i
V A,
FIFTY-THIRD YEAR.
ORGAN OF THE NORTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE.
RALEIGH, N. C, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1907.
NUMBER 4i-
''y'.'
The meeting of Methodist laymen (only a few
of them) in South Carolina a few days ago seems
to have been based on the desire to air certain
grievances. Such a basis is altogether wrong.
The church is not calling for reformers, but re
enforcements. They are trying Caleb Powers again. We trust
that this is the last time. We have never believed
Powers to be guilty. Since the rancor engender
ed by the murder of Goebel is dying out, and a fair
and impartial trial has become more nearly pos
sible, the situatiou has become brighter for the
man who at one time seemed doomed to pass his
life in prison.
The recent allegation that the Louisiana His
torical Association has in its possession letters
from Generals U. S. Grant, George H. Thomas,
and Admiral Farragut in which these distinguish
ed men had written to President Davis offering
their services to the Confederacy was truly start
ling. It seems, however, that there was no foun
dation for the allegation. We would be sorry to
discover that such a thing had happened.
J
The New York Times furnishes a surprising bit
of information. It says: "It is to be doubted
that the ordinary depositor is aware that if each
savings bank account were reduced by a single
dollar the total would be between two and three
times the total amount of money in circulation,
gold, silver, green-backs, bank-notes, and the rest
of our variegated currency. There are altogeth
er nearly thirteen billions of bank deposits in the
United States and a total money circulation of less
than three billions."
S
The Charlotte Observer is responsible for the
statement, and we suppose it is true, that a cer
tain Mayme spells her poodle Fido's name P-h-i-d-e-a-u.
Not since we heard that a certain lady,
sur-named Patrick in honor of her plain Irish hus
band, calls it Patreek, with the accent on the last
syllable, have wc heard of anything so bad in the
name line as this which bursts from the columns
of the Charlotte Observer. Phideau! Just think
of it! Let the Observer keep to poetry and every
day natural science.
&
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union at
its recent Convention "lionized" Carrie Nation
and made her a life-member of the organization.
Such business will not tend to draw closer to the
Union those people who have critized the Union
as being an aggregation of cranks. The Union
which has in it some of the best women of the
land, and has done, and is now doing, a great
work for temperance, uses very little wisdom in
going into rhapsodies over an eccentric "free
lance" like Carrie Nation.
3
""it is said that Bishop Turner, of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church; Bishop Holsey, of
the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, and
Bishop J. W. Hood, of the African Methodist Epis
copal Zion Church, have called a council of Bish
ops to meet in Washington, D. C, February 12,
190S, to consider the ecclesiastical, religious, civil,
political, and sociological condition of the negro
race. One complaint is that a large number of
negroes are leaving the South for the North and
West. This, to our mind, is one rift in the black
cloud. The distribution of the negroes through
out all the sections of our country, thus reducing
the hurtful plethora in the South, is one emphatic
condition of the solution of our race problem.
Through a mistaken notion that preachers
are not like other men, and are afflicted with a pe
culiar sensitiveness, the preachers of the Western
.Torlh Carolina Conference, which adjourned on
last Monday, missed a novel spectacle. An en
terprising Salisburg merchant fixed up a tasty
show-window with Teddy bears. An organ was
fixed in the channel. At different places were the
Bishop, Presiding Elders, and other ministers
represented by Teddy bears. The reclining dele
gates were laymen. Why the laymen should
have been fixed in a reclining position was not
revealed. The artist must have been a Meth
odist.. The ladies of Salisbury thought the
"preachers might not like it," and the advertise
ment was changed.
The attitude of Mr. Bryan to the present finan
cial stringency is of peculiar interest, not be
cause of his financial doctrines with which the
people are very well acquainted, but because it
reveals a strong and noble trait in the great Com
moner. A small man in Mr. Bryan's position would
have jumped at the opportunity of joining in the
popular cry, "Mr. Roosevelt brought the panic."
What political grazing there is in the present fin
ancial pasturage! Mr. Bryan says: "I do not
look for any prolonged trouble in the business
world. Conditions which made a panic and de
pression in 1893 are entirely different now. Then
prices were falling because of a restricted money
supply. Now we are in the midst of a tremendous
gold production, which gives an abundant money
supply and maintains prices so that business is
brisk."
The stirring and strenuous growth of our own
great country keeps much of our attention at
home, and, for this reason, we may fail to get a
correct idea of what Japan is doing. The status
of that country is clearly summarized in the fol
lowing extract from the Literary Digest: "While
all the rest of Asia is treated as so much territory
to be exploited commercially, Japan has herself
entered the arena as an exploiting nation, and
even enterprising America has to confess that in
its trade with that country the trade balance
stands in Japan's favor. Last year we sold Japan
$38,500,000 worth of goods, while Japan sold us
$52,500,000. And the Japanese are carrying
their goods in their own steamers, built and
manned so cheaply that they are driving American
shipping from the Pacific. Japan's commercial
advance has attracted the attention of Alfred
Stead, who writes a series of articles on it in The
Hindustan Review (Allahabad). In spite of the
fact that her treaties forbid Japan to carry out
such an extensive scheme of trade protection as
has enriched the United States, he says, she has
set us an example in some particulars. Japan
not, only feeds her people from her own soil, as
we do, but she also has what we have not a mer
chant navy that distributes her exports among for
eign customers without calling in tho aid "of
'freighters' from the outsido world."
J
We have heard of the motto, "God Bless Our
Home," as looking down on scenes more sugges
tive of the fistic arena than a cannibal Eden. Now
we have the spectacle of an indignant people, the
majority of whom have never, perhaps, possessed
a ten-dollar gold piece, raising a perfect cloud of
scorn and abuse around the head of President
Roosevelt. And partially visible through this whirl
ing scurrying cloud are the words, "In God we
trust." National history is following closely in
the wake of domestic history. The President's
crime consisted of his ordering these peaceful
words from a place on the newly-coined ten-dollar
piece. The President excuses himself (and wo
should forgive him) in the following words: "My
own feeling in the matter is due to my very linn
conviction that to put such a motto on coins or to
use it in any kindred manner, not only does no
good, but does positive harm, and is in effect ir
reverence, which comes dangerously close to sac
rilege. A beautiful and solemn sentence such as
the one in question should be treated and uttered
only with that fine reverence which necessarily
implies a certain exaltation of spirit. Any use
which tends to cheapen it, and above all, any use
which tends to secure its being treated in a spirit
of levity is from every standpoint profoundly to
be regretted. It is a motto which it is indeed well
to have inscribed on our great national monu
ments, in our temples of justice, in our legislative
halls, and in buildings such as those at West
Point, and Annapolis in short, wherever it will
tend to arouse and inspire a lofty emotion in those
who look thereon. But it seems to me eminently
unwise to cheapen such a motto by use on coins,
just as it would be to cheapen it by use on post
age stamps or in advertisements."
HOLINESS.
Holiness is power. It utilizes ability, fertilizes
the soul and energizes the whole man. It is the
fire and water in the engine, bringing out to their
fullest capacity the strength of all the parts of
the machinery, so that the greatest amount of
spiritual power may be expended in rolling back
a revolted world to God. Holiness is God's power
to man, and man's power with God. Thus they
become co-workers. Every man who dwelleth in
God, and God in him, in an accommodated sense,
is God's man, which makes him a positive power
against all evil and for all good to pluck careless
souls from the incoming Hood and storm of wrath,
lifting them up into the sweet serenity and pro
tection of the Rock of Ages. Without holiness we
are weaker than a bruised reed; with it we are
like an impregnable and well-garrisoned fort,
which will stand unharmed the hottest siege; at
the same time, raining like a hail-storm red-hot
balls from the magazine of the Gospel on an arm
ed world against Christ. W. H. Wilson.
Liberty was infinitely precious to our fathers,
because it bore the marks of sacrifice. It was crim
soned with the red stain of their own blood. We
are inclined to hold our liberties cheaply because
they cost us nothing. Rev J. H. Jowett.