file Africa - Amerieia Presbyterian CONSOLIDATED WITH . THE SOUTHERN EVANGELIST ««. H. L. MeCBORET, DJ>„ LH>., W. B. HILL. IdHm E*t. a P. FITGHVOSD. Drotod to tW EdnmtionM, Mate, ital, Mona- and BaUgfaw Intnrinti «f our people is tbs 8oofh. and fob. •iahed at Charlotte, N. C.. wan Tbarsdar* TERMS 07 SUBSCRIPTION •injfle copy one yaar_ILI# n'fT months ____ , .7» Three months __ Entered at the Toat^OfSea at Char otte. N. <5« as. second claw matter THURSDAY, AUG. 13, 1986. “BY THE FOOLISHNESS OF PREACHING” “The Christian Church would again bring salvation to the world and begin to save its own soul if it had the wisdom and courage to declare a moratori um on preaching for a period of one or two years.” “For the most part, sermons today are a very poor edition of ‘topical’ homiletics, a brand of religious ‘pep talks,’ sailing forth for a transitory popular ity under the guise of being inspirational. Why can not a Christian be permitted to go to church to worship his God with out always being assaulted by a barrage from the pulpit? Tru ly the miracle of the church is the patience of the laity.” The above paragraphs are from The Year Book and Reg ister of Trinity Episcopal church, New York, and are sup posed to have been, written by the rector Qf that church, the Rev. Dr. Frederick S. Fleming. On casual reading one & shocked at the idea suggested, but on reflection it does not seem so bad. The proposal is i not to suspend religious wor ship, but to give the preacher some time off. And in keeping with this suggestion, Dr. Flem ing himself has gone abroad. We would not do away with church services. In our own ex perience there is nothing so helpful on the Sabbath as be . ginning the day with attend ance upon religious services. Of course, we have all heard sermons #nd other discourses, too, for that matter,, that not only showed mental and spirit ual exhaustion, but were ex hausting to those who listened. There was, perhaps, a lack of time for adequate preparation. The preacher needs time off —not for loafing and worthless story-telling, but for meditation and prayer, and for physical and spiritual re-building. The stories of the lives of many of the early Christian leaders show periods of silence—-a get ting away from routine. Jesus himself often went “apart,” and Paul had his years in Arabia. We would not discontinue reli gious worship, but we would diversify it so as to give the preacher and the congregation, too, a respite. TOO RADICAL (Baltimore Evening Sun) The Rev. Dr. Frederick S. Heming, ; rector* ,of Trinity Episcopal Church, in New York, suggests a moratorium on preaching for one or two years. It would be presumptuous for The Evening Sun to enter the lists against the Rev. Dr. Fleming on any issue concerned exclusively with theology or homiletics. With this utterance, however, he steps out of the field of his scientific specialty and into that of social philoso ' phy, where lay opinion may be as valuable as any; and from that standpoint we dare chal lenge him. i No doubt a great deal of modem preaching, like a great deal of newspaper Writing, is pretty bad, judged by any de cent standard of craftsmanship. Nevertheless, there are wide areas of the country in which the Sunday morning sermon is as deeply imbedded in the lives and consciousness of the people as the Saturday night bath jahd neither can be eliminated with out a great and needless up heaval. Dwellers in cities, where a thousand distractions are clam oring for attention, tend to for get how important"the parson’s weekly discourse may be where life Is more simply organized Protestantism, estpeuiajly, Mum emphasized the sermon to such an extent that one is at a loss, to know what the clergy wduld do wore it abolished; and even in the Catholic ^Church there are many priests who, deprived of the opportunity of preaching, would be deprived of their prin-i cipal means of influencing the life of their time. If thje Rev. Dr. Fleming had rtittrfcted himself : to . a* de mand for better preaching, or had even called for a long, en forced vacation for the bad preachers, it would have been hard to make out a case in op position. But when he mentions the elimination, even temporar ily, of all preaching, he becomes dowptfgjht 'fevtohitftmary.. It just can't be done without up setting the country. HOW THEY STOPPED THE ENGINE By Rev* G. B. F. HaBock, D J>„ In The Presbyterian In the early days of railroad ing, they used to give the en gines names. Now they are us ually given numbers. I have a story for you boys and girls of The Presbyterian family about an engine that had a name. I will tell you the name a little later. The story is one concern ing the early days of railroad ing, and though I can not real ly vouch for it, Igot it from a good source an djfrink it relia ble. But it is an interesting sto ry anyway, and I think you will agree with me that it some valuable suggestions. One dark night when a rail way conductor wav taking three passenger coaches through to the division point of his run, he noticed - the head light of a locomotive back of his train., Hie immediately in formed the engineer of the fact, and both * began wondering what it might mean. The train was running at .high speed, but the headlight in the rear kept steadily gaining on them. As there were no lights back of the headlight, they conclud ed that it must be an empty en gine that seemed to be chasing them. The road twisted along the banks of a stream in such a way as to permit ariy one look ing back to see what was going on in the rear for a considera ble distance. The conductor * ordered the engineer to put on more steam, and the engineer pulled the throttle wide open. Then fol lowed the wild chase. Pursuer and pursuing engine grew dim in the distance. Every one iii the cars believed that the en gineer on the pursuing engine must be crazy. At last an idea struck the en gineer. He recalled the fact that a locomotive can maVr little progress on greasy rails. The contents of two large cans of oil were poured on the tracks from the rear of the last pas senger coach. The scheme worked. Soon the headlight of the pursuing engine grew dim in the distance. When it was safe to do so, the train stopped and backed up to solve the mys tery. A peculiar sight met the eyes of the crew. One of the finest engines on the road, called, “The Davy Crockett,” had broken away from the hostler up the line and started down the track on a voyage of destruction. The oil poured on the track had baf fled all the destructive abilities that the locomotive possessed. There stood the “Davy Crock ett,” puffing and snorting and pawing like a wild Texas steer, the driving wheels ■ buzzing around on the greased rails like a flywheel in a machine shop, but hardly moving at all Not a sign of an engineer was found and the fireman on the train that was being chased mounted the engine and shut it off. They towed it into town, and there found a dispatch or dering them to sidetrack out of the way of the runaway; but the oil had saved them. Well, boys and girls, a little oil at the right time will save other things besides engineers. It can save boys and girls and men and women. The oil of kindly speech is one saving sort, the oil of civility, the oil of politeness, the oQ of the “soft answer that turnejth away wrath/' 1 have heard of a man who aways carried with him a little can of oiL He hated (Contihued on page 8) OPEN AIR PREACHING; OR Ti GOSPEL TO THE PEOPI By Frank C. Shirley > I returned last week from Philadelphia where I spent two weeks assisting Rev. E. A. Mitchell with anDpen Air Evan gelistic meeting. Rev. Mr. •Mitchell is the pastor of the First - African Presbyterian jChurch under whose auspices the service was held. This was a new venture and experience for me. It was also new for the First African Presbyterian church as this is the first year they have attempted such a service. Because the venture was new I desire to share some of my impressions of i with the readers of the Afri co. - May I say that while in Phil adelphia, I stayed at the home of Rev. and Mrs. Mitchell. My stay was most pleasant, the fellowship was excellent. - My two weeks’ stay in that rare fied Christian aftmospbiere much to intensify and deepen my spiritual life. I take tins, op portunity to publicly thank Rev. ana Mrs. Mitchell and their daughter, Miss Roberta, for their kind hospitality while I was thf^e. } Our meetings were held on a va.ant lot at the corner of Ellsworth and §outh 19th Sts. This is about seven or eight blocks from {the church. As there was no tent or other shel ter, when it rained and when the weather was damp or cool the services were held in the church. On the lot the meetings ppened promptly 'at 7 P. M., and closed at 8:20, daylight saving time. This was necfsssaWy Ibe cause we had no lights on the lot. The first part of the service was given over to singing and prayers. The singing was led by Mr. A. J. Hill, a faithful and loyal member of the First Af rican church. Our only instru ment was a cornet, which was played by Mr. Oscar Petteway, a student5 in Infest Philadelphia High School. - At no time during the meet ing did we have thronging crowds. There was a small band of the members of the jFifrsjt African church that attended all of the services. I am under a lasting debt of gratitude to this small groupr their deep spirituality and earnest pray ers gave me much encourage ment when the way seemed dark. There was another small group from the community where the meeting.? were held that attended regularly. They, too, helped to bear me up. There was still another group that made me feel that my efforts were not in vain. They were those who lived across the street from the vacant lot down the short street 1 acting into Elsworth. Each evening there were some who gathered on their front steps, others who sat on their back porches, others leaned out of their win down, These people took their places as regularly as we came, and sat attentively during tne service; they must have been interested. Finally, there was a band of little children that came trooping out of their homes each evening. Unlike ther parents they were not shy or bashful. They did not know who we were but they heard the group singing: “I Love to Tell the Story,” “WJhat a Friend We Have in Jesus,” “Jesus Is ,A¥\ the World to Me,” and other hymns. They heard these hymns and they knew we were there to help the community. They joined heartily in the ser vice. Their coming was encour aging, for it confirmed so beau tifully the teachings of Jesus about little children. However, there were some other experiences that were not so happy. There were oth ers who passed by and gave every evidence of being totally indifferent* There were others who passed and expressed themselves in jest. In the street almost in front of where we Vere holding Jthe eerv&ces a group of young men gathered to play ball, going on with the game just as though no service was being held. And worse still about fifteen or twenty fee1 away from where we were con ducting the meeting was a group of men engaged in bitch ing quoits (what we know in the South as pitching horse shoes.) Not only did these groups reflect their disrespect for the services but their utter contempt for our presence there. ■ The quoit pitching group gave us most concern. For three evenings they carried on their games right under our. servic es* Wp carried them heavy on our hearts, to God. On the 4th evening at the close of our meeting the leader of the group came to us voluntarily and asked: “Does our pitching dis turb your service?* That was our entering wedge. We felt that God had answered our prayers. We were able, to speak directly to the hearts of these men. They apologized for their duufeepec# and contempt ceased, from that day their, dis turbance of the service. Those were great experiences for me on Ellsworth and S. 19th Streets. There I saw a miniature picture of what is go ing on all over Philadelphia, and not only in Philadelphia, but in every city throughout our land, both North and South There are millions of men and women throughout our nation just like those “front steps”’ and “back porch”’ listeners. They have stayed away from church so long that they do not know how to go back. They are ashamed to return. Yet in their hearts there is a longing, a hungering and thirsting for the gospel. They constitute a part pf the fields that are white al ready to harvest. There are other millions of little children whose hearts ant minds are wax to receive read ily the teachings of Jesus and are like granite to retain those teachings. All they need is a chance. Then there are hundreds of thousands of youth like those boys who played ball in the ing on. The lives of such youth street while the service was go are empty; they need to be filled. The quoit pitching group is typical (of men throughout our land. They have drifted and sunk so low that they are in sensible in their disrespect and contempt 'for things spiritual, they care not for man nor God ^es, Ellsworth and S. 19th Streets present, in my judg ment, a cross section of Phila delphia, a cross section of prac tically every city in our nation. is a “little cosmos,” “a micro cosm of the macrocosm.”', Ellsworth and iSj. JL9th Sts. presented a challenge to'the First African Presbyterian church find the church did hot meet it. All over the nation ths)t (sarnh (challenge fjs\ being presentd to the Protestant .churches and the churches are not meeting the challenge. In our closing service, which was largely attended, we em phasized this challenge that now faces the Church through out our land, and emphasized the need of men and women who will be willing to rededi cate and reconsecrate their lives to meet this challenge. I am happy to State that a num ber of those present so pledged themselves. I want to thank Kev. Mr. Mitchell, the First African church, and the Summer Evan gelistic Committee for the op portunity they have given me to get this helpful experience. Jt has greatly deepened my own spiritual life, and enabled * me to see mk>re clearly the need. I am convinced more than ever that the hour has arrived when the Protestant Church must re ally carry the gospel to the peo ple. “Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come.” Not by force, but by love, by sympathy, by taking a personal and social interest in those who are out of the fold. LE VERE PRESBYTERY The Presbytery of Le Vere will convene on August 27, in the Maryville Second Presbyte rian church, at 7 :30 P. M. Reports from standing com mittees will be had at this meeting. All persons planning to attend will please notify the Rev. O. C, Wallace, Alcoa, Ten nessee. W. C. HARGRAVE, S. C. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear*— I John 4:18. ^ SUMMERING IN THE ADI BOlTOACKa By Rath N. Prtmu I Jw JwLJpIr”—** Editor, AifWco - American Presbyterian: Please allow me space in your paper to convey to its readers a few interesting notes about the Adirondack Mountains, the great health resort of Northern New York, which only a limit ed number of my race have had the opportunity to see. I have had five summers of ex perience with summer camping in this section, and have found it very beneficial to health, have enjoyed many thrills, and learned many interesting facts, so I wish to pass them on to you. I hear you ask, Who has not seen a mountain? But have you studied them, experienced life among the, harmful and harm less wild animals? Have you experienced tha difference in thP use and fall of the tempera ture in. just a few hours, or the difference of a few miles in dis tance? Have you seen trees growing upon rocks? I have seen these and many other ex citing things which I wish to relate to you if you are inter ested. > 41 My first visit to the Adiron dacks was in 1031. From May 30 to October 1,1 was at Spec ulator, N. Y. This point is said to be 6,00* feet above sea lev el. The small mountain vil lage is in a valley. I should say •on the edge of Lake Pleasant. It is a very beautiful spot, sur rounded by other mountains, with the great Mt. Speculator across the lake, facing in all di rections. The mountain is spi der-webbed with many trails for the benefit of ambitious moun tain climbers who wish to imr prove their /physical ,make-up, or for those who want a thrill On the top of the mountain is a lookout. One surely imagines that she is looking frOm the 100th floor of the Empire Stat building, using the numerous mountains for .buildings. It is certainly a beautiful sight to gaze out e said of Brother Coles’ family it PinevUle. He is a blue ribbon ’resbyterian and has been such or 40 years. W. V. JOYNER, Minister on the field. The official documents of American history—affirm md reaffirm that this is a re igious nation.—U. 8. Supreme ?ourt Decision, METHODS The SundnySchoi. Convention and School of Methods of Mc Clelland Presbytery met at Harbison Institute, Irmo, South Carolina, July 21-24, 1986. The session opened Tuesday night with a very large attend - ance, with tthe largest delega tion in its history. The enrolli ment was 66 and a number of visitors besides. Our President, lbs. M. V. Marion, gave a very inspiring address on “Youth to the Front and Their Opportunity.” When she had finished I believe every one present had derided in his mind that he was going to use every opportunity and do a greater work for the Master. Wednesday morning we went about our various classes in ac cordance with the program aa outlined. Gcr Jnstrudtorg were wide awake and tha interest they manifested ih! their class rooms made the classes worth while. There was no time to vaste for we were busy every moment The spirit of - clean sports manship was exhibited through out the session. Competition be tween the colors, “Orange” and “Red” was very keen and en thusiasm was at its best The “Orange” was victorious. There were several new features this year: stunt night and the attached cr