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Thursday, November 20, lyos
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KALE I Gil CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.
EDITORIAL
&3L
II
' 1 AKE a joyful noise to the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with
V gladness: come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the
Lord, lie is Cod; it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves;
we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates
with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise; be thankful unto
Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting and
His truth endureth to all generations. Psalm C.
THAT MIDDLE LINK.
illilVTI .l!r AM whnso p-vp:it hiis1nfK.4 nhilitv JtnH intelliirent. lovaltv to
A I his church have given him more than a State-wide reputation, re
i marked to us a few days ago in a conversation which had reference
- to the Lavmen's Movement: "It will be simply impossible for the
Church to carry out her great plans in connection with lay activity until our
laymen acquaint themselves better with the facts and affairs of their
church." We were glad to have such an expression from so worthy an au
thority. His words explain the mission of a church paper, and the principle
involved forms the basis and justification of religious journalism.
The implication of the gentleman that our laymen, as a class, are
wofully ignorant of the genius, polity, doctrine, and operations of their
church, is just. This does not mean that there are not laymen who are
well acquainted with their church. It does not mean that those who are not
well acquainted with their church are necessarily ignorant in other mat
ters. We have many laymen who cannot tell who are our Bishops, and who
know nothing of our Conferences, and yet, who have made quite a name in
their respective spheres of activity.
The statement that lay-ignorance in church matters is a general impedi
ment to the church in the way of spiritual development and material
growth, is so true that it hardly needs discussion. We may take our most
active and useful lay-workers and we will find that the great majority of
them know what their church is and what it is doing. Ignorance of church
and personal religious activity go, as a rule, hand-in-hand.
There is a very simple and conclusive explanation of these facts. It is
so simple that a child can understand it. It is just this principle: We
must know before we can love. If we discharge our obligations involved in
Christian discipleship and church membership, we must love Christ and His
church. If we love Christ and His church, we must know Christ and His
church. Knowledge is the broad foundation of love, and love forms tho
beautiful base for the pillar of Christian service.
Our missionary leaders are acting on this principle when, in connection
with their mighty propaganda, they are sowing down the land with mission
ary information. They know that a missionary interest can never be awak
ened, and that a missionary conscience can never be developed until our
people in the home-land know the peoples and conditions in heathen lands.
They urge very properly and wisely that a knowledge of Christ in the human
heart and the knowledge of facts and conditions wrhich make Christ a neces
sity in heathen lands, are absolutely necessary to missionary success.
Our observation, extending through twelve years of editorial service, of
our general plans, methods, and teachings convinces us that our church is
making a fatal mistake in leaving out of the great chain of general evan
gilization a certain link. So far, as we have already shown, there have been
made only two links knowledge of Christ in the heart and knowledge of
conditions in heathen lands. There is no lack of emphasis on the great
doctrine that Christ in the heart of the believer at home is the forerunner of
the Christ in China. There is no adverse criticism to be passed by our policy
of giving to our people missionary literature and acquainting them with the
heathen world.
But, with only these two links, the chain is incomplete. There must be
a third link representing a knowledge of the church through which the
knowledge of the glory of God is to spread over the whole earth. In other
words, there must be a knowledge of the Church of Jesus Christ at
home before we can build up a church of Jesus Christ in China. You
may have at your command never so many facts and figures pertaining
to heathen lands and peoples, but you will never be able to do much good
with them until you know something of what your church is, and what it
is doing here at home. You may preach the most eloquent missionary ser
mons and sow down your charge with missionary literature, but all these
will fall short of their possibilities as long as your people are ignorant of
their church at borne. People who know little of their church here are not go
ing to give much to planting it in China. They lack the knowledge which is
necessary to the motive for giving, sending, or going. We talk about evan
gilizing the world in this generation. It will never be done with a laity that
knows not its own church. The middle link must be placed in the chain.
Between Christ and China must be the layman who knows his church.
In view of these facts, we have wondered why a secondary place, by a
seeming tacit consent, has been given to the church newspaper. It is uK,
only medium through which a practical knowledge of the aims, purpos.-s,
methods, operations, failures, and victories of the church can be conveyed
to the people. It certainly enjoys that distinction. It may be printed on
flimsy paper. It may have a small circulation. Its editorials may be weak.
It may have in it little except the affairs of the church. It is, however, the
only medium through which the people can obtain that knowledge on which
you hope to base an adequate loyalty, love, and activity the knowledge of
what their church is and what it is doing.
That the religious paper is considered as having a secondary position,
cannot be doubtful when we consider the facts. No Bishop ever "features"
it in an Annual Conference. He "features" revivals, finances, woman's
work, church building, and other things, but he is yet to ask, as far as our
memory serves us, a question as to the circulation among the people of that
agency through which alone the people are to obtain that knowledge en
which loyalty to all the great enterprises of the church can be practically
based.
Our preachers in the North Carolina Conference have been active in be
half of their Church paper, and that, too, when they have been greatly
burdened. But really is there not a minority of those who are thus active
because they feel that the church paper is the middle link and necessary to
the chain, or changing the figure, that it -is the fountain which feeds all the
streams? Have we not some preachers (outside of North Carolina) who
never mention the church paper in public or private, duringf the whole
year? Have we not a larger number who act as if the interests of Un
church paper are to be considered 'only after all the other interests are well out
of the way? Are there not thousands of Christian leaders, who, in neglecting
the Church paper, are engaged in the hopeless task of trying to extend into
strange regions a Kingdom which is but little known by those who are
to be used in extending it? Is there not many a pastor who in ignoring
the need of the Church paper among his members, is either trying to "make
bricks without strat," or neglecting the fountain which is to feed all other
streams in his charge?
We talk about the problems of the church. One of the chief problems
is to induce the people to become acquainted with their church. Without,
this acquaintance it will be folly to expect the church to utilize those people
in the prosecution of its great enterprises. We repeat, service is based on
love, and love is based on knowledge. In furnishing the knowledge obtained
only through the Church paper, we all have a part. The man win) edits it,
the preacher of the Gospel who privately and publicly aids in its circulation,
the Presiding Elder who advances its claims, the Chief Superintendent who
magnifies its functions, are all fighting at a strategic point in the great Held
of Christian service.
We close with the statement which stands at the beginning of this paper:
"It will simply impossible for the Church to carry out her great plans in
connection with lay-activity until our laymen acquaint themselves better
with the facts and affairs of their church.
OVER FIFTY YEARS AGO.
TjnHROUGri the kindness of Rev. E. E. Rose, of Mount Olive, we have
I I lying before us the Richmond Christian Advocate of May 27, 1 "-
J. J It is a large blanket sheet of four pages. Dr. Leroy M. Loo R (lli"
tor, and it was then published by "A Dibrell, James D. Coulling. and
John E. Edwards, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. At that time
a great part of Methodism in North Carolina now embraced in the North
Carolina Conference belonged to the Virginia and South Carolkia Oonter
ences. The Richmond Christian Advocate was at that time the organ of tin
North Carolina Conference. The Raleigh Christian Advocate was not estab
lished until several years afterward.
This issue of the Richmond Christian Advocate is unusually interesting,
as containing the proceedings of the General Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, then in session in New York City. An editorial lelb'i'
from Dr. Lee indicates that sectional feeling was running high, and tin1
doughty editor has on his war-paint.
The paper is almost barren of church news. It should be remeinbeii d
that Southern Methodism at the time was but in its infancy.
We notice in the list of marriages the following: "Married in Wayne
County, N. C, on the ISth instant, by the Rev. Curtis Hooks, Dr. J. L. 1
McKinne, of Jones County, and Miss Tabitha Smith, of Wayne."
Hezekiah G. Lee was at that time Presiding Elder of the Raleigh its-
trict. The following charges were represented: Henderson Circuit, 'la'
River Circuit, Franklin Circuit, Tar River Mission, Raleigh City, Kahili
Mission, Raleigh Circuit, Hillsboro Circuit, Granville Circuit, Hillsboro St:i-
tion. and Person Circuit.
Dr. Win. A Smith sends a notice of the approaching Commencement of
Randolph-Macon College;, lie says: "The railroad from Gaston to Rid'
way is in fine repair. A tri-weekly stage runs between the College aw
Ridgeway." At that time the College was located at Boydton, Va.