Newspapers / The Christian Sun (Elon … / June 7, 1900, edition 1 / Page 1
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■■M|S|HppHRp$fPi£ BY ATKINSON & LAWRENCE. IN ESSENTIALS, UNITY; IN NON-ESSENTIALS, LIBERTY ; IN ALL THINGS, CHARITY. $2.00 PER YEAR. $Ur\ PUBLISHED WEEKLY. The Official Organ of the Southern Chris tian Convention. CARDINAL PRINCIPLES. 1. The Lord Jesus Is the only Head of the ohurch. 2. The name Christian, to the exclusion of all party and sectarian names. 8. The Holy Bible, or the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, sufficient rule * of faith and practice. 4. Christian character, or vital piety, the only test of fellowship or membership. v 5. The right of private judgment, and the liberty of conscience, the privilege and duty of all. This is an age of giv Gifts. ing. Benevolence is every where. The spirit of benevolence is surely and rapidly on the increase. It began among the poor. For a long time it was confined large ly to the poor. Today it reach es all classes. The rich are be nevolent as well as the poor. The poor have taught the rich to be liberal, and each year tells more and more how well the rich have learned and are learn ing that lesson. It is the work of Christian ty. Christianity was the first religious system or moral code that taught giving to be an obligation and charity a supreme duty and privilege. If Christianity had done nothing else in this world but substitute benevolence for benefit, and identify piety and pity, it would have a claim to supernatural origin and authority. Contribu tions for educational and benev olent purposes' in our country last year amounted to $62,750, 000. Nor does this include those unnumbered gifts of less than $5,000, ordinary church and charity gifts, and the like, whose total amounts to millions. This is more than twice the amount given seven years ago— almost twice as much as was given in 1898, which amounted to $38,000,000. The total gifts of these larger donations only, in the past seven years, amount to $266,550,000. The endow ment of one university, the Le land Stanford, is $45,060,000, face value of securities being $80,000,000, making this the most largely endowed of any pr: vatdy established institution in the world. Surely ours is an age ot gifts and giving, and the indi cations are that we are just be ginning to learn the privilege and pleasure of benevolence and philanthropy. Tt is unusual to A Worthy to review a period Journal. ical on this page of The Sun, but in this instance we willfully resort to the unusual. We believe in condemning a bad thing when we see it and in commending a good one whenever and wherev er we find it. And there is so much bad literature in our times, so many shoddy journals and unwholesome periodicals, that when we find a good one, one ot a highly intellectual and clearly moral tone, one unquestionably honest and wholesome in all its cWpartments, we feel like speak ’ ing to others about it and mak , ing special mention of it. Such a journal do we believe The Sat urday Evening Post, edited by George Horace Lorimer, Phila delphia, to be. It will be noted that this is the paper founded by. Benjamin Franklin in 1728 -and is, we believe, the oldest weekly journal in America. We venture the statement that the great Franklin never gave to the pub lic of his day such a paper as Editor Lorimer is giving today. Nothing short of a revolution has been wrought in the man agement of the paper within the past few years. It stands today unsurpassed as a journal of its kind, able, conservative, schol ally, attractive, and ofthehigh est'moral character; It is truly a journal of information and in spiration. Last week s “College Number” contained some of the ablest articles on education, and gave some of the most convinc ing arguments why young men and young women of our day should educate, that we have seen in many a day. How any young man or young woman can read the editorials in The Saturday Evening Post without being inspired to try to live bet ter and more useful lives we fail to understand. These editorials are always signed by the ones who wrote them, and, besides being gems of literary and schol arly finish, they are of the high est and purest moral tone. It is not a religious journal; it does not purport to be. You would call it secular, but it makes one, who reads it, think on things honest, true, just and pure. Ttils notice is wholly unsolicit ed and is given here as a part of our conviction, not of our hire or rewards. The following sound advice and good common sense, taken from the Post of June 2, the equal of which this journal has each week, is from a business, man to young men about choos ing their companions and com pany: He should go to church. No one on earth needs the moral stimulus that regular church going gives so much as the young man who is alone in a strange city. I am not suggest ing that he should join a church ; that is a matter between himself and his God. I do not saythat he shall pretend to be religious, whether he is or not. I do not counsel that he shall play the hypocrite. I simply say that in order that his better nature may be frequently appealed to, and that he may place himself where good influences will meet him, he should be regular in his at tendance upon church. The poorest sermon that was ever preached, unless it was on mere dogma, did good to some one of those who heard it. It may have lifted no one any nearer the skies, and yet have been helpful in that it kept some one from dropping any lower than he was. I am writing as a business man, and writing of the worldly view of business, but I realize the great help it is to a young man that he should have noble ideals presented to him steadily; that his conscience should be kept alive and quick ened ; and that he should be obliged to look at himself in a mirror, where he can compare his own frailties with a perfect type of manhood. He should join a class m bun day school, aDd for two good reasons : the first, that he may read and study and know the Bible. I am taking it for grant ed that he is continuing his edu cation, although out of school and at work. That education which ignores the Bible, whether the young man is a tinner’s ap prentice or a bookkeeper, is ill balanced and superficial. This is not because it is, or is not, an inspired book. It is the history ot all that is highest and lowest in mankind ; the depths to which he can sink in degradation and despair; the heights that he might reach if he but would. To join a Bible class is to put one’s self where one is studying the best^literature. and making it a little easier to resist tempta tion during the week, Another reason for joining a Bible class, and one more directf ly in line with the heading of this article, is that it enlarges the circle of his acquaintances. I fancy that some critic will say I am encouraging him to pretend to be what he is not, for purely commercial purposes. But if he visits a saloon or billiard-roe^ to seek aquaintances no one thinks of suggesting that he is playing the hypocrite. If a young' man is coaxed into a church trom the gutter; if he is then persuaded to join a class in Sunday school, no one-thtbks of ' charging those who encourage ' him w'th aiding hypocrisy. And because a young man should seek these aids of his own accord, desiring to be among good peo ple and under good influences, this seems to me to be, both right a ad proper—and equally aslar removed trom th^ suspicion of hypocrisy, p Contributions THE TWENTIETH CENTURY FlTSTl OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. BY REV. W. C. WICKER. A hundred years of struggle— effort—success, a hundred years of growth, calls for an expres sion of gratitude from every loy al member of the denomination. Pastors, stop, think, consider, what God has done for you, for your homes, for your church, within the closing century. What can you do in return for the blessings that you have re ceived? You can make a free will thank offering that shall measure your gratitude for the past, and express your hope for the future, growth of the church. In addition to your one personal gift, you can speak, talk, write, and agitate the subject at home, at church, and in the communi ty, until every member of the church, and every member of the Sunday school, catches the spirit and enthusiasm of the work. Only a few more months until the close of the century. Let the whole church bestir it self, and let everybody make a thank offering, according as the Lord has prospered him. WHAT WE HAVE UNDERTAKEN, is to raise a free-will thank offer ing of twenty thousand dollars from sixteen thousand members, by the first day of the new cen tury, for Christian education. This money is to be raised in cash, or subscriptions, payable one-half January i, 1901 ; the other, May 1,1901. In addition to this, let Elon College be re membered in the wills of a hun dred men, each with a thousand dollars; in the wills of a hun dred, each with five hundred dollars, and in the wills of hun dreds with smaller amounts," for a permanent endowment. Other denominations, larger in num bers, strongerdn educational fa cilities, and aggressive in spirit, are calling for greater things. Our needs are as great, our peo ple are as capable, and we ex pect as liberal responses as those made by other churches. WE PROPOSE THIS FUND because we owe it to the mem ory of the Christian heroes of the past, who, by toil and self-sacri fice, by energy and martyr-spir it, have straggled, fought, and conquered, in the name of the great Head of the church, and given to us, and our-^children, Christian liberty, the right of private judgment, and the liber ty of conscience, and the divine principles that express the fra ternity of all Christian people as a common brotherhood. We propose it because we owe it as an inheritance to our posterity. Our fathers have done great things for our children. HOW CAN IT BE DONE. First of all, we must invoke the spirit and blessings of God to aid us in this work. As en tire consecration is the lowest plain ot Christianity, when we are moved by the divine Spirit, and understand the divine will, we will be moved to Christian action and to Christian giving. It the work is organized by each pastor, and if the people are led to see the needs of the church ; if, with prayer and consecration, each person makes the free-will offering an act of Christian ser vice, every man woman, and child, in the church, and in" the Sunday school, will contribute, to this fund, gifts, ranging from pennies to hundreds of dollars, and the twenty thousand dSflars will be forthcoming with the new century. In every congre gation there should be fasting and prayer as a preparation for this undertaking. The pastor should initiate, ard agitate,^he movement in his own congrega tion. He has more power with his own people than any one else, and he should use this pow er in leading them into every good work. This undertaking is placed upon a higher basis than begging, or haranguing, t>.e people, and with each free gif:, we want the prayers, the sym pathy, and the co-operation, ol the giver tor the onward move ment of Christian education. The gifts, the prayers, and * the „good will, of all the people of the church, for Christian education, will be the greatest blessing, for the educational and spiritual well-being of the church, that has ever dawned upon it. Great er intelligence, better work, and a general revival of religion, would be the outgrowth of such a feeling, and of such an effort. A PLAIN, PERSONAL QUESTION. If your church ought to raise this fund, is it not your duty to help? The Convention, which is the highest ecclesiastical body of the church, has authorized this fund, and, though it is not bind ing on any one, still every one should regard this as a blessed opportunity to do great things for the church. Can you excuse yourself be cause you can, do but little? If every member in the church would give but one cent a day from June i, 1900, until January 1, 1901, it would amount to $33, 600—$13,000 more than the amount suggested. The gift is, “accepted according to what a man hath, and not according to what a man hath not.” Can you excuse yourself be cause you have no children to educate ? The divine rule is, “to do good, to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifice God is well pleased.” This should be the spirit you should exercise in reference to Christian educa tion, by which the lives of chil dren are to be redeemed from ignorance, and made strong, happy, and useful, to the church. In this way your good deeds and Christian influence will live af ter you. Can you excuse yourself be cause you are too poor to give your own children a college ed ucation? When the college is freed from debt, and endowed, it will be easier to provide means for the education of the poorest and most unfortunate of our church. There is nothing more Christ like than unselfish giving. He gave Himself that others might have nch blessings. Such a seit-sacrmcing, Christ line spirit on the part of the poorest mem bers ot the church, will, in the end, return in rich blessings upon their children. It will put cultured Christian men in the pulpit, and in the community. It will equip young men and \oung women for church and State. This will help to elevate the intellectual, moral, and spir itual tone of the communities in which these children must live. We are beginning to see that the consecrated Christian girts, used for Christian culture, are elevating the poor, alleviating their unfortunate conditions, and placing them in more prosper ous circupistances. What poor man can say that the institutions which he helps, by combining his gifts with the larger gifts of the rich, may not some day be able to return unto him a hun dred fold in the education ot his children, or grand children. YOU CAN ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO HELP IN THIS MOVEMENT. After having done all that God would have you do, by giving, you can use your influ ence tq, encourage others to fol low your example. You can help your pastor organize the work. You can explain the sub ject to your neighbors. You can spread literature, and, in 'many ways, lead others to see their duty, and help them to do it. If you are a Sunday school superintendent, a teacher, or an officer in the Sunday school, or in the church, you can do much to encourage others to do their duty. Whether you are a par ent or a child, an employer or an employee,' a master or a ser vant, you have some influence, and you should use it for Christ and the church. The church needs action, not profession. It needs prayer, praise, consecra tion, but it also needs good deeds, larger gifts, and more liberal spirits to move in this age of action and of progress. Will you help, by prayer, by conse secration, by liberal giving, by Christian influence? ARE WE ABLE? Within the last few years, most rapid strides have been made in the industrial progress of this Southland. Manufactur ing, mining, and agricultural in dustries are taking on new life. Our people are prospering with the prosperity of the South, and they are able to make larger gifts to the church than ever be fore. Our material wealth ought to be consecrated to the cause of Christian education. Our boys and girls are of more value than material gain. At the call of the United States for volun teers, for the cause of humanity in Cuba, thousands of fathers and mothers freely^ave up their boys to die on the field of car nage to free the unfortunate Cubans from the tyranny of Spain. Today the church makes a greater call for the cause of humanity at home to free the boys and girls ot these same fathers and mothers from the tyranny of ignorance and superstition. Will fathers and mothers, will brothers and sis ters make as great sacrihce tor their own children, and for the children of their own land, and church, as they made for Cuba? Other denominations are giving liberally. Our people are no I less able to give, and, we have j faith to believe, that they are no less willing. When we educate our young people in Christian institutions, they will consecrate their Christian education to the service of God and humanity. Material wealth, Christian edu-; cation, Spiritual life, such an ev olution from that which is earth ly to that which is divine—from that which is selfish to that which is God-like. , i NOW FOR THE GRAND RALLY Pray, preach, talk, and give un til the last dollar of the Twenti eth Century Fupd on the firstr day of the new century shall be in hand. This will be a glad day in our history, when we can dedicate our College, freed from debt, to the cervice of Christian education, when we can under take greater things for the church, and receive richer spir itual blessings from our heaven ly Father. Let all act—act EYES CLOSED. BY REV. HERBERT SCHOI.2* When Benhadad, king of Syria, sent a force of soldiers to capture Elisha, at Dothan, and Elisha's servant saw' that force surrounding the town, he was very much frightened, and he said to Elisha, “Alas, my mas ter, how shall we do?” Elisha tried to compose him by telling him that they that were witli them were- more num*^ than they that were with the Syrians But the servant could not believe Elisha, and Elisha s assurance failed to remove the young man’s terror. So Elisha prayed to the Lord, and said, “Lord, I pray thee, open hi# eyes that he may see.” Anti the Lord opened the eyes o? thd young man, and he saw the mountains filled with horses and chariots of fire round tbout Elisha. The young man’s eyes were closed. He was not afflicted with physical blindness, but it was that blindness spoken yf by Christ, when he refers to a class who having eyes see not. The young man could not realize the presence of God with him in that hour of danger, because he wits blind to the presence of God, and it took a special mani festation of God’s presence to enable him to see. This young man is a type of a very large class of people who live in this generation. They are afflicted with a species of blindness. They cannot see the blessings of God that are showered upon them every day. When the rain falls to refresh the earth, they do not think that it is a blessing from God. When they escape some great danger, they cannot see the hand of God in their rescue. When they arc prosperous in their business they do not regard it as a vis itation of God?s kindness. When they are restored from a long, severe illness, they take it that the physician and the nurse did the restoring, and are not ready to give any credit to God. If they are farmers, and reap good harvests, they say, “I made a hundred bushels of wheat; I made ten bales of cotton; 1 made fifty barrels of corn.” “I,” to hear them, did it all, and God nothing. Such people have their eyes closed. They are in a condition as bad as that of Elisha’s servant. Now a person with his eyes closed is in a very bad condition. There is little hope for such person as long as he remains in ihat state. Nearly all sinners have their eyes closed. They are blind to their spiritual inter est^. Were they not so, a ma jority of them would act r iite differently. The Apostle Paul had his eyes closed, and they were not opened until he went on that memorable journey down to Damascus. The two disciples that were walking to the little village of Emmaus had their eyes closed. Jesus walked with them and explained the prophecies to them, but they knew him not. There is a very important Opestion which every person should occasionally ask himseli, and that is, “Am I blind?” It if very important to our temporal and spiritual welfare that wt hafe our eyes open. Christ belled the blind when he was oajearth ; he is ready to heal us. if we are blind to our spiritual interests. The exercise of faith in His restoring power is the one grdat thing needful. Solomon, in ipeaking of our relationship to God, says, “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall (direct thy paths.” AMERICA’S RESPONSIBILITY. %he Americans are largely re sponsible for the wide-spread sod far-reaching curse and vice of drunkenness. A few years since, it is said, there .was a ,mer, heavily loaded with in :ants by Americans, bound .frica, and just before shf sailed, two missionaries tried to getipassage on the same vessel »nd were refused. When the vessel arrived at the the' African ibcke the inhabitants drank free ly,knd the next morning sever al hundred of them were found deap. Just think of the Amer icans sending ship loads of rum nation to destroy their hap piness and send their souls to belli and then once in a * while send a few missionaries to point Iheii to a loving Savior. What an fbsurdity. How ridiculous and abominable this must be in theisight of God, in whose pres eoefe we must give an account ol our, stewardship. Just after this? shameful incident occurred Ihe African chieftan asked the authorities of America to sign an agreement to ship no more rum to k£s nation, and the Americans realised. Will you just think for n.wpment ot a heathen asking a istian to ship no more strong s to his subjec.s and his lest being refused, ain, readers, I want you to of the islands just taken »y. ithe American armies, and '“‘re we could establish the iel Missions, the devil has ilished the saloon through instrumentality of Ameri I want you to see wl at CsisfHawkins,through the inns of the Way of haith, President Schurman, chair man of the United States Com mission to the Philippines, sent out by President McKinley,in an article in the Independent, says : “I regret that the Americans allowecTthe saloon to get a foot hold on the islands. That has hurt the Americans more than anything else, and the spectacle of Americans drunk awakens disgust in the Filipinos. We suppressed the cock-fight there, and permitted the taverns to flourish. One emphasized the Filipino Irailty, and the other the American vice. I have nev er seen' a Filipino drunkard.” The shameful fact referred tc bv the writer—the introduction „ —--- .-- ' ' of saloons into the P filippin# Islands, especially into the city ot Manilla, is an everlas ing dis grace to the American nation, at least to that portion o the na tion who'arc responsible for the dastardly transaction. Those islands are under mili tary government, and have been since they came into possession of the United States. The President’s power andt, authori ty in the army and navy both is absolute, at least so far as all regulations are concerned. When those islands were taken possession of, Mr. McKinley could have issued an on er, as a military necessity closin ' every salcon there in operation, and not allowing another to be open ed, and that order would have been enforced,-and the shame ful spectacle would not be seen oc the street of Mani la and Havana, and other cities of tha islands lined with Amei can sa loons, and crowded with drunk en American soldiers. The man who could c ose ev ery store on these islands, by military authority, has a 1 ambi tion to occupy the White House another four years, and he knows if he is re-elected he must have the whiskey vote, and he knows if he shuts the saloons out of the Philippines, Cuba and Porto Rico, or even shuts the in famous beer canteen out ot the army, he will alienate the whis key vote, and the prospects of his re-election are blasted. Hence the whiskey and beer power is placated, and t ie sa loon is given the right of way. If I am doing Mr. McKinley any injustice by my thus public ly expressing my convictioq* and conclusions, I ask his par don. And if I could fin ! any other explanation for his utter and persistent refusal to banish the canteen from the army, and ter eluoc tlicoc huudicis \jf on. loons, as a military necess.ty, as he has power to do, I would gladly accept it. , I don’t w ant to believe that the man who has been exalted to the highest place in the gift of his countrymi n, by their confidence and suffrage, should be actuated by so low and unworthy and base mo tive as that I have attributed to the Pres dent. But Tam utterly unable to find any other motive to account for his refusal to ex ercise his constitutional preroga tive to to banish this aWfu. liq uor curse from the army and conquered islands, for which he is alone and personally responsi ble. The time may come when conscience, and principle, and righteousness, may be as great a power in politics as boodle; but that time is not now. If that time does not come-*before Christ comes, and the liquor traffic, and political corruption, covetousness and greed, and po lygamy, and slavery, and war, and all forms of ungodliness are banished from the earth, I will be an optimist of the sk' -blue type. But for the present I am looking for Christ to bring in this condition of things at His coming. May ou.r dear Father open our eyes and enable us to see our responsibilithy. P. T. Klapp. A LITTLE SERMON IS THIS CHILD’S REMARK. “The weather sometimes p!ay ed havoc with those Decessary coucommitants ot religious life ■fa the far West—church soci- <t able%—if it did not put a stop to church services altogether writes Rev. Cyrus Townsend Brady, in narrating his experi ences as “A Missionary iu the Great West,” in the Ladies’ Home Journal. On one occa sion, in one of my missions, we had made elaborate preparations for a great crowd, which was kept at home by a heavy rain. A few of us who had braved the storm were seated in much dis content in the parlor expressing our opinions with the freedom we all use in like circumslances. A small daughter of the house, who had been an interested lis tener, suddenly remarked during a pause in the conversation: ‘Mow, you’re all mad at God because it’s raining’.”
The Christian Sun (Elon College, N.C.)
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June 7, 1900, edition 1
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