Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 97. No. 45.
RICHMOND, VA.
NOVEMBER 8, 1922
HOME MISSIONS mast have right of way.
during the week of November 12-19. The
General Assembly has so ordered it. But all
that ought to be necessary is that some definite
time be fixed. During that week the whole
Church ought to be studying Home Missions.
We know of nothing that will aid such study
more than Dr Homer McMillan's new book,
"Unfinished Tasks." Along with the study
there should be earnest prayer that every mem
ber of the Church may be enabled to see the
need of mission work in our country as God
sees it. May this study and prayer show each
man and woman his or her duty to give liber
ally to carry on and to increase this work that
will mean so much to us, to the Church, to our
country and to the cause of God in the salva
tion of lost souls.
QUIPMENT is greatly needed in all the
* departments of the general work of our
Church. It has not been many years since our
Church was very poor, as to the average wealth
of its members, and there were very few who
could be called rich. But in our poverty we
tried to do God's work at home and abroad.
The result was that we put the little money
that we had into men and women rather than
into equipment. The result was that the build
ings and other equipment have been far from
what they ought to be to enable our workers
to work to the best advantage. Our General
Assembly, after making a full investigation of
the needs at home and abroad, says that at
least $5,000,000 is needed to furnish our work
ers with what is necessary for them to do their
work properly. This is a large amount, and
yet there were many of the leaders in the
Church who b'elieved that it could be raised
in a year. However, the Assembly decided
that it would be better to extend the raising of
it over several years. So it has asked the
Church this year to give $500,000 for this cause
in addition to the regular gifts to the regular
causes. This equipment fund is to be used all
together for furnishing material equipment for
our workers. It is to provide churches, school
houses, hospitals, homes for the workers, means
of transportation and other things that will en
able the men and women to do their work more
efficiently and to reach many whom they now
cannot reach. Think of a missionary preach
ing for years in a small, dark, unattractive
building on a back street, to which only the
poor will come, because he had no money to
build or even to rent a suitable building on a
better street, to which the better class of peo
ple would come. Think of a doctor trying to
perform operations under a grass covered shed,
instead of in a well equipped hospital. Think
of our missionaries and their wives breaking
down under the strain of their work, because
they do not have suitable homes in which to
live. The need for equipment is also great in
the home land Home mission work is much
hindered, because of the lack of clmrches. Hun
dreds of boys and girls are clamoring to get
into our mision schools, who cannot be taken
in, because the buildings are too small and too
poorly equipped. The Assembly proposes that
this money shall be raised laargely by individ
ual gifts, but it has also appointed the first
Sunday in December as a time when all of the
churchcs are asked to make a special contribu
tion to this work. Our Church is no longer
poor, and it can easily raise this amount, if
God's people will look honestly at the needs
and ask themselves and God what they ought
to do about it. The Stewardship Committer
has just issued a booklet entitled "Unrinished
Business," which shows clearly iu detad what
is needed in the way of equipment. Those uho
want information on the subject should write
to the Stewardship Committee for this booklet.
Address Times Building, Chattanooga, Tenn.
\
KU KLUX KLAN has come under the se
vere denunciation of the "Administrative
Committee" of the Federal Council of the
Churches of Christ in America. We won
der how much the Administrative Com
mittee knows about this organization, or
what right it has to send out to the
papers of the country an article headed "Ku
THE ROAD HOME.
By Rev. Wiliam Hervey Woods, D. D.
I have been hungry all my lite to know
The world called Man's, not only that
green vale
Wherein my childhood lay, but all in hail
Or sight of that firat scene; I longed to go
Where the streams went, and backward trail
the snow
Through its home skies; on every sea to
sail.
And track to its last lair each wondrous
tale
Of cities, kingdoms, manners and their show.
And now at parting time, all this denied.
These starved eyes,, that never earth might
roam,
Are praying hard another way to choose
Than Death's brief passage, and with one
Great Guide,
To be allowed to go the long road home
Through the dim regions out past Betel
guese.
Winchester, Va.
Klux Kian Disowned by the Churches." We
venture to say that very few of the churches
connected with the Council have taken any ac
tion on the subject. The Committee condemns
the organization in very strong terms, which
seem to imply that its sole aim is to commit
crimes and stir up animosities and override
the processes of law. We hold no brief for the
Klan, but we do not believe that any organiza
tion should be condemned unheard, and espe
cially by representatives of the Churches. So far
as we have been able to learn, the leaders of the
Klan are honorable men. They claim that the
organization has only beneficent aims, looking
toward the advancement of Americanism among
the people. They further claim that the organ
ization is entirely opposed to all forms of law
lessness. That some bad things have been done
in the name of the Klan there can ba no ques
tion. But it should be remembered that a
Wal branch of the organization may do some
things that are contrary to the principles of
the order under hot-headed or fanatical leaders.
And it should also be remembered that the se
crecy of its membership and the disguise of its
regalia enables those who are not connected
with the order to pose as members and commit
crimes, thinking that the Klan will be held re
sponsible, while the real perpetrators escape de
tection. We think that it was very unfortunate
that this organization, if its aims are what it
claims, should have revived a name, which,
rightly or wrongly, had a bad reputation at
tached to it. But whatever the real character of
the Klan may be, we maintain that the Admin
istrative Committee of the Federal Council of
Churches has no right to condemn it, in terms
about as stroug as language can make them, in
the name of the churches, until it has made a
much fuller investigation as to the facts than we
believe the Committee has been able to make;
and, if such investigation should prove its con
tention correct, the proofs should be given clear
ly and fully : The representatives of the
Churches of Christ should be very careful that
their statements are true, and that they do not
do an injustice to any one. Any other course
will injure the churches and the cause for
which they stand.
ERRORS will some times be made by the
most careful editors. Our attention has
just been called to the fact that we made an
error a few weeks ago in crediting a clipping,
which we published on this page and which
criticised Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, to the
Continent of Chicago, when it should have been
credited to the Presbyterian of Philadlephia.
The editor of the Continent says that the clip
ping does not express his views at all. We offer
him our apalogies.
READING a publication from the Philip
pines, so long under the absolute domina
tion of the Roman Catholic Church, we found
such expressions as these: Speaking of the
churches built by the natives it said: "A
church for a visiting padre is, of course, a place
?where the traveling altar may be set up and
Mass said." "Father Frost;" "A holiday with
with choral Mass and procession;" "A visit
made by Father Severance;" "Father Catlin
makes a weekly trip .... so. that he sang
Mass;" "Sunday services at St. Luke's Church
are Low Mass at 6:30 .... Sung Mass at 9,
Solemn Vespers at 6 p. m. ;" "Full catholic
ceremonial is used, and the Blessed Sacrament
is perpetually reserved." As we read these
expressions we thought at first that we were
reading a publication of the Roman Catholic
Church. We found, however, that it repre
sented a Protestant church mission. Two
questions arose in our mind. Ts this church
trying to use the terms of the Roman Church
in order to gratify the ideas of the natives who
are more familiar with the terms of that church
than any other f Or do they express the teach
ings of the mission? It seems strange that
either explanation should be true of the repre
sentatives of a great supposedly Protestant
church, who had b.^en sent into the mission field
to win the people away from the Romish Church
and give to them the pure gospel. A compro
mise between truth and error is never defen
sible, and especiallly is this true in the case of
the religion of Jesus Christ.