Newspaper Page Text
June 5, 1912]
Hom Missi
An increasing number of churches
have adopted the every member canvass,
and their enlarged offerings have
more than justified the wisdom of the
new plan of beneficence. If every
church were in line and successfully
operating it, the necessity for appeals
would practically cease, and all the
causes would be abundantly sustained.
As a temporary expedient for the
benefit of churches which have not
adopted tne new plan, tne Assembly
has designated the month of June as
the time for making offerings for the
Assembly's Home Missions. We are desirous
of the co-operation of all pastors
and churches and are making our appeal
for generous support of this work
which vitally affects the life and growth
of the Church.
Will pastors and sessions read our
ai>peal from the pulpit, or else furnish
their congregation with Home Mission
literature.
Owing to the increased demands upon
us we have triade the largest appropriation
for the coming year in our history,
notwithstanding the fact that we begin
the new ecclesiastical year with an
empty treasury. "We confidently believe
that the entire Church will rally
to the support of the work. God is
greatly enlarging our sphere ana wonderfully
blessing the work.
In earnest prayer, In steadfast faith,
in untiring energy let us minister to
the needs of our country and seek the
salvation of all the people.
S. L. Morris, Secretary.
THE WORK AND THE NEEDS OF THE
ASSEMBLY'S HOME MISSION
COMMITTEE.
Rev. A. A. McGeucliy, D. I).
The year just closed has been a trying
one on Assembly's Home Missions
as upon the other Benevolent Causes
of our Church. The transition from the
old to the new plan of finances very
imperfectly carried out as yet in many
of our churches, has left us without the
established support of the old method
and has not given us the benefit of the
new. The reoreanization of our denart
mental work and combinatidn of three
causes under the single head of Home
Missions, together with the assumption
of Dr. Guerrant's mountain work, has
?dded to the burdens of our Committee;
and the natural development of thr
work through entering new territory
has been still further augmented by the
constant influx of foreigners.
besides the highly important work
which the Assembly's Committee is accomplishing
for the colored people and
for General Evangelization through Drs.
Snedecor and Thacker, there are three
features of Home Mission work proper
that ought to commend It to the inteost
and liberality of our people.
First among them is work on the
frontier in Texas and Oklahoma, the
?nly part of this great: Southland of
ours where the Presbyterian Church
left to it even a fighting chance
to lead. In most sections of the country
we have already taken the rank
which- w? are to keep and are numerically
second, third, or fourth, as the
case may be. In the Southwest we are
behind but not so much behind, and the
rapid and constant Increase of population
gives us again the opportunity
which we once had and forfeited in
the early history of America. A hundred
thousand people pour through the
Kates of St. Louis and Kansas City
PVery month. A million people cross the
^R>l8slppi every year and all these arc
tu be captured hy the churches in the
that make the most determined
efJ?rt. lit is a field worth Investing
THE PRESBYTERIi
'ons In June
both men and money in. Already
Texas leads all the Synods in liberality
and "gives to Foreign Missions the
best dividends of any Synod for the investment
made."
Again our Committee is undertaking
a stupendous task in its efforts to evangelize
the immigrants who are pouring
into this country at the rate of a million
a year. They are of many races,?
Russians, pohemians, Italians, Mexicans,
Spaniards. Hungarians. French.
Jews. In all twelve nationalities are
Teached, eigtoty two stations maintained,
and forty-seven missionaries sup
ported. The Birmingham District alone,
five mission schools for five distinct
nationalities are maintained. They are
coming too fast for national assimilation.
Let us take a care against national
indigestion, against dizziness in
the head and staggering of the limbs.
If we don't Bave them, they will ruin
us. Our Committee is doing Foreign
Mission work at home and saving the
cost of equipment and transportation,
and its missionaries have no furloughs.
Again too, our Committee through
education anl evangelization is trying to
nave me mguianaer. ?nen sir waiter
Scott wrote Rob Roy, the manners and
customs of the Scotch Highlander were
already so remote as to be interesting,
but the distinctive traits of character
there portrayed survive in the American
Highlander to this day. They are
brave, loyal, faithful, ignorant, lawless,
with gcod blood in their veins and
heirs with us of the best traditions of
the glorious past, they have fallen behind
us in the march of civilization.
Through such schools as Banner Elk,
Plumtree and Glade Valley in North
Parollna, and similar schools in Virginia
and Kentucky, we are trying to
give them an outlook upon life, such as
they can't get without us in their narrow
valleys,? and not only upon this
life but that which iB to come.
I^et the churches then rally to the
support of this cause in June. It is
the old month during which under our
former plan of benevolences, our pulpits
rang with appeals for the Assembly's
Home Mission Work. (Some of our
churches have adopted the Every Member
Canvass iplan, as all ought. Let
the pastors of such churches nevertheless
preach a sermon during the
month on Home Missions and so quicken
their Interest and inform their understanding
in regard to this great work.
Other churches are still taking collections.
A canvass of the churches in
one of our largest Presbyteries at the
spring meeting of Presbytery showed
that only eighteen adopted the Assembly's
plan. Let the pastors of such
chprches as are still depending upon
public offerings urge their people to
give largely and generously for the
need is great and the cause is worthy.
Ohailotte, N. C.
ASSEMBLY'S HOME MISSIONS.
Largesse Needed to Meet an Emergency.
Rev. T. M. Hunter.
As the time for the June offering for
Home Missions approaches, I would
call the attention of the church to the
great need of a large portion of our
Home Mission field.
Some of our best work is done in the
rich Delta country of Mississippi and
Louisiana. This country has been sadly
afflicted with the cotton boll weevil
and many of our richest farms have
been lying Idle for several years find
the people have been becoming poorer
and poorer. The prospects for this
year were much brighter and by cultural
methods the farmers were ex
i N OF THE SOUTH
peoting better crops and a return to
former prosperity.
Just aB we were getting more hopeful
the worst flood in the history of the
Mississippi valley has spread desolation
and destruction over a large area.
The great levees which are supposed to
hold the stream within its banks have
broken in several places. There have
been crevasses in Tennessee, Mississippi
and Louisiana.
When a levee breaks, the people must
flee, leaving in most cases all their
possessions. Their crops are ruined for
the year and in the case of sugar lands
for perhaps three years. Many of the
members of our rural churches are impoverished,
their homes swept away
and many escaping with only the
clothes on thettr backs.
It will be years before these people
can recuperate. When they get back
to their lands, ihey must contract debts
in order to work their farms and to
clothe and feed their families.
Our churches which are not affected
by the flood have had their resources
strained in relieving the distress of
their more unfortunate neighbors. For
instance, in Baton 'Rouge, which is on
the Instrouma bluffs above all high water,
there are more than five thousand
refugees driven from their homes by the
Torras Crevasse. The government is
giving them rations, but the people of
the city are clothing them, housing
them, and caring for their many needs.
Natchez has about as many as we, and
so have Vlcksburg and other hill towns.
rtiBLuio u.iiu oiuer ciuzens nave laia
aside their work to caa*e for this people,
their feeding, the sanitation of
camps; the women have given all their
time to clothing the naked.
This is a feaTful strain upon the
purse of the church as well as upon the
resources of the state. Contributions of
money and clothes have been sent from
all over the nation.
Shall we not as a Church give the
same care to our suffering churches
as the city and nation is giving to the
individual? Money has poured in to
caire for the bodily needs. T>et the
church as a whole respond tx> their
spiritual needs. Shall we tell them to
let their pastors go, to leave their
churches in ruins, to let their flock be
scattered, because we have not the
money to help them in this, their time
of supreme need? Shall we be less
generous than, the children of this
world?
The people are stunned; they will
soon realize their destitute condition
pnd he discouraged. Let us come to
thedr help.
The water Is still three feet above all
former records, other crevasses may
oeour at any time, probably will. If
so, other thousands will be homeless.
The back waters from the crevasses are
slowly creeping over the richest plantations
under the sun, when It creeps Into
the homes of the people they must
leave. 0! that the whole Church could
see the pitiful sight of men, women and
little babies coming up the hill In Baton
Rouge, carrying all theflr possessions
In their hands. Prosperous yesterday,
to-day destitute.
The Home Mission Committee In Atlanta
will feel the loss of the generous
contributions from these churches, and
other churches which have been selfsupporting
will need aid. Give your
money to Home Missions In June. No,
give It now. Never has the field called
so loudly and piteously for aid. Give!
T? T -
uvuiii nuukc. )4i.
AMERICAN INLAND MISSION.
Fourteenth Annual Report of the Society
of Sonl Winners.
The history of this society Is a remarkable
demonstration of the fact that
God answers prayer. For fourteen years
he 1 as supported this mission which has
(621) 17
employed hundreds of workers and cost
tens of thousands .of dollars, with no
dependence but prayer. In every land
he has raised up friends whose voluntary
gifts have supported the work. It
began with one missionary and $360.
The past year it employed over seventy
tmssionarios, and received $12,417.26
and paid oat $12,384.56, leaving $32.70
in the treasury. Though incorporated
into the Home Mission work of the
Soil t.hPIT! PrpahvtoHon r*knMk * v.?
Mountain Mission is operated as a separate
department. Rev. Wm. E. Hudson,
Superintendent.
The following missionaries have been I
employed part or all of the year. Some
have labored with us for more than ten
years: Rev. Royal R. Dewitt, Mrs. De- I
witt, Judge L. F. Mann, Mrs. Mary D.
Mann, Miss Emma Houston, Miss Margaret
Tarrant, Miss Maude Hancock,
Rev. James B. Converse, Miss Mary
Carper, Miss Julia A. Walker, Miss
Emma Allen, Prof. Chas. E. Wells, Mrs.
Rose Martin Wells, Miss Belle Veasey, I
Miss Annette Gist, Mrs. Mayne Flowers,
Mr. Clarence White. Mrs. Alice McC
orkle Dun lop, Miss Clementina Stamps, |
Miss Lillian Kennedy, Rev. Dr. E. O.
Guerrant, Prof. W. D. Lucas, Mr. Elmer
S. Kleingin-na, Miss Belle Breedlove,
Miss Ann>e Ahlberg, Miss Lula May I
Congleton, Rev. John A. Woods, Mrs.
l.ienora Woods, Miss Bertha Abernethy,
Miss Dixie Andress, Mr. Hugh McLucas, ?
Miss Bessie Link, Miss Ella Keigwm,
Mrs. Isabel Clarkson, Mr. Thomas
Hodge, Mrs. Gordon, Miss Margaret
Gordon, Miss Mary C. Mebane, Miss Ora
Bigby, Mr. W. H. Mann, Mr. Jan. R.
Boyles, Miss Mary L Lea, Miss Mattie
M. T. Rodd, Mr. Claude Pownes, M1bs j
Frances Curdts, MIsb Mary C. Flcklen,
Miss Mattie Pitman, Miss Leona Blake,
Miss Annie Blake, Mrs. Neal, Miss j
Everett Bass, Miss Blackburn, Miss
Mamie C. Turner, Mr. Edwin D. Hunter,
Mr. Palmer, Miss Cornelia Brandon, Mr.
J. H. Longenecker, Rev. W. H. Howes,
Mr. A. B. Parmelee, Mrs. C. M. Parme
elee. Rev. J. H. Litteral, Mrs. Pearl Litteral,
Mr. W. H. Ayres, Rev. William Little,
Mr. L. M. Hollingsworth, Mr. Lewis
Hensley, Rev. J. H. Howes, Rev. Dan
Mcintosh. i
Besides these, valuable help was given
by the following brethren who visited
d number of our missions and preached
to them: Rev. Dr. S. L. Morris, Rev.
George O. Bachman, Rev. Jas. A. Bran,
Rev. W. T. Creson, Dr. J. H. Moore, Mr
W. C. Smith.
Generous friends have made the Orphans'
Home the model home and
school in the mountains, under the matron,
Mrs. Alice McCorkle Dunlop, and
the teachers, Miss Clementina Stamps
and Miss Lillian Kennedy. We owe a
debt of gratitude to hundreds of God's
faithful children all over the world who
have nobly assisted us. Also to the
American Bible Societv. Ladies' So
rletles, Sabbath schools, and the press,
for valuable assistance.
Fvery dollar received has been economically
expended, and we think justifies
the opinion of a venerable and distinguished
servant of God who said,
"The Society of Soul Winners is doing
the most and best work of any missionary
society on earth, so far as I know."
But we have made only a beginning.
Therfe are yet tens of thousands of these
poor Highlanders, perishing for want
of the Bread of Life. There are no
uuer jK-ojiie m our country, or tlie
purest An-glo-Saxon and Scotch-Irish
blood. That th'ey are poor and ignorant
Is their misfortune rather than their
fault.
This work Is only limited by our want
of meaiv. We could place hundreds
more faithful teachers and preachers
among them, If we had the means. We
need at least a thousand dollars a month
for the support of our missionaries and
the Orphans' Home. We must have a
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