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The
Vol. 97. No. 40.
V'*G
RICHMOND? W 8 T
OCTOBER 4, 1922.
Sunday-school lessons for this
quarter will all be from the gospel of Luke.
I n commenting on the announcement by Gabriel
of the birth of John the Baptist, Tarbell's Se
lect Notes, which is generally very sound, quotes
from Hasting's Dictionary, with apparent ap
proval, this statement: "In the Babylonian
and Persian Angelologies there are analogies to
the seven archangels of the Jews, and the pos
sibility of Jewish belief having been influenced
by these must not be lost sight of." Two ques
tions arise: Why do the higher critics always
try to show that incidents in Scripture must
have their source in some heathen authority?
The other is, why may not the Babylonian and
Persian ideas have been influenced by the ideas
of the Jews, or by those of God's people who
lived before the days of the Jews?
Association against prohibi
tion AMENDMENT is the name of an
organization which has been formed by the
liquor interests to fight prohibition. It has
adopted as its slogan, "Beer and light wines
now, but no saloons ever." No one believes
that this association will be satisfied with beer
and light wines. It says that is what it wants
now. It will be much easier to bring back whis
key after light wine and beer has been brought
back. The association says it is opposed to sa
loons. If light wine and beer are to be sold,
there must be some place in which they would
l?e sold. A saloon by any other name would be
just as foul and just as evil.
Massacres of armenians and
other Christians by the Turks were com
mon, and the whole Christian world was hor
rified by them. It was supposed that when the
war was over that such horrors would cease.
But there have been frequent reports of mas
sacrees of Armenians since the signing of the
peace treaty. And just recently has occurred
one of the most horrible cases of the cruelty
of the Turks that has been reported at all. The
Turks being dissatisfied with the action of the
allies in depriving them of some of their ter
ritory, determined to recapture it. If they had
attempted to do this by means of legitimate
warfare, there might not have been such ground
for surprise. But the methods used have shown
that it is just as easy to change a leopard's spots
or an Ethiopian's skin as it is to change the na
ture of a Turk. Greece had possession of the
<*ity of Smyrna and the surrounding country,
but did not have an army strong enough to hold
it The Turks captured the city, and it would
l>e supposed that they would have been satisfied
with that. But in that city and vicinity there
were hundreds of thousands of Armenian an
Greek Christians. There is no evidence that
these Christians gave the Turks any trouble in
any way. But as soon as the Turkish soldiers
entered the city they began looting the Chris
tian quarter of the city and murdering its in
habitants. They also set fire to a large part of
that flection of the city, and many Christians
were burned to death before they could escape.
It is said that fifty or sixty thousand Christians
were massacred and many thousands more
would have fared the same fate if the warships
of the European nations and America had not
come to the rescue of the refuge?s that fled to
the seashore. Six hundred thousand of these
had to be transported to places of safety. They
are in absolute poverty. At this writing there
are said to be two hundred thousand more
Christians in the land seized by the Turks, who
say that if they are not removed by the ships of
the Allies in a week, they will be deported into
the interior of Turkey.| The question arise^
how long will the Christian nationg_of the wor^J
allow the blood-thirsty Turks to continue theii*
extermination of these helpless Christians. For
far less cause we went to war with Spain and
freed Cuba. The strong hand of the United
Christian governments of the world can subdue
the Turks and hold thein in check and nothing
else e^er will.
MR. HENRY FORD is one of the largest
employers of labor in this country, hav
ing 85,000 men working in his shops. He liaa
recently issued an order demanding the abso
lute enforcement of the prohibition law so far
as his employees are concerned. If one of them
is found with liquor on his person or in his
home or the scent of it on his breath, he will be
REPORT OP AD INTERIM COMMITTEE OP
THE SYNOD OP VIRGINIA ON CLOSER
RELATIONS WITH THE PRESBYTERIAN
OP THE SOUTH.
Your committee recommend that the Synod
urge upon our people the Importance of having
a religious newspaper in the family and hearti
ly commend The Presbyterian of the South as
worthy of their support. It is published with- '
in the bounds of the Synod by one of gur own
ministers, it is thoroughly sound in its teach
ing; it is our most convenient medium of com
munication; and it will be a blessing to any
household where it is taken and read. The
number of subscribers should be doubled in the
Synod, and, if this could be done in the near
future, the paper would be greatly improved
and its usefulness enlarged.
dismissed at once from service. Mr. Ford bases
his action upon three reasons: First, the man
who is under the influence of liquor cannot ren
der full and efficient service. When he employs
a man to work for him, Ije expects him to ren
der the best service of which he is capable, and
agrees to pay him accordingly. If the worker
incapacitates himself for work in any degree,
he does not make an honest return for his wages.
The second reason is that a man under the in
fluence of liquor is a menace to his fellow-work
men at the machinery with which he works.
The general testimony of the heads of factories
is that accidents are much less frequent under
prohibition than they were before. The third
reason is that the prohibition amendment is a
part of the law of this country, and he who
violates this law is a law-breaker, who does not
show proper respect for the law of the country.
He who willingly and knowingly violates on?
law persistently will be very apt to violate other
laws, and he will influence others to become law
breakers also. It would be a great thing, if all
employers of labor would take this stand, and a
greater still, if all employers were as careful
about observing the law themselves. The great
est menace to the enforcement of law in this
country is the way the "good citizens" is break
ing the prohibition law and encouraging others
to do so. ' ' "
BANKERS are generally very fine, law
abiding men, but it seems that there are
some in New York, if reports may be believed,
who are willing to destroy their own reputa
tion and injure the reputation of their pro
fession, in order that they may get hold of
some liquor for their own use. It is reported
that a group of New York Bankers have formed
a stock company, and have sold to themselves
and their friends stock to the amount of $550,
000. It is proposed to buy out some liquor
manufacturing company, which has a large
stock of liquor still on hand. It is then pro
posed to throw this new company into bank
ruptcy, and when the case has been settled in
court the assets of the company, which will be
only the liquor, will be divided among the stock
holders. It is claimed that the Government
will have no objection to this being done, and
it is also claimed that a recent decision of a
New York court permits such an action to be
taken. We cannot see why it is not just as
much a violation of law to buy liquor in this
way as in any other. Nor can we see why these
men can have any more right to transport the
liquor bought than any other owner of liquor
would have. It seems strange, indeed, that
men who are as much dependent upon the
proper enforcement of law for success in busi
ness, as banker^ are, siiQ\iid-.be willing to lend
themselves to such a scheme, even though they
* may be able on seme technicality to escape the
penalties of the law. To counteract such move
ments the real law-abiding people of this coun
try ought to insist upon a strict enforcement of
the law.
CHRISTIANITY has been preached in
China by Protestant missionaries for one
hundred and fifteen years. Its growth was
slow at first, but has become much more rapid
in later years. In 1807 Morrison, the first
missionary, stood alone in that vast empire.
In the first seven years he won two for Christ.
So that in 1814 there were three Christians in
China. In 1842 the number had increased to
26; in 1857 to 700; in 1867 to 4,000; in 1877
to 13,000; in 1887 to 30,000; in 1897 to 75,
000; in 1907 to 180,000; in 1913 to 240,000;
and in 1922 the number of Christians in China
is 400,000. Such growth as that of recent
years ought to inspire the Church at home to
renewed and ever increasing zeal to give more
money to send more missionaries to do more
work to win more souls for our Saviour. We
must not be misled by the great results that
have l>een accomplished. Only one soul in each
thousand of the population is a Christian. What
are we going to do about the nine hundred
and ninety-nine in each thousand ?
SWEDEN seems to be fast coming into the
prohibition column. In an election held
a few days ago the vote for prohibition of the
manufneture and sale of liquor containing more
than 2.8 per cent of alcohol, was 900,000, while
938,000 voted against prohibition. Consider
ing the fact that this subject has not long been
asritated in that country, and that this is thr
first general vote on prohibition the result is
very encouraging. No doubt with a few more
years of education liquor will be voted out en
tirely. + #