Newspaper Page Text
JULIAN HARRIS GROWS ELOQUENT
For several weeks there has been a lively battle
of words between Julian Harris, the brilliant young
editor of “Uncle Remus’s”
Young Editor
of “Uncle Remus’s’’
Tells the “Bourbons”
a Thing or Two.
“high crime” of the edi
tor of Uncle Remus’s consisted of an editorial.
“Shall the Solid South be Shattered?” in which he
took the evidently safe position that the South should
no longer remain politically solid on the basis of
“tradition,” but should be free to break up into
political affiliations purely on economic grounds and
party principles.
From this position many editors dissented, no
tably that brilliant old Nestor of daily journalism
in Georgia, Col. C. R. Pendleton, of The Macon Tele
graph. With vigorous, caustic pen he argued for
the principles of government and Anglo-Saxon su
premacy which have kept the South solid and
“should keep her solid forevermore. ’
And thus the battle raged.
Now comes Julian Harris in the April number of
Uncle Remus’s answering his critics, rejoicing in the
unexpected endorsements that have come to him and
bringing arguments yet more lucid and cogent, show
ing that with the elimination of the negro from the
politics of this section, there s no reason for a party
shackled South—that men should feel free here, as
anywhere in the nation, to vote with independent
loyalty to honest conviction.
We do not quite agree with every phase of his
contention, but, in the main, his editorial is able,
fair and fearless.
The pages of our exchanges are making con
spicuous reference to the strong’ and wide spread
evangelistic spirit that is exhibited all over the
country. We see it here in the South, and in
Atlanta. The other day we read a strong article
from the remote Northwest, in ‘'rhe Standard,
of 'Chicago, discussing the situation. From one
end of the country to the other the signs all indi
cate that we may look for large advances in Chris
tian work.
Some effort has been made to account for the
exhibited power in this awakening. Many good
and wise things have been said. And some that
are not wise. One writer says something like
this: A very large increment is given to this work
by the obliteration of denominational lines, or at
any rate their subordination to the new spirit that
recognizes “the father-hood of 'God and the
brother-hood of man.” Quite often of late we have
seen this idea advanced. It is well known that
The Golden Age is not a denominational paper.
Neither is it anti-denominational. There are mat
ters of truth, and duty that all who fear and
love the Lord are concerned about, and these things
concern us. We believe in the father-hood of God,
to all them that are His children. But the unre
generate and unbelieving are of their father the
Devil. The force of any true evangelical awakening
is to be found in the fact that Christian men and
women come to realize that other men, women and
children are outside of the family of the heavenly
Father. They see that the Devil has them in his
power and that they are going to destruction,
because they are not of God’s family. That is the
only place where i ‘the father-hood of God” comes
into this movement.
The intimation that the “brother-hood of man”
idea has anything to do with it, is entirely fanciful.
That the strength of evangelsm is increased
by the weakening of denominational lines, can not
be true. Those who believe things to be true, are
not made stronger by persuading them, that they
need not be very strong in their convictions. The
only fair attack that can be made upon one’s creed,
is an attack in front. Convince him of his error
who reigns on the throne of
his famous father, and
numberless editors of daily
and weekly papers. The
THE EVANGELISTIC OUTLOOK
His conclusion is a magnificent piece of poemized
logic, and we give it to our thoughtful readers for
their own verdict :
A Thrill of True Restlessness that Puts Expectancy
on Edge.
But in its finality the result of the issue which is
vital in itself and which we are seeking to make
vital with the South depends on neither Democracy
nor-Republicanism —neither on Colonel Pendleton’s
Bourbonism nor on the youth of his protagonist
for the issue is the larger life and the perfect growth
of the most wonderful part of America.
The South, through its inherent kinship in tem
perament as well as a singularity of viewpoint on
the negro question, will always possess a solidarity
that will make this section instant and unanimous
in responding wltenever or wherever the country s
good or greatness is at stake. This kind of solidarity
?s. to be nurtured and kept at full strength in every
Southern breast —not in passivity, but rather in ac
tive beneficence to be felt to the glory of the South
and through the South, in every artery ol our na
tional life.
This the (South can not accomplish by standing
behind an imaginary line and daring Progress to
toe the mark.
There is a whisper among the leaves, a palpitant
thrill as we feel with Lanier in the marshes at sun
rise an upstirring that is vague, yet full of meaning
—a thrill of restlessness that puts expectancy on.
edge.
if you can; that will not hurt him, but persuade
him to suppress his convictions of truth on account
of “the brother-hood of man” or the supposed
“father-hood of God and you are blind leaders
of the blind, and go both together, to destruction.
Denominational lines may be a very imperfect
feature of Christianity. In fact they may be a very
serious disfigurement of the system of Christianity
and be very sinful and all that; still the Lord has
tolerated them for nearly nineteen centuries. He
has also tolerated many other human imperfections
for a much longer time. It is all very well for
all of us to do the thing that lies next to us, to
bring the world to Christ. But we must work
always on the imperfections of man to bring him to
the likeness of Christ. We must not trim Christ
down to the human model. We must not give up
a truth of God to save the soul of any man. Unless
a man is willing to come to God as he finds Him,
he cannot be saved by Him. Straight is the gate
and narrow is the wav that leadeth unto life.
J. L. 1). IL
The Rev. Dr. F. C. McConnell says in the Word
'and Way, of Kansas City, Mo., writing about the
great meeting recently held in that city by Gipsy
Smith:
A Final Observation.
Such a meeting would not be well oftener than
every several years.
The religious life of a community needs seasons
just as truly as nature needs the seasons which
God has generously provided. The Gipsy Smith
meetings were of the nature of the spring floods
that deluge the world, preparing for the awakening
of the new year.
A Christian life has its birth, childhood, youth,
maturity and second childhood. There must be time
for growth and hardening as well as time for en
thusiasm.
Such a meeting as the Convention Hall series,
properly understood, helps wonderfully. Held too
often, it would retard permanent growth. Heaven
help us to treasure up the good, and lovingly foster
every good impulse created in the hearts of the
thousands who so enthusiastically heard the child
The Golden Age for April 1, 1909.
It is the growing consciousness of the South that
more than ever we represent the ideals that must be
upheld and ideas that are to inform the rest of our
nation. But they are ideas and ideals of the pres
ent, and they hold the germs of a glorious growth
for the future. You of the Far West will be the
first to understand this; then the North and the
East. Already we are preparing to ask for our
birthright and to demand the recognition of a co
laborer from the party with which we have hereto
fore dwelt —Democracy—and we shall get an an
swer, for not for long will the 'South continue will
ing to accept an attitude or a state of mind as suffi
cing for reward and reason.
■Sentiment not less than memory is a gift of the
gods. 'But there must be a line between the vis
ionary and the real. Today economics is the basis
of political alignment ; this is as true as the thread
bare assertion that the tariff is a local issue. Tet
should tariff revision seem to threaten us in the
.South, certainly tradition can furnish neither refuge
nor remedy.
The South has every reason to be tender toward
Iter traditions, solemnly veiled as they are in sorrow.
But if we would be true to these traditions, we must
press again to the front in art, literature, commerce
and statesmanship. If there are those who prefer
to stand still and gaze backward, let us say to them
without feeling, but earnestly and definitely —
It is for the South, not tor any pprty, that we are
striving. You have done your share in the past.
You were the masters of Yesterday; we are the
lords of Today ami Tomorrow.
JULIAN HARRIS.
of nature who charmed us all with his song and
story.
The whole face of creation is broken and uneven.
The surface of the earth is made up of mountains
and valleys, hills and dales. The surface of the
mighty ocean is as restless as the breezes that play
over it. God makes the crystals smooth, but divides
them into the sharpest angles. He makes the
changes of the seasons and the succession of day
and night. Even the surface of creature life has
its rising and falling, its waking and its sleeping,
its labor and its rest. If at one season it grows in
substance, at another it must harden, as Dr. Mc-
Connell has so well said. J. L. D. IL
Easy to Criticise.
It is easy to sit in the sunshine
And talk to the man in the shade;
It is easy to float in a well-trimmed boat
And point out the places to wade.
But once we pass into the shadows,
We murmur and fret and frown,
And our length from the bank, we shout for a plank,
Or throw up our hands ami go down.
It is easy to sit in our carriage
And counsel the man on foot;
But get down and walk, ami you’ll change your talk,
As you feel the peg in your boot.
It is easy to tell the toiler
How best he can carry his pack;
But not one can rate a burden’s weight
Until it has been on his back.
The up-curled mouth of pleasure
Can preach of sorrow’s worth;
But give it a sip, and awrier lip
Was never made on earth.
—ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.
The National Model License League of Louisville,
Kv., wants the address of every member of the next
general assembly of Georgia and wants them in a
hurry, as they wired Secretary of State Philip Cook
for a list last week. Their “model” is no doubt
made very alluring.
5
