Newspapers / North Carolina Christian Advocate … / Oct. 31, 1918, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of North Carolina Christian Advocate (Greensboro, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Page Two RALEIGH CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE Thursday, October 31, lii(S EDITORIAL si: (i To Pastors and Subscribers We are not unmindful of the serious ness of the. days tluough which wo are passing. Many of our hoin.es arc under tiie strain of sickness and death, and these things are making largo drafts uiKn the Umo and sympathies o our pastors. The prevalence of Spanish in lluenza, and of pneumonia following it, necessarily divert the attention of the people from other matters. But even in such times as this there are other mat ters that must be attended to. The work of the Church and the agencies which it employs must bo kept going as far as possible. The manifest presence of death only emphasizes the importance of that for which the Church stands i the bringing of the world to Christ for the salvation of each individual. This work is having to be carried on these weeks without the advantages of tiie as sembled congregations and the regular preaching of the Word. It has to be done by house to house visitations and personal contact with one another. Among these agencies of the Church is the Church paper, and these crucial times have come at a trying tune to us. Wo are face to face with a serious cur tailment of our work. Our lield is lim ited by our circulation, and at normal times this is all too limited; but these are abnormal times. The War Industries Board, owing to the scarcity of paper, has made regulations that will force us to a cash-in-advance basis. Our people for generations have been aecnsto,med to pay at their convenience and the pastors have been accustomed to collect at any time during the year. This practice will not meet present conditions. We must get our subscribers paid in advance and keep them there. The fact that many are too distressed, just at this time to think of these things makes it all the more imperative that those who are not so pressed pay special attention to it. This appeal is to both pastors and people. There are about three hundred who have been getting the Advocate, some of them for years, who will not get an other copy after this week unless we hear from them. There are many others who will soon have to go the same Avay. We do not wish to lose a name. For the sake of the Church we love we do not wish to lose them. For their own sakes, and for the religious life of their homes, we do not wish to lose them. For the sake of the work into which wo are par ting our life we do not wish to lose them. Is it nothing to you that we lose them? Notes and Comments Homes for the Returning Soldiers is the pur port of some legislation that is now pending at Washington. The general idea is to utilize some government land for the purpose. The Committee on Public Lands of tho Senate has unanimously reported in favor of a bill appro priating a million dollars to make surveys of farms on these lands to furnish homes for the soldiers when they return from France and for thousands of workers now employed in muni tions factories who will De thrown out of then present employment at the close of the war. Such a provision will be an important item in an economic oiogram in the re-adjustir out that must necessarily take place at that time. It will be a great blessing to these soldiers and to the country to get them located in the coun try and in rural pursuits, rather. than allowing them to become congested in the cities where they will have no suitable employment and with whose life they are unaccustomed. The Unification Movement has struck the Lutheran Churches of this country and seems, to be making more rapid progress with them than with some of the rest. A great conven tion is to be held in New York November 12-10 to effect the organization of the United Lutheran Church. The new organization will be formed by the merging of the General Synod, the Gen eral Council, and the United Synod South. It will have a membership of about 800,000, its property value well over $53,000,000,00, it will have higher educational institutions valued at $5,250,000.00, and more than 5,000 students. The first steps toward the merging of these bodies were taken in the early part of last year, and the occasion was a gathering for the cele bration of the four hundredth anniversary of the Reformation. The idea of unification was in the air, and events developed rapidly. Spec ulation is now rife as to who will be the first president of the United Lutheran Church. I II Zionists AJl Over the World are preparing to celebrate the first anniversary of the signing by lit. Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, British Foreign Sec retary, of a document which they regard as their magna-charta, and the pledge by the Allied Pow ers that the aspiration for a Jewish National Homeland in Palestine will be realized at the end of the war. The declaraton which Mr. Bal four signed on November 2, 1917, is as follows: '"His Majesty's Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people and will use its best en deavors to facilitate the achievement of this ob ject, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country." This declaration has since been concurred in by fhe French, Italian, Serbian and Montenegrian Gov ernments. It is expected that this celebration, will largely promote the return of the Jews u Palestine and hasten the time when they shall be established in the land of their fathers. II H II The United War Work Campaign for $170, 500,000.00 is soon to be inaugurated. The Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., the Red Cross, thy Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army, an. organization of the Jews and one other seven in all are to make a united campaign for the above amount with which to do religious and benevolent work for the soldiers. Some dissat isfaction has been felt and expressed about com bining this campaign into a single drive, since there are such divergent and in fact conflicting elements involved in it. In order to prevent so many drives, however, President Wilson insisted upon the merger and the plan has been adopted. Of course, all contributions will be voluntary, and the campaign will have to be conducted mainly by press publicity and private solicita tions. The prevalence of Spanish influenza will make impossible the speaking campaigns that would otherwise have been carried out. Many of us dislike to make a contribution in which some of these organizations will share because they represent views that are in abso lute conflict with our own. For instance, we do not like to contribute to tho Knights of Co lumbus because we do not believe in Roman Catholicism. We are sending missionaries to countries that have been dominated by Roman Catholicism for generations because we do not believe they present the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We do not like to contribute to the Jewish religion because they deny our Christ in whom alone we believe any man has eterini life. We do not believe that this attitude is t product of prejudice, or narrowness, or provin cialism; because our objection roots itsoir n convictions of truth to which we have come i may be partly by inheritance, but also by expo, rience and investigation. On the other band we are faced by the fact that we cannot mal a contribution to these other organizations tiu Y. M. C. A., the Y. W C. A., the Red Cross, etc. who are doing an essential work in cam) and on the battle front, except by responding to thi campaign. True, we can designate the special organization to which we wish our contribu tions applied, but that is discouraged and in fact will be swallowed up in the pro rata distrib ution at last. It is simply one of those condi tions in which we cannot have things just an we would like. t We cannot afford to withhold our support from a cause that is so urgent and imperative. What we want to do, and must do, must be done, even if we have to do some other things that we do not wish to do in order to ge: it accomplished. It is this sort of a dilemma in which we find ourselves, and the necessity is upon us to do what good we can do in tin.; crisis of the world's life. II H H The Course of the Great War lias not changed materially in the last week or , two. The armies of the Allies have been making progress on all fronts. The progress is not so rapid as it was for a time, but the resistance of the enemy is gradually crumbling and the Cen tral Powers seem to realize that they are de feated. They are eagerly seeking peace, but nt the same time are trying to save what they can out of the wreckage; and it is by no means cer tain yet that a great deal more fighting will not be necessary before the war can be brought to a conclusion. Germany claims to have made great changes in her internal affairs in order to meet the conditions for an armistice laid down by President Wilson, but Germany's word has too often proved false to accept it now. The representatives of the Allied Powers are at this writing (Tuesday) in conference in France over the matter of an armistice which Germany is seeking, and their answer is awaited by the wond with great interest. Nothing but abso lute surrender on the part of the Central Pow ers will satisfy the other peoples of the world at ihe present time; and, when that issue squarely faced by Germany, it is uncertain whai course she will pursue. In the meantime the war is still on, and no relaxation must be per mitted until the goal is definitely readied. In the Valley of the Shadow It .may be that the Psalmist had days simile to these in mind when he wrote that Psalni about "walking through the valley of l shadow of death." He certainly know what i was to have his faith tried and hi tested. It is not surprising that he fc sometimes break out in one of those eruption of the heart in which he besought ,,!l,oVal1 visit retribution upon those who smlpnt ruin. They were frequently people from tt -he had a right to expect better tiling his "own familiar friend" that "HIV'1 "I' heel against" him. It was those w eaten of his bread that sought his 111 ''. heart became sore from such frequent jaJ and he looked through the leaden ski- t0 cover, if he might, the hand of justice. But it was not alone these thins ,,K! heavy burden upon the heart of David.
North Carolina Christian Advocate (Greensboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 31, 1918, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75