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August 21, 1912 ] THE
speaker in the Rev. John McDowell, now a
pastor of a prosperous Presbyterian Church in
Newark, New Jersey, formerly a student at
Mount Hermon, Mr. Moody's school for boys,
the very "beloved of his heart," about four
miles Southwest of East Northfield. Our
speaker found his text in Isaiah 40:31, "But
they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with wings as
eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and
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had evidently been taught of the Holy Spirit,
and in a strong and tender, true and loving
way, unfolded the meaning of these beautiful
words, showing he had looked at them in
the light that is from Heaven. When he got
to the words, "They shall walk and not faint,"
he sweetly emphasized the fact that this is
the hardest part, the doing of the commonplace
by the strength of the Most Highland
seeking in the humble duty the fellowship of
the Saviour of men and the glory of God.
liev. \V. J. Erdman, D. D., the venerable,
learned and much beloved and well-known
Presbyterian divine, one time pastor in Boston,
was the speaker Saturday morning. He found
the lesson he sought to bring from the Book
of God by, in a general way, forcibly showing
the chief divisions of the Gospel according to
St. John, and a summary of its teachings.
^.t night Rev. Ebenezer McPherson, JJ. D.,
formerly of the Free Church of Scotland, now
located in London, and so connected with the
English Presbyterian Church, was our speaker.
At first it took a little care to understand
him with the lingerings still of his strong
Scotch accent. But it cleared up as the speaker
won and fascinated your heart. His first
sermon was from the words of our Lord found
in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, Chapter
5, verse 41, "And whosoever shall compel
thee to go a mile, go with him twain." Some
of us had never before heard a sermon from
this text. But our preacher was easily our
teacher. The summary of the sermon might
almost be founded in a quotation which he
took from an English magazine to which a
friend had called his attention: "Christianity
does not begin until after it has passed this
first mile and gotten to the second. It is nothing
to do what you are compelled to do."
Then he showed in many ways the glory of doing
good in the Kedeemer's name to those who
had not done good to us.
Sunday morning to a vast audience Dr. McPherson
was our speaker again. We felt
closer to him now, as not only had we met him
personally, though informally, and seen the
sweet simplicity of his manner, and learned
from him a little of his life, but his speech of :
the night before had so beguiled us that his
accent had become delightful and it did not
seem we lost a single word. His text this time
in St. Mark 14:5, "It might have been sold,"
showing the beauty of the love of Mary that
prompted the sacrifice of the spikenard with
which the feet of our Lord were annointed
just a little while before his betrayal. It
would be hard to imagine a more beautiful portrayal
of the spirit of love, and the things that
are done for love's sake, the sweetness and the
joy of sacrifice and the gladness and honor
given to our Lord that knows no price and
counts no loss, save as gain.
When Dr. Erdman, the learned and loving,
the next morning beautifully referred to this
sermon as a message coming from the heart
of
our Lord, Dr. McPherson, who sat near,
quickly and modestly covered his face with
his hand and bowed his head in prayer and in
silence we thought we heard him say, "Lord^
take all the glory. Only make it true that my
PRESBYTERIAN O! THE * C
messages are Thy gifts to me and to my people."
When, in beginning that beautiful sermon
on Sunday morning, Dr. McPherson, in a most
graphic way, pictured the different members
of the family group at Bethany, and when he
got to Mary so sweetly brought in Tennyson's
well-known words and said, "Her eyes were
home of silent prayer." The annointinu' w*a
first, he said, before our Lord climbed up to
the altar, which was the cross, and the fragrance
of the perfume of this ointment lingered
among the thorns and mingled with
blood of that Holy Sacrifice for sin, and even
went with His Body into the grave.
"It might have been sold." So it might.
But what then of good to human race f It was
not sold, but given, and giving fills the world
today. 4' It might have been sold.'' Ah! yes.
But these are the words of him who for a far
less price sold his Lord.
Sunday night Dr. McPherson preached again
from Galatians 1:20: "I live, yet not 1, but
Christ liveth in me." He was showing the new
life lived in Paul, the Apostle, after he had
met our Lord, and that it was our Lord Himself
who was there, showing as he went along
the many things that were done to Paul in the
way of persecutions like to those that were
done to our Lord.
At four o'clock on Sunday afternoon lie v.
Frank Paton, of the New Hebrides, spoke on
the work in his held. It was wonderful. Never
once did he refer to his father's illustrious
work, except to say that in being the son of a
missionary there were advantages that were
his. Nor did he say one word of the peculiar
advantages that were his in heart and soul and
mind and in the power of the covenant keeping
Qod, whose promises are to His people
and their children in being the son of such a
missionary. It is beautiful to hear a man tell
of difficulties and "deaths oft," and never
hnd himself in it all. He did tell of dangers
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He showed the changes in those wild cannibals
by the conquering grace of God, and how the
safest armor is the arm of righteousness, and
the "man of peace" walks around and in safety
among the wild chieftains and their hosts
protected by the power of God. He told of
having a communion in the plaee where the
stones all around him had been used as the
place for their cannibal feasts, and how of a
communicant list of perhaps 120 every grayhaired
man had been a cannibal. He showed
a carved spoon, perhaps, 200 years old, originully
white, that had been made a dark-brown,
almost black by being soaked in human grease
when used by those wild and cruel cannibals.
Mr. Paton's voice never faltered. He
never quailed at story of danger or apparently
impending death. But at the close, when
pleading with Christians to give their daughters,
as his mother had given her daughter, he
said, "Behind you are a thousand years of
pure womanhood;" then his speech failed him;
and at last, with an audible sob ,he said, "But
behind these poor people are a thousand years
of degraded womanhood." He had told us
how they had been used to burying people
alive, a sick child of their own, a captive child
of the enemy, or an old woman, mother though
she be; though some times they may dispatch
hwr with a club before the burial.
As one looks at him and thinks of him and
his now sainted father and their wonderfully
protected lives, the words of Shakespeare seem
so true, "That face of his the hungry cannibals
would not have touched.'"
This morning Dr. Erdman spoke again. Oh!
so strongly, so clearly, so powerfully of our
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great Kedeemer's kingdom; of His hnai triumph
as portrayed in the word of God, the
sure promises oi the covenant-keeping God, ail
oi which are yea and amen in Christ Jesus.
If you see our beloved !)r. W. H. Frazier, of
Anderson, S. C., teli him he is not forgotten up
here. We will not tell all we hear people say
about him, lest the Southern Church may hud
one of her best ministers desnoilpd hv th? hnn.
or given him.
itev. John McClelland, oi Uraiton, W. Va.,
is here, one oi our very congenial companions,
he is oi the .Northern Church, and here comes
his iriend, the iiev. Mr. McCarthy, oi Philadelphia,
oi the same church. .Lovely men they
both are.
ii Dr. Bmith, your associate editor should by
chance see this, he won t mind our telhng oi
a curious bit oi iood we iound on the bill oi
tare, "Lngiisli monkey." We had never eaten
"monkey" beiore. But we iound that this
was "monkey" only in name, and a dish very
like " Welsh rare-bit" served on ocean liners,
made oi stewed cheese served on toast.
Walking down the beautiiully shadded
street this aiternoon with its double rows of
maples on either side oi the great wide street,
perhaps 100 ieet wide, we saw a very curiously
designed sign, where tea and luncheon oi
various kinds are served. There is a gate put
up high, well above the head oi the tallest
man, and there is painted this legend on the
bars of the gate:
"This gate hangs high,
And hinders none.
Refresh and pay,
Then travel on."
And across the horizontal bars is another
bar at an angle of about 45 degrees that reads
"The Green Gate Ttea Rooms."
In the afternoon of Sunday on the beautiful
lawn under the trees near the great auditorium
Mrs. Henry B. Gibbon holds her meetings
where the lingering country people, who
come in large crowds to the Sunday-morning
service, wait with some of the guests of the
Conference for an open air service. This is alWflvfi
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rious ways to help those who seem forgotten
of the Bons of men and for whose souls no man
cares. One young man was telling of a splendid
case of rescue work when a forlorn, ragged
and filthy man in one of our great western
cities was found and cleansed and clothed,
and then "the Qod of all mercy" gave him a
new heart, and he is now a prosperous business
man.
There is a conductor on one of the Northern
railroads, who often speaks at these meetings
and tells of the work he tries to do for
the Lord as he travels up and down on his
train.
Once we heard a young man there tell of
how in Brooklyn he was an adopted son and
heir apparent to a fortune of five hundred
thousand dollars and finding nothing in the
hollow life of those fashionable, even those
sometimes church going people, he went out
from that home of wealth and fortune, and became
a poor missionary among black men of
Northern Africa.
The Round Top out of door services are
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crowds. There too, often, though not always,
the service is in the interest of rescue work.
Mr. and Mrs. D. L. Moody are both buried on
the summit of this hill, which they bo*h loved
so well.
A young man is here who is a student of
Harvard and desires to become a missionary.
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