Newspaper Page Text
June 5, 1912] T *H E
Editorial 1
The Assembly has had many fine moderators,
hut it never had a better than Dr. Clyce, of
Texas. He was fair, kind, thoughtful, unaffect,
d, and by his gentleness combined with a very
evident determination, when it was needful to
show the latter, he disarmed any criticism that
might have arisen against another but of which
there was never a breath or suggestion in his
ease. All the good that was said of him when
iit- mus uumijiuieu was iuuy justineci.
The additions to the Northern Church during
the year recently closed were 79,834. The net
gain was 18,000. The present total membership
of that Church is 1,372,659. Like other Presbyterian
Churches it carries, on a separate roll,
a very large number of members who have not
reported for some time or whose whereabouts
are unknown.
We have often heard the titles, "Your grace,"
"Tils Lordship," "His Excellency," and the
like, applied to dignitaries in the Romanist body,
but it was not until the recent meeting of the
Northern Assembly that we ever heard of anything
of the kind in the Presbyterian Church.
The moderator, Dr. M'ark Matthews, was sometimes
alluded to as "His Highness!" Pie is six
feet six inches tall! His slenderness makes him
look all of seven feet.
We trust that the Associated Press is correct
in its representation of one act of the Northern
Assembly in its recent session in Louisville.
Says the report, "Absolute independence of
the Church from every non-ecclesiastical organization
is the point made in a judgment of the
judicial commission approved by the Assembly.
The decision upholds a complaint against the
Indiana Synod in that it caused two of its members
to 'be made trustees of the Indiana AntiSaloon
League. The Assembly expressed approval
of the aims and objects of^ the League,
but concluded that direct alliances with it was
inconsistent with the rules of the Church."
For unadulterated ridiculousness, fighting a
man of straw, and everything else that is foolish,
commend us to the following, taken from a
New Orleans daily paper: "Fr. Joseph Scotti,
chancellor to Archbishop Blenk, for the archdiocese
of New Orleans, declined to enter into
a discussion of the proposition brought out by
the report of the Committee on Romanism at
the General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian
Church, now in session in Bristol, Tenn.,
urging the consolidation of the Presbyterian and
Roman Catholic Churches. 'The whole subject
is ridiculous,' said Chancellor Scotti. 'The same
question has been brought up before by those
of the Presbyterian faith, but it has not and
could not be at any time seriously considered
by Catholics.' " The consolidation of the Roman
Catholic Church and the Presbyterian
Church, indeed!
One of the live questions in the Church, and
one which has been very tardy in becoming alive,
is that of the so called International Graded
lessons. In this number we have two articles
on that subject, both of which should be carefully
read. One is the pastoral letter sent out
t*> the pastors, sessions and Sunday School superintendents
of the church. The other is part
first of a very searching and conclusive paper
W T\_ ~ - -
?v ^r. ryomerville of the Southwestern Presbyterian
University. It is surprising that these International
Graded Lessons have been adopted
d used by several of the large Evangelical
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S<
\otes and
denominations during the past year and have
been used by some schools in our Church. Emanating
as they do from the Harper following
in Chicago and elsewhere is enough to elicit the
most careful scrutiny in advance. The exposures
of their dangerously seductive and false
teachings, which have recently been made in a
number of leading religious publications, leave
no room for further countenancing these lessons
by giving their poisonous potions to the
youths of the Church.
The established Church of Scotland and the
United Free Church have for some time had
(eommdttees of conference on the reunion of
Scottish Presbyterianism. Their deliberatories
so far have failed to produce desired results.
The Disestablishment council denounces certain
new suggestions of the established Church as to
a course of procedure and legislation. It
claims that this scheme fails to harmonize "the
ideals of the two churches as to the relations of
Church and state." Also, that it "conflicts with
the legitimate rights of the civil power" and
"is not in harmony with the legitimate rights of
all Christian churches and citizens to equal
treatment in spiritual things before the law."
Dr. W. J. Martin who has been elected to
succeed Dr. Henry Louis Smith as President of
Davidson College is well known in the Church;
not only in the department of higher education,
but as the zealous friend and promoter of the
aggressive evangelistic enterprises of the Church.
Dr. Martin is a graduate of Davidson, a graduate
in Medicine of the University of Virginia,
and a graduate of Johns Hopkins University.
He has taught in the Presbyterian College of
South Carolina, University of Virginia and
Davidson College. He is now professor of chemistry
in the latter institution which has just
honored him by election to the presidency. It
is believed that he has such administrative ability
as is required for the high position to which
he is called and that Davidson will continue the
snlendid progress which it has been making in rtecent
years.
The influence of few men of our day has been
so widely diffused or so fruitful in results as that
of Dr. J. B. Mack, whose earthly ministry ended
peacefully at his home in Fort Mills S. C.
on May 25. Dr. Mack had reached the age of
seventy-four years and fifty-two of these years
had been spent in pastorial and evangelistic service.
Tt is estimated that during this period
more than 8.000 persons had been received into
the church through his preaching and personal
influence; a hundred young men had become
ministers, and fifty-six church buildings had
been erected. Two years after ordination he
became chaplain in the Confederate army serving
to the end of the war. His ministry was
spent principally in South Carolina and Georgia.
In South Carolina he served Zion Church, Charleston
; Rocky River; Fort Mill, and First church
Columbia. In Georgia he was synodical evangelist
and later pastor of the College Park church
of Atlanta, which he had been instrumental in
organizing and which he called the son of his old
age. Dr. Mack was the father of a large family
of talented children, one of whom is Dr. Edward
Mack, professor in Lane Theological Seminary.
f
Since the union of the United Presbyterian
Chnrch and the Free Church of Scotland the
membership has been steadily declining. This
year the decrease in total membership amounts
5 U T H (613) 9
Comments
to more than 2,000. The total membership is
now 504,672. The admissions for the year numbered
40,421 and the losses 42,442. The loss is
attributed in part to emigration. Loose views
of inspiration held by a class of prominent
teachers, and the corresponding decline of interest
in sound doctrine are believed to be sources
of spiritual apathy affecting the Church's
growth.
NOTES IN PASSING.
BY BERT.
Not your These are the words of Paul to the
own. Corinthian believers. "Ye are not
your own." When one has come to
receive this truth he is not simply marking time
in the Christian life, he is making progress, solid
and substantial progress. The one word which
overtops and overshadows all words to the unregenerate
mind is the word "I," at once, and in
every peculiar sense both the biggest and the
littlest word in human speech. Everything about
us by nature works, and works incessantly to
magnify the "I." "I am my own, let no one
dare to interfere with my rights and privileges."
'' I am my own, and everybody else is mine, for
my profit and for my pleasure they are and were
created." So firmly fixed is this sentiment that
only God's grace can change it, and since God's
grace can eliminate completely this spirit of
selfishness it thereby proclaims itself the mightiest
power known.
If there was no other thing about the grace
of God to commend it to me but the fact that
it uproots this unholy, unhappy, unsympathetic
spirit of self, and lets my soul out of the mast
degrading prison, this would be enough. Just
think of the difference between a world in which
every man was struggling against every other
to build up his own interests, and one in which
every man was earnestly striving, and lovingly
studying how to make others happy.
He who believes, and acts as though he believed
that he is not his own will some day come
to the delightful knowledge that mpny others
are his. If I am my own, then I alone am mine.
If I am for others then all are for me.
Faith in It is recorded of Jesus that he knew
men. what was in man. That is the secret
of his inexhaustible patience; he knew
what was in man and he knew it was worth
drawing out, and he knew that only he could
draw it out. His dealing with Matthew, and
Zaccheus, and Peter, and the demon-possessed
showed conclusively that he knew that underneath
what was visible to the eye of man was
a range of possibilities for good that was literally
without limit. You and I know what is in
man since Christ taught it so clearly to us, and
therefore if we turn away from the fallen in
disgust, or from the ignorant in impatience we
rob ourselves of the Christ-like work of bringing
the real worth to the surface. To save ourselves
a little trouble, or to spare ourselves from the
contaminating touch we will rob God of the service
and worship of a new-born soul, we will rob
humanity of an uplift, we will rob ourselves of
i-iic giwttesi, rewara we can ever Know. In
drawing out the gooo of other lives we draw out
true heroism in our own. In leading others
from darkness we lead ourselves from danger.
But we will never draw out the good there is
in other men until Christ has drawn us out of
ourselves.
Ovt of his "A disciple .... bringeth forth
treasure, out of his treasure things new and
old." It is not the gold that is in
the earth that enriches a man, but the gold that