Newspaper Page Text
I he elevation of the church's conception and
estimate of the Home Mission workers. The
Committee on a Home Mission Survey was con
tinued, with a view to a full gathering of all
the facts and needs of the work. The Com
mittee on Country Churches was also contin
ued. The problems of the standardization of
salaries, the proper equipment of Home Mis
sion workers, the holding of Young People's
Conferences, the means of increasing the peo
ple's knowledge, its needs and promoting a
deeper interest in the Home Mission Task, were
fully studied. Presbyterial Chairmen and
Superintendents were asked to arrange visits
of Home Mission workers to the larger
churches, and pastors were asked to co-oper
ate in this effort by opening the doors of
Iheir churches to these workers. In every
thing that the Council touched, HOME MIS
SIONS was spelled in capital letters!
A special resolution, on the scaling of per
centages, was heartily adopted, as follows:
" We recommend that where there is a scaling
of the percentages approved by th# Assembly
or Synod, care should be taken that no cause
be made to suffer unduly ; but in the reduction,
the ratio of percentages be maintained." This
was in view of the fact that when there is a
shortage of general funds, it is too often the
ease that the other causes receive their full
amount and the scaling down is made on Home
Misisons alone.
During all the conferences, frequent refer
ence was made to the recently published books
of Secretaries Morris and McMillan, and the
admirable manner in which they set forth the
frreat ends and needs of the church's life and
activities.
To make its work more effective and to crys
talize its efforts, as well as to define and out
line its functions more clearly, the Council
considered very carefully a "constitution," or
"statement," or "declaration," and showed its
preference for one of the latter titles. The
paper was placed upon the docket for action
at the next meeting. It was also directed that
a copy of it be sent to the Chairman of Home
Missions of each Synod, calling special atten
tion to its provisions looking, through confer
ences and committees, towards the promotion
of general interest ; the gathering and dissemi
nation of facts and information; the survey of
the task in terms of men, money, and service;
the promotion of co-operation between all Home
Missions agencies; plans and methods of work;
means and spirit of evangelism; the securing
of the rightful share of the Church's attention
and benevolent contributions; the creation of
a new order of Home Missionaries by magni
fying the fundamental importance of the work
in the Church and nation, the sacrificial and
self-denying character of the service, the un
met need, and the marvelous achievements of
those engaged in the work.
New Orleans, La.
WAGONS AND SHOULDERS.
By Rev. L. J. Sherrill.
Numbers 7 :7-9 : "Two wagons and four oxen
he gave unto the sons of Gershon, according
to their service: and four wagons and eight
oxen he gave unto the sons of Merari, accord
ing unto their service, under the hand of
Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. But unto
the sons of Kohath he gave none, because the
service of the sanctuary belonged unto them;
they bare it upon their shoulders." (ARV.)
The tabernacle had just been completed and
set up. It was a great day for Israel. Their
wealth, their jewels, their labor, almost their
ownselves, had gone into its building. It meant
more to them than we can easily imagine from
this distance. By day and by night it stood in
the midst of their camp, a perpetual reminder
to them that, though they had left Egypt and
its comforts, yet God was with them.
In order to do especial honor to this taber
nacle, on the day it was first put together and
dedicated and made so conspicuous by the
Shekinah-light hovering above it, twelve
princes representing the twelve tribes, came to
make a special gift to it. They brought vessels
of silver, and golden ones, for the use of the
men who ministered in the tabernacle. They
brought droves of animals for sacrifice. But
perhaps the mast practical gift they brought
that day was the very prosaic one of six wagons
and twelve oxen. These in turn were given to
the groups of Levites, to be used in the taber
nacle service.
Now there were three divisions of the
Levites, and each division had special duties to
perform. The work of earing for the taber
nacle was well organized. There was a division
called the Gershonites, whose duty it was, at
the time of taking down the tabernacle in readi
ness for a move, to carry the soft material of
the structure : the curtains, the tent and cov
erings and screens, the hangings of the court,
with its screens and cords. There was a di
vision called the Merarites, whose duty it was
to carry the heavy materials of the tabernacle :
the boards and bars of mental, the pillars and
sockets of the tent and court. The other di
vision, the Kohathites, had as their duty to
carry the sacred furniture : the ark of the cov
enant, with its veil, the table of showbread, the
candlestick, the altar of incense, and the great
altar of burnt offering together with all the
vessels of the tabernacle.
So the oxen and wagons were apportioned
among these groups. To the division that car
ried the soft materials, they gave two wagons
and two yoke of oxen. To the division that
had charge of the heavy materials, they gave
four wagons and four yoke of oxen. But to
the Kohathites, the group that carried the
sacred furniture, none was given. It was the
shoulder that must carry that load! Gershon
and Merari might have physical aid for the
burdens that they bore; Kohath's load was too
holy to be carried in carts.
Always, in any affair that concerns many
persons, there arc these two groups : those who
do what is required, but as easily as possible;
and that other inner circle on whom the bur
dens really rest, who carry on their heart the
real work, the anxiety, the responsibility, for
any undertaking. The one group carries on
wagons, and we admire them for being able to
do their work so easily. The other group car
ries on their shoulders. Theirs is the wearying
load, but theirs is the true honor.
. . i
I. ? The Groups.
These two classes are everywhere. You will
find them in national life. They are in any
business. You meet them in all social activities.
Any fraternal organization has them. They
are to be seen in clubs, in colleges. But the
two places where you will find them, that are
of special interest to us now, are the home
and the church.
In the home every one gets the advantage of
the pleasures and benefits that are made possi
ble. Generally speaking, the children share all
alike. There may be some of them who do not
take any interest, nor make themselves of any
assistance. There are some who selfishly only
enjoy, but who never contribute. They put
their share of the home earns upon the wag
ons, %nd some one else pulls the wagon.
But at the center of the home, there is al
ways some one or some group who carry the
home as it were on their shoulders. There is
the supreme care, in their hearts, that the home
shall be a success, a plaee of contentment and
happiness. Sometimes it is a brother or a sis
ter, where the father or mother have no inter
est; not infrequently it is a grandmother, or
an uncle or aunt. There are times when it is
a father or a mother alone. But normally this
group is composed of the father and the
mother.
We take these home-makers so much for
granted, that we often do not see the sacrifices
they are making. "We do not see the anxiety,
the toil and the planning. We do not know
the prayerful nights of uneasiness lest some
thing should' go wrong with the boy or girl.
We do not know the wakeful hours when one
of the boys is out from home, and there is 110
sleep until all the fledglings are back in the
nest.
When things are going smoothly, the family
with enough to eat, sufficient clothing, a com
fortable home, we often do not know nor do
we always see those precious plotters behind
the scenes. We cannot look in on the father as
he schemes to make his income meet the drains
of Federal taxes and States taxes and county
taxes and city taxes, and then leave enough to
pay the scores of bills, and still have something
left to pay for the splurge that one of the boys
or one of the girls would feel so abused if he
or she couldn't have. Too often we know noth
ing at all of the patient, loving economies which
a mother has practiced so constantly since the
day of our birth that we never knew anything
else, and it did not occur to us that there could
be anything else until we have left the nest
to try out our own wings. God made father
love and mother-love like that. The burden
of the sanctuary of the home rests heavy on
their shoulders. Sometimes it chafes tender
hands. Often it cuts very deep into shoulders
too slender for such a load. But the wonder
of it is that they feel they have been well re
paid, if those for whom the callouses have been
made, will once in a while touch them with
their lips.
These two classes are to be met in every
church. Not to speak at all of that group of
idlers who do nothing whatsoever now, and
never will ; there is a large class of those who
help in carrying 011 the Christian work. They
are the majority of those whose location and
circumstances permit them to take some part.
They are a very great help, too. They take
some part in various activities. They support
the church financially. They attend its ser
vices with some degree of regularity. They
keep in running order what might be called the
machinery of the church. No church could do
without them; and nearly every church ought
to keep them in mind more than it does, for
it is only natural that a church should be more
occupied with those who are more fully devel
oped and active leaders on the one hand, and
on the other extreme with those on the fringe
who are not developed at all. So this inter
mediate group, while not neglecting the church,
sometimes' comes very near being neglected.
The wagons and thoss to man them are
needed in every church ; sorely needed, usually.
In the church, much can be done by mechanical
aids. Much can be accomplished by the help
of good equipment that probably could not be
done otherwise. But the true spirit of the
church is not there. Some one once said that
a university was a log with a student at one
end, and a true teacher at the other. Similarly
it might be said that a real church is any place
where man comes and meets with God. We
must remember that as wfc go into a new