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8 The Golden Age (SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS FORUM) Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden Hge Publishing Company (Inc.) OFFICES: LOWNDES “BUILDING. ATLANTA, GA. Price: $2.00 a Year WILLIHMD. UPSHAW, .... Editor A. E. RAMS A UR. . . . Associate Editor LEH G. BROUGHTON - - - Pulpit 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. Governor Jeff Davis, of Arkansas, newfly elected United States Senator, is making heap big talk as to what he will do to them when he gets there. He says that the Senate needs some kind of stirring up and that he, together with Tillman, Vardaman, of Mississippi, and a few’ others, are going to make the country sit up and take notice when he really gets on the job. We do not believe Mr. Davis will create the stir he anticipates; that is, in just the w’ay he is planning to do it. He will not be the en tire contest of marksmanship, though he may be some. The Senate will do quite as much to him as he does to it. When the gate is opened and he has an opportunity, his biting w’ill probably not be equal to the barking l he is doing now 7 . President Roosevelt’s message has been sent to Congress. It is more in the nature of a heart to heart talk with the people than a message to Con gress by the President. It is pitched in a frank, every-day tone, and may be best described as a candid statement from Mr. Roosevelt to the people as to how 7 he is going to run the country. Among the essays on pertinent subjects which compose it, are some notable utterances, and his silence on the tar iff question is also notable. There will be an illus trated supplement to the Message a little later, when the photographer who accompanied the President on his trip to Panama gets his views developed. These will be used to make clear to Congress the ideas formed by him on the trip. The general tone of the message is optimistic. The Baltimore Sun, in comparing the President with the Emperor of Germany, says that they are both optimistic because each one “is supremely confident that when he is running everything, everything is being run exactly right.” Their Golden Harvest. On Friday evening, December 7, in the “sweet, dreamy Eden” of Marshallville, there was celebrat ed the Golden wedding of two of the noblest people whose lives ever blessed the world. Thy are Rev. and Mrs. Adeil L. Moncrief, whose blended lives for these full fifty years have been a stream of beauty and of blessing to the cause of Christ, and the conse quent betterment of humanity. It is fitting that this celebration should have taken place in the home of their daughter, Mrs. G. A. Ware, in the towm of Marshallville, for here this grand old Veteran of the Cross went in and out before the people as pastor, for many years. The people, irrespective of denomi nation, love him as not only a spiritual leader and a “Father in Israel,” but like Abraham, a friend of man as well as the friend of God. A. L. Moncrief was in his palmiest days one of the strongest preachers in Georgia, or the South, and but for his impaired hearing, which cut off his activity, he would have been much more widely known as a citizen of two kingdoms. It will be a distinct loss to the cause of Christianity if the best of his sermons are not preserved in book form. They are masterpieces of thought, spiritual beauty and sacred eloquence. A large family of honored sons and daughters yet Jive to efpwn, with their splendid Christian charac- The Golden Age for December 13, 1906. ters, the beautiful evening of their honored parents’ lives. Rev. A. J. Moncrief, the brilliant and suc cessful president of Cox College, at College Park, is perhaps the most distinguished of these children and is a ripe scholar, a superb orator and a great preacher of the Gospel. But it is cause for deep rejoicing in the hearts of this venerable couple that all of their children are steadfast in their integrity and an honor to the cause of Him whom their par ents taught them to honor and love. There is something grandly inspiring in such a picture—two lives, that in their morning while the dew of youth was yet upon them, received in their beans Christ as Savior and as King, and thus united in His love and His service, they have walked hand in hand and heart to heart in the beautiful blending of human love with the love of their Redeemer. Life’s sun is fast going' down, but— “As o’er the hill tops, the valleys and plains, Tho’ the sun hath departed, a glory remains.” So the light of Heaven floods life’s evening sky with its fadeless glory, lighting up their way through the Gates Eternal and lingering yet to bless the wide and widening circle before whom they have walked and, like Goldsmith’s dream of the village preacher, they have “Lured to brighter worlds— And led the way.” A Just Judge. The strong arm of the law is sometimes a great helper to the man-making influences of the gospel, even as the subtle and transforming influences of the gospel create the ideals and encourage obedience to the law. A case in point is Wilkes county, North Carolina, which, until recently, was given over to the undis puted reign of the illicit distiller and all the at tendant evils that naturally followed. On the es tablishment of the Federal Court at Wilkesboro, Judge Jas. E. Boyd determined that the moonshin er and his fellow evil doers must go. With wisdom, justice and mercy this upright judge soon convinced the people that laws obeyed and enforced w T ere a great blessing and the North Carolina papers de clare that the county has been transformed almost beyond recognition. The Greensboro Record says: “It is a wise dispensation of Providence that He never lets us know 7 His desires when He afflicts us. For instance, when the government established a Federal Court at Wilkesboro it seemed like a waste of money and of time; in truth, it appeared to be a case where certain politicians wanted it for a ‘pull,’ and hardly any one thought it a wise move. Judge Boyd, whose duty it is to hold these courts, no doubt thought that he was being unduly af flicted but it turns out quite the contrary. He has in fact been the instrument of good, for by his con duct and bearing he has just about knocked the spots out of all manner of blockading in that for mer home of the moonshiner. We will print to morrow an article on the subject from a resident of that section written to The Charlotte Observer and printed in that paper on Sunday. It tells the story and is a source of congratulation to all lovers of good government and decency. Judge Boyd, as has frequently been mentioned in this paper and others, has set his face against all violations of law and it is not to be denied for a moment that his deter mination to break up illicit distilling is and has been bearing fruit ever since he went on the bench. And through it all he has never yet been accused of being harsh and severe; he has followed Webster’s old fable; he tried moral suasion, and when this failed then he flung a rock, and every time he does some one falls out of a tree. The Lord, as ever, knew 7 what*He was about when He established that court at Wilkesboro and sent Judge Boyd there.” The Editor of The Golden Age recently had the privilege of being a guest in the delightful home of Judge and Mrs. Boyd in Greensboro, N. C., and it was a privilege and an inspiration to any man who loves good government to hear in modest detail from the lips of this wise jurist something of “the great change in Wilkes,” of which the papers have been speaking. His example should be an inspira tion to every judge in the land. A Governor Who “Preaches.” The South is feeling the tonic of the life of North Carolina’s Governor. He stands four square on all questions of civic righteousness and lends his influ ence by tongue and pen for practical, vital Chris tianity wherever occasion allows—and if occasion does not allow 7 , he simply makes an occasion that will. In other words, Governor Glenn is an active, fearless Christian man. Sometimes the secular pa pers and the politicians are a little inclined to smile over the announcement that Governor Glenn “preached a sermon” during his address on some great occasion. What if he did? He is admitted ly a strong executive and the departments -where statesmanship is required lose nothing by the un deviating piety of this great Christian governor. Governor Glenn is aggressive in his work ag’ainst the saloon. He is a practical, active prohibitionist who rejoices to make “prohibition prohibit.” And wher ever he has opportunity North Carolina’s governor lifts his voice for the cause of Christ and such a governor is a great blessing to a great common wealth, Dr. H. R. Bernard’s New Work. At the last, session of the Georgia Baptist Con vention, held at Cartersville, a resolution was of fered and passed without dissent in which the Con vention went on record favoring the plan of en largement of the work of what is known in Georgia as the State Board. It is the wish of the Conven tion that all contributions for all the enterprises fostered by the Convention be sent directly to the Board, the same to be 'disbursed by the Board. This greatly enlarges the scope of. the Board’s work, and makes it necessary to create the office of auditor, which has been done. On the 3rd in stant, Dr. H. R. Bernard was unanimously elected to this office. He was also elected secretary of the committee on co-operation. He resigns the treas urer’s office of the education commission which he has recently been filling, with headquarters at Macon, and has come to Atlanta to accept the joint offices above referred to and will make Atlanta his headquarters and probably his home and the home of his family. Dr. Bernard, in his official positions, is in charge of the accounting department of the Board of Mis sions, is the bonded officer of the Board, handling all the funds which pass through its hands. As secretary of the committee on co-operation he will have much to do with planning the work of Bap tists in Georgia from year to year. His election to the two responsible offices referred to is re garded as an expression of unusual confidence and affection for him. We are glad for him and for the denomination which he represents that the arrangement above referred to has become effec tive. We had occasion recently to note in the Golden Age byway of review, a book of unusual interest to Baptists, that has recently made its ap pearance. It is a significant fact that the main doctrines advocated in the book became a part by amendment, of the Constitution of the Baptist Convention of Georgia at Cartersville. Dr. Ber nard is equipped by reason of experience, judg ment and real constructive wisdom in the very fullest degree for his new position. A better choice could not have been made and probably a better man is not in existence in the ranks of the Bap tist denomination of the State. It gives us a peculiar pleasure to note the honor that has been conferred upon Dr. Bernard. He has been a leading figure in the ranks of his church and of the educational forces of this state for many years. He has advocated measures the wis dom of which time and progress have clearly demonstrated, and he is now in position to work I hem out. We give him our heartiest and most cor dial wishes for success.