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"COURTESY OF A HELPFUL EFFECT."
The Continent of June 81 h has an editorial
with the above eaption. Among other kind
things, it says:
"The Southern Assembly's determination to
drop all controversy over past problems in
comity and pursue only the formulation of
clearer comity understandings for the future,
is another aot of frank cordiality that may
prove of even greater avail to the same, good
effect. There is a much clearer path ahead
for good fellowship between the two churehes
today than was visible when the Assemblies
met."
While the Presbyterian of the South cor
dially reciprocates these expressions of good
will and the earnest desire for the discontinu
ance of all controversy, it is hoped that our
esteemed contemporary and all other ardent
advocates of union will read the full report
of the Ad Interim Committee on Comity to the
General Assembly at Charleston, and not a
mere fragment of it. This report was pre
pared by a committee of able men who had had
no previous connection ? with the cases at
issue, and is characterized by its forbearance
and restraint.
The committee did not hold that there were
no grounds for complaint on the part of the
Southern Assembly. On the contrary, every
cont?ntion of the Southern Church was shown
to be fully justified, litit in view of past ex
perience it seemed to the committer that there
*.vas small ho no of securing a satisfactory set
tlement and that further litigation was futile.
If those responsible for these fractures of
comity agreements can allow them to go un
repaired, the Southern Church could do noth
ing more about it. The report states only the
facts and leaves the whole matter with those
responsible.
Contributed
BEAUTIFUL FOR SITUATION.
By Rev. Egbert W. Smith, D. D.
In my last letter I spoke of my surprise at
the remarkable beauty of the Luebo compound.
Since then I have held conferences of a week
each at Lusambo and Bibanga, and am just
beginning the conference at Mutoto. I am
again surprised to find that each of these three
other stations claims to have the most beau
tiful compound in the whole Mission and can
prove it to any fair-minded visitor.
The Mutoto compound is on the level sum
mit of a great eminence 2,200 feet above sea
level. Its houses are built around an oblong
grassy campus which is dotted with stately
palms and beautiful mango trees and shrub
bery and intersected with well laid out walks.
It commands on every side a fine view of the
surrounding hills. As the mountains arc
round about Jerusalem, so the great hills
stand sentinel about Mutoto.
The distinctive charm of the Lusambo com
pound, which lies over 1,1100 feet above sea
level on its own grassy eminence, aside from
its splendid avenue of palms, is the beautiful
Sankuru River that flows around its base, re
fleeting in its broad bosom every changing
aspect of sun and cloud and sky as well as
the wide sweep of green hill and plain and
forest that rises from its further shore.
Ribanga Station is the Asheville of our Af
rican Mission, lying 2;8()0 feet above sea level
on the brow of an immense bluff, reached by
a broad and gentle slope on one side but fall
ing steeply away on the other, and command
ing from the front veranda of every resi
dence on the compound a vast panorama of
lull and valley, plain and forest, extending
outward to a distance of 35 miles through the
full half circle of the horizon, the whole dressed
in the most bewildering variety of greens from
gloomy hlack to gayest gold, and punctuated
at nearly a dozen often widely separated
points hy silver stretches of the Lubilash
River.
Unless all precedents fail, the missionaries
at Bulape, whose Station I am yet to visit,
will he able to prove that theirs is without
question the most beautiful Station of all.
T want onr home people to know amid what
charming natural surroundings our African
missionaries live and work. It. is no mean item
in life's total that one's lot should be cast not
amid the sordid scenes that environ many a
Mission compound in the cities of the Orient,
hut in the midst of nature's loveliest and no
blest aspects, where beauty and fragrance
charm the senses, and every glance reveals
green spaces and far horizons that calm and
soothe and uplift.
Hut many of our home folks think the Af
riean missionary is kept so busy fighting
mosqnitos and hunting a cool spot that he
has 110 time to enjoy nature. There is some
truth in this picture of the missionary in the
Lower Congo where the altitude is not much
above sea level, where the great trading firms
and many misions are located, and whence
emanate many popular misimpressions of Afr
riea in general.
lint our Mission is a thousand miles up
river from the Lower Congo in a great upland
hill country which in climate, and other char
acteristics is quite different from the Lower
Congo. Take the last month, for example. Of
that period I have spent one week each at
Bibanga and Mutoto and the other two weeks
on the path travelling by foot, and hammock
from Lusambo to Bibanga and from Bibanga
to Mutoto. I was not once uncomfortably
warm during the two weeks at the two Sta
tions. Never have I been at places where a
clean stiff collar lasted longer. The only time
I suffered frem heat was on the path when
trudging up hills at or near mid-day under
the direct rays of the sun, the difference be
tween one's feelings under the noon sun's di
rect rays, and in the shade of a roof or even
a tree, being almost unbelievably great. Dur
ing the month I often wore a light overcoat
in the early morning, two or three times wore
it during the whole of some particularly cool,
sunless day, and always slept under cover at
night. In this whole period I do not recall
that I have once seen, heard or felt a mos
quito. My only entomological experiences
were with a jigger, which Mr. MeKlroy skil
fully extracted from my finger with a safety
pin, and a driver ant who got under my lea
ther legging and inspired a sudden agiiity
that Ty Cobb would have envied.
It is true that our missionaries, when going
to and returning from their fields, pass through
the Lower Congo, and are often delayed there
for several weeks at a time. But I think it
probable that owing to recent governmental
road building our missionaries will soon .ind
it quicker and easier to go and return by the
southern route via Cape Town or the eastern
route via the Suez Canal, thus avoiding the
climatic dangers and discomforts of the
Lower Congo.
(Written at Mutoto April 1, 1922).
A HEARTENING CONTRAST.
By Rev. H. Tucker Graham, D. D.,
Florence, S. C.
A glance backward over the years is an illu
minating experience. Sometimes the facts re
vealed cheer the heart and spur ns to larger
endeavor as we realize that the Lord hath done
great things for us} and through us, whereof
we are glad. Or again the record may show
that somewhere we have faltered in our efforts
and fallen short of the goal.
In the good providence of God, the past
quarter of a century affords abundant cause
for gratitude to the Great Head of the Church
on the part of the Presbyterian Church, South.
This period has been marked by a steady ad
vance all along the line that is little short of
a"ia/ing. Compare the reports submit trd to
:he Chuiioite A^ser.blv (1.^97) witli ill m pre
sented at Charleston in May:
I. The number of churches has grown from
2,816 to 3,492 ? an increase of 676 or 24 per cent.
II. The number of ministers from 1,271 to 2,056
? an increase of 785, or 61 per cent.
III. The number of members and ministers from
189,817 to 413,910 ? an increase of 224,093, or
118 per cent.
IV. The Sunday School enrollment from 162,
897 to 398,850 ? an increase of 235,953, or 144
per cent.
V. Amount contributed for all congregational
purposes (except pastor's selary) from $579,603 to
$3,608,210 ? an increase of $3,028,607, or 522
per cent.
VI. Amount contributed for pastor's salary from
$797,475 to $2,663,192 ? an increase of $1,865,
717, or 233 per cent.
VII. Amount contributed for Benevolence from
$455,782 to $5,472,323 ? an increase of $5,016,
541, or 1100 per cent.
VIII. Amount contributed for all purposes from
$1,832,860 to $11,743,725 ? an increase of $9,910,
865, or 540 per cent.
IV. In 1897:
The per capita gift for Foreign Missions was
77c.
The per capita gift for all Benevolence was
$2.40.
The per capita gift for all purposes was $9.65.
In 1922:
The per capita gift for Foreign Missions was
$3.09.
The per capita gift for all Benevolence was
" $13.28.
The per capita gift for all purposes was
$28.50.
It is clear, therefore, that our Church has
gone forward with rapid strides in every de
partment of its work ? in its membership and
ministry, in Sunday School gorvvth, and in its
contributions. Strangely enough, the smallest
financial increase above shown is the matter
of pastoral support, though even here the ad
vance is very marked. It would be highly in
teresting to know just what is the average
salary of our ministers, but nothing more than
an estimate is possible in the time at my com
mand.
Apparently, the average salary among our
pastors was not far from $730 in 1897, and was
probably* around $1,500 during the year just
ended.
The General Assembly Minutes (1921), pacre
104, indicate that during twenty years of the
period covered by the statistics of growtli
above given (1901-1921):
(a) The population of the United Stat.'*
increased 40 per cent;
(b) The combined growth of the Protectant
Churches of the United States was 40 per cent :
(e) Yet the growth of our own Church in
25 years was 118 per eent. Thus, during *
somewhat loager period we have maintained
a ratio of growth that is about two and one
half times that of the combined average of the
Protestant. Churches of America, and is also
two and one-half times more rapid than the