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10 The Golden Age (SUCCESSOR TO RELIGIOUS TORUN) Published Ebery Thursday by the Golden Zlge Publishing Company (Inc.) OFFICES: LOWNDES “BUILDING, ATLANTA. GA. Price: $2.00 a 'Pear WILLIfXM D. UPSHfAW. - - - - Editor A. E. RAMS Am. - - - Managing Editor LEH G. RROUGHTON - - - 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. Our First Christmas. December 25, 1906, will be the first Christmas that we have ever spent together as a family— we mean THE FAMILY OF THE GOLDEN AGE. And this, therefore, is the first opportunity we have ever had to -wish each other the best that the Christmas tide can bring. Not quite a year we have thus been friends, but in this brief period we have known a friendship which, we are glad to believe, has been helpful and inspiring to us both —the Editors of The Golden Age on the one hand and our generous, growing family on the other. Because of what you have meant to us in the fel lowship of opportunity and service; because of what you mean now in inspiration toward high endeavor and because of what you will yet mean in active friendship for the paper and its great mission in the world we feel like taking each one of you by the hand, whether around the fireside, in the study, on the platform or in the school room, and wishing here and now: A Christmas stocking full of childhood’s dreams, of manhood’s joys, of womanhood’s loves and humanity’s hopes —all, all that can come to the human heart from the personal reign of the Christ of Bethlehem. Send a Christmas Token. There is not a more beautiful charity within our knowledge than the Georgia Industrial Home —popularly known as Mumford’s Home—at Ma con, Ga. We are glad to dedicate a good portion of our space this week to this great work. Ever since the lamented father-founder was called home to God. the condition of these children who are worse than orphans has appealed with peculiar tenderness to the friends of the home. John R. Gunn, the faithful and enterprising young mana ger, has launched a movement calling for a hun dred thousand friends who will give a dollar each on Christmas day. This money could be promptly and profitably spent for necessary enlargements, endowment and equipment in order to open the door to countless children who are now lifting their pleading bands for help. They are a class taken by no other orphanage. They are not only being saved from criminal lives, but are being transform ed by God’s grace and practical methods into use ful Christian men and women. The moment you lay down this paper, join the army by sending a Christmas gift of at least one dollar to the heroic manager. The reflex joy in your own heart will be ample reward for this Christmas investment. Mr. Rockefeller’s Sorrow. The heart of humanity has been deeply touched by the press announcements of Mr. John D. Rocke feller’s recent sorrow. Down at the wharf in New York the stricken father wept in great grief as he welcomed home from France all that was mortal of his daughter, Mrs. Strong, who had been a sufferer for years. Marrying the splendid son of Dr. A. H. Strong, The Golden Age for December 20, 1906. the great President of Rochester Theological Semi nary, Mrs. Strong had lived, we are told, an un ostentatious Christian life, and those who sorrow do not mourn “as those without hope.” Mr. Rockefeller has had other bereavements in his family of late and knowing something of his simple home life and his great love for his chil dren we are prepared to give him and those who sorrow with him our cordial, tender sympathy. Mr. Rockefeller has blessed so many institutions, North and South, with his helpful and sometimes saving benevolence, it is only natural that the friends of these institutions should form a wide and widening circle of unseen friends who go down with him in the valley as he “passes under the rod.” Life’s evening is far spent with the great phil anthropist. God grant to make it beautiful with lifted shadows and rifted clouds—with sorrow and service kissed by the touch Divine. Three Notable Recruits. Men who make citizens save systems, and when ever a stalwart, consecrated maker of citizenship for two kingdoms comes into a community, he de serves a welcome that will encourage him in his business. Among the notable preachers sent to Atlanta by the recent session of the North Geor gia Conference are Rev. John Stewart French, pas tor of the First Methodist Church, and Rev. S. R. Belk, of Augusta, at St. Mark’s. Mr. French comes from Tennessee, leaving a magnificent record behind him and bringing with him a personality and a purpose that have won the present and promise great things for the future. Young, mag netic and spiritual, he has in him the power of sacred leadership for the multitudes to whom he is speaking. And Belk—we don’t propose to call him either “Rev.” or “Doctor.” To those who know’ and love him best he is just “Sam Belk.” We don’t mean a bit of harm by it, but Belk is just what a stylish, complacent Peachtree congre gation needs. He has just that quality of com mon sense that will smash conventionalities to hear them rattle, and he is blessed with just such a case of “old time religion” as will make him feed the souls that hunger for God in the palace as surely as they do in the tenement. Keep your eye on Peachtree Methodism. And there is another strong man for Atlanta bound—Dr. John D. Jordan, of Savannah. He comes from the First Baptist Church in that his toric city to that young and vigorous democracy doing business for God and humanity out on Jack son Hill. With a warm heart, a “red head,” a fearless soul and a voice that rings like a silver bell, John D. Jordan will make the devil learn all over Atlanta that “Jordan is a hard road to travel.” We welcome these three men and all others like them as fellow helpers to the Truth—preaching the everlasting gospel, driving saloons from the Gate City of the South, and making citizenship for the kingdom of God—on earth and in Heaven. Get Together and—Stay ! Hon. Will J. Neel, of Cartersville, is one of the sanest red-hot fighters of the saloon in all the land. On the platform and in the editorial chair he fought these gateways to death and hell out of Rome, choosing between thirteen barrooms on one hand and a dispensary on the other. When con gratulated by the writer on his victory, he replied: “I decided I would rather have one barroom than thirteen. And now if the dispensary don’t behave itself I will jump on it and help beat it to death.” But whoever heard.of a well-behaved whiskey den? And we heard W. J. Neel the other day electri fy the Georgia Baptist Convention with a three minute speech, telling how he was longing to go back to Rome and help wipe out the dispensary curse from his old home. This same wise, eloquent little man, who is pres ident of the Anti-Saloon League in'Bartow county, will be a natural leader of the anti-saloon forces in the next Georgia Legislature. We have just received a. strong personal letter from him com menting’ on the disposition of some of the prohibi tion forces to divide as to “ways and means.” In this letter he says: “The devil and all bis imps will snicker and cavort in hellish glee if they can only get good men who are leaders to bucking’ against each other.” Homely phrase, but oh. how strong and true! And to prevent that division the following resolutions were offered by Rev. J. L. I). Hi 11 yer and W. I). Upshaw last week at an open meeting of the Atlanta Anti-Saloon League, held at the Young Men’s Christian Association gospel hall, and unanimously adopted: “Whereas, the spontaneous movement for prohi bition which sprang up from the late riot in At lanta was the moving incentive which prompted the Anti-Saloon League to undertake this cam paign, and “Whereas, the movement for state prohibition received its initial impulse from the Atlanta move ment ; and “Whereas, the position of Atlanta and Fulton county will exert a most powerful influence on the destiny of any prohibition movement that may come before the legislature; and “Whereas, it is of immeasurable importance that the prohibition strength of Fulton county should find an adequate expression before the legislature; therefore be it resolved, “1. That we most earnestly entreat every prohi bitionist in Fulton county to sign the petition for an election to the end that all concerned may see the strength of the prohibition sentiment. “2. That we do most earnestly entreat those brethren and excellent citizens who may not ap prove of a prohibition election to nevertheless with draw their opposition in order that the friends of prohibition may be able to put the county in the best possible condition for aiding in the coming fight in the legislature. “3. That we push with all our might the pend ing campaign for an election in Fulton county, that we at least may be delivered from the liquor traffic, whether it be driven from the state or not. “4. That we believe the best interest of the cause of state prohibition will be secured by a vigorous fight in Fulton county, whether we win or lose. If we win, of course, we will be able to carry to the legislature the prestige of victory. If we lose, after a faithful struggle, we will have demonstrated our helplessness so completely that the state will be won over to our help.” Unhappy France. The Gallic heart, so long an explosive mine of individual unrest—and at once the cause and prey of national disturbance—is passing through anoth er “reign of terror.” Napoleon ought not to have allowed it. It was right for him to restore and enjoin the privilege and duty of worship in the church everywhere, hut he should not have given that governmental pat ronage to religion which again wedded the church and the state, and made possible all the abuses that have reigned from Louis and Richelieu until now —propagating infidelity, “fathering” the French Revolution, and opening the way to the long lines of spiritual decay and moral degeneracy whi»h have characterized the world’s great center of frenzied fashion and folly. Bishop Benjamin Keiley, of the Roman Catholic Church in Georgia, declares: “It simply means the forcible taking of property consecrated to -God’s service,” and says it is a war of infidelity on the Catholic Church as the exponent of Chris tianity. Thomas E. Watson, historian and commoner, de clares: “The government of France is today seek ing to do no more than our forefathers did sep- arate church and state.” M hen the battle is over and the smoke has clear ed away, let the world know again the lesson it has been so slow to learn—-that the Lord of Heaven and earth spoke an eternal truth when He said: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Cae sar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”