of this course is manifest.
The Indian Department appears to have
come to the conclusion that there ought
to be a clean-cut line of cleavage between
church and state. The practice
against which the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs has made h's ruling, has
been characterized as un-American in
view of the fact that children educated
under the care of instructors robed In
religious insignia cannot receive the'r
education in tnat complete liberty of
mind and freedom from church restraint,
the lack of which has wrought
untold harm in foreign countries.
That Buch liberty of thought and
conscience is one of the cherished possession
of every free country Is recognized
In this action of the Indian Department
In prohibiting a display of
church Insignia In Indian schools calculated
to bias In a particular direction,
the Impressionable minds of young
children. A glaring evasion has been
made of the principles of American government,
which purposes that Instruction
in Federal schools should not be
colored by religious Influence. The
evasion has been effected by a plan
which allows the renting of buildings
for school purposes by the Government
from sectarian institutions. Such
bu'ldings can be furnished bv religious
denominations as a part of their establishments.
The corns of employees
transferred with the buildings to Government
control are not required to
submit to the Civil Service examination.
hut are "blanketed In" pract'cally
without qualification. These employees
In full religious garb then take the
place of the public teacher and the
effect on the children receiving Instruction
from them is pract'cally to proselvte
them to the particular denomination
which hannens to have Jurisdiction
over the school.
The correspondence In the case is as
follows:
On the twenty-seventh of January the
following order was issued by Robert
G. Valentine, Commissioner of Indian
Affairs, Department of the Interior,
Washington, D. C.:
"To Superintendents in charge of Indian
Schools:
"In accordance with that essential
principle in our national life?the separation
of church and state?as applied
by me to the Indian Service,
which as to ceremonies and exercises is
now being enforced under the existing
religiouB regulations, I find it necessary
to issue this order supplementary
to these regulations, to cover the use
at those exercises and at other times,
of insignia and garb as used by various
denominations. At exercises of any
partlcular denomination there is, of
course, no restriction in this respect,
but at the general tissembly exercises
and in the public school rooms, or on
the grounds when on duty, insignia or
garb has no justification.
In Government schools all insignia of
any denomination must be removed
from all public rooms, and members of
any denomination wearing distinctive
garb should leave such garb off while
engaged at lay duties as Government
employees. If any case exists where
such an employee cannot conscientious,
ly do this, he will be given a reasonable
time, not to extend, however, beyond
the opening of the next school
year after the date of this order, to
make arrangements for employment
elsewhere than in Federal Indian
Schools."
When this came to the knowledge of
the Home Missions Council the follow
- *
(185) 17
ing telegram was sent to the President,
under date of February 1st:
"The President,
The White House,
Washington, D. C.
The action of the Honorable Commissioner
of Indian Affairs lBsued January
twenty-seventh, relative to sectarian
in8ign;a and garb In Federal Indian
schools is to our minds so manifestly
American in spirit, Judicial and
righteous, that we heartily approve and
commend It. We did not know that
such an order was in preparation. But
we now express our commendation and
ask that nothing be permitted to weaken
Its force. We desire our representatives
to have a conference with you
if you And opportunity and occasion
for this.
^signed) "Charles L?. Thompson,
"President."
Th's telegram was acknowledged
under date of February second, by the
Secretary to the President, as follows:
"Your telegram of February 1st has
been received and brought to the attention
of the President."
Without further communication with
the Home Mission Council and allowing
no opportunity for conference, the
President wrote to Secretary Fisher, of
the Department of the Interior, a letter
under date of February 2nd, practically
revoking the order. The concluding
paragraph In the President's
letter to Secretary Fisher Is as follows:
"The Commissioner's order almost
necessarily amounts to a discharge
from the Federal service of those who
have entered It. This should not be
done without a careful consideration of
all phases of the matter without giving
the persons directly affected an opportunity
to be heard. As the order
would not In any event take effect until
the beginning of the next school
year, I direct that It be revoked and
the action by the Commissioner of Ind'an
Affairs in respect thereto be suspended
until such time as will permit
a full hearing to be given to all parties
In Interest and a conclusion be reached
In resnect to the matter after full deliberation."
The Home Missions Council, consisting
of twenty-four organizations doing
work throughout the United States and
its dependencies, at a meeting of its
Executive Committee on February 5th,
telegraphed Its profound regret that the
President had revoked the order of the
Ind'an Commissioner without affording
the opportunity for conference which
was asked for the Council in Dr.
Thompson's telegram.
The Commissioner's action should receive
the hearty support of all Protestant
denominations and cannot be
reasonably objected to by those others
whom It effects, in view of its Impart!
ality and disinterested justice, which
treats all alike, according no favoritism
to any. It Is In full accord with
American Ideas and advanced thought
and as such cannot fall of public approbation.
QUIET WORKERS.
Christ's lowly, quiet workers unconsciously
bless the world. They come
out every morning from the presence of
God, and go to their business or their
household work. And all day long they
toll, they drop gentle words frota their
Hps, and scatter little seeds of kindness
about them, and to-morrow flowers
of God sprlne un In the dustv strata
of earth, and along the hard path of
toll on which their feet tread. More
than once, In the Scriptures, the lives
of God's people In the world are compered
In their Influence to the dew. It
falls silently and Imperceptibly. It
maVes no noise; no one hears It dropping,
but It covers the leaves with clusters
of pearls.?Ex.