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VOL. LXXXVII. RICHMC
Facinsr the Fa
and Presi
At the start, we want to recognize the debt
we owe to the great Synod of Kentucky, for
having originated such a thing as Synodical
Home Missions. Under the inspiring leadership
of that great, good and consecrated Soul
Winner and Champion of Evangelization, Dr.
E. C. Guerrant, the Synod of Kentucky blazed
the way through this untried field of missionary
endeavor, and some, at least, of her aiater Sv
nods followed. Blessings untold resulted.
Everyone knows what a boon this work has
been to dear old North Carolina, that staunch,
conservative, yet wonderfully progressive Synod.
The Virginia Synod will never cease to
be thankful for what this work has brought to
her. By it our work, in many sections, has
been revolutionized, and we stand today with
our faces turned to even brighter things, and
with a vision of more copious showers of bless
mgs 10 come.
"We, therefore, take off cur hats to the blu?grass
Synod for giving us the cue, and bid
her a God-speed in her work for the Master.
Facing the facts in relation to Synodical
Presbyterial Home Missions! All in twenty
minutes! Touring the world in thirty days!!
That is, however, in keeping with the spirit
of the age, and we must keep up with the procession,
even if our head does turn white in the
attempt.
SYNOD'8 AND PKESBYTERY 'S HOME MISSIONS.
In our view, these two, when conjointly
worked, are so closely associated, so intimately
related, so absolutely interwoven, the interests
of the one are so precisely the interests
of the other, and in their plans of work they
should be so harmoniously co-operative, that
when you think, and speak, and act about
one, you necessarily think and speak and act
about the other. They must vitalize each other.
When Synodical Home Missions do not move
along Presbyterial lines, and when Presbytcrial
Home Missions do not move along Synodical
lines there can be little success. There
must be no cross currents. The great river on
whose banks this convention meets today flows
on, day and night, in harmony with the lesser
streams, which create it, and these in turn flow
oil in harmony with the "Father of waters,"
which they create. So with this work of the
Svnods and Preahvterips Thorp mint ho hor.
mony. Nothing must disturb the brotherly
flow. And I imagine that the reason why Synodical
Missions has not prospered at times,
is, that the Presbyteries have not interpreted
the true mission of the Synods in this matter,
and the Synods, on the other hand, have not
rightly guarded the rights of the Presbyteries.
From the view point that they are one, we shall
speak on
VHa P
*"??1?
>ND. NEW ORLEANS, ATLANTA, MAI
cts in Relation
byterial Home .
By REV. J. E. BOOKER, *
Superintendent Virginia Synodical Missions *
}
(jMdre*s made before the Lantmen'a Mem a ft it Convention)
(
6YM0DICAL. HOME MISSIONS. 1
and narrowing the held even to a very much <
smaller compass, we shall deal with the Vir- ?
ginia Synod's Home Alisaiona We do this for
three reasons: ?
1st. The Assembly a few years ago, appoint- '
ed a Committee to report on the best plan for 1
Synodical Missions. That Committee reported 1
at Lewisburg. It recommended the Virginia 1
and North Carlonia plans. The Assembly '
adopted tiie report, and in turn recommended !
these plans to the church at large. These plans
are very much the same. j
2nd. The Virgina work is typical. Typical
of what is to be done all over our Southern
Church. The problems which confront us are
those which confront all. With minor differ- \
ences, the trend is the same. We have all the
phases of Home Mission Work in our one hundred
and fifty counties, in three states, that you
find anywhere. There are larger problems elsewhere,
but we doubt whether there are any
more difficult ones.
"We have the city problem, with its slums and
factories. The negro problem which none of
us are meeting as we should. Then comes that
multitude of neglected fishermen along the
creeks, rivers and bays of our tidewater section.
There is also the college student problem.
Further "West, we strike that great Piedmont
section with its ever pressing needs along
sustentatico. lines.
bushing into the Blue Ridge and Alleghany
ranges we face the mountaineer of whom we
hear so much today. Then come the lumbermen,
hundreds of whom have been reached by
this work. We have among them our Southern
"sky pilot," William Flinn, who is doing a
wonderful work.
And then come the mining town, and villages
with their teeming thousands, and tens of
thousands, both native and foreign, and when
your very heart has sickened (with this sight,
you glide down the western slope of the Alle
: ? ?j " "
guauicN, unu nn oiner prooiems just as hard,
along the upper Ohio Valley.
And so it goes from Pennsylvania to North
Carolina and from the Chesapeake Bay to the
Ohio River. Our work is a typical one.
But mv main reason fr?r snootin 0v,/w.*
T -f ouwuk mc
Virginia work is, that I know nothing else.
That is certainly reason enough.
* "What about this Virginia work!
Twenty^three years ago, practically at the
beginning of that period of marvelous material
development which swept then and is Iptill
l Presbyter/an <r
1ewj presbytzftjan
*CH 19, 1913. NO. H*
to Synodical
Missinns
m w a
iweeping over our Southern land, the Virginia
synod, startled by this amazing material development
in her own borders, sprang suddenly
o her feet, to face problems of the gravest
;haracter in her Home Mission territory; probems
that had to be solved, and solved without
lelay. It was no time to stand on ceremony,
ind red tape was ruthlessly brushed aside.
Listen! Fifty counties of our one hundred
ind fifty, without a Presbyterian Church,
listen!! Twelve Presbyteries, five or six of
vhich were staggering under the burden of
iheir Home Mission problems which they could
aot solve. Literally reeling beneath their
loads, with no prospect of relief. Facing such
i situation, the question arose:
What is the remedyf?for remedy we must
iovef
The answer was, "The Synod!"
Then came another quest-on.
A question from the watchdogs of the consti
tution r Unconstitutional! was the cry.
WHY A SYNOD'S DOME MJSSION WORK?
Why? When every one of these twelve
Presbyteries is doing a Home Mission work of
its own, should Synod do such a work, covering
precisely the same ground as these Presbyteries?
And still the answer would not
down, but came quick and loud; "The Synod."
We have these twelve Presbyteries. Some
are strong, some not so strong, some are weak,
and some are very, very weak, and it so hai>
peus that by far our largest and most important
Home Mission territory lies in the very,
very weak Presbyteries, and the very life is being
crushed out of them by problems they cannot
solve. They cannot cope with the situation.
The strong can take care of themselves
but what of these weak ones that are staggering
under their loadt Whence can come the
relief they needt And the answer was from
Synod, through co-operative action of the
mwYc i icoujricncs, Aim xnus was Dorn the
Virginia Synod's Home Mission Work, which
is a Synodical-Presbyterial co-operation, by
which the strong could help the weak. Cooperation
by which we could carry into practical
effect those grand injunctions of the Apostle:
"Bear ye one-another's burdens, and so
fulfill the law of Christ."
"Think not everyone on his own things, but
everyone on the things of another." And the
9 A 1 ? ?- ? ' *? ' ** * '* * *
11 nuu i Aiuiuab mu^jcui. inspired oy the helping
hand of Synod thus reached out to their
aid, these weaker Presbyteries sprang forward
with alacrity to their tasks, and now three or
four of them have become leaders in Evangelistic
and Home Missionary effort. And if no
other result had ever come from this Synod's
work, this stimulus givo*> the various Presbyteries,
both strong and weak, to do their work