VOL. LIU.
>BER 13, 1932.
NO. 40.
SHALL CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN THE MIS
SIONARY FIELD BE SUBSMZED BY
HOMECHURCHES
New York,
October, 1932.
Albert L. Scott, Chairman of
the Laymen’s Foreign Mis
sions Inquiry, authorizes the
following:
Today is made public an in
stalment of the Report of the
Appraisal Commission appoint
ed by the Laymen’s Foreign
Missions Inquiry to examine
and recommend concerning the
future plan and scope of for
eign missions effort in the Far
East. The Laymen’s Inquiry
represents seven of the leading
Protestant demoniflations, and
the Report, which will be pub
lished late this fall, embodies
a two years’ study of the sub
ject by experts.
Tne Appraisal commission,
consisting of fifteen prominent
churchmen, has recently re
turned from a nine months’ ex
amination of missions effort on
the ground in China, Japan, In
dia and Burma.
The seven denominations re
presented in the Inquiry sup
port some 10,000 missionaries
in the four countries visited,
and annually contribute ap
proximately $15,000,000 for
foreign missions effort. In the
firjst instalment issued the
Commission was quoted as say
ing that the effecting of chang
es in foreign missions effort
should be “the condition of eve
ry further enlargement of the
enterprise.” The instalments
being released through the
press indicate the nature of the
cuatiges recommended. This
single thing has brought weak
ness in life and morale to the
missionary church to the
same extent that the pay
ment of foreign subsidies
has done. It has introduced
an element of commercialism
into the very inner courts of
the church. It has tended to
produce parasites, it has cut the
nerve of forward-moving ad
venture on the part of those
who should have been the lead
ers of the indigenous church,
and it has often given an undue
influence to the missionaries
who dispensed it.
“There are naturally solitary
cases where subsidies have
been a blessing and where
they have not had such serious
consequences. But no church in
any land will be robust and virile
until it supports itself out of its
own resources through its own
endeavors. All new churches
should, so fair as is humanly
possible, be indigenous and self
supporting from the start.
“Only about one-imra ui me
local churches in China and Ja
pan are at the present time
entirely self-supporting finan
cially. The percentage of self
supportinjg churtehes is still
smaller in India, though there
are sections of the country
where the proportion of self
supporting churches has great
ly increased in recent years. In
Burma the percentage of self
supporting1 churches is lajrger
than in any other part of. the
Orient. It is believed that eighy
per cent of the Baptist
churches in Burma, and fifty
per cent 'of the Methodist
churches are self-supporting.
Proportion Keceivirtg Subsidies
“About thirty per 'cent of
the churches founded by Amer
ican missionaries are at present
receiving subsidies directly
from America, though a small
proportion of them could sup
port thiemselves if they weref
thrown upon their own resourc
es and made to feel a sense of
responsibility for their contin
ued existence. There is an ex
tensive leakage from the mem
bership of many of the church
es, due not so much to expul
sions firom membership or to
the application of church dis
cipline a® to the loss of interest
waning of ^seal and genera
drift 4nto the currents of secu
lar life.
“The problem *of crjeajting a
wholly independent indigenous
church ig peculiarly difficult ir
India in parts of the country
where there is a preponderance
of depressed class people form
ing th membership of ' the
church. So long as a church is
composed of members of thai
class it is extremely difficult tc
induce members o$ higher
castes to join it, and there is,
too, the further difficulty that
the depressed class member*
themselves do not welcome ad
ditions to their membership
from the castes.
“No quick and hurried solu
tion of the problem can be
made. The mission must go as
far as it can go in wisdom to
ward meeting the aspiration of
the members of the church for
independent control, and it
should in eve# possible way,
prepare the church members
for the leadership which they
desire,
rerioa or iNuriure ixeeaea
“The new Christian groups
will, of course, need an early
period of nurture by leaders
from neftlfby churches and they
must have visits from the of
ficials or laymen who live withir
reach of their area, but when
community groups begin life a*
organized churches they should
expect to stand On their own
feet. ^ ,'
the Christian religion in the
future to permeate the personal
life of the individual and the
fabric of human society witfc
creative ideals and energies
which will renew and revitalize
both the single units and the
group rather than to build a
church as an institution to
stand out as an entity in itself
apart from the larger whole of
society.
“The organization of church
es and the zeal to proselyte in
to them members who could be
counted in statistics and report
ed to boards at home have in
many cases defeated the central
business of missionary pur
pose. The convert has been
prematurely hurried into a
church as though it were a ter
minus and an end in itself,
*svhem what he rather needed
was an enlarged view and out
look of life and friendly help
and guidance to take the slow
steps which would lead on into
a more robust moral and spir
itual life.
Should Be Indigenous
“More and more in the future
the church in missionary lands
will become indigenous in the
proper sense of the word, as it
certainly should be, and that
will mean that it will not be fi
nanced with foreign money, or
conducted by foreign workers,
or projected and patterned on
a foreign-made etecltesjastical
system. It must become a living
organism rather than the copy
cf a structural pattern.
“It must express in its own
life-forms the free functioning
of the Christian spirit. That
means that it must not be
afraid to change its |empo(ral
form or to outgrow the pecu
liar features stamped upon it
by the dominant personalities
who nurtured it.
*‘It should become in the tru
est sense the living expression
of the ideals and principles of
Christ, and these ideals and
principles should control its en
tire life.”
The Inquiry was sponsored
and financed by laymen of sev
en Protestant denominations
as follows: Presbyterian, Dutch
Reformed, United Presbyteri
an, Methodist Episcopal, Con
gregational, Protestant Episco
pal and Northern Baptist.
The Appraisal Commission
consists of the following: Dr.
William Ernest Hocking, Alford
Professor of Philosophy al
Harvard University, Chairman
Dr. Clarence A. Barbour,
President of Brown University;
°f Troy, N.
vJ'nri0 4; ?rown’ President
Madison,
N.-J.,* Dr. Charles Phillips
Emerson, - Professor of Medi
cine and Dean of the Medical
School of the University of In
diana; Mrs. William E. Hock
ing, Cambridge, Mass.; Doctor
£ ^oufiThton, Dean of
the Medical College of the Uhi
ve^ity of Iowa; Dr. Rufus Mi
Joabs, Professor of Philosophy
at Haverford College; Dr. Wil
liam Pierson Merrill, pastor of
the Brick church in New York;
Albert L. Scott, of New York
City; Mr. and Mrs. Harper Sib
ley, of Rochester, N. Y. ; Doctor
Henry C. Taylor, Specialist in
Agricultural Problems, of Bun
iington, Vermont; Df. Frederic
C. Woodward, Vice-President of
the University of Chicago, and
Miss Ruth F. Woodsmall, of
Indianapolis, Ind.
REV. T. B. HARGRAVE
CONDUCTS SUCCUSS.HJ1
REVIVAL IN REEVE’S ME
MOK1AL CHURCH, t*H!LA.
1 Our beloved and efficient
pastor, the Rev. George P. Ellir
son, announced a few Sundays
ago that the session had voted
to have a fall series of evangel
istic services, and that he had
been successful in securing the
Rev. T. B. Hargrave to conduct
this drive.
Rev. Hargrave was remem
bered by many for his work
here three or four years ago i
and we were delighted to have
him return.
Each night the meeting grew
in fervor and the attendance
was larger than in any previous
meeting. Our Junior choir as
sisted in rendering evangelist
is music and our new pipe organ
was heavenly. Mrs. Hargrave
assisted on several occasions
with the music and her services
were highly appreciated. Al
though the weather was cold
and raining most of the week,
the members and friends came
each night. On Sunday a mul
4itude visited our four services
and there was a harvest in
souls. Thirty came forward and
confessed Christ.
This is the secret of our pas
tor’s success: he forever keeps
the Spirit of Evangelism alive
in our church. - Rev. Hargrave
stressed personal evangelism,
tnat every soui De a sow-saver.
The Junior Evangelistic ser
vice is one of the best move
ments in the church. Children
should be made to feel that they
are a part of the church. It is
interesting to see the children
who already belong to the
church go to their friends who
are not professing Christians
and win them. We can see why
even the old and hard-hearted
are often won.
Our meeting closed Sunday
night, Oct. *16, and our prayers
go with thfe Evangelist and his
family.
Last week Revs. Ellison and
Hargrave and Mrs. Hargrave
and Mrs. Johnson, her mother,
motored to Lincoln University
and Oxford. The Evangelist
and Mrs. Hargrave were in a
party with Dr. C. T. C. Nurse
and friends who visited Chaney
State College and witnessed a
foot ball game and a beautiful
program celebrating Chaney
day. Many friends of the city
helped to make their stay a
pleasant one.
I hope you have been going
on your way singing pome more
notes of the “new song,” tun
ing your hearts for the Hale
lujah Chorus at the coming of
.he Lord with all His saints—
A Bonar.
Dice wl
»i one
admire
deep; youthfu]
full dress and wmte
.. r_„ be knocking tender
ly at your front door.
or
be
In -looking through the pag
“ m<m f ,*e "f ““ww'
80’Z HL ‘5* days «E the
gLleft who w«re
Drd^Kther?,in the Of
dent^^T Mattoon as Presi
:??* * teacher in Biddle
after % late Dr. W. F. John?
*me President of the
ty. My class was the
to study the Bible
s venerable, unselfish,
etic Christian giant in
of Bi
e College Classes -■
. * when I entered this
institution in 1888 were the
dass*f of ’89, ’90, -91 and of
92. - *Of the class of ’89 Wai
te* T./Reid, of Macon, Ga., is
the oaly surviving member of
ms class of five members; Dr.
P. W: Russell is the only one
left opt of four of the class of
’90;*wf the class of ’91, Rev. H.
L. Pdtei^son^ IX D., and Rev.
Wm. Byrd, D. D., are the
survmng members of a num
seven; and of the class
Qf/*9& which was composed of
seveift members, only two have
pass®!, ’while five remain quite
active: Dr. H. L. McCrorey,
Rev. fHyder M. Stinson, D. D.,
ReviiEdward W. Allen, Prof,
it. |if Douglass, Ph. D., and
•JohnlH. Cantey.
_ Thfe college group was com
posed of men who went to col
lege- to study and to emulate
godly, sympathetic, and unself
ish^Sen-at whoso feet they sat
as hungry souls, anxious fo take
into their lives the personality
of the men who came to give
light. And their spirit abides
in their product unto this day.
Dr. Geo. Edward Davis
Of the members of the fac
ulty that sat on the old college
rostrum in Biddle Memorial
chapel my first morning in that
chapel, which will ever be sa
cred to me, Prof. Geo. Edward
Davis, Ph. D., alone is left. He
was the only colored man on
the faculty; the others, eight in
number, Drs. Thomas Lawrence
and Wm. F. Johnson; Profs. S.
J. Beatty, W. H. McMean, Eu
gene P. Semple, Wm. E. Hutch
inson, Thos. D. Duncan, and the
giant in Israel, Dr. Stephen
M^ttoan, were white. These
men were alumni of some of the
strongest colleges and univer
ties of the country. They were
unassuming and . kind, but
strong.
Only Two
Those of us who have kept in
close touch with Biddle of long
ago and her gradual and radical
changes, know only two men
living who taught in Biddle be
fore the institution was placed
under a colored administration,
and these two men are our be
loved Prof. Geo. E. Davis, who
resigned the chair of natural
science to enter a field of wider
service; and Prof. C. R. Hard
ing, an outstanding Greek
scholar and a teacher in this
department at Davidson Col
lege, one of the strongest col
leges under the Presbyterian
Church, U. S.
Prof. Francis H. Robinson
Taught Biddle’s first gradu
ate, Dr. Culp, who was a class
mate of the late Dr. Marquis in
Princeton.
Prof. Robinson taught that
great man, Dr. R. P. Wyche,
and the late Dr. I. D. Davis. He
was in Biddle as a teacher dur
ing the days Dr. Shedd taught
there.
Prof. Robinson was an alum
nus of Hamilton College, N. Y.
He died at his home in Berkley,
California, in 1929; and Prof.
Eugene P. Semple died last
February in his 80's. While it
was my great pleasure to keep
in touch with these two"
ceased former teachers in Bid
die of many years ago, both
passed several months before* 1
knew about it.
Prof. Eugene P. Semple
taught English and composition
BBS
PROF. F. H. ROBINSON
in the Preparatory Department
rf Biddle eight years. And in
the last letter he wrote me he
said that the happiest- years of
his life were the eight years he
spent in Biddle, because, said
he, v“the men were eager and
anxious to learn.”
I am sure no student whose
privilege it was to study
English and composition under
Prof. Semple regrets the day.
His forte in this - department
was in making dark and mooted
questions in English clear.
This man was an alum
nus of Wooster University and
PROF. EUGENE P. SEMPLE
spent his last days in Poland,
Ohio, after the death of his
wife, whom he married in 1895
On his honeymoon trip to Co
lumbia, S. C., he stopped by to
see Biddle and a few of the
boys whom he left there in
June, 1891. He had a place in
the hearts of all who sat at his
feet in Biddle, and they will be
grieved to know that he passed
into eternity.
Glass House
Quite often the admonition
comes from one whose palatial
mansion, with imposing watch
towers, attracting1 attention
and inviting delay, that “glass
house” dwellers should not
throw stones. This, of course,
is an admission that such a
neighbor has come down from
his stone watch tower and tak
en up his abode in a “glass
house” and is quite willing to
prescribe prohibition of stone
throwing for the protection of
his neighbor’s “glaas house.”
The old folks often storm at
the youngsters scfrne night at
bedtime in an adjacent room
to go to sleep or cease that , noise
because the hilarious, youthful
group is disturbing or driving
away the peaceful sleep of the
aged. They are concerned more
about their own comfort than
about Hie children’s “going to
sleep.”
Then, too, this admonition
against stone-throwing amidkt
e ^Pses is an index of the
amsKHltsher to his suhseription
to:
“We share our mutual woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
A sympathizing tear/’
“Point of Law” is losing its
edge while Homer nodsby a
flickering light or is looking
ba,ck at expiring embers and
,£Tay ashes of declining ecclesi
astical vigilance.
UNCLE BILLIE.
ROGERS VILLE, (TENN.)
LETTER
Swift Memorial College had
its formal opening' for the year
1932 on September 16. Three
new members were added to the
faculty in the persons of W. L,
Ilainey, Dean of Men and teach
er of History and Science; Mrs.
M. K. Upshur, of New York,
teacher of Music, and Miss E.
A. DuBissette, of New York,
teacher of French, Spanish and
History. There was an increase
in enrollment which
students from several States as
far North as New York and as
far South as Georgia.
Coach Lee, assisted by Dean
Hainey, has already organized
the Athletic Association and
the outlook seems very favora
ble for a successful year in
spotfts. One interesting gamcj
has been played with Big Stone
Gap High School. The scores
were 13-6 in favor of the visit
ing team.
The Synod of East Tennes
see which convened at St. Marker
Presbyterian church, October;
9-11, brought to our school and
community numbers af outf
standing men and women of the
Church, among whom was Rev.
J. M. Gaston, D. D., LL. D.,
Secretary of the Division ot
Missions for Colored People of
the Board of National Missions
of the Presbyterian Church, U.
S. A. He led the devotional ex
ercises of Swift Memorial Col
lege on Thursday, 20th, 11:45
A. M. His discourse was an in
spiration to the faculty and
student body. Dr. J. W. Holley,
a member of the Board of Na
tional Missions, and first Negro
to serve in that capacity in ther
Presbyterian. Church of the Ui
S. A., was also present during
the ^votaonajj 'exeticisesl In
his remarks he instilled in the
minds of the students the high
purpose of education. Others of.
note were Rev. L. B. West, D.
D,. Rev. A. H. George, Rev. A.
B. McCoy, D. D., Miss E. E.
Goines, Rev. W. G. Hamilton.
Col. Berry, Rev. S. A. Downer,
D. D., Rev J. B. Barber and
Rev. C. A. Edington, Ph. D.
The Women’s Missionary
Department of the Synod held
its session at Swift Memorial
College. Mrs. J. M. Gaston, wife
of Dr. Gaston, was present at
the Missionary sessions.
The young men’ dormitory at
Swift Memorial College was
dedicated by Dr. J. M. Gaston
on Friday at 10 A. M. The dedi
catory service was attended by
the faculty, the students and
the members of the Synodical
Convention. The service was
very impressive. By recommen
dation of Dr. C. E. Tucker,
President of Swift Memorial
College, the building was dedi
cated as Franklin Hall, in honor
of Rev. W. H. Franklin, D. D.,
President Emeritus and found
er of Swift Memorial College.
“Another hook" shall be op
ened, which is the “book of
life." In this the names of all
the elect are written, as Chrijst
said to His disciplefe, “Your
names are written in heaven.”
This book contains God’s glo
rious and unchangeable pur
pose, to bring all the elect to
eternal life, and that, in order
thereto, they be redeemed by
the blood of His Son, effectually
called, justified, adopted, sanc
tified, and raised up by Him at
the last day, without sin.—
Thomas Boston.
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