Newspapers / The Christian Sun (Elon … / May 24, 1900, edition 1 / Page 1
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BY ATKINSON & LAWRENCE. IN ESSENTIALS, UNITY; IN NON-ESSENTIALS, LIBERTY; IN ALL THINGS, CHARITY. $2.00 PER YEAR. ESTABLISHED 1844. ELON COLLEGE, N. 0.. THURSDAY, HAT 24,1900. VOLUME LHI: HUMBTO21 • ZT7T- ’. - Vi m Th« Christian SUi* PUBLISHED WEEKLY. ' The Offlclxl Organ of the Southern Chrl» tlan Convention. CARDINAL PRINCIPLES. 1. The Lord Jesus Is the only Head of the church. 2. The name Christian, to the exclusion of all party and sectarian names. $. The Holy Bible, or the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, euffleient rule of faith and practice. • 4. Christian character, or vital piety, the only test of fellowship or membership. 6. The right of private judgment, and the liberty of conscience, the privilege and duty of all. Heavy postal frauds and wholesale swindling in postof fices are reported from Cuba. This is to be regretted, especial ly at this time when our govern ment is striving to give to the Cubans lessors and examples in self-government. Thirty-one locomotives were shipped to Russia from Philadelphia in ofie week re centlv. Let us hope that the day is not far distant when the "City of Brotherly Love” can ship to the Philippines and to South Africa machines of peace and prosperity instead of impli ments and weapons of war. The direct and indirect losses by the recent war and recon centration policy in Cuba are- es timated at 2C>opoo lives. War is costly, not only in money, but in men. At the close of this 19th Christian century it is a matter of deep regret that two of the most powerful and influential nations on earth find themselves engaged in foreign and bloody wars. v ~~ The famine in India still pre vails with its horrors and mis eries, despite the generosity of Christian nations. Thousands are on the verge of starvation while hundreds have already perished.' About $1,800,000 have been expended in the tam iue stricken districts in purchas ing cattle and seed and the gov ernment has made a further al lotment of $2,400,000. The day will come when inventive genius and improved transportation will abolish famines and .Christian civilization will abolish war. The robbery ot postoffices in North Carolina and Virginia of late has become alarming. Scarcely a week passes now in which there is not reported the blowing open of the postof fice safe and the “lifting” o( the valuables—usually money and stamps only. ’-These robbers seem to be a band ol profession als, and posto'ffice work their “specialty.” Two successive attempts seem not to be made in the same county or in neighbor ing towns. Thousands of dol lars in cash and stamps (and the latter seem no less coveted than the former) have been taken in these thefts, in the two states, since spring opened. And still the robbers run at large. Great is the pity they cannot be appre hended, and brought to justice. Strikes become more and more numerous every year. Un der the present organization of industry this is likely to contin ue. The strike is a species of war and war grows out 6f real nmed injustice. The em . of today strikes, not be his wages are less or his ice longer than fjnr , ...ey are not. But the ids from labor and indus known more about than Today the loborer ‘thing about the in iployer of his la ives that he does y re : war is both a moral protest and a sign ot progress: a protest _a gaiost a real or seeming unjust distribution of the rewards ot in dustry ; a sign of progress on the part of the wage earner who reads and thinks some for him self. There are no strikes in Egypt and China, where the tide of enlightenment and intelli gence among laborers runs low. The strike, be it a good or an evil, is a product of intelligence and civilization. And co-opera tion, or profit-sharing in indus try, is the only remedy. The present political cam paign in North Carolina bids fair to be the bitterest and most hotly contested one for years. A question is at stake about which men vastly differ and the very nature of which is calculated to engender bitter party feelings and deep prejudices. The ques tion of franchise is at the very bottom of our national life and political institutions. And this is the question now before the people of North Carolina. Shall or shall not a certain class of men who have, in the past few years at least,'•exercised the priv ilege of franchise continue -dvr so ? The issue, we say, is a fun damental one. Upon it men are prone and destined to disa gree. But is it not possible for men to disagree politically and to settle a great question peace ably at the polls without hatred, strife and malice? Are personal abuses and threats of violence essential qualifications for politi cal, campaigns? We have our political convictions. Every man ought to have his. Abuse is a poor weapon with which fight a conviction or disarm an .opponent. So how ever you may believe and vote in the coming election, let judg ment, reason and common sense dictate the course to be pursued. Last of all should members in the same church fall out with each other because they differ on political matters. Every one should carry his religion into his politics, but not his politics into his religion. Your religion is of more vital importance and con cern than your politics. You cannot, therefore*hazard the for mer for the sake of the latter. Vote your conviction, but allow that same privilege to your neighbor. The following sent out by the Washington correspondent will be agreed with by some, differed from by some. It is given be cause it comes from high author ity and bears upon a vital ques tion now much discussed: A sensation has been caused by a paper read by Charles Dudly Warner, the well knowu author, and President of the American Social Science Association, at the annual meeting of the socie ty, m which he asserted that the negro race was going back ward instead of forward. He sustained his argument with sta tistical reports of crime and il literacy in the Southern states, showing that the increase of crime among the Southern states had been 29 % and only 8% among the whites. In the Northern states, where slavery never prevailed crime had in creased 9% among the white population and 39% among the negro population. He attributed this phenomenon to improper education and political influ ences. He declared that none but illiterate negroes work ; that as soon as men or women of this race got a taste of 'education they insisted upon living lives of idleness or seek official positions and the excitement ot politics and vice. Mr. Warner took the position that industrial training, with a knowledge of the ele mental branches and moral in struction, were the only methods by which the masses of the ne gro race could be expected to improve in character and useful ness. Negro suffrage, he claim ed, is a curse to the race, and negro'colleges and universities land all institutions for higher education did more harm than 1 good. Southerners have appre ciated all these facts for a long lime, but most of them have hes itated to speak of them in public, The Pulpit. . THE TWELVE FOUNDATIONS OF THE WALL OF THE HOLT cm. BY REV. P. H. FLEMING. Text: Rev. 21:10,20. Sitting in my study one day last week, thinking about the message 1 should bring to you today, I thought about the gems that compose the foundation of the wall around the city—the New Jerusalem. And as I thought, there passed before my mind the most beautiful picture I have ever seen. As I sat and gazed upon the scene, I asked myself, did I ever see anything half as beautiful? Did I ever read anything to compare with this picture of the lonely Seer on the lonely Isle of Patmos? Combine all the beauty of the most beautiful things read and seen—weave them all into one wreath—and will it compare with the foundation and the wall about the City of God—the home of the saints? I thought oi the most beauti fUi aud -eqstly private residence in the world,' that of Lord Bute, called Monstuart, in England, covering, as it does, nearly two acres, built ot stone, in Gothic style, the rooms finished in ma-‘ hogany, rosewood and walnut, the halls of marble and alabas ter, the fire-places of carved marbles, antique design. In this I find no comparison, and almost shudder at the thought, for it seems well nigh sacrileg ious, of comparing the most cost ly private mansion of earth to even the foundations ot the wall about the home of the saved of God. I thought of the most beauti ful resting place of the dead ever prepared by a wife for her husband—one of the seven won ders of the world as reckoned by the Greeks. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, a monument erected by Artemisia, queen of Caria (B. C. 353) to her de ceased husband, Hausolus. It was built of the most precious marble, and the decorations were ot the highest Grecian art. Its cost was immense. The Philosopher Anaxagoras upon seeing it exclaimed: "How much money is changed into stone.” Nothing of it remains. The mind revolts at a comparison here. Within were . death and corruption. It has passed away and though classed as one of the seven wonders of the world by the cultured Greek, nothing of it can be found today. I thought ot a husband’s love tor his wile, and of the monu ment erected to her memory, in the city of Agra, in northern India—the Jewel of Agra—said to be the only perfect work of architecture in^U the world— the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is the famous mausoleum of white marble, a gem ot exqui site grace, built by the great Mogul, Shah .Jehan (1628-58) over the grave of his beautiful empress and favorite wife, Mum tazi Mahal. It is the most beau tiful tomb in the world. Built under the blue of an Indian sky, its white dome pointing heaven ward, seems to float above. It is situated in. the midst of a beautiful garden, with flowering shrubs, palms, fountains, and marble tanks in which golden fish play. Within where rests the dust of his favorite wife and of. himself, polished marble and precious stone abound. Jewel ed flowers of many precious stones are seen within the build ing and about the empress’, tomb. There are blood stones, agates, turquoise and many oth ers. There is said to be one gem flower containing 300 dif ferent jewels forming a beautiful rose. This is the most beautiful tomb that a husband with lpvc and wealth untold and unmeas ured could build for the wife of his bosom. There is no com parison here. For within are death and decay. . It will one day pass away. The gems will disappear and the flowers will fade. I thought ot the most beauti ful display of many colored and tinted lights, revolving in many forms, as seen in the electrical building, Columbian Exposition, Chicago, when the sun was set and the stars caine out. It was beautiful beyond description. Yet I see not the faintest resem blance in this to the beauty of the many hues as seen in the foun dations of the wall of the beautiful city. I thought of the beauty of a golden sunset on a beautiful summer’s eve, when the flowers are in bloom, aod the birds are in tune. The earth about us clothed in garments of green, and the heavens above us a dome of blue ; and the sun sink ing behind the western horizon, changes the blue above us first into rose-colored, then into deep ening red, followed in'quick suc cession by death-like pallor, which suddenly changed into darkness. The stars peeped out, it was night. And as I sit in the after-glow', wondering if such is life, I find no comparison' in the wondrous glory of the sunset, to the beauty of the foun dations of heaven’s walls, for the sunset faded into darkness, and into night. I thought of the rainbow as it arches the heavens on a dark background of a disappearing cloud. The beautiful rainbow, described by good old Nokomis to little Hiawatha as “The heaven < f flowers you see there, A11 the wild flowers of the forest. When on earth they fade and perish, Blossom in that neaven above ns.” The rainbow with its beautiful tints ot red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet give us but little idea ot the har mony of the beautiful colors of the twelve different gems in the foundations of the wall of heav en. .f And the foundations of the wall Of the city were garnished with all manner ot precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the^ third, a chalcedony; th" fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, i hrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth ; the Jtwelfth, an amethyst. Here we have named twelve different gems that are in the foundations of the walls of the city. Let‘us see the beautiful colors that enter into the founda tions of the walls. There is the variously colored jasper, red, yellow and other dull colors; next comes sapphire with its white, blue, yellow, green, black, violet colors; the third is chalcedony, white, black or colored ; the fourth is emerald with its bright green ; the fifth is sardonyx, white, black or color ed ; the sixth is sardius of a brownish red; the seventh, chrysolyte, yellow or green ; the eighth, beryl, with its white, blue, yellow or pink hues ; ninth, topaz, white, blue, yellow, green, pink or orange ; tenth, chryso prasus, green ; eleventh, jacinth, orange or reddish yellow; and twelfth, amethyst, violet. It may be that all the colors in which these twelve gems are found enter into the foundations of the walls, if so most all of the twelve gems would have several colors. But taking the usual color of the gems, we have red, blue, white, bright green, red dish yellow, rich brownish red, green, bluish green, yellow, grayish green, orange and vio let. We see here the five simple colors, red, orange, yellow, green and blue. I ask, do these, the usual colors of the gems, harmonize to the human eye? There are two color theories. The first is that harmony is pro duced by the blending ot closely related "colors, such as red, orange and yellow. The second is that harmony is produced by the contrast of opposites or com plementary colors, softened, tohed down and run together, such as green and red, yellow and blue. One of the best clas ification, perhaps, is into warm and cold colors. The warm colors are reds, orange and yel lows. The cold ones are blues, greens and violets. It is gener ally believed that a predomi nance of warm colors relieved by cold ones; or ol cold colors relieved by warm ones produces harmony. Let us apply the the test of harmony produced by opposites. Then we have red, a warm col or, and blue, a cold color. Har mony. Red and blue are com plementary, that is they produce white. The next in order ot the gems as named is white. The next comes bright green, a cold color, and reddish yellow, a warm color. Next is a rich brownish red, a warm color, and green, a cold color. Next blue ish green, a cold color, and yel low, a warm color. Next gray ish green, a cold color, and or ange, a warm color. The last named is violet, Which harmon izes with red in the beginning, and shows that there is perfect harmony of color from begin ning to end. The city lieth lour square, and so the violet colored amethyst at the last would come next to the red colored. Jasper at the first. In the rainbow we find the red colo»- at the first and the violet color at the last, and the other colors between. There is perfect harmony in the colors ot the rainbow. So in the toundations of the waft about the city of many mansions—the Christian’s home—there is per fect harmony, and the blending of beautiful, tinted gems from beginning to end. The city is pictured as having twelve gates ot pure pearl, as being a square 12000 furlongs or 1,500 miles around. That would make each side 375 miles long and as each side hath three gates it is prob able that there are 1,000 furlongs or 125 miles between each of its twelve gates. The twelve foun dation stones, each one is repre sented to be a special jewel, sup posed to reach lrom gate to gate, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles. The walls are of jasper, the gates are pure pearl, and the streets like trans parent gold. The length, breadth and the height are equal. Here is faultless symetry. I have been deeply impressed, as this subject unfolded, by the harmony and beauty in the foundations of the walls about heaven, and especially so, when 1 think of the fact that an old man on a lonely isle wrote the words concerning the walls of the city of God. But he had been with Jesus. He was in the Spirit. He saw the city. He talked with God’s messenger. That explains it all. The build er of that city told him what to write. And so as I look at the beautiful foundations, I am wont to exclaim that the Icelanders expressed a beautiful thought when they spoke of a “land where all the rainbows that have ever been, or are yet to be, for ever drift to and fro, evanishing and reappearing like immortal flowers of vapor.” There appears something else of striking interest to me iu the building of the beautilul city. It seems that every land hath yielded and given of its most precious gems for the founda tion, walls, streets and gates of the city. Pearls and gems that are seen in the walls, gates, and streets of the city, it gathered on earth, would come from many lands and countries. There is yet another thought connected with these gems. They each have a language of their own, and whether the Seer had such in mind when he wrote does not matter. All the good that the language in the gems in the foundations of the wall speaks of is true and found in heaven. From the earliest times gems have been. given symbolical expression. Jaspfer signifies courage and wisdom sapphire, constancy, truth and virtue; chalcedony, disperses melancholy; emerald, immortal ity, incorruption, conquers sin and trial; sardonyx, happiness; sardius, prevents misfortune; chrysolyte, gladdens the heart; beryl, happiness and everlasting youth; topaz, friendship and happiness; chrysoprasus scatters gloominess; jacinth' signifies modesty; amethyst, deep and pure love. The material out of which the city is built tends to promote joy and to drive away sorrow. This then is a city) where all the material used in ^ l V. building are emblematical of that which is purest and best. This is a beautiful home pre pared by a beautiful King for a beautiful people. A home pre pared by a loving bridegroom for his faithful bride. Christ is the King and Christians are the beautiful people. Christ is the loving bridegroom, and the faithful church is his bride. He said to his disciples ere he as cended to his Father “I go to prepare a place for you ; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and re ceive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also.” Ere the scene closes I ask who shall inhabit that city? And the answer comes, “They who came out of great tribula tion, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” I ask again, who shall enter that beau tiful home? The answer comes, “And there shall in gno wise enter into it anything that de Bleth, neither whatsoever work eth abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Will you, will I enter that holy City whose walls are of iasper, whose streets are of gold, whose gates are of pearl? Cgjvtributiows. rHE LAYMAN’S DUTY TO HIS PAS TOB. BY B. MOFFITT. It is an easy matter for one to enumerate the duties ot an other to himself, but quite diffi cult for him to recognize his duty toward, another. This is Lrue in all departments of life, so we will speak only of a tew of the most apparent obligations of the layman to his pastor. * The first and perhaps the hardest duty of a layman is to conduct himself so that the pas tor will not have to spend all ot his time in giving curtain lectures on account ot his absence from church and Sunday school ser vices and in trying to'^keep up a lively interest in all spiritual matters. Let each churchman become an aid to the pastor and the work will prove a pleas ure to all and a burden to none. In the work of church build ing or improvement the members should take the lead and see that the necessary funds are forth coming, not waiting for the pas tor to be paymaster, brick mason, carpenter and everything else connected with the work. When assessments are to be raised for the various church en terprises the members should rally to the front with their reg ular monthly or semi-monthly installments so that by the end of the year the full amounts shall have been paid in and not re quire the pastor to spend his last Sunday in trying to carry up to conference a full and clear re port on finance. It is the work of the church to see that the minister has suffi cient salary to enable him to pre sent a neat appearance at all times and not be compelled to resort to credit, the work-shop or the plow handles in order to keep soul and body together. The pastor should not be forced to use for other purposes the time he should spend in visiting the sick and preparing his ser mons. One great reason why we hear so many poorly pre pared sermons is that the preacher has had to take upon himself the greater part of the burdens that should be’borne by the church members. Let each one conduct himself in such a manner as to merit the confidence of his neighbors, thus teaching the reality of the relig ion of Christ and at the same time giving him power over sin ners. A godly layman can oft times reach the heart of a sinner which the pastor cannot touch. Study the needs of the people in the community and their dai ly environments and report these to the pastor that he may the more effectually perform the du ties devolving upon him. Manifest a deep interest in .... ■ ■ ■ your pastor’s financial, tt nporal, social and spiritual welf; re. Get the people interested ia your pastor and work and yot r house will not be empty every >unday at services. Pray with y ur pas tor and for him and en ourage him in every way possib -. Re member that he is only a man and must have streng h and grace for the perform ,nce of each and every duty The more you pray for t m the stronger and more powe ful will he become in the work among you. In short, take all the work off of his hands and mind i aat you possibly can and aid him in every duty that he un< ertakes for the church. Let hin know that he can depend up a you. Do this and God’s w< 'k will prosper in your commut ;y. BEAD TOUR CHURCH P EB. The following from th Cr tian Advocate, of Rale! i, V a thought worth noting: * Having no access to 1 ooks, v have been for two weeks review ing the back numbers of the Advocate, Recorder, Presbyter ian and Christian Sun. What a feast! These are all old riends of mine; dut never before have I known half their worth, from the fact I spent so littli time with them. Truly, the editors are the tu tors of the nation ! What a load of obligations we are un ler to them ! Words can’t tell t; nor figures figure it. I have not only caught the sense of these able write "s, but their spirit aisv. ; and am t ow in that spirit; and so grea !y re freshed and strengthened. And yet thousands of church mem bers are not reading thei own papers. 01 if they only knew what they are losing, and how much they are withholding frot their families! What food there is in these papers ; how they ferti lize thought and vivify the soul I They would not give all their time to secular papers, romance, novels and wars ; but take their church organ and read it. There is a principle in noral philosophy that the chi acter receives cast from the im vidu als with whom we associa: ; and the same is true of book > and papers. Shelly says, “We are part of all we have seen, hear and read.” Then, could we fathom 11 the dark deeds ot jealousy, $ Dlitics and crime, or sound the epths of every earthly pleasur , and become a part of these what spectacles we would be! You have seen some o'these animals. What do yc i call them ? Mythological inc -ngru ities? . But on the contrary, f we read good books and pap. s, we will become a part of hese; wise, pure and good, as 0 od in tended us to be. Nor need we turn to v at is called the most splendid daxy of writers of the 16th e ltury, the chief lights of wbici were Bacon, Raleigh, Shake >eare, Sidney and Spencer, with Ipeen Elizabeth the central jew> ; but we will find the very material to develop the purest chara ter in the writings of the men ai d wo man of today. Don’t ask who they are ; but take your i iiurch papers and learn lor yourselves. Too much praise cannot be given these editors and contrib utors. z I have no alabaster box to break on their foreheads ; but I can pay my subscription, and drop flowers on their pathway and tears on their graves. C. “Frank” Sn,3R. Rose Hill, N. C., May 8, 1900. P. S.—Some of these papers are borrowed. But I am deter mined to correct one of my great errors. I see I am paying ieven times more for secular pipers than religious ones. I shill re verse this at once. There is no comparison in the value of the body and soul. Five hundred men were in at tendance at the Convention of Cotton Spinners in Chariot .e last week, and it is estimated that the convention represent'd a total capital of $500,000,000.
The Christian Sun (Elon College, N.C.)
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May 24, 1900, edition 1
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