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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.