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THE VALUE AND THE DANGER OF THE
SUMMER CONFERENCE.
All over our land Summer Conferences are
being held on all phases of Church work. That
these Conferences are of inestimable value no
one can doubt. The very coming together of
the members of our churches, old, middle-aged
and young, is a decided advantage. When the
army was marching through the intricate re
cesses of the Argonne forest, suddenly the
whole division swept out into line in an open
space. It sent a thrill of enthusiasm along the
battle-swept lines. The simple fact they could
see one another was a cheer in itself.
So for many lonely workers in forbidding
fields to get away and see others, who are on
the same battle-line is good. It always helps
men to compare notes; for most of our prob
lems are the problems of others. And the
methods of solution are practically the same,
the Church over.
It is always a fine thing to hear some of our
leading men discuss the great themes of our
theology in a popular way. In fact the rank
and file of our people know very little about
the fundamentals of our Church. And too
often they can not be taught by our pastors
from lack of time, llow could a man handle
the noble origin of man, the decrees of God,
the whole plan of redemption even in thirty
minutes usually allotted to the sermon?
Hut when a man is given an hour a day for
several days, he has an opportunity of doing
a finished piece of work.
The social advantages of the Conference pe
riod are not to be despised. They accomplish
much for the cause of religion. We are not
theological automatons. We have still some
of the juice of human life. The social delights
of our summer conference period is a most val
uable asset.
There are some dangers. The course of lec
tures may be too strenuous. Summer season is
the period of low cerebral activity. This is es
pecially true when men are going at high
pressure during the rest of the year. Spurred
on by an unusual activity induced by a change
of climate, especially when we move up from
a lower to a higher climate, the mind may go
too heavily into this work. Wrhile it may be
said, "no one is obliged to take it all in," yet
thee fear of losing something especially good,
something that others are talking about, makes
one put on an extra effort to cover the whole
field. The result too often is a mind that is
not rested, but crammed with food that is un
digested.
For this reason many hard-working pastors
shun conferences because they are often more
tired at the end than at the beginning.
There is a danger that we will take the views
presented by some one supposed to be able
enough to occupy the conference platform, as
absolutely and relatively correct, without
weighing them in the balances of careful
thought. Many come hack with views swal
lowed whole without testing them. We find,
on the other hand, some of the pabulum fur
nished is simply old sermons or lectures re
vamped in a casual way, and odoriferous of a
musty age.
There is a danger that we compare them with
the regular eourts of the Lord's House to their
detriment. Many have said the conference is
more interesting than Synod. These compari
sons are not right. They ought at least to
arouse Presbyteries and Synods to the neces
sity of making themselves more interesting to
the average attendant. Much might be said
along this line, and probably will be said later
on.
A. A. L.
Contributed
DR. CHESTER'S LETTER TO THE CHINA
MISSIONS.
To Our China Missions:
Dear Brethren: I am sending you under
separate cover printed copies of our Annual
Report to the General Assembly, calling spe
cial attention to the paragraph of the report in
which we bring before the Assembly the re
sult of our investigation, made under instruc
tion from the Assembly of 1921, of the ques
tion of sound teaching in Mission schools under
our eare or in which we co-operate. You will
find bound in the Annual Report also a copy of
the action of the General Assembly of Charles
ton, West Virginia, and in the report of this
action I would call special attention to the par
agraphs relating to this matter.
As the investigation being conducted by the
Executive Committee was incomplete at the
time of the Assembly's meeting, you will ob
serve that we arc instructed to continue it with
the view of getting full reports from our Mis
sions, on the basis of which we are to make a
final report on the subject to the next General
Assembly. We have received the report of the
Ad Interim Committee of the Mid-China Mis
sion, and had also received a report from the
Ad Interim Committee of the North Kiangsu
Mission, but after receiving this latter report
we had a letter from one of the members of the
North Kiangsu Ad Interim Committee modify
ing some of the statements contained in the
report which he had signed.
It is now the desire of the Executive Com
mittee that our China Missions should take up
this whole matter de novo and make an inves
tigation covering all the points referred to in
the action of the Charleston Asembly on the
subject of orthodoxy, and send us when the in
vestigation is completed a report covering all
these points REPRESENTING FULL MIS
SION ACTION, and presenting signed ma
jority and minority reports in case there should
be irreconcilable differences of opinion on the
subject in either or both Missions.
Calling especial attention to the item in the
action of the Assembly relating to the use of
unsatisfactory text books in Union institu
tions in which we co-operate, our Committee
desires that our Missions should use every
proper and legitimate means to secure the re
moval of such books as are named in the
Assembly's action, namely, "Clarke's Outlines
of Theology" and "Hastings' Bible Diction
ary." Several years ago we had to make an
issue with the Board of the Presbyterian
Church, IJ. S. A., with which we were co-ope
rating in the Meiji Gakuin in Japan concerning
the r.se of Clarke's Theology as a text b >ok,
and the General Assembly instructed the Ex
ecutive Committee at that time to make the
continuance of our co-operation in that insti
tution conditional on the substitution of some
book less objectionable from the standpoint of
conservatism and orthodoxy as the theological
text book. For one year the Seminary authori
ties substituted Strong's Theology in the place
of Clarke's, but at the end of a year Clarke
was reintroduced and our Mission withdrew
from the Meiji Gakuin and established our
Theological Seminary at Kobe.
We most sincerely hope that the other
Boards co-operating in our Seminary at Nan
king will appreciate the value of our co-opera
tion, at least to the extent that they will be will
ing to adopt some theological text book which
our Missions have approved. We would de
plore the necessity of separating ourselves
from the other evangelical Missions working in
Central China in the matter of theological edu
cation, and thus losing the opportunity "which
we now have, with three members of our Mis
sions 011 the Seminary faculty, of making our
contribution toward the training of the theo
logical students coming from all the evangeli
cal Missions in their views of Christian doc
trine. While, of course, we could not think
of making concessions that would involve a
sacrifice of principle in this matter, we do not
think we ought to take any extreme position
in our requirement of concessions from other
Missions. We must take the ground, however,
that any institution in which our co-operation
would involve endorsement of the institution
must be conditioned 011 orthodox lines in mat
ters of essential and fundamental doctrine.
I am instructed by the Executive Committee
in bringing this matter to your attention to
sound a note of warning as to the possible dan
ger of much harm being done by individual
missionaries writing alarmist letters to their
friends in this country, or seeking to remedy
what they may regard as evils on the Mission
field by agitation of such matters in our Church
papers and by appealing to Church courts with
the view of bringing such questions before the
General Assembly in that way. Matters of
such seriousness ought, if possible, to be
handled by the Missions as such, and where
individual misionaries cannot conscientiously
accept the decisions of their Missions and wish
to bring the question under consideration be
fore the General Assembly, we think it a much
safer and better plan for them to do this by
way of regular appeal from the Mission to the
Executive Committee and then from the Ex
ecutive Committee to the General Aseembly if
they cannot conscientiously accept the verdict
of the Committee on their appeal. "
I need scarcely say to you that our Com
mittee has full trust in our foreign missionaries
doctrinallv and in every other way and is not
in any mood of suspicion or misgiving with
regard to them. This is also true with regard
to our Church generally as evidenced in the
declaration of the General Asembly at Charles
ton on that subject. It was most fortunate,
and we believe providential, that the only
one of our missionaries, Dr. Leighton Stuart,
whose orthodoxy had been called in question
was able, just before the Asembly met, to ap
pear before the Presbytery with which he had
been formerly connected in this country, and
that after thorough investigation of the charges
brought against him he was exonerated from
those charges by the Presbytery by a unani
mous rising vote.
I am instructed by the Committee, however,
to call your attention to the embarrassment in
which we would have found ourselves in this
case, except for the fact that this missionary
happened to be called to this country on busi
ness just before the Assembly met, by reason
of the fact that he had transferred his mem
bership from his home Presbytery to one of
the Presbtyeries in China. Quite a large num
ber of our missionaries in China, probably a
majority of them, have availed themselves of
the provision of the Manual which allows them,
by special permission of the General Assembly
and their home Presbyteries, to make this
change. This had involved no serious practical
difficulty until this question concerning the
doctrinal soundness of missionaries on the field
arose. When any question of that kind does
arise in the cAse of a missionary who has trans
ferred his membership to a Presbytery on the
field, it leaves the home Church in the anoma
lous position of supporting a man and being
responsible for him, over whom no Church