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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, OCTOBER 11,1900. VOLUME LIII: NUMBER 40 Tl^ Christian $Ur\ I'UBLISUKO WKKKLY. Die Official Organ of the Southern Chris tian 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. 3. The Holy Bible, or the Scriptures of • he Old and New Testaments, sufficient rule of faith and practice. 4. Christian character, or vital piety, the only test of fellowship or membership. R. The right of private judgment, and the liberty of conscience, the privilege and dutv of all. Current Comment. We often get in debt to others. We stay in debt to ourselves. Some of these debts we will never pay because of natural or enforced inability, weakness or infirmity. There is one debt, however, which every man owes to himself, the failure to pay which there is no excuse for. I refer to personal cleanliness. In this lies a great deal more than would at first appear. Many a life has been wrecked, many a boy ruined tor time and for eternity simply because there was not inculcated^ the habit of neatness and cleanliness. There is one law in this ffniverse that man has to contend against all his days. That is the law of de generacy, or if you will, disin tegration. There are a hundred forces and factors operative up on man^tending to cause him to degenerate. Those forces make their attack at the most vulner able points. It may be through the physical, the mental or the moral man. Whenever the force enters, it causes general degeneracy. Man is to do all in his power to keep from de generating. All may not dress fine, nor wear costly garments, but the personal appearauce of all may be neat and cleanly. I have seen dull boys take a course in school, go out into the world and succeed. I have seen bad boys' pass through school, reform at the last, go into the world and sueceed. I have never yet seen the boy who cared nothing for his personal appearance, who was slovenly and always assumed a “don’t care air” go into the world and make a success in life. This from U. S. Senator Bev eridge in a recent number of the Saturday Evening Post is sense and religion, as well as very good advice and sound philos ophy : “Another thing. Go you to church. Use clean linen. Wear good and well-fitting clothing. Take care of your shoes. Look after all the details of your per sonal grooming. In short, ob serve all the methods which human experience has devised to keep men from degenerating. There is an unalterable connec tion between the physical and mental and moral. The old say ing that ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’ has beneath it all the philosophy of civilization. It is an easy process that produces tramps. A few days’ growth of beard, the tolerance of certain personal habits of indolence— and your tramp begins, vaguely, but none the less surely, to ap , pear. This is accompanied by a falling off in clear-cut thought and a cessation of definite aud effective energy.” We receive our paper, take a few moments frojn our leisure and rush over its contents with out much regard to its real value or importance in the world. Least of all do we ever consider what expenditure of energy, cap ital and thought it has cost to bring it to our table, or what in fluence it is wielding in our lives now that it is before us. To measure the power of the press, pr weigh the. influence of the printed page, are tasks im possible and incomprehensible. This is among those silent and immeasurable influences which control us in a way and mannei "we wist not of and to an ex tent we know not of. One oi the most influential men in this country is Editor Bok of the Ladies’ Home Journal. How in fluential, neither he himself noi any one else will ever know In ways unnumbered he influ ences the goings and the com ings ot hundreds of thousands oi people. To these he speak: each month. ‘How well, how commandingly, how rightly, how influentially he speaks, I say, ii another and an altogether un known question. But some idea of what is re quired in labor and capital, foi him, his co-editors and contribu tors, to speak and to lay upon our table the finished product oi their speech may be gathered from what follows: One man could not mail a single edition of the Ladies' Home Journal in a whole year. Eighteen men, aided by the fast est mailing appliances, are kepi on a rush every month getting the Ladies’ Home Journal oft’ tc its subscribers. The first ship ments are started about the mid dle of each month, and from that until the twenty-fifth the magazines pour out of the Jour nal’s publishing office by the two-horse dray load. On the twenty-fifth of each month every Journal has reached its destina tion, and work in the mailing department slackens for a few days, home idea of the tremen dous size ot the Journal’s sub scription’s list may be gained when it is know that forty tons of mailing type are required to set up the names of subscribers. There are three-quarters of a ton of each numeral, and it requires twei ty thousand galleys to ac commodate the subscribers’ names in type. This stock would equip six or eight large daily newspapers. As many as sixty five compositors are employed in setting the names of the Jour nal’s subscribers in type—print ers enough to set the type for the biggest metropolitan daily newspaper. The. postage paid by the Journal approximate $75,000 a year. This is taken as a sample of only one feature of the work, and that a very small feature, comparatively, of what it takes to place a journal upon your ta ble each month. Take the daily or weekly journal ot simi lar proportions, in number of subscribers and readers, and the imagination will have some help in its effort to comprehend the amount of labor, capital and en ergy required to furnish us each day, week and month with only the current literature of the time. North Carolina, las well as many othe s of the Southern states, should have a State re formatory for youthful criminals. Our present system of taking the youthful offender of the law and putting him prison side by side with the hardened criminal is but a schooling in crime, and a sin against the youth who has transgressed. There are two methods of punishment, the reformatory and the punitive. The first method looks to the punishment of the crime and the reformation of the criminal, while'the latter looks to the punishment of the crime and the dgradation of the crim inal. It is not difficult to de cide as to which method should be pursued by a civilized, fntich more0by a Christian State. The one plea of those who ar gue against a reformatory is the poverty of the State—that a re formatory will cost more than the State can afford to expend iu that direction just’ now. In reply to this two points maybe urged: i.~The immedi ate cost to the State may be more than the immediate re turns, but the ultimate cost will not. If memory serves correct ly, (I haven't data at hand) the superintendent of the Massachu setts reformatory at Concord told me a few years since that 75 per cent of the youths in that re formatory left there when their terms expired never to return, but with a knowledge of business and a useful trade. It may be estimated with safe ty that oae-half of those leaving a reformatory return to the world outside and engage successfully in some productive industry. The indirect returns to the State through these laborers and skill ed workmen more than compen sate the State for its original outlay even in dollars and cents. 2. But the primary and funda mental question for a State nev er is and never can be, “Does it pay ?” Deeper than this, and more far-reaching than this, is the question, “Does it make better citizens?” This last is the question with which a right State is most deeply concerned, ana Aits nrsi oi an 10 consiaer. True, tlie State is not a charit able institution. Neither is it a money making institution. Its chief business is to make a right citizenship, to create and to lur nish conditions in which an in telligent, free and, so far as pos sible, self-supporting, prosperous and happy citizenship may abide. To the argument then that we are too poor and that a reforma tory is too costly we have to say, that it will pay immediately and primarily in a better citizenship and ultimately and indirectly m dollars and cents. We are glad indeed that the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of North Carolina is working so faithfully in the direc tion of securing a reformatory for the State. We believe their efforts will be crowned with suc cess. The Ashville Union presented their petition to the Press Asso ciation of North Carolina recent ly and every member present be came a signer and the Associa tion selected a committee of their body to argue the matter before the next legislature. The legis lature of this State had the mat ter up once before and it only lost by one vote. We trust that the press of the State and the friends of an en lightened and Christian citizen ship in the State and the friends of young offenders of the law who need to be helped to strong er manhood and not condemned to a life of crime, will bring such pressure to bear upon our next general assembly that something practical and definite will he done. THE WHEAT AND THH TARES. BY W. F. PRICE. | Matthew 13: 21—80., 87-48,1 We have here the beautiful and significant parable of the wheat and tares. It is one of the many pretty symbolic illustra tions which our Lord used to simplify and make plain the great truths of the gospel, so that the most ignbranP and un learned might easily see and un derstand. They* all knew what the wheat and tares meant, and what relation they bore to each other. They knew that the one meant life and health and strength, while the other meant only disappointment and death. One meant the staff of life ; the other the destroyer of life. One meant prosperity and happiness to the tiller of the soil, while the other represented eveylhing that retards, and stifles, and dwarfs the growth ot the fruit, and makes the field of less value in proportion as there are tares growing in it. And so he put forth this beautiful parable, and said ; “The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed gpod seed in his field.” Chrisf is represented here as the sower, the field as the world, and the good seed as the child ren of his kingdom. God is the author of all good, for “Every good and perfect gilt cometh from above.” Every sacred thought, and noble deed, and high and holy impulse that throbs through the heart of man comes through the direct influ ence of theheavedly Father, and bears the unmistakable evidence of the divine. God is the author of all good, in both saint and sinner, and let not any one think be his profession whatever it may, that his noble traits of character, or his kndly disposi tion, or his love and charity to ward his neighbor is other than a touch of the divine hand that fashioned him. Then if God be the author of all good the devil must be the originator of all evil. It was he who punished Job of old : it was he who sowed tares among the wheat. It was he who gave us our bar-rooms, and gambling hells, and houses of prostitution He is the author of the widows’ tears, aad the orphans’ cries, and the broken hearts of so many of our dear old sainted mothers. It was he who caused the deluge of old, the fall of Pompeii, the Lisbon earthquake, the Johnstown flood, the Chica go fire and the Galveston horror ; and all of the many wars, and famines, and pestilences, and horrors of wind and flood and flame, from the beginning of time down to the present mo ment ; for who can lay any of these things to the charge of the immaculate God? Ever since he stole his way into the paradise ot innocence and purity and mu sic and birds and (lowers, and there by his subtle ways, and sophistic reasoning, induced our first parents to sin against the holy commandment of God ; ev en down till now Satan is the author of all of our sins and sor rows and pains and miseries and deaths, and will be till time shall be no more. Oh how awful are the works of this mighty destroy er! But now about the tares. The parable says that “while men slept the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat.” This is characteristic of the methods of Satan. He chooses the darkest night, the weakest point, and the most unguarded moment to carry on his nefarious business of wrecking, ruining, and de stroying the lives, and hopes, and homes ol men. It is so in the city in which we live. “He goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,” yet he is often seen as an angel of light. May the Lord help us to ever see and know him, and guard against his cunning. “While men slept.” A sleep ing church as well as a sleeping Christian will sooner or later be filled with tares. So many of us are asleep to our souls best inter est and the interest and welfare of those around us. How little do we seem to care! We pro fess to be Christians and to fol low in the steps of-tue meek and lowly Nazarene, yet it our lives and actions count for anything we care less for the church than we do for the world. Should we not rather be up aud doing, and like the little twelve-year-old Teacher in the temple “be about our Father’s business?” Oh if God should call us all home to day, of how many would it be said, “Well done thou good and faithful servant?” When I was a boy we used to choose sides and play a certain game which required a dividing line to be drawn between. In running to and fro over the lines so often we would frequently put it out, and not know exactly where it was, or on which side we stood. I sometimes think it is so with the church. So many of our members have crossed over the line to play with the world, and so many of the world have followed them back into the church till it is a little hard to tell just where the line is, or which side some of them are on. Would it not be well for each of us to give our hearts a scrutiniz ing search, and see where we are standing today. Now l§t us look at some of the tares of' the devil, and see how they are sown. They come to us among the little things of life. It may be but an unkiod look, a curl of the lip, or a toss of the head. A little thing it may seem, yet it is the substance lrom which often spring the hatelul wicked tares. It maybe but a glass of wine kept in the cupboard for some imaginary ill, yet the example of your life may produce a habit that will make of your boy a drunkard. It may be but a little innocent looking pack of cards placed in your par lor to amuse the children or to while away life idle hours with i some friend, yet the boy that now plays for fun will soon* . .,u.. . - -■ r * er or later play for stakes, and your home will thus be made the starting point of a gambler’s sad career. It may be but a little cake walk, innocent and pretty and childish as it may seem, yet it was born and nursed in the lowest theaters, and reared in the vilest atmosphere of the vil est of our cities, and the promin ence and example it is now giv en , and the effect it produces in the hearts and minds and lives of our little ones is calculated to make for us a thousand dancers who will grow up worldly mind ed and careless, and who will turn a deaf ear to a mother’s prayers, the calls of the church, and the wooings o*f the Holy Spirit. This is sowing tares; the reaping will come by and by, for God’s book says : “Whatso ever a man soweth that shall he also reap. And friends, the trouble is we will reap more than we sow. Not only, “Whatsoever a man soweth will he reap,” but per haps he will reap a hundred, or a thousand fold more than he sows. When a farmer plants only a bushel of corn does he expect to reap only a bushel of com? Ah no, but possibly a hundred times as much, for one grain will often produce a thou sand. So it is in sowing tares. If your boy or girl could only reap the one bad example you gave them it would not be so bad ; but for the one indulgence at the card table, or the punch bowl, or the dance, or the theatre you may reap a life time of tears, and disappointment, sorrow and grief and all because of a way ward child. We note that the wheat and tares were very much alike at first. So is morality and Chris tianity'. They may look a little alike to some, but in God’s sight there is a vast difference between the two. A moral life is nice and pretty and good as far as it goes, but it only goes to the grave. Christianity is the only principle that has to do with two worlds. It does not stop at the grave, but spans the wonderful mysteries of death, and anchors on the shores of the great beyond. Neither did the farmer discov er the tares in wheat until after they had sprung up and began to show their colors. Then it was found to be too late to up root them. So it may be in the lives of our children. The set habits and the evil tendencies of their early making often clings to them through life and will sooner or later become fixed principles, not to be easily changed : and like the little hand that bends the tiny oak, the growth and grandeur and beau ty of a right tree is forever de stroyed because it was started in the wrong direction. Friends, habits will grow, and good habits will grow as well as evil ones. Give God a chance. There are so many lit tle hearts that might be made gardeners in the Master’s king dom, sowing the seeds of kind ness and love. Let us sow all the wheat we can while the devil is sowing tares'; and when the angel of God shall come at the end of the world to gather in the golden sheaves, may it be said of each and every one of us, as of the servant of old, “Well done thou good and faithful ser vant, enter thou into the joys of thy Lord.” RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. BY REV. W. S. LONG, D. D. There are two kinds of reli gious knowledge, which though intimately connected as cause and effect, may nevertheless be distinguished. These are the knowledge of truth as it is reveal ed in the Holy Scriptures, and the impression which that truth makes on the human mind and heart when rightly apprehended. The first may “be compared to the inscription or image on a seal; the other to the’impression made by the seal on the wax. When that impression is clearly and distinctly made, we can un derstand, by contemplating it, the true inscription on the seal more satisfactorily, than by di rect view of the seal itself. Thus it is found, that nothing tends to confirm more strongly and elu cidate more clearly the truths contained in the word, than an in ward experience of their efficacy on the heart. There is, however one manifest disadvantage, un der which we labor, in acquiring this kind of knowledg, whether by our own experience, or that ot others; which is, that we are obliged to tollowja fallible guide ; and the pathway to this knowl edge is very intricate, and the light which shines upon it often cmscure. All investigation of the exer cises ot the human mind and heart are attended with difficul ty ; and never more so than when we attempt to ascertain the religious or spiritual state of our hearts. If the impression of the truth were perfect, there would exist little difficulty ; but when it is a mere outline and the lineaments obscure, it be comes extremely difficult to de termine Jwhether it be the gen uine impress of the truth. There is, also, so great a variety in the constitution of human minds, so much diversity in the strength of the natural passions, and so wide a difference in the tempera ment of Christians, and so many different degrees of piety, that the study of religious experience becomes exceedingly difficult. In many cases the most experi enced and skillful casuist will feel himself at a loss ; or may ut terly mistake, in regard to the true relation of a case submitted to his consideration. The com plete knowledge ot the deceitful heart of man, is a prerogative ot the omniscient Lord. “I the Lord search the hearts and the veins of the children of men.” But We are not on this account forbidden to search into the mat ter ; so far is this from being true, that we are repeatedly ex horted to examine ourselves in relation to this very point. Paul says: “Examine yourself, wheth er you be in the faith—prove your own selves—know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you, ex cept ye be reprobates.” In judging of religious expe rience, it is very important to keep steadily in view the system of divine truth, contained in the Holy Scriptures ; otherwise, our experience, as is often the case will degenerate into enthusiasm or ^fanaticism. Many ardent professors, seem too readily to take it for granted, that all reli gious feelings • must be good. They therefore take -no care to discriminate between the gen uine and the spurious. Their only concern is about the ardor of thfeir feelings ; not considering thatjjit they are spurious, the more intent they are, the further will they lead them astray. In our day, there is nothing more necessary than to distinguish carefully between true and false experiences in religion ; to “Try the spirits whether they are of God.” In making this discrimi nation, there is no other tost but the finfallible word of God ; let every thought, motive, impulse, and emotion, be brought to this touch-stone. “To the law and the testimony ; if they speak not according to these it because there is no light in them.” If genuine religious experi ence is nothing but the impres sion of divine truth on the mind and heart, by the energy of the Holy Spirit, then it is evident that a knowledge of the truth is essential to genuine piety ; error never can, under any circumstan ces, produce the effects of truth. If the error relates to fundamen | tal truths, then there can be no genuine piqty ; but when a true impression is made, it may be rendered very defective for want ot a complete knowledge ot the whole truth ; or its beauty mar red by the existence ot some errors mingled with the truth, which may be well illustrated by looking again at the seal. Sup pose that some part ot the im age inscribed on the seal has been defaced, or some of the letters have been obliterated, it is evident that when the impres sion is made on the wax, there will be a corresponding deficien cy or deformity, although in the main the impress may be correct. There is reason to believe, therefore,* that all ignorance of revealed thuh, or error respect ing it, must be attended with a corresponding defect in the re ligious experience of* the individ ual. This consideration teaches us the importance ot teaching k the truth, and the duty of increas ing daily in the knowledge of ^ our Lord and Savior. This is j the true and only true method growing in grace. Ther^ m&y be much correct theoretic £ knowledge, I admit# when tfy^e is no impression correspond '>g with it on the heart ; bur still, all good impressions on the heart, are from the truth, and from the truth alnne. Hence we find that those believers who receive the system of evangelical truth, only in part, have defective experi ence and their Christian charac ter is defective also. Even when piety exists, under such circum stances, we often find a sad mix ture of enthusiasm, self-right eousness, or superstitionr And even when the theory of doctri nal truth is complete, yet if there be an error respecting the terms of Christian communion, by nar rowing the enterance into Christ’s fold to a degree which His word does not authorize, this single error, whatever profession may be made to the 'contrary with the lips, always generates a narrow spirit of bigotry, which greatly obstructs the free exer cise of that brotherly love which Christ made the badge of disci pleship. If these things be true, then should all Christians use unceas ing diligence in acquiring a cor rect knowledge of the truth as — it is in Jesus ; and they should pray for the influence of the Holy Spirit to render the truth effectual in their sanctification. ‘Sanctity them through thy truth, thy word is truth,” was a prayer offered up by Christ, in behalf of all whom the Father had given him. A Unique Religious Enterprise. According to letters received in this city, a unique religious enterprise has been established at Coney Island, N. Y., long a place of pleasure and a sink of depravity as well. In the very midst ot the worst, carousals rises a tower, sixty-five feet high, upon the top ot which is a box shaped cabinet, with sides of ground glass, upon which are painted in startling colors the words “Jesus saves.” At the top of the tower is a tall flagstaff" from which floats a long stream er bearing the same inscription. An electrical apparatus furnishes a light so strong that the legend can be read from passing steam ers at least two miles* and some times three miles out at sea, In addition to this lighthouse nego tiations are now in progress for an instrument that will throw letters ot fire upon the clouds at night and thus bring the word of God and the piomises of relig ion constantly to the attention of the habitues of the most hilarious resort in the United States. At the foot of the tower is a yellow building fitted up as a resort for tired people, women and chil dren, who come down to Coney Island from the city to spend the day. They are furnished free ice water and milk. There are tables upon which they may spread their lunches, and a cool shelter to which everybody who desires can escape from the hot sun and the confusion outside and find a quiet, comfortable place to rest. The chapel is open every afternoon and even well filled, the chapel and the tower bf ing always strong rivals of the merry-go-round, dancing pavilions, saloons and other re sorts of the islandt The place is due to the personal enterprise ot William D. Hughes, an ex convict, a man of education and culture, who is dovoting his life to mission work.—.Washington Correspondent. ing, and the seats ally Break one thread in the border o( virtue, and you on’t know I how much may unravel.—Cun ' ningham Geikie. It is said that there are at pres ent as many as 60 Mormon el ders or proselytes at work in N. C;
The Christian Sun (Elon College, N.C.)
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Oct. 11, 1900, edition 1
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