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8 The Golden Age (SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS EORUN) Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden fAge Publishing Company (Inc.) OEEICES: LOWNDES "BUILDING, "ATLANTA, GA. Price: $2.00 a Year WILLIAM D. UPSHfXW, - - - - Editor A. E. 'RAJTSAU'R, - - - Associate Editor Entered at the Post Office tn Atlanta, Ga., as second-class matter. To the Public: The advertising columns of The Golden Age will have an editorial conscience. No advertisement will be accepted which we believe would be hurtful to either the person or the purse of our readers. Sam Small on “Civilization.” The lecture of Sam W. Small on “Our Christian Civilization” at the Tabernacle last Sunday after noon was one of the richest intellectual and moral treats ever heard in Atlanta. Everybody who has ever heard Sam Small “turn loose” on any subject to which he applies his ready thought and surpassing genius can imagine some thing of what he would say on the glories and perils of our American civilization. But his eloquent ut terances are put into italics now by his recent recla mation during the Torrey-Alexander meeting’s, de claring anew his allegiance to Christ and announc ing that he had come home from his wanderings and would give the evening of his life to God. After his lecture Sunday afternoon to a splendid audience, Dr. Broughton arose and said that he had become suddenly impressed that the Tabernacle ought to inaugurate a series of Sunday afternoon lectures by Mr. Small along the line of “our na tional sins, and their remedy,” declaring that he knew of no man in the land with such a fund of in formation as Sam Small has who can tell what he knows in such an entertaining way. Should this be done, great crowds will receive intellectual and patriotic inspiration with a wholesome flavor con cerning the duties of Christian citizenship. One of Mr. Small’s striking sentences Sunday af ternoon was this: “Your ballot is simply you. The only reason you don’t get in the box yourself is because it is too small to hold you. And this being true, you put a little piece of paper through a hole in the ballot box,and that paper expresses your heart and thought and life. And no man has a moral right to put a. piece of paper in that sacred ballot box which he is not ready to redeem with his life before God and man.” Compulsory Education. To the thinking people of America the subject of compulsory education is one that must of necessity command the most earnest attention as well as the fullest support. During the early history of the country it was deemed sufficient to put free edu cation within the reach of the general public, and even to-day many individuals insist that the gov ernment has done its full duty to the people when it places a good education within the reach of even the humblest. But the question is, whether the mere fact of the public school being free to all, is enough? We do not think it is. We do believe, however, that there is more de manded of the government than this; for in many instances other things enter into the question of children attending school apart from the expense of the tuition. There is, first of all, among the very poor, the question of suitable clothes, then the grave question of books and school supplies, all of which enter largely into the general subject. We believe that if compulsory education is made a law of the land, it should be a kind law as well as a wise one, and to make it both wise and kind it should embrace some system by which children of The Golden Age for July 19, 1906. the required age—say seven to fourteen—should, in cases where necessary, be furnished with some inexpensive, simple uniform, to be worn at school, and that the parents be relieved of all expense as to books, etc. If the law were enacted on this plan it would seldom be regarded as a tax, and would, in the vast majority of cases, be welcomed by even the very poor. We understand the expense that this system would entail on the government, but it is supposed that this is fully appreciated by the committees having the whole subject in charge, and we believe, further, that if it were possible to estimate the individual cost of caring for a single child during the seven critical years of his life, it would be found eventual ly, a good investment for a nation. Deep students of penology have decided that one of the chief causes of crime is ignorance, and the majority of criminals of all classes, especially of the class term ed “regulars,” are, in almost every case, unable to read or write. Hence, it is safe to assume that early education would lessen the ranks of the crim inal and the state be saved the maintainance and the trial of many who now prove a continual tax on the finances of the general government as well as on that of the separate state. Taking everything into consideration, we cannot but think that the majority of individuals would be willing to bear a slight additional taxation if it were specifically stated that the amount would be devoted to covering the expenses of a compulsory education law. One of the chief difficulties to be overcome by the passage of such a law would be its inadequacy to reach children in the outlying mountain districts of the country, but by a regular system of registra tion less onerous and less rigid, perhaps, than that employed by the Revenue Service, even this diffi culty could be overcome. In some cases it would entail the forming of new schools in thinly popu lated districts, but as the school has long been re garded as a civilizer of the highest order, we can only more fully endorse any plan which would in crease their number. In considering compulsory education we'Jnnst not overlook the fact that if children were in school from seven to fourteen years, the question which is now agitating the country in regard to the em ployment of child labor in the mills would be satis factorily disposed of. Every phase of the subject of the protection of children appeals to us, and it is needless to say that broad general question will always have our most enthusiastic support. n County Schools in Danger. We believe the bill now pending before the Geor gia Legislature to put the election of County School Commissioners in the hands of the people would be a dangerous law. We know it is popular in these times to cry out concerning all public offices and officers, “Back to the People!” And for almost every public trust we believe that cry is wise and good. But we think experience has proven that the election of Superior and Supreme Court judges by the people is a mis take. Some of the unseemly contests in Georgia during recent years put so much slime and grime upon the “judicial ermine” that the judges par ticipating in them can never again hold the “bal ances of justice” even in the eyes of the populace who witnessed the bitter battle of ballots that fol lowed the scheming and traducing battle of words. This is placing the intrigues and propositions of selfish politicians too near the sacred shrine of Equity, Honor and Impartial Truth. And the County Superintendent of Schools comes even closer to the people than the judge on the bench. He builds school houses and employs teach ers for the unformed millions who are to be saved, pray God, from contact with the court house and the judge; yea, the school superintendent goes into the very “Holy of Holies,” so far as the love and maintenance of justice are concerned. Do not tempt this man to be what is called a “politician.” And above all, do not tempt what is called a politician to be that man. If you do scholarship and honor will not always win, but too often the glib talker, the magic “hand shaker”—the man who can pat the other fellow on the back will be the victor and the dispenser of spoils! And the spoils, alas! will consist in bartering children’s lives—their expan sion or their dwarfing, their glory or their shame. Political debts will be paid locating school houses, by employing teachers and by other things that will hold within their compass the help or the hurt of the children of the future. Good men sometimes make mistakes, and we believe the House of Representatives made a mistake in passing this bill. We hope the Senate will kill it and thus keep the “serpent’s trail” out of the Eden of our schools. Which Is Right? Josh Billings once said: “The older I get, the fewer things I am certain uv.” Each year that passes that statement becomes more applicable to every one of us. We have long suffered in purse because lawyers disagreed. We have suffered in body because doctors of medicine disagreed; but the limit seems to be approached when our doctors of divinity differ so radically as to the method of conversion; the process by which the atoning blood of the Savior washes the soul clean of sin. Promi nent ministers have recently indulged in utterances in their pulpits, some preaching what was termed “instantaneous conversion,” and others deriding this idea and maintaining that conversion or regen eration was gradual; an evolutionary process of getting better and better, until finally the soul at tained a state of consecration which would entitle it to entrance into a state of bliss beyond this life. The latter class of preachers seek to make the expression “instantaneous salvation” ridiculous by likening it to a religious “get-rich-quick scheme,” and their utterances on the subject seem to derive their point and warmth from a thirst for controver sy rather than a zeal for souls. In the conviction that he possesses a soul and is therefore interested in finding the right way, this writer has given both sides of the issue as careful attention as his limita tions would admit. After due reflection he leans to the salvation and forgiveness that comes with out stint and without delay through the vicarious sacrifice of the cross, whenever perfect faith and per fect repentance exist. Conversion through evolution, a series of improvements in right living, smacks too much of a doctrine of self-help and leaves no room for faith in and reliance upon an omnipotent sav ing power and an all forgiving love. There is too much delay in the gradual plan. Life might not last long enough. To some, growth in grace would come rapidly, to others it might never come. The thing that demands faith in the doctrine of regeneration and that makes the whole plan of sal vation from sin believable and beautiful, is the death on the cross. Through that sacrifice for us we are entitled to ask for full, free and complete forgiveness from sin, now, not tomorrow; not grad ually; not by reason of our strengthened purpose toward right living; but by reason of the fact that the price for our utter and complete redemption was paid on Calvary by the supreme agony of the Christ. As we understand it, the death on the cross was borne for the sake of securing to man the com plete and instantaneous salvation from sin when he met the two requirements of repentance and faith. Otherwise it were unnecessary. If man can depend upon his inclination to better living, aided by an evolutionary growth in grace, for his final salvation, he could reasonably claim to be independent of any obligations for the sacrifice made for his atone ment. It is difficult to understand how any heart can turn from the majesty and simplicity of the faith taught in the Bible as it has long been interpreted, to a plan which makes him his own savior, aided perhaps by fortuitous circumstances, or such casual assistance as may be rendered by evolution,