Newspaper Page Text
Mar?h 27, 1912. J T H ?
Editorial
Provisions for convenience and luxury in the
externals of worship are often productive of religious
torport and spiritual ancemia. So debilitated
does the spiritual organism become that
slight weather variations become insurmountable
barriers to attendance on worship and a few
minutes over-time in the length of the minister'**
discourse becomes a weariness to the flesh. If
the eyes of any such persons chance to fall on
these lines let them gird up the loins of their
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minus, uk suuer niiu renew rneir vows as tney
read this sketch of one of the trophies of mountain
mission work in Kentucky as given in The
Presbj/tcrian Visitor: There is now enrolled in
the Bible class of the Jackson Sunday school a
young man who was (among a number of others"i
awarded on Sunday last the gold button for perfect
annual attendance for the third year. This
young man lived ten miles in the country and
walked daily to his work two miles each way, or
twenty-four miles a week. This did not prevent
his walking the ten miles through mud or snow
or sun, as the case might be, and being promptly
in attendance at Sunday school every Sunday
during tho?e three years. When on Sunday
night three young people were received into the
church on profession of their faith in Christ,
it was whispered to the writer that two of these
came as the direct product of the faith and zeal
of this young man, under the blessing of God;
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agency before.
Some surprising figures are quoted by The
Presbyterian in connection with an account of an
evangelical institute lately held at Atlantic City.
Tn the institute forty-five Presbyteries included
in four Synods were represented. Personal
evangelism was the principal theme of discussion.
The General Assembly's Stated Clerk, Dr.
Roberts, called attention to the serious fact that
last year about tbirtv-six per cent, of the Assemblv'?
churches had failed to report a single accession
to membership on profession of faith. Dr.
Fulton, of Philadelphia, was reported as saying
that in the last five years, the Presbyterian
Church (IT. S. A.) has lost, through backsliding
alone 243.000 members. It was observed that
similar conditions exist in other denominations
and other countries. In accounting for these
conditions The Presbyterian mentions Reveral of
the more prominent causes. One of these is " Insidious
Unbelief." It is noted that the enemies
of evangelical religion have been persistent for
some years pa?t in propagating views which are
dishonoring to God, to his Son, his Spirit and his
Word. "Inflated methods" are believed to account
in part for the defection. Upon this topic
the remark is made. "The demand for figures
affords great temptation to superficiality. The
estimating of spiritual results by commercial
measure is a source of much evil." ""Work by
Proxy" is assigned as a tbird cause of spurious
growth. Parents depend on teachers to train
their children, teachers shift the responsibility
to officers of the church and pastors. These
muiov professional eva nee lists ana expert organizers
and so the working force is reduced to a
minimum. Readers are exhorted to he true to
God's Word, faithful to their trust and to rely
on the srraee of God and prosperity will come to
Zion. If we may jndflre from current pulpit utterances
and the expressed sentiments of evangelical
naners there is an intensifying conviction
of the necessity for a vast volume of universal
and pemetual m%ver far a heaven-sent endowment
and control of the'wbole Church in all its
interests and activities.
This is an age of large gifts to philanthropic
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE Si
Notes and
enterprises. If we do not scrutinize too closely
the objects for which these gifts are bfestowed we
might forecast a great moral and social uplift
of the people. It may be found ultimately,
however, that a major portion of the big gifts are
for establishing and maintaining "foundations"
whose chief value will consist, in snnnnrtincr U?1
army of secretaries, treasurers, chairmen, clerks,
agents and other consumers who have long been in
search of a solid "foundation." The Chicago
Tribune takes note of the large gifts to benevolence
and quotes the following figures, representing
the large sums of money donated during the
years 1911: It finds that the charitable and
philanthropic gifts of a thousand dollars and
upward which have been reported in the papers
amount to over $126,000,000. Mr. Carnegie
heads the list with $40,000,000, but Mr. Rockefeller's
total so far as the public knows is only
a little over a million. Of the $126,000,000, $20,000,000
have been given by women. It appears
that education has received $62,000,000; charity
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public improvements, $10,000,000, and public
libraries, $2,000,000.
The Presbyterian Ministers' Association of
Washington City has protested to the Judiciary
Committee of the United States House of Representatives
against a bill in Congress which
proposes to appoint a Columbus Day as a national
holiday. One reason assigned fer this protest
is, "The demand for this holiday issues only
from a very limited number of our people and
the e being connected with one certain ecclesiasticism,
we believe it to be a covert attempt to
secure a future saints' day as a national holiday,
and thereby establish a legislative and perman
fin recognition or mis ecciesiastici'm in our national
life." Many of the states have, under
Romish influence, appointed a Columbus Day
holiday. An attempt has recently been made to
enact such a law in the State of Washington.
In opposing the effort, a prominent pastor of
Spokane published certain statements affirming
the grossly immoral character of Columbus.
Having been challenged by a priest to produce
his evidence the pastor quoted from a volupie by
Justin Winsor, Librarian of Harvard University,
and one by Charles Kendall Adams, President of
the University of Wisconsin, in which the charges
were fully sustained by these high authorities
that Columbus "was little better than a
pirate," was "a wife-deserter," "a kidnapper,"
"a slave-trader," "a tyrant," "a man of
boundless cupidity" and of even worse immorality.
It would be useless to recall these
humiliating facts of history but for the other
fact that the Romanists have a well organized
scheme to coerce Congress into making "a future
saints' day a national holiday."
THE BEST INVESTMENT.
Godliness has promise of the life that now is.
So says the word of God and so answers the
experience of mankind. It conduces to peacefulness
of mind and heart, which underlies all successful
effort. It induces those on all ties which
produce desirable results, industry, temperance,
economy, diligence, patience, liberality. It attracts
companionship of the best grade, friendship.
wholesome social relations. It tends
towards good habits, reasonable hours, wholesome
conduct and food, good health. It makes
one rest at reasonable times. It develops wearing
qualities. *When four men brought a helpless
friend to Christ and asked his healing, the Lord
first forgave the man's sins and then healed his
body. There was a significance in the order of
)UTH (Wil 9
Comments
the Lord's acts. The soul is the more important.
Aud soul healing always looks towards physical
healing. Christian people are the healthiest and
most successful people in the world, and they
ought to be so. There's reason for it.
NOTES IN PASSING.
BY BERT.
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is,
Liberty, there is liberty." The eagle may have
full liberty to walk about on the
ground; there may not be any hopes or chains
fastened to him, but if he cannot rise into the
higher atmosphere we know he is in a cage and a
prisoner. The cage may be a very large one, but
it is a cage. The Spirit of the Lord takes away
all the ropes and chains which bind the soul to
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vmivi* mnb ji inaj oaudij iw iitiiurm luii&mgs to
ascend. The weights and the sins which so
easily beset us can be cut away only by the
Spirit of the Lord. A man may seem to go with
perfect naturalness into excess of sin, but so long
rs one spark of conscience is left to him he knows
he is under constraint. In sinning he is under
powerful constraint, and he knows and deplores
his bondage. No man who sins is free.
Unrest is the sign of imperfection.
Unrest. And not imperfection simply, but conscious
imperfection striving to get
away from itself Unrest is a sign of awakening.
All over the world to-day may be written the
word Unrest. This is not a condition peculiar
to our age. If we had the life history of all nations
from the earliest antiquity we would find
the same thing. Unrest is the penalty we pay
when we depart from God. This restlessness is
oppressive with its half-concealed sense of guilt.
I say half-concealed, because only the Christian
observer of the times and conditions knows the
secret of it. The great seething majority who
are in the vortex do not know that sin is the
cause of it all. At the same time it is full of
hope because it tells us that we are not at ease
in our hearts, and therefore it will bring some of
the more thoughtful to a painstaking study of
the causes.
lie will be the benefactor of his times who is
most able to persuade the uneasy of the reality
and ability of him who said: "Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will
give you Rest." Matthew Henry says: "The
way of duty is the way of rest." And Augustine
says: "Thou hast made us for thyself and our
heart is restless until it rests in thee." Goethe
puts it this way:
"Rest is not quitting the busy career;
Rest is the fitting of self to its sphere:
'Tis the brook's motion clear without strife.
Fleeting to ocean, after its life.
'Tis loving and serving the highest and best;
'Tis onward and upward, and that is true rest.
"As one that serves." Christ came
8erring, not to be ministered unto, but to minister,
and to give his life a ransom for
many." "If any man serve me, him will the
Father honor." Who is the world's master?
The world's servant, no other. Many arft willing
to serve if they are permitted to choose their own
field. Thousands are* willing to lead a charge
where one is willing to stand at his lonely post in
the cold and darkness of a winter's night.
Campbell Morgan savs: "So manv are rpndv to
spread a banquet and slow to give a eup of cold 1
water."
Exaggeration is one of the most common besetting
sins. _