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10 (396) . T H E P
HELPS THAT DO NOT HELP.
College boys know what frequent use is made
of translations of the classics. They have names
for them which are very familiar in the slang
of the campus and dormitory. And the professors
know who use them, almost every time. If
they cannot at once spot the offenders it takes
but a little time for the fact to develop of itself.
The student addicted to the unlawful helps begins
to deteriorate very soon. However brilliant
he may at first appear to be. he takes but a few
months to drop to the foot of the class in real
work. He loses his grip, lags behind, and after
awhile drops out altogether. He is ruined by the
use of the "helps" upon which he relied.
The preacher is jn precisely the same condition
who uses with free hand, or, in many cases, with
any hand at all, the ready helps that are to-day
so common. His deterioration comes before he
knows it. Men wl-er than himself detect the use
he is making of ready prepared homiletical material.
They see the gradually dacreasing power
of original investigation and thought, and the
lessening facility of natural and forceful expres
sion. They frequently ean trace the effort to the
source from which it comes and spot the very
books or books from which the plans and illustrations
and text-development are drawn.
The reflex effect of the use of such ready helps
is marked. Just as the college boy soon loses his
ability to do independent work, so with the
preacher who indulges too freely in the homiletic
helps that abound. He rapidly declines in
mental grasp and power, ceases to gather
strength at the fountain head, shows less and
less originality, loses the facility of adaptation,
and becomes a mere professional barely holding
on to his job. Ilis want of original thought and
personal method asserts itself more and more
and he becomes an absolute dullard, tiresome to
everybody, and capable of keeping us a pre
carious living only by constantly moving, to remain
at each new place only until he is found
out. Xo temptation to the young preacher is so
alluring and so fatal as that which offers to him
an easy way of preparing for his pulpit work.
We are moved to these remarks by the extensive
advertising of a new and much lauded work
now offered to the ready-help users. As though
there were not enough such works extant to ruin
hundreds of unresisting preachers, we are given
another, more comprehensive and attractive than
any before circulated, so it is claimed. If the
assertions concerning it are true, it is all the
more dangerous, for where others have slain
their thousands this may slay its ten thousands.
That such a work has some usefulness is not to
Kii rl on TP 5 4- ^ - ? * *
u^uicu. li it, is uuiiauneu aner tne minister
has properly studied his subject and developed
his text and prepared his sermon, with a view to
improvement here and there, it may not be amiss
to use it, but even then it must be with great
care and self-watchfulness. This is especially
true in the case of the young minister whose
habits have not yet become crystalized. There
may come a time in his life, later on, when he
may safely handle such a work and use it, but
that time will not be until after he has by years
of active intellectual work so developed his mind
and fixed his habits of thought that he is past
the danger of narrowing his powers and contracting
narrowing habits.
An invnrinhlfl ohopontniMoiiy. x
w. U1 Liur gl WVLilCTN
is that it never tells of it itself or does aught to
thrust the fact upon men's attention. It is unconscious.
It does not advertise. It leaves it
entirely to others to estimate it, and does not even
know that t]iey are passing a judgment upon it.
It does nothing to force attention upon itself and
goes its way as If there were nothing whatever
unusual about itself.
RESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
ENCROACHING ECLESIASTICISM.
Two recent events in the administration of
President Taft should be held in permanent remembrance
by the American people, especially
by all who are zealous for the preservation of an
open Bible and a pure Gospel, and by all who
would perpetuate a primary principle of our
national life which guarantees the religious liberty
of the people and the separation of Church
and State. One of these events was an order to
the effect that Protestant teachers in the public
schools in the Philippine Islands should under
no conditions, either in school or outside, give
religious instruction to the natives. This order
was given because the natives are totally ignorant
of the Gospel and are in bondage to Romish
uperstition and are to be kept in that ignorance
in obedience to the demands of the Romish
priests.
The second notorious act of the President to
which reference, is made was the revocation by
the President of an order of the government
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who is in charge
of Indian schools which are supported by the
government. The Commissioner had given an
order, in strict compliance with the letter and
spirit of the law, which prohibited the wearing
of distinctive religious insignia and religious
garb in the Indian schools. These schools were
founded by the priests and nuns, were taken over
by the government that priests and nuns might
be supported by government funds and are being
practically conducted as Romish schools supported
by the government. Commissioner Valentine
saw the flagrant abuse and dishonesty of the
thing and was manly enough to require that the
law be enforced. The President was time-serving
enough to require that the law shall continue
to be violated, contrary to the Commissioner's
ruling, and the government statute.
These are twn nf a nnmlwi'
? w va. t* AlUlllLA^l U 1 11^ 1(1 11 CCS 111
which, while in public office, Mr. Taft has prostituted
his official position to the service and
patronage of a Church which has avowed by
numberless deliverances its uncompromising antagonism
to civil and religious liberty. In these
two instances we have on the one hand a prohibition
placed upon Protestant public school teachers
in the Philippines "from saying anything
about religious matters even outside of
the school house or school hours or from
even teaching in a Sabbath school." On the
other hand we have an order from the Pres
ident to the effect that Romish priests and
nuns shall, in violation of a specific statute
upon the subject, be allowed to wear the
peculiar garb and insignia of their religion
in school hours in the public schools in
which they teach and are 'being supported by
government funds?this in addition to their
using religious influences of every kind, outside
of school honrs for proselyting Indian children.
So grave has the situation become that religious
papers throughout the land are condemning
the methods of the present administration in
plain and positive terms. This is likely to be a
case extraordinary on which some ecclesiastical
assemblies will feel called to take action. Already
the Presbyterian Ministers' Association of
Washington, D. C., has adopted a strong paper,
entitled, "A Protest Against Encroaching Ecclesiasticism,"
as follows:
ThP PrnoKvfom? * a -
- iuunaieiTi association of
Washington, D. C., and vicinity, in patriotic devotion
to our distinctive American principles,
views with apprehension the persistent and large
encroachments rf ecclesiasticism in our national
political affairs, and exhorts all our citizens to a
loyal and watchful guard against an evil that
i'ncheeked imnerils the life of the Republic.
1. We earnestly protest against the recent revocation
bv President Taft of the order of Commissioner.
Valentine, whereby the priests and
nuns employed jn teaching in the Indian public
DTH [ March 27, 1912.
schools were forbidden to wear any distinctive
religious garb or insignia while on duty in the
public school room. The action of Commissioner
Valentine was the correction of a long-standing
abuse> against which protest had been earnest
and indignant, and was wise, patriotic and constitutional.
The action of the President is a
profound disappointment to the great majority
of the Christian citizenship of the Republic; it is
un-American and is a complete surrender of the
esjfential principle of our national life which ordains
the separation of church and state. Associated
with the fact that the United States
Congress annually gives large appropriations of
money ana oicen patents in fee for mission lands
to the Catholic Bureau of Missions, the President
adds the immense influence of his name and
office to the work of converting the Indians to
Roman Catholicism.
\Ve earnestly protest against the proposed action
in Congress to appoint a Columbus Day as
a national holiday. First, because there are already
too many holidays for a proper use and
benefit to the multitude. They are often perverted
and even protstituted; they lead often to dissipation
and idleness which unfit for regular
duty. The commonwealth suffers iti the undue
multiplication of holidays. Second, because the
demand for this holiday issues onlv from a very
limited number of people; and these being connected
with one certain ecclesiasticism,, we believe
it to be a eovert attempt to secure i. future
saints' day a-! a national holiday, and thereby
establish a legislative and permanent recognition
of this ecclesiasticism in our national life.
Resolved, That a copy of the preamble, and
protest number one. be sent to the President of
the United States, the Secretary of the Interior
and the United States Commissioner of Indian
Affairs.
That a copy of the preamble and protest number
two be sent to the Committee on Judiciary of
the United States House of Representatives.
That a copy of the whole paper be sent to the
daily papers of Washington, D. C., and to the
church papers of the Presbyterian Church.
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL IN THE
SEMINARY.
Sometime ago when I wrote about the church
which is in the Seminary I did not speak of the
Sunday school for fear of being too long. Since
then I have had the privilege of attending that
Sunday school several times and thus adding to
the knowledge of it which I had gotten from
previous visits. It is one of the very best Sunday
schools I ever saw.
The twenty-five Presbyterian Sunday schools
of Richmond and vicinity issue a very interesting
little sheet every week. It tells how many
officers, teachers, and scholars are on the roll in
each Sunday school, how many were present the
previous Sunday, and what the collection was.
There is also a percentage column showing how
the number actually present in each school compares
with the number on the roll. Three stars
are given in this report, one to the school that
has the largest number present, one to the
school that has the largest percentage present,
and one to the school that has the largest Collection
Tlio ?T 1 iv. o ?
j. kjuuuo.^ stuuui iii me oeunnary very
frequently has a star. In passing let me commend
the idea of issuing such a weekly report to
all towns and cities in and about which are
grouped a large number of schools. If you wish
to begin Richmond can furnish you a model report.
I have been studying the Sunday school in the
Seminary to find its good points and the secret
of its success. I will jot down some of the things
that I have found, not simply as a matter of
news, but with the hope that there may be here *
some helpful suggestions for others schools.
1. First of all the Sunday school in the Seminary
hn? fl crnnH annorinlan/lnnt V 15 ? l
tv^uucu i. i uui" lirai
guess is that he is a professor or 4 student. You
are mistaken. He is a very busy business .man.
Sometimes his business carries him a long ways
from Richmond, but the Sunday school is on his
heart and he "always manages to get home before
Sunday. I hear that he has not been absent a
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