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VOL. LXXXVII. RICiSome
Imp
1 hud never attended a Presbyterian General
.Assembly though I had been a member of the
Presbyterian Church for 2t'? years. I had been
at meetings of Sessions,- Presbyteries and Synods
but had never gone as high as a General Assembly,
and happening to be in and about Atlanta
for a period of several weeks prior to the
gathering of the clans, and eatehing the infection
of the general spirit of anticipation, I decided
to remain over that period and make up
for lost opportunities in the past by taking in
ilncc Assemblies all at once.
It was mv privilege to be located conveniently
1o all of them, so that I could visit among them
and s[>cml hours at a time at each of them, and
so catch the spirit and purpose of each, and thus
compare them and learn something of the status
.md activities of 1'resbyterianism in the United
States.
It was a tremendous undertaking for a city
of the size of Atlanta to welcome 1,500 conunissioners
into its homes and entertain them, and
to tiiul places for about 3,000 visitors in addition,
but ;ls Atlanta is a town that never balks at any
undertaking it accomplished this with surprisingly
small difficulty and friction and with no
least detail left unprovided for.
Atlanta has a Presbyterian constituency of
1 about 4,blH) church members, so that for eaclx
resident Presbyterian there was one from the
outside during these nine days, and they made a
decided impress upon the city. Badges were
worn by the commissioners and visitors to the
Assemblies and thus could be readily recognized
on sight, a most appropriate souvenir button being
provided with a wee bit of blue ribbon for
those from the Northern Church, a bit of red
ribbon for the Southerners, and tvhiie ribbon
for the United Presbyterians.
1i\o doubt the dominant idea in the minds of
the promoters of these simultaneous meetings
was that it should be an occasion for mutual
acquaintance and good fellowship and this was
fully realized in the way in which they got togetlier
in the trolley cars, on the street corners,
in the hotel lobbies and at the various functions
and entertainments that were provided for them.
Perhaps the most delightful of all the social
functions was the reception given on the campus
of Agnes Scott College, six miles out from Atlanta,
on an afternoon that was absolutely flawless.
AVeather conditions could not have been
more auspicious if they had been made to order,
and the bevy of fair young college maidens who
served nf tbr? / - 1- >- ?*
1_ ... .... lunji>K uumo \u ui muur. rrwDytorian
P, clad in white and filmy "creations" in
an atmosphere that radiated sunshine and
' ordiality made an occasion that will he long remembered,
particularly by those who had come
from the far off chilly regions of northern New
Vork and Midftigan.
Prcsbyterianism is intimately associated with
high-class preaching and of this there was so
nvv fwic
iMOND, NEW ORLEANS, ATLANTA, JL
ressions of the
BY A PRESBYTERIAN TRAVELING MAN
much to be had, especially 011 the Sunday cover- h
ed by the Assemblies, that it was a job to decide S
what preacher to hear. Each of the retiring
moderators gave a fine discourse; it was the 1
writer'? rare privilege to hear the minister of o
the largest Presbyterian Church :n the world, a
the Rev. Mark A Matthews, of Seattle, Wash.,
the retiring Moderator of the Northern Church, c
on "The Victories of Faith vs. The Failure of N
Unbelief." Though it has been intimated that 1>
he is a "sensational preacher," there was more c
sense than sensation in this sermon during which ti
he held his audience spell-bound for more than k
an hour and more than once asked that there ?
should be no applause when intense feeling and y
interest sought that method of relieving itself, f
The Northern Church 1'j< oeen accused oj po- s<
litieal schemes in electing its Moderators, and
of booming and boosting possible candidates for a
that honor through the religious press for some
weeks in advance. If this were so it met with a ?
dismal failure at this Assembly for the nomina- a
tor of the candidate who was eleeUHj did not even c
allow his man to know that I19 ttfas to propose his r
name lest he should protest. It "was possibly a I
greater surprise to Dr. John Timothy Stone, pas- i:
tor of the Fourth Presbyterian church, of Chi- s
eago, to hear himself nominated by Dr. King, of 1
, Monmouth, Ills., and to find himself elected by t
a large majority on the second ballot, than it ji
was to any other individual member of that. vast. {
Assembly. But it was a wise choice as it proved r
in the strenuous days that followed. An Asseni- a
bly, as any other large convention, partakes in 1
large meastire of the spirit of the chairman, and n
this Assembly rejected the earnest, manly, i
straightforward personality of the big man who fi
held the gavel and directed its proceedings with J
equanimity and impartiality, with the ever-ready I
mentor at his side, in the person of tine venerable 3
1waiUn. ir i>~v?e?
?i. iiuimui xx. Jiuucno, iur lujriy years me ?
Stated Clerk of this vast body, who knows Pres- ?.
byterian procedure from A to Z. It was the t
writer's privilege to hear Dr. Stone on Sunday \
morning at the wee Northern Presbyterian 1
church on one of the more inconspicuous streets i
in Atlanta, being the solitary Northern church i
in tlie city. It was a spiritual treat to be in the 1
audience of such a preacher and to catch by re- 1
flection something of the true spirit of Jesus I
Christ directly reflected from this splendid min- f
ister; not only big in physique and appealing by <
his superb manliness and humanity, but by the
very fact that so fine a man was, as Paul used to
say, a "bond-slave to Jesus Christ," this, to- i
gether with the deep spirituality of his sermon, i
the tender and earnest feeling illustrated at
times with reference to a personal past, drew out _ '
one's heart to him in a thankfulness that brought
a blessing with it. lie had come to Atlanta I
(and without his preacher clothes!), to bear an 1
invitation to the Assembly to meet in his church 1
in Chicago next year, and he not only won what ]
mwrnm
i?
STERNPRESBYTERIAM
PRESBYTERtAN ?
39VPRESBYTERfAN
INE 25. 1913. NO.
Assembly
e came for but also the moderatorahip of this
iKseurbjy into the bargain.
Dr. Kusscll was elect til Moderator of the
fnited Presbyterian Assembly viva voce, withut
any rival and made a calm, courteous and
ble presiding officer.
Of the available material from which to
house, the election of the Moderator of the
Southern Assembly was a most happy one in the
erson of Dr. J. S. Lyons, pastor of the First
hureh at Louisville, Ky., who not only made a
ne chairman, but had the happy faculty of
uowing how to handle a situation and of renoudimr
most wittilv anil imrnimnutolu
w ^ iv mvreotings
presented by the frateftial delegates
rora the other bodies who canie before this Aserably.
There were a number of questions of greater
nd lesser interest that were presented to the
Assemblies, some of which provoked lively disussion
and threatened to become spectacular,
ud might have been so, but for the wisdom and
oolness of the Moderators. Among these was the
eport of the Committee on Conference with
:nion Theological Seminary, New York, oonsistIliT
of J1 111* ieritv r?>ivr>?*+ iirVi iy?V? ???
0 ? .vjr ?V|/W4 V (TU1VM gave Llie llliprcs*
ion that matters were in a satisfactory shape
or the resumption of friendly relations between
he General Assembly of the Northern Church
ind this institution which has been a thorn in
he side of the Presbyterian Church for lo, these
nany years. This was followed by a tirst and
eeond minority report with a decided negative
>ased upon the failure of this "theological uni'ersity"
to provide adequate theological trainng
for its quota of Presbyterian students, inlomuch
that a number of them after a three
fears' course of study in this school of the
jrujjueui, preceuea ^ presumably) by a four
rears' course in college, "have not had time" to
lecide as to their belief in the virgin birth of
fesus Christ and other vital themes of the Scripures.
A plain layman like the writer begins to
vonder somewhat if a student will ever be able
o decide the matter if he has not done so already
in a special course of study covering seven
rears and during which he must have come face
:o face with the matter times without number.
Dr. Francis Brown, President of this Theologieal
University, was granted the floor of the As:end>ly
so that he might explain that the attitude
>f the institution was that of independence, that
t sought nothing and desired nothing from the
Assembly, and was under no obligations to it,
ind that though he had been invited to the Assembly
as a visitor he felt himself to be in the
position of having been met at the door and
ivhaeked over the head with a stick, that he was
<orry to see that the overwhelming sentiment of
the Assembly seemed to he against Union Seminary
as evidenced by the manner in which both
the minority reports were received. If signs
mean anything it was quite reassuring to a plain