ml>'v OFFICIAL ORGAN Of THE AFRICAN HETHODIST EPISCOPAL Z ION CHURCH - '. Kirf: / NUMBER I .. i ii] ./ THURSDAY JANUARY 1, 1920. VOLUME FORTY-FOUR ECHOES FROM rHE LAND JF THE SKY. PARAGRAPHIC COMMENTS ON MEN AND MEASURES ETC The Ter-Centenary Drive. By Rev. E. M. Argyle, B. I). * The Ter Centenary Drive With the Ter Centenary Drive on throughout the Connection, and the influences being brought to bear oh those who are to compose the next General Conference an favor of this or that one for official preferment, we are apt to lose sight of the long stretch we are to go before we reach the million dollar mark. We should be very careful that this money is appropriated for the purpose for which it is raised. We are glad that there is tangible evidence that we have been at work that the pub. knows of. It is dangerous ground to tread upon when one speaks out on matters of this kind without knowing the facts. All mention of it should be favorable. ' If we expect to succeed in this drive, we must first win the confi-. dence of those who contribute to the eause by placing every dollar where it belongs. Again there should be no discrimination in the location of the parties or churches aided, and a thorough and open record should b‘ published of the conferences and churches and even individuals wli|o are the beneficiaries of this fund.. The people are not paying this mon ey In solely to benefit the classes or individuals. All must reap some (benefits, or there will be an un wholesome upheavel, and our ardor will be dampened Constructive Legislation Needed There should and doubtless will be such constructive legislation en acted at,the next General Conference that will put us in line with other denominations and especially other Episcopal churches. We do not see the necessity of burdening our Bish. ops with tlnl' care and supervision of all the Connectional Boards. It is well that the Bishops be advisory members of these Boards, but to make them the heads or chairmen of all these Boards simply says to the outside world that the rest of us can not carry out the spirit of the laW in the administration of the affairs o’ the Church. The custom of making our Bishops custodians of the Finan. cial affairs of our conferences haS fallen into disrepute and has caused some of our cities to duff our Bish'/ ops as “Episcopal Bankers.” It ha\ gone further than that the men can not be trusted to duly account td the different departments for the monies that they have collected from the people for the General Church and lastly it puts our Bishops unde? the eye of suspicion of the public, and subjects them to adverse critD bism. We ought to enact such legis lation that the Bishops will be re lieved of these embarrassments, and we believe the Bishops themselves would like to be relieved of the cus todianship of the finances of the General Church and Schools arising out of their respective conferences. At any rate it would be carrying out the spirit of democracy for which the grand Old A. M. E. Zion Church stands, and would refute the charge of Episcopal autocracy which ha? been laid at our door. Then there should he such con. structive legislation enacted that will put our Connectional Boards to functioning, and our boards should (be formed, and not one or two indi. viduals vested with power to act and report for the whole board. I am a member of the “Legions of Fi nance.” If that Board has been call eti to meet, or make any kind of re port for the Connectional Council or Board of Bishops, I have never heard of it. My place on that Board is no* worth the ink that it would take to write my name as a member and if that board has ever functioned, it was in the office of the chairman oi that Board, and all to his little lone, some self. There is a deal of constructive leg. islation needed, and those who really want our church to measure arms with others should have a, deeper interest in the General Conference than the election of their special friends to office. z Organic Union This much mooted question will come to the fore again in our forth, coming General Conference, tout who can, by this time believe that there is any real sincerety in the Organi Union propaganda. It has held thi stage in all of our General Confer ences for more than a quarter of a century. And one little technical thing and another has kept us apart. If the A. M. E. Zion Church would only sacrifice her sacred tradition^ and swap her well earned prestige and play second fiddle while otherJ basked in the sunlight of her well is really any sincerity in the Organic union-at once- The Ghurc^ was sincere in her last General Con-: ference, and meant Organic Union with a big O, but there are others who want us to come to them, whi’o they are not willing to make any sac rifice in the union. There are thou? ands and thousands of loyal Zionites who will not stand hitched with such a Union, and there nevei' will be Organic Union with cer tain Methodist bodies until men of all the churches boosting this unios can make reasonable and unbiased concessions, which will convince a1! that the best interests of Methodism demands organic union. Until we can arrive at this conclusion we are beat-' ing the air, and wasting our oratory to talk of such a. Union. Bet Us Think Of The Church The election of our best friends to office in the next General Confer, ence should be of secondary impor tance. The whole church needs the san. est and most conservative ^consid eration. We can not drift along in the old grooves and keep pace with other churches that have laid asicl) their pre.war policies and procedJ ures; and adopted new policies and are even now proceeding to put intd effect new ideas. We must keep abreast with the tide of progress oi drop lower in our rating as a church Our , old fossilized ideas of church government and obsolete laws should be repealed, and to perpetuate the true ideals of democracy new laws should he enacted based upon the fundamental principles suggested hy the fathers. The imperative necessities of the church demands the wisest and besj thought, and those wrhose only inter" ' est in the election of their friend! to office show little interest in thd General Church. Some good laws in our Book of Dasciipline should be greafiy strengthened. That a penalty should be attached for violation of some of the weaker paragraphs goes with out saying. "We should begin now to think of the Church and in the ex. citement leading to the election of our friends to office, we should not forget the Church as a whole. iGod holds us responsible if we do not do our whole duty in thinking of the Church in these perilous times, Maryville, Tenn. iJ iuISTIAN ENDEAVOR 'CHRIST. MAS GREETINGS. NEW YEAR’S MESSAGE. Gy Prof. Aaron Brown, Secretary Our message and greetings are not confined to the young people, and yet their training is the abject of our activities. We; are speaking to everybody in the Church or out of t, who have in any way encouraged >ur work. Merry Christmas to all and a r-iappy New Year, hoping that youi Christmas celebration and New Year Toast will be observed in the proper manner, characterized by the real Christian Endeavor Spirit. Year after year your loyalty and support have increased, making it possible ror ns to achieve the pro gress that we have recorded. As te new societies, pastors’ activities and young people’s interest in the work, reports from the field and onr per sonal observations, we have never made a better showing. I wish we could make these words warmly personal >by calling the naml of each individual who co-operated with us in the work, including Bish ops, Presiding Elders, pastors and laymen, with a deserved tribute td our district Presidents, Local Presi. dents, Secretaries and other leaders hut since I can not-do this, I am surd you will take the will for the deedv We can make a attemptyhere to review our year’sJwbvk CxcC’pir^tr attention to our record and reports made to the Bishop’s meeting at Washington, the World’s Christian Endeavor Council at Buffalo, and the Council at Paterson, which meet, ing we attended in person. Conven. tion reporters to The Star have made ample reference to our work at the Christian endeavor conventions anu Conferences. We touch a few high spots in the work of our local societies. Many of ?fiem are signally blessed in be ing led by consecrated young men and women from high schools and colleges. They have raised seven teen thousand dollars for Christiait work, including local schools, min isters’ support, local church and be nevolent purposes. In our program for 1920 we have included the Ter Centenary, better pay for preachers, encouragemen to young men to enter the ministry and Life Work .Recruits for Chris, tian service. Printed matter help* to tell what the Christian Endeavor is doing but a better way would be for you to connect yourself to iii and observe its work in the commun ity. ) Christian Endeavor is purely an unselfish movement, and wre can tru V subscribe to the motto: “Not for ourselves but for others/’ We train and encourage the young people to foster the Christian work cJP theirf prospective communities be loyal t and support their church and in make their services count in every, effort put forth for the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ in thil world Again we wish you a merry Christ, mas and a Happy New Year. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT SAYS “White and colored leaders should take measures to stop hysteria and arrest agitators.” LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM RIOTS By William Howard Taft (The -Constitution— Philadelphia'! Public Ledger Service, Copy1 right 1919.) DOES YOUR RELIGION GET ACROSS TO YOUR NEIGHBORS? By Tha Ilev. Charles Steizie “I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my j voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words tin an unknown tongue.” Paul had just finished writing to the Corinthians that wonderful 13th chapter of the first epistle to that' church tin which he pointed out th^ supremacy of love, closing with the declaration: “And now a/bideth, faith, hope, love these three, but the greatest of these is love. ’’ The whole point of this chaptei was the importance of the spirit >vhich must be back of service of any kind. “Though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profit, eth me nothing he had written. “Tinkling cymbals’’ —“ sounding brass—a big vase, that is all—if. there was not love in service. That is what he meant. Evidently these Corinthians had been carried away by the pomp and show of the barbarians by whon< they were surrounded Then Paul took another phase ol their common life in the Church and showed them the value of a healthy normal experience in religious mat'1 ters. Apparently these Corinthians were given to speaking in unknown tongues when they came together in a religions meeting. \ Probably the ability^ to speak tin an ‘'unknown tongue” *s a sign of superior spirituality. And the chances are that there was a good deal of hypocrisy about it, because if there was no one in the meeting who could interpret what was said, the speaker coula freely pose as an “oracle of Gcd.’’ 'Now Paul was not discouraging spirituality, but he was pointing out the worthlessness of a spirituality that nobody could understand. “ I’d rather speak five words that people could understand than H) thousand words in an unknown tongue,” is about what he wrote the Corinthians. The practice condemned by Paul is not as common today as it was when he wrote these words, but there is danger that a group of con verts and those who worked with them in a revival meeting, for exam, pie, may be so carried away by a sense of spiritual superiority, using peculiar words and phrases whicli have no meaning whatever to J*n * outsider, so that their religion be. comes absolutely worthless to th i community. " , And this is what Paul very strong, ly condemned. He did not want any freiakishness in religion. The tes't of religion is its useful? ness to outsiders, and to the com. munity as a whole. Any kind of exclusive religious or ganization that .is conducted merely for the benefit of the people who assume an “I am holier than thou’’ attitude towards the rest of us doer, am>~ , is it in accord w