Newspaper Page Text
December 25, 1912 ]
The Educational 1
of 1
By REV. SAM'L
At the recent meeting of the Synod,
no more lmi>ortant matter was considered
than that presented in the report of
the Executive Committee of Schools and
Colleges. This Committee is composed
of eight experienced and well known
business and professional men, with Dr.
R. B. Vinson at its head as Chairman.
In their admirable report, the Chairman
and members of the Committee very
modestly hid themselves behind the concise
statement of what had been accomplished.
The Synod heard with pleasure, and
perhaps- with surprise, that from June
i, 1911, to September 27th, 1912, nearly
one hundred thousand dollars hal been
turned over to the several schoo'a and
colleges under its care. The like of this
has never before been accomplished in
the history of educational effort in our
Synod.
The Committer stated frankly that the
situation of almost all our institutions
is still very se. love, but they sounded
this cheering not?, "that if the membeis
of our Church will place In the hands
of the Committee Fifty Thousand Dol
larj bvtween tills rnd June 1st. 1913.
*LL OF THE .'RESSING- OliUG \
TIONS CAN BE MET." Surely this Is a
hopeful feature, and it should secure a
prompt response In the way of the payment
of pledges already made and of
contributions not heretofore pledged.
All the suggestions and recommenda
tlons of the report were approved and
adopted by the Synod by unanimous
vote, and are deserving of the consideration
of all our people.
It calls attention to the fact that the
Systematic Campaigns that are being
made in all the churches in accordanco
with the plan recently adopted by the
General Assembly, together with tfie
Conferences that are to be held on the
"Every Member Canvass," will make It
increasingly difficult for special appeals
to be made for this work, and it is
lecommended that the Committee be Instructed
to present its work to the Presbyterial
Conferences to be held this
winter.
Another and very important recommendation
is that the Synod add to the
budget of money to be raised, a specific
sum for the work represented by the
Committee. The proposed sum is fifty
cents per member for the school and
college work. This, with all the recommendations
of the report, was unanimously
adopted by the Synod.
The number of communicants in our
Synod is something over thirty thousand.
If this action of the Synod is duly
reciprocated, and all our churches reBDOnd
to it. an income of fifteen thnnn
and dollars will be placed In the hands
of the Committee, and with the annual
increase of members, the available fund
will be augmented.
The advantages of this method arc
obvious. In the first place, the great
educational work would be given a rightful
place among the "causes" to which
the people are asked to contribute. This
recognition would be desirable. In the
next place, it wduld be the means of
acquainting all our people with the work
and the needs of our schools and colleges
and those regularly contributing to
them would become Interested as stockholders
In these Institutions.
It may be objected that the specified
sum cannot be expected from every
man, woman, and child on the roll of the
several churches. Admitting that this
may be true, yet It Is not unreasonable
to expect that every church might send
rfl? rn?8JSYTJSRlj
Vork of the Synod
"exas
A. KING, D. D.
in an amount equal to fifty cents for
each of its members; for while some
might not. individually, give, that
amount, there would be others who could
give one dollar or more. For instance,
every church of fifty members could
send in twenty-five dollars, and churches
smaller and larger tban this might be
expected to give in like proportion.
Rysteviatic giving, and oil giving, is the
remedy for our chronic troubleB in the
matter of finance.
While viewing with gratification the
results achieved in the past fifteen
months, a word of warning may well be
addressed to our people. It Is a familiar
saying that "nothing succeeds like success,"
and the success that has crowned
the labors of our Committee may incline
some to think that strenuous effort
is no longer needed. If such a feeling
should be general it would be very unfortunate.
In the case of great institutions
of learning that have, after many
years of working and waiting, secured
handsome equipment and large endowments,
their success has been promotive
of larger success. Great schools like
Harvard, Yale, and Princeton have received
large donations and bequests from
persons of wealth who have "fallen over
each other" in their eagerness to increase
the endowment and equipment of
these successful institutions.
It is to be hoped that our Colleges and
our Theological Seminary may, in "good
time coming," have a like experience.
But the time is not yet. It will require
"a strong pull, a long pull, and a pull
all together" to secure for them even a
good working equipment and a fairly
adequate endowment.
The financial interests could be entrusted
to no better hands than those of
iuc uiru wuu compose our iuxecutive
Committee. These Christian business
men are worthy of confidence and commendation.
They can be trusted and
they are trusted. The Chairman, who is
the leader in this work, has proved his
eminent fitness by what he has already
accomplished. He is a marvellously gifted
man and has an unexcelled capacity
for hard work. The writer has been in
position to now of his work and the
obstacles he has had to surmount in
securing the results already achieved. In
the early years of Mr. Gladstone's famous
career one remarked that he was a
"coming man." A blunt Scotchman replied,
"Tut, mon, he has already coom."
Dr. Robert Ernest Vinson is not a coming
man?he has already come. He is
such a leader as to inspire the confidence
of all, and a trusted leader counts for
much.
On the eve of one of his great battles,
the Duke of Wellington was riding in
view of a division of his troops when a
soldier called out, "There goes the Duke,
God bless him, he 1b worth five thousand
men." In truth the great Iron Duke was
n host in himself, but his success depended
upon the steady and united support
of every subaltern and of all the
men in the ranks.
Let not the confidence that our great
educational Interests are in competent
hands and that our leader is a host
in himself lull us Into security, but rather
inspire every heart with hope and
nerve every hand to vigorous and continuous
effort, assured that our labor
will not be in vain?that "in due season
we shall reap if we faint not."
Austin, Texas.
- Many,
indeed, thinik of being happy
with Qod in heaven, but the being happy
wan uoa on e?nn never enters toetr
thoughts.?John Wesley.
iB|
ft. H or T B ? SOUTH
THE TALENT MONEY PLAN.
By Rer. A. B. Curry, D. D.
This plan is heartily and unanimously
commended to the church by our Executive
Committee in Nashville. They
believe it to be the only practicable plan
under present conditions. Which is the
part of loyalty to those appointed by
the church to lead us in this matter, to
rally to their plan, and work it for all
it is worth, or to hold off and criticize
their wisdom? Could they have devised
any plan to which some one would not
have objected? To pay off the Foreign
Missions debt will require "team work"
on the part of our church and team work
cannot be secured by every man having
a plan of his own. The only man who
ought to object to the Committee's plan
is the one who has a better plan to pay
off the debt, and who is working it to
the limit and sending in the money to
the treasury. A poor plan for doing it
is better than a good plan for not doing
JtThe
church of which the writer is
pastor, in response to the Committee's
call, gave last year a special offering of
?2,000 on the debt. This was done by
the well to do members of the church.
Now the church has put in the Talent
Money Plan for those who cannot give
large sums of money, but who can give
of their time and labor. Nearly three
hundred persons will work and give
under this plan. Similar co-operation
with the Executive Committee on the
part of the whole church would have
paid off the debt long ago, and will pay
it off next March. This church believes
this a better way than criticizing the
Committeo and meanwhile preserving a
"masterly inactivity" in the task of paying
ofT the debt.
Memphis, Tenn.
WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE.
The Preabyerian of Philadelphia,
which 1 find to be very sound and conservative
in its general tone, shoulder
to shoulder with our Southern Church
papers in this respect, in a late number
has the following, referring to the recent
woman's suffrage convention, held
in Philadelphia. The whole editorial is
good, but for brevity I only submit this
extract:
"The Scriptures from the beginning
and throughout, declare the equality and
the diversity of man and woman. The
old negro put it in his own way when
he said, 'The Almighty made man and
woman alike in everv narticular frcent
a few variations, and thank God for the
variations."
"This equality and difference find no
greater recognition than in the teachings
of our Lord and in his treatment of
woman, no fuller and more accurate expression
than in the epistles of the great
apostle to the Gentiles. In these man is
charged to love, honor, and cherish and
defend woman, and, if need he, to give
his life for her, as Christ gave his life
for the Church. On the other hand,
woman is to respond by observing the
dlvino order, and to pay certain regard
and reverence to the true man.
Among peoples, like the Anglo-Saxons,
where these divine principles have
been obeyed, the greatest social progress
has been made, and woman has reached
her highest honor and development.
The Anglo-Saxon words, 'husband'
( \ ??- /AS-- -
i iiuupc-imuu; auu wile lilt? WOOI) ,
clearly express the equality and difference.
The house without a band must
be weak. The web without a woof is
worthless. But when the outside band
is strong, and the inside substance Is
good, then the house is strong, worthy
and secure.
"On the other hand, among those peoples
of greater culture, like the Greeks,
which have not recognized these divine
principles, but have pushed woman out
(1407) 17
into the public, as the rival of man, and
yet his counter part, woman has been
dishonored and debased. It has resulted
in dividing woman into two classes: the
w ife at home, the mother of children and
a slave; and the companion (the Qreek
hetaerae) in public, who was a courtesan,
cultured, brilliant, courted, feasted
and admired.
"If any question this conclusion, let
him refresh his mind upon the history
of the Ge rman races on the one side, and
the Greeks and Romans on the other.
"The mere fact of women's voting, or
not voting is not the material thing;
liut thf> ronprnl wMoH <?>?"
0??? ? n utv.ii avvvai
panies and pervades this movement is %
all-important.
"No man can detail the course which
this movement will pursue, nor the result
which it will produce; but if the
present spirit continue, the course must
be devious, and the end destructive. It
is an ominous fact that side by side
with all this effort and talk for the advancement
of woman, there exists the
white slave traffic, than which history
offers no parallel more terribly corrupt
and repulsively vile." '/
S. F. Tenney,
Crockett, Texas.
TO THE WOMEN OF THE SOUTHERN
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
Thero was a time in the early history
of the Southern Presbyterian Church
when the offerings for mission causes,
Hot h hnmo onH
uu?.u I.vutw HUU tv/1 C1()U WCIO TOi/
much smaller than they are now.
In that period the women of our
church, realizing the need, and seeing
the dearth of means, handed together to
see if something more could not be dono.
This was the origin of the Missionary
Societies that now exist in nearly all of
our churches and which have been productive
of much good.
From these Societies later on grew
the Unions, Presbyterial and Synodlcal.
In many respects the Union is a good
thing, but I believe we can have a
better thing than even this good thing.
It have attended the Unions on several
occasions and had the honor once
of being a delegate, and I know the uplift
and the inspiration and the longing
for higher things that Alls and thrills
you as you listen to the prayers and
earnest appeals that our women can
make.
But friends, as we sit at this feast?
for it is a feast?are we realizing that
there are others, at our very doors,
starving for the very Bread of Life?
We are responsible for the souls of
those just where God has placed ub.
Should we run across the state or county
to a Union when there is daily work
right at our door that God has given us?
Lon ?- I- t
iui uao uc live piatcu UO III HUJflCS I
In our zeal have we not gotten away
a little from what he Intended for us?
Is not the work in and around the
home higher than any other on earth?
To lead a little child to God! O, the
privilege!
Is there not a servant In your home
with an unsaved soul?
Can you not bring a ray of hope to
that wretched home with the drunken
husband and father?
What Impression of American Chris
nan wuumuiiooa is mat iamny or emigrants
to carry away with them?
Will you let that butterfly friend go
flitting her life away on bubbles that
will burst into emptiness on the shore
of eternity?
Should we not return to our JewlBh
neighbors something of the debt we owe
them? Our Saviour was a Jew.
Think of the divorces and suicides
that are blackening our fair land. Can
not each one of us, just where we are,
hold up God's law so that those who
(Continued on page 21.)