Newspapers / North Carolina Christian Advocate … / July 11, 1918, edition 1 / Page 2
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Thursday, July n 1;, Tage Two EDITORIAL RALEIGH CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. AX KXIMjAXATIOX. A number of our cumosters who order- cd Testaments lor our soldiers recently had to wait a considerable time before their orders could be filled. Increasing , sales of these books had exhausted our supply; and, when we ordered a new sup- ply, the publishers were likewise out of stock. The unusual sale of these books has made it impossible for the publishers to keep up with the demand. We now have a new supply on hand and orders will be filled immediately direct from this office while the supply lasts. Notes and Comments Speaking AVith Tongue, is a pamphlet that has recently been laid on our desk. It is writ ten by llev. William II. Nelson, Yuba City, Cal. It deals with a subject that has been abused by a class of misguided religious people. The writer gives a sane and conservative discussion of the subject, and it will be read with prolit. The uintelligible gibberish that is often uttered under the name of "Speaking with Tongues" has no support in Scripture or in reason. Why should God give a man the ability to speak in a tongue that is not understood, either by the: speaker, or by any one who hears him speak? There is no purpose to be aecomp.islied by such a thing; and the leading of misguided souls to seek such a gift is a perversion of the religious nature that can result only in harm. 1 U II The Caswell Training School is getting some advertising that is for the moment at least un fortunate. A girl, Lida Spruill, ran away from that institution and fell into the hands of Sal vation Army officers at Durham. She told a story of cruel treatment at the institution that aroused their sympathy, as well as the sympathy of some others, and the result so far has been a refusal to allow the authorities there to take her back. Dr. McNairy, the superintendent, has promptly demanded a thorough investigation of the whole affair, and this will probably be done. In the meantime it is proper to give the institu tion the benefit of the doubt, and hold the man agement innocent until guilt is proved. It is a well known characteristic of feeble-minded peo ple to tell wonderful stories of the cruel treat ment that they receive, and it is often the case that one not versed in dealing with people in that condition will fail to discover at times that there is any mental defect about them. We sin cerely trust that the management will be able to clear up the situation and that it will not Ire hindered in the prosecution of its beneficent work. H H fi "The Zeal of Mine House Hath Katen Me Up." A reliigous zeal that is not according to knowl edge is hurtful to the highest spiritual interests of the soul, and a zeal of patriotism that is not according to knowledge will result in harm to the highest interest of the country. Report comes that one of the best and most saintly men in the Kentucky Conference was arrested a few days ago for preaching the truth. He was re buking those who say: "Let the Church go; we must win the war." We have seen no verbatim report of what the minister said. He may have been guilty of unwise utterances; but there is a theory that is gaining some currency that "mak ing the great sacrifice" of enlisting in the service of the country and falling in battle is sufficient for salvation. No heresy could be more deadly than this. We believe in being patriotic, and we must win the war; but the doctrine that dy ing on the battlefield, however righteous th cause for which the battle is being fought, wi.i result in the eternal salvation of the soul is pure paganism. Jesus Christ is the only Sav ior of men from sin, and from the hell to which sin inevitably leads. In our patriotic zeal w? must not lose sight ot this truth; and in the moke of the war that is now being waged it is well to emphasize this truth. Ill The Trend Toward Profanity. Those who are concerned for the maintenance 'true religion and for the highest type of manhood cannot look with complacency upon the growing use of profanity in these war times. We do not care to repeat the examples of it in our columns, even for purposets of condemning it; but any reader of the secular press cannot fail to notice ac counts of it accompanied with a sort of chuckle to indicate approval of it. Even a religious worker who had been at the front speaks of hav ing been where flowed "liquid blasphemy," and yet the connection does not indicate that he much deplored the fact that he related. Profan ity is not a trivial fault of character. It is coarse. It is degrading. It blunts the finer fee.ings to say nothing of the irreverence to wards God that it inevitably involves. No man can indulge in it and be blameless, no matter how great the provocation may be. It may be difficult to find words strong enough to express our opinion of the Germans, but profanity adds nothing to the strength of any man's vocabu lary. It weakens it by its very vehemence. It is not a thing to be laughed at and passed over as a joke. God thought it of sufficient gravity to put it among the fundamental prohibitions of the decalogue: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord wih not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain." k n n The Experience of All Editors, we suppose, have some things in common. Dr. Branscomb, of the Alabama Christian Advocate, has not been, on the tripod very long, but he is meeting with some of the familiar things that worry an edi tor's life. We are sure that his recent utter ance on "Some of the Woes of an Editor," will find a response in every editor's sanctum; and in the hope that some of our correspondents wih profit by his words we pass them along: "There are some features of the Advocate work that are all but sufficient to distract a man. For in stance, the mail this morning brings a letter from a brother who wants his paper stopped, but he doesn't sign his name. A little later he will probably bless us out for continuing it after he ordered it stopped. The same mail brings a note from a brother who says some of his mem bers are not receiving their paper. He does not give us their names or their postoffices. How are we to investigate such a case? The same mail brings a card asking for us to change an address. He does not give his former postoffice. We comply, but that means two papers are going to him, one to his new and one to his old ad dress. Brethren, we are honestly doing our dead level best to conduct as it should be done, both the business end and the editorial department of your paper. We are working harder than ever before in a life that has always been a busy one. If you will pardon a slang phrase the morning mail has almost put bats in our beirry for the love of Mike, when you write to this office, sign your name, give us your po.stoffioo address, and write in plain United State.; and not in hieroglyphics that an Egyptian iniuninv could not understand." Should Ministers Be Conscripted? This question has recently been a live (Jne in England. The exigencies of the war have led them to enact a new man-power bill, that is a new drafting act to secure fresh soldiers for the war. The provision of these bills naturally become more strict as the country becomes near Mr exhausted of its man-power. The necessities of the war are naturally pressing closer homo to the hearts of the people, and there is a mc,v leady response than could be expected before the sternness of the task upon them was real ized. Growing out of these facts the new l.tv, ?!& originally drafted, did not exempt clergymen from military service. During the debate of tin bill, however, the government decided that it would be best to exempt them; a provision for this was made in the bill as finally passed. Some of the clergymen resented the exemption. "What have we clergy done,'" one of them hotly exclaimed, "to deserve the insult of exemption from military service. " A Bishop in wriiii.;.; f the matter regarded it as a slap at the clergy and destined to lower the Church in the public esteem after the war. To. bring the matter nearer home Governor Bickett has been quoted in the secular press recently as advising a young minister who sought his aid in securing a chaplaincy to shoul der his religion with his gun and go to the front. We do not know the particulars which led the Governor to give this advice in this particular case, but we are sure that he would not advise every minister to do as he did that young man. The action of the Governor, however, furnished the occasion fr at least one writer in the secular press to speak flippantly of the ministerial work. It was almost sneered at as simply "preaching at" the people. The whole situation leads us to write of this subject in a more serious vein. The impulse has doubtless come to many ministers to leave, for the time being at least, their vocation to take up that of the soldier. This is but natural un der the compelling influences of these times in which we live, and yet it is well to ask ourselves seriously if such a course can be justified. do not depreciate patriotism, or lower the stand ard of one's duty to his country in this t inie o national peril, when we say that there l& duty that goes deeper still. Patriotism itself would well nigh perish from the earth, if there were no religion to sustain it. The ministers' work is primarily to keep men face to lace with the fundamental obligations of life. Patriotism indeed one of these fundamental duties, a.i men who would become careless of God and o their moral obligations to one another will not long continue careless to defend their c0lllU against an enemy invader. In the winning this war there is no more important work tnan Christian of the maintenance of a high type of character. Back of the military impleients warfare there must be kept the right type c. manhod if those implements of warfare ai be used for the promotion of virtue um living among the nations of the earth. the maintaining of this character that the tian minister finds his special work. full II VM" ranks of such have not been over run uikes iM'on the iii i .1 i1,i tiri 1 t ; j ears, anu tne uemanu iuul w flj life o fany people calls for ro-enl'ir,';iil'n
North Carolina Christian Advocate (Greensboro, N.C.)
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July 11, 1918, edition 1
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