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February 28, 1912 1 THE
IMPRESSIONS OF THE CONVENTION.
(Continued from Page 1.)
would be invidious to particularize.
Among the auditors there was also & large representation
of men of ability. It was a representative
gathering of the men of the Church, including many
of the most faithful and energetic workers?(ministerial,
presbyterial. diaconal, and unofficial.
IV. The Speaker's fourth impression of the Convention
was that it was a convention planned: (1) to get
into the body, and ultimately into the church, more
knowledge of Missions and more love for Missions;
(2) to get from the church more pmying for Missions,
more money for Missions, more men for Missions and
more manhood for Missions.
V. The Speaker's fifth impression of the Convention
was that it Has a convention effectively planned
to accomplish these ends.
It was planned so as to give information of value
to the great body of auditors, on Latin America, on
China, on Korea, on Africa, and other regions, and to
give this information with such a passion for the
application of the information in the evangelizing of
these territories that it can not but quicken the
church to nobler efforts than it haB been making.
It was so planned as to develop the love for Missions.
Mr. Speer'B address on the "Impact of
Protestantism on Latin America," in bringing out,
even though his points were not new to many in his
audience, the contrast between the paganized Romish
church there and the evangelical religion, filled the
heart with yearning to give to these DeoDles the
simple and pure religion of the New Testament So
Mr. Hudson's talk on the abounding opportunities in
China, Mr. Preston's picture of the conditions In
Korea, and Mr. Motte Martin's crystalizatlon of the
situation in the Congo, served to deepen one's enthusiasm
for the conquest of the world for Christ.
'Dr. Dobyns' talk on "The Place of the Pulpit in Missionary
Education," was finely adapted to stir the
ministers present and develop their efficiency in getting
more prayers for missions, more money for
missions, more men for missions, and more manhood
for missions. Still other addresses might have
been mentioned with almost equal propriety; and
two might have been referred to with more propriety,
viz.: two addresses by Mr. Doughty?one on "Prayer
and Missions" and the other on "An Adequate Propaganda
on Stewardship, an Essential Feature of Missionary
Education."
YI. The Speaker's sixth impression of the Convention
was that it was a convention carried through
according to its plan.
It was not planned to be a deliberate assembly,
apparently. It was planned to be a gathering In
which the chief part of the talking should be done
iby carefully selected platform speakers, all in substantial
accord as to the ends to be achieved. On the
way to the Convention a remark was made in our
hearing that unless the subject of "the Debt" should
be handled by "the speakers" aright, a fight would
be forced on the Convention, but not a word was
heard from the floor in response to a handling of
that subject, by one honored speaker, that may have
seemed to some ad captandum and plausible rather
than satisfactory. There was no opportunity for opposition
had it wished to show its front. The men
on the floor were not Invited to Bpeak, except, in the
later meetings, to say what they thought they personally
ought to do in virtue of the truths presented;
to say whether they would willingly see their sons
on the foreign field and engaged in missionary work;
tr\ fiov hnnr mn/>K >law vwamM -J -----
v-w n \J\* IU giro wBttiu nupyuijug
a missionary. There was ample opportunity given
at the last meet'ng for gentlemen to say, or to write
what they would give, and there were some heartstirring
speeches from the floor of this sort. One
man said. I will give a hundred dollars toward sending
these volunteers to Africa. Soon he said, I will
give a hundred a year for three years. Another said,
'"I will give a hundred a year for five years." Another
said, "I will carry a missionary for
lire." Anotner said, "I am supporting missionaries
in two or three different quarters now, but I
will support one of these for Africa." Another,
known to be financing a whole station with ten workers
soon to be planted in Korea, said, "I will give
$6,000 down toward sending out the volunteers for
Africa, or $1,000 a year in their support as long as
I live." These are but a few of the giving speeches.
No more heart-stirring speeches were made at the
Convention, unless it was the unspoken speeches of
the volunteers mounting the platform, or of the
hundreds of fathers rising to indicate that they would
willingly eee their sons devote themselves to mission
work on the foreign field. The masters of the
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S<
Convention were very willing to bear such speeches
a? thqoe from the floor.
The maBters of the Convention bad drawn out, too,
some good oriel speeches in response to the question,
"What do you think you personally ought to do
in view of the truths which you have heard from the
platform?" One man Baid, "Let us every one go home
and resolve that his church shall support a missionary."
Another said, "I am resolved henceforth
to put the emphasis on the money that goes out of
my congregation Instead of that which stays in it."
Another said, "I am resolved to practice what I
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f<. nuuiuci ouiU| 1 Kill (11 ?. V Uie 1XJIU Ol
the harvest to send forth laborers out of my church."
Another said. "I decide here and now that I will give
per cent, of my income to the mission cause."
Another said, "I am resolved to go out and do more
evangelistic work." Another said, "I am looking to
the Lord for strength to give my children to the
work." Another, said, "1 am resolved to make money
for God." Another said, "I will cultivate a knowledge
of missions." Another said, "I will get a man
to preach for me on the foreign field." Another said,
"I have given one son to the foreign work. Now,
I am praying for grace to give another." Another, "I
am resolved to make my church a four dollar per
member church for foreign missions."
The platform encouraged brief speeches of the
kind described in two of the sessions. They were all
very effective for the purpose planned.
VIE. The Speaker's seventh Impression of the Convention
was that It was a costly, educative, stimulative
and money raising convention.
me traveling expenses and hotel bills of these
more than fifteen hundred conventioners must have
amounted to something not far short of $45,000. The
earnings of the men for four days, at the low rate
of three dollars a day, would amount to $18,000.
These two items put the expense of the convention
above $63,000. Taking a moBt conservative view, the
cost of the education and of the money raised and to
be hereafter raised through the influence of the Convention,
may well seem to cost a good deal.
But, it is to be remembered that education is always
costly; and well it may be maintained that if
the Church will not adequately educate itself by less
cost'y means then it should he educated by more
costly means. God has shown in history that he was
pleased to have peoples educate themselves by costly
means when they would not use others. He sent
young Europe on the Crusades to be educated, though
it cost in gold more than man can numlber and though
it cost seas of blood. Let us not find too much fault
with the Convention because it was costly.
VIII. The Speaker's eighth Impression of the Convention
was that it irave exuresslnn to snm# nnhnnn*
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utterances.
Mr. Speer, in his great address on the "Impact of
Protestantism on Latin America," made concessions
about the Romanism of this country, fitted to handi.
cap, so far as received, Protestantism in its obligatory
fight against Rome in this country. No doubt the
Church of Rome here appears very much better than
in South America; but that superior character is due
to causes external to the Romish system.
One of our own men, who had made a capital talk
on his assigned topic, afterwards, when urging the
financing of the Laymen's Movement for the next
three years, in an off moment, compared this convention
for inspirational value to our Assembly's,
greatly to the discredit of the Assemblies. That
ought not to have been done. He helps to make the
character of every Assembly he sits in, of every General
Assembly, whether he sits in it or not.
Another brother, after bringing out a practical
position which seemed entirely orthodox, about the
relation of the benevolence committee to the diaconate,
said that he did not know whether the theologians
would count his position orthodox, (but that if
they did not he did not care what the theologians
thought?a needless fling at some persons rather
vaguely referred to under the title theologians.
There was at least one reference to the insufficiency
of the Seminary course on missions of a score
of years ago that ought not have been made without
speaking of the Seminary as a nursery of missionary
zeal even then. The Laymen's Movement Itself is but
a billow on the incoming sea of missionary endeavor.
It is an effect as well as a cause. And
amongst its causes will have to be written seal
fostered In pious homes, in pious circleB, like those
of NorthrielA and Keswick (notwithstanding certain
faults at Keswick), and in our staid old Seminaries.
Dr. Hemphill, speaking later, did not claim too much
for the Seminary in behalf of missions, albeit some
may have thought so.
There was a disposition on the part of certain
)UTH (301) 11
speakers to us? phrases that appeared to savor of too
large a senBe of human ability to achieve on the mlesion
field. "We can take Korea If we will." "We
can take the Congo if we will." There was a disposition
to magnify unduly the might of faith, of
prayer, and of passionless, self-sacrificing obedience.
There was in some of the talks not a sufficiently expiessed
lecognition of the Sovereignty of the God of
saving grace. One felt like crying for some one to
cuiuud us??hi.t ? aui may plant, and Apolios water,
but that God must give the increase. Yet this maybe
a hyper-criticism; for the prayers were humble,
and freighted with a sense of man's incompetency to
do the task- Perh?na It Id ?I>I? ?- ?'
_ IS Uui; ion wu leuioiuuer
that no man was setting forth a rounded creed in
his crowded speech.
But after all, these points criticized are but specks
on a white surface, the more noticeable, perhaps,
because of the very whiteness of the surface.
LX. The Speaker's ninth impression of the Convention
was that it was a less wrorthy organ for the
advocacy of the mission cause than every one of onr
General Assemblies should be made.
When this point was privately made to one of the
advocates of the Convention, he replied that, "Our
resbyteries send so many poor men to the Assemblies,
send men without any special fltneBS for the
work that the Assemblies ought to do, that we can't
expect them to be inspirational." But our Presbyteries
should select men for the service to be rendered
and not for other reasons. When the point was
also privately made that our Assemblies ought to
develop the inspirational feature, that they ought to
consider one of their greatest functions that of
spiritually enlightening, quickening and stimulating,
another brother of fine spirit, said, "If they only
would then we would want to see the Laymen's Movement
loose itself in the Assembly's work.'
One of the deepest impressions brought back from
the Assembly?an impression carried for yearB and
hammered on In the class-room for years?an impression
not new therefore, but quickened by the
Convention, was of an obligation on the part of the
vuurcn 10 give to our Assemblies a developed inspirational,
educational and stimulative feature. Dr.
Thornwell used to deplore the turning our church
courts into auditing committees, in the time of the
old Boards. He used to fight against it. The fight
should be kept up. The courts, Presbyteries, Synods,
and Assemblies, should endeavor to become great
spiritual agencies. Less time should be given to
fights over mere points of order. Less time to mere
routine business, not by shifting such business, but
by a more energetic push through it. More time
must be given to deepening the spirituality, informing
and quickening the zeal of the Church in the
execution of its divinely imposed work.
Let every Assembly emphasize this feature of its
history, give at least two whole evenings and the
intervening day to the consideration of the great
causes of the Church. Let the Assembly have a
committee to prepare the program of those two even
mgs ana tnat intervening day with as much care and
prayer as that exercised in the preparation of the
program of the Chattanooga Convention. Let speakers
be imported, if necessary, to make the exercises
properly effective. Let the period be known as the
laymen's meeting. Let the preachers, elders, deacons,
unofficial members of the Church at large be encouraged
to attend for those days. Let the emphasis
be upon the attendance in great numbers of those of
the more near-by Synods. Let the whole Church, as
the Assembly shifts from one quarter of the Church
to another in sucesslve years be affected by the
spiritual fire thus annually kindled in some quarters.
My brethren, you are going out before long into the
Church as her ministers. The obligation rests on you
to make of every Assembly something more helpful
to our Church than the Chattanooga Convention.
That was a great Convention. We wish you could,
every one, have been there. We trust that the day
will come when every Assembly will be as vivifying,
and wnen the zeal aroused will be guided by the
Ijord's own appointed organ?a court of his house.
People wonder that such crowds ran out to
3: 1 Tl?1 ' *
nec unruium r uney coming into IMew York wearing
a red hat. They must not forget that back
of culture and thought and intelligence there
is in the human kind an instinctive love for show
and masquerading. Then think of the value of
that hat! It is reported that it cost the venerable
man who wears it $25,000. If such a hat were
in & show window, would not throngs atop to
look at it!