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May 8, 1912 ] THE
Editorial 1
One of the many attractions of Bristol, in
which city our Assembly is to meet, is King College,
the staunch Presbyterian institution in
which so many of our ministers have been educated.
In his address at Louisville, inviting the
Assembly to hold its next meeting at Bristol, Dr.
Carson sketched the output of men from this
college who have gone into our ministry. The
honorable roll is not only a long one, but coni_?
iL n i % *
rams me names 01 many wno nave stood in the
forefront of the Church's most capable leaders
in education, authorship and evangelization.
The coming General Assembly will have an
unusual amount of business brought to it from
preceding Assemblies, and there are no fewer
than- six ad interim committees to make reports.
Of the old matters, there will be the
vexed and vexing elect infant business, the judicial
tribunal proposition, the synodical problem,
and certain matters connected with the Assembly's
Home and School, and the university
proposition. The woman secretary question is
looming very large just now, through a vigorous
and evidently well systematized campaign.
Of new problems there will doubtless be the
usual harvest which the spring meetings of the
Presbyteries gather in. So far as we have seen
there will be but one judicial case, which will be
in the nature of an appeal by a Session in New
Orleans Presbytery from the judgment of
Louisiana Synod, in connection with the alleged
speaking of women in church assemblages.
As will be seen from the annual report of the
Treasurer of Foreign Missions the total amount
contributed for the year was more than half a
million dollars, the exact amount being $505,213.
This amount represents more than the nominal
liberality of the Church in this department of
its work. A large debt had accumulated and
earnest effort was made by many churches, societies
and individuals to pay it. The debt was
much reduced but more than a tenth of a million
remains. The extent to which the Church may
go in assuming increasing obligations while Rearing
the burden of a large interest bearing debt
is an absorbing ethical study. It is easy to make
large estimates and appropriations?only necessary
to make a row of figures. The appropriating
departments of the Church need to be as
wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The
Assembly should beware of binding on the
Church heavy burdens and grievous to be borne.
The.se suggestions represent a sentiment in the
Church that has grown to be quite formidable.
At a recent lunction in Boston, President Taft,
Governor Foss and Cardinal O'Connel being
guests, the entertaining society wished to place
the Cardinal second and Governor Foss third, in
the places of honor, inasmuch as, being a
"prince," the red-hatted mummer took precedence
of a man who was just a "governor."
The latter very sensibly refused to allow himself
to take third place. "Why, if "a prince of the
church is above all earthly dignitaries," as a
Boston Romanist writing to the New York Sun
contends, was not the effort made to put the
mummer ahead of even Mr. Taft.
?, icccui uutixriuuiea armcie 111 tms paper
the statement was made that an offer was once
made to General Robert E. Lee to be connected
with the Louisiana State Lottery, with a large
salary attached. We learn, from the most reliable
and intelligent sources that this statement
was altogether incorrect. The same statements
concerning Jefferson Davis and Joseph E.
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S
\otes and
Johnston have long ago been shown to be incorrect.
To none of these men was such an offer
ever made. Had it been made to them their
answer would doubtless have been that which
the fiiction has declared them to have given.
A correspondence having arisen between
Governor Brown of Georgia and Dr. Crafts of
the International Reform Bureau relative to the
proposed official violation of the state prohibition
law during the Confederate Reunion at
Macon, Dr. Crafts addressed to the Governor a
final letter from which the following extract is
made: "Replying to yours of April 11, 1 decline
as an American citizen and an official representative
of reform forces North and South,
to accept your excuse that you have no power to
prevent the threatened violation of the state law
on a large scale May 7-9, at the Confederate
Reunion in Macon. Governor Folk found a way
to make the great cities of St. Louis, St. Joseph
and Kansas City obey state laws, and every
Governor, by the very nature of 'his executive
office and his oath to see that state laws are observed,
has a right and duty to intervene in such
great crises as this, by the military arm if no
other is available, to protect the honor of State
and Nation. Once more I appeal to you to stand
for states rights."
Extraordinary efforts are being made to resuscitate
the President's conscience regarding
the control by priests and nuns of Indian schools
supported by and belonging to the government.
A perfectly conclusive legal argument has been
prepared and presented to the Washington authorities
by the eminent attorney, Henry B. Macfarland.
A hearing of the case has been held
by Secretary Fishe'r, of the Interior Depart
ment, but no decision of the case has yet been
announced. Citizens are sending in floods of
protests against Romanizing government schools.
Young People's Societies in various denominations
are securing large lists of names to be
forwarded to President Taft personally, protesting
against the final annulling of Commissioner
Valentine's order which disallowed the wearing
of religious dress and symbols in government
schools.
The determined opposition of Romanists and
Jews to the Bible in public schools is significant.
They believe in its power to promote evangelical
religion, that it would be disastrous to their
own religions and train the rising generation in
the faith of the Gospel. Bo we have as much
faith in the effect of reading and becoming familiar
with the Word of God as these men havef
Tf so let lis read it and let its send it on its mission
throughout the world. If any one knows of
a cold, feeble church with a well conducted Bible
class we would be glad to have it reported that
we may make a record of the phenomenon?
Bible classes in Sunday schools and church societies
are a bulwark against superficial methods
and religious inertia. Read an item of church
news in which Rev. S. B. Lander, of Bloomfield,
Ky., tells of wbat. a Bible class accomplishes and
how it is done. He says: 1. "We got them there
by going after them personally. 2. We kept
them there hy hard work in preparation of the
lesson hy which we sought to interest and instruct
them. 3. We endeavored to lead them
to a definite stand for Christ. Result: Men of
all denominations, several Catholics, and a large
number of men not affiliated with any church
are enlisted. A number have become Christians.*
Let others adopt the Bible method.
OUTH (517) 9
Comments
NOTES IN PASSING.
BY BERT.
"I am the Bread of life." In these
Bread, words Christ makes one of those great
claims for himself which so powerfully
impress the soul. How much Christ is to man
cannot be fully explained or measured by any
one illustration, or any one standard. He touches
life at so many points, and always with such
impressive and commanding power that it is
doubtful if any man ever came to more than a
faint realization of his debt to him. In a wide
way, the believer can say that all he has and all
he is is of God. But we always feel a lack of
clearness of outline in creneral statement* Wo
are always conscious of a haze about us in such
universal terms. The truth will not be denied,
but we fail to get it sharply outlined.
In no intelligent way can I grasp what Christ
is to the world until after I have come to a welldefined
and sharply outlined consciousness of
what he is to myself. Now I know what bread is
to me. And I know that bread is the result of a
process. I know bread does not grow on trees,
that it cannot be gathered from richly laden
and fragrant bushes; I know you cannot plant
any kind of seed and reap bread. I know that
before there can be bread there must be seed sowing,
and reaping, and grinding, and bruising,
and toil, and fire; and that out of all of this and
more bread comes. And I know that bread that
comes from such ordeals tastes sweet to me and
has a wholesome effect upon my body. If I have
come to know that out of the weariness, and
strifes, and agonizings of life and the pangs of
awful death Christ has come to dwell in me in
the fulness of his Spirit I know my soul has
bread. When he has come to bestow upon me
the high and holy privilege of meeting with him
the scorn of the rich, and the selfishness of the
poor; the bigotry of the religious and the contempt
of the pagan; -when in some real sense
he permits me to share the struggles of Gethsemane,
the shame of Pilate's judgment hall
and the death of Calvary, and then the resurrection
glory, I know he lives in me, and my soul
knows neither hunger nor thirst. I know Christ
is the Bread of life because he is the living Bread
to me. I know Chistianity is true because it is
my very life.
"This one thing I do," said Paul.
Settled, and in that statement he teaches a
valuable lesson about success. Paul
took the thing immediately 'before him, "This"
one thing; and he fixed his whole soul upon it,
this "One Thing;" and then with grim determination
he set himself to it, this one thing "I
Do." The sea of life is covered with the wreckage
of men who have never found a congenial
task at hand. They have never been in a satisfactory
location, and they have never done more
than dream of what they were going to do. It
is wonderfully and tragically true that in the
ministry there are scores who have never found
themselves in a congenial environment. They
have never had as good a church as they think
they are entitled to. They have never had that
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which they think was due them. They have
made many changes but things have not been
improved. They are always looking for some
other work in some other place, with some other
conditions.
The secret of it all is lack of faith in God.
They are virtually saying by their discontent
that God does not know his business, and if they
were God's, things would be otherwise. Now
how can one do God's work with such a mindT