Newspapers / The Christian Sun (Elon … / Feb. 28, 1901, edition 1 / Page 1
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BY ATKINSON & LAWRENCE. IN ESSENTIALS, UNITY; IN NON-ESSENTIALS, LIBERTY; IN ALL THINGS, CHARITY. $ r .50 PER YEAR. ESTABLISHED 1844. ELON COLLEGE, N. 0., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28,1901 VOLUME LIV: NUMBER 9 Christian SUrj i PUBLISHED WEEKLY. be Official Organ of the Southern Chris tian Convention. A RDIN A L PR IN Cl F L ICS. 1. The Lord Jesus Is the only Head of the ■ huroh. 2. The name Christian, to the exclusion f all party and sectarian names. 8. The Holy Bible, or the Scriptures of _ he Old and New Testaments, sufficient rule < f faith and practice. 4. Christian character, or vital piety, the i nly test of fellowship or membership. 6. The right of private judgment, and I ue liberty of conscience, the privilege and utv of all. Current Comment. Porto Bioo. Oar missionaries having re cently gone to Porto Rico, to repeat our geography lesson about the island will possibly not be out of place now. From east to west the island is 108 miles long, and on an average about 40 miles broad, area about 3,600 square miles. Present population 900,000. Porto Rico is very lertile, its dominant industries, agriculture and lumbering. In its lorests ire found more than 500 varie ties of trees and in its plains are palm, orange and other trees. Principal crops are sugar, coflee, tobacco, cotton, maise, bananas, rice, pineapples. Coffee forms he largest part of her exports, 63 per cent; sugar the next, 28 percent. It has 137 miles 01 railway, with 170 miles under construction, and 470 miles ol telegraph lines. The principal cities are Ponce, 40,000 inhabi ants, (here our missionaries are jow located), Arecibo with 30, 000, San Juan (the capital) with 25,000. The United States did not r.ave to take this island. It eadilyand gladly surrendered io our armies in the summer ol 1898. Our flag, in token ot ormal possession, was raised over the island Oct. 18, 1898. San Juan, the capital, is distant from New York 1,420 miles; from Key West, Fla., 1,050 miles; from Havana, Cuba, i, 000 miles. It is now under the protectorate of the United States and is in a peaceful aDd pros perous condition government ally. The Catholic Church and the Good Queen. There is one branch of the church that will not cut loose trom its ancient moorings, but holds on with marvelous tenac ity to its wonted bigotry, super stition and mediaevalism. It calls itself The Church—The Roman Catholic Church. It seems to rejoice in its incapacity, inability or unwillingness to ad vance one whit from its self centered, prejudiced and bigoted position of centuries and cen turies ago. It has recently made a display of its relentless mediaevalism and bigotry that is disgusting to the intelligent Christian world, outside the pales of that church. The world over recognized and admired Queen Victory as a good, noble, pious, virtuous Christiatf woman. Whatever else her faults may have been, upon this one point, that hers was a Christian character, all were agreed, or seemingly so. But she was not a Catholic. As a result, Cardinal Vaughan of England forbade priests to offer requiem masses for her. “The Cardinal says that it is lawful to pray privately, but not publicly tor the Q;ieen. He forbids that masses'be said.” Commenting on the above the Southern Churchman says edi torially: “So tar as the good Queen is concerned, ‘masses' are hope lessly and absurdly useles--, a waste of time and energy, in a superstitious service for which, ; living, she cared nothing, and I by which, dead, she can neither j be benefitted nor injured. Her life was lived in the tear of God ! and in the ‘communion of the ; Catholic church her record has been made, and by her works is that record established. She is honored bv fhe world as a beautiful Christian character. “But this wretched display of spite and ill-will on the part of the Roman Cardinal more than ever stamps his denomination as what English churchmen call it —viz : ‘The Italian Mission’—a sect foreign to all that is good and true and worthy in the de velopment of the Englisu nation and a teacher of ill-will, bitter ness and superstition. * The Romanists do the good Queen no harm, but their display of venom brings them into con tempt with all right thinking men.” Sampson vs. Seliley. If men and officers fought as hard on the field of battle during the recent Spanish-American war as journalists, legislators aod busy-bodies have fought on the arena of public debate and private discussion since the war there is no wonder that we drove the Spaniards from Cuba and the Philippines as readily and quickly as we did. The Amer ican people may not have been anxious tor a war of shot and shell, bloodshed and death, but after events have certainly shown that they were anxious to have a battle of words and a scramble for honor, renown, no toriety. Since that little affair with the Spaniards two years ago the press and the people have not stopped by day nor by night arguing, debating and contend ing as to who should have and who should not have the honors highest and lowest for the bat ties fought andjhe victories won in that contest. And now these battles of words and arguments ire to be opened up afresh in large part at least. President McKinley has sen a special message to Congres; asking that body to advance Rear Admiral Sampson five numbers so as to rank next after Rear Admiral John A. Howdl and that Winfield Scott Schley be advanced three numbers to take rank next after Rear Ad miral Sampson. Now here is where the war of words and arguments is to come. There are Sampson admirers and Schley admirers. These latter say that Sampson should not, and if they can avoid it b\ fair means or by foul, shall not be advanced in numbers beyond Schley. And so Congress is to open up in new array upon the old. worn-out, thread bare theme as to who deserves the more honor, Sampson or Schley. We are now to have a battle royal. There is one consolation Words and debates—even Con gressional debates—do not often kill or burn or devastate. As a nation, however, we are having a hard time placing the honor.' where they belong, or of decid ing how great honors should be conferred and upon whom. It is possible this generation wil not see these graye questions decided. KST ' Lent. The sacred Lenteo season, ob seived by many churches, in this and ie other countries, be gan last Wednesday, Feb. 20, commonly called Ash Wednes day, this being forty days, exclu sive of six Sundays, belore Easter. The term Lent is de rived from the Anglo-Saxon “Lencten” meaning spring. The German word is “Lenz” and denotes the fast preparatory to the celebration of Easter. Theoretically the forty days of Lent are fast days, and have reference to the forty days fast of M ises, Elijah and our Lord In reality these days are not of course observed as fast days, only special days being selected as those of fasting and prayer. Schaff’s Encyclopaedia s«vs: ‘•In ancient times the last coo Misted, in some places and times, in total abstinence from all kinds of food until evening on all days except Sundays; in other places and at other times, in abstinence from flesh and wine. But generally the fast . was accompanied with the ces sation of everything having a festal character such as public f games, theatrical shows, etc. In the Euglish church the celebra tion of Lent was introduced iD i the latter part of the eighth cen tury'. Lent, when observed to day, retains its ancient features.” And so for forty days there will be throughout Christendom , fewer card parties and less the ater-going. “Societyr will turn itself to prayers, penitence, alms-giving and church-going. The churches that observe Lent, • and the number is, we believe, on the increase instead of other wise, will have frequent, solemn and impressive services and many worshippers, not' present at many other seasons of the year, will have their minds, and thoughts directed toward Him who was ci ucilied for their sins and rose again the thrid day to show them His power over, death, sin and the grave. Dur- j ing this season many burdened souls have found, in this and I in ages long since past, peace, pardon, and joy because ot a re conciliation with that Savior whose persecution, death and resurection gives rise to the now sacred name and lime honored custom. The important dates of the season are Ash-Wednesday, | which this year fell on February 20; Mid-Lent, March 17 ; Palm | Sunday, March 30; Good Fri-I day, April 5 ; Easter, April 7. j Many times during these days! may our minds revert to that J awful world tragedy which was| enacted nearly nineteen centur ies ago on Calvary’s rugged brow that through it a better: day and a gladder hour might dawn upon an otherwise iost and ruined world. CHARUE TO CANDIDATE. GIVEN BY KEY. J G. BISHOP, D.D., AT THE ORDINATION OF REV. D. P. BARRETT. The following is the charge given by Rev. j J.tf. Bishop, D. !>., Mission Secretary, at I the ordination of ltev. D P. Barrett, at the 1 —New Lebanon ciiarch, Va.. Noveuiber I7j 19 H, and furnished for publication on the request of the Eastern Virginia conference ami later by the editor of the Sun. My Brother :—We have tak en it tor granted that you have been called ol God to the minis try of his Word. By giving the free consent of your own will to this call, and receiving from this presbytery ol ministers the lay ing on of ordaining hands, you are accepting the highest posi tion—a position fraught with the gravest responsibilities—of any position to which man was ever called. You are to go forth with the eternal destiny of souls in your hands! In view of the responsibilities of your calling; the arduous duties of your calling; the is sues of your calling—issues ol life or death, life, eternal life, it you are fathlul—in view of these things, in the name ol God, and Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, I charge you first of all, and as including all, in the words of Jesus and ol Paul: Preach the Word. Preach the Gospel. Preach the plain sim ple gospel of Jesus Christ, and not the opinions and theories ot men about the gospel. Be careful not to substitute science and philosophy for the gospel. Science and philosophy are good, as related to this life ; they may be good to- make' plain and illustrate the gospel. But they possess within them seives no regenerative power, “gospel is the power of God un to salvation;” and you are to go forth with the message of Sal vation ; therefore, Preach the i Word, Preach the Word. i Christ is the incarnation ol . the “Word." To preach the Word, in the true sense, is ‘to [ preach Christ. Paul said, (Gal , i: 15, 16) “It pleased God to re i veal his Son in me, that I might . preach Him among the lieatheu.” : j Remember, my brother, you can - not preach the Word, the Gos pel, Jesus Christ, effectively to the heathen—to whom you are sbon to go—or to any other peo ple, unless Christ is revealed in you. I charge you, therefore, to be sure that you have and maintain this revelation in you. You have doubtless given much thought as to the best manner of preaching the Word. While topical preaching may occasionally be allowed, this should be the exception and not the rule of preaching. I. is pop ular to announce a topic from the pulpit or through the press, and often the more quaint or outlandish the more popularTF is. Then^topical preaching is so much easier than textual and expository preaching. Almost any school boy or girl can pre pare and give an essay on a given topic. It is a lamentable fact that much that passes for preaching these days is as bar ren of the gospel as the ordinary high school essay. It was the “opening to them the Scriptures” that made the hearts of the dis ciples, on the way to Kmmaus burn within them. So. my—brother,—open—the Scriptures, unfold the Scrip tures, apply the Scriptures—and y ou will make hearts burn, and will save men. I charge you to preach the Word in faith. One o: Spur geon’s young ministers came to him mourning that his preach ing had so little effect, produced so few conversions. Said Spur geon : “When you preach, do you expect that souls will be converted under that sermon?” “No,” said the young preacher, “I must confeas that 1 do not,” "And that is the reason,” said Spurgeon, “that they are not.’^~ Not only preach in faith, but preach what you believe. If you have doubts, keep them to your self. To tell the people the things that you do not believe, or about which you yourself have doubts, will pro duce no convictions, inspire no lives, save no souls, build up no strong churches. You better not spend much time with the “higher critics,” or the lower critics. But spend as much time as possible in studying the Word —in declaring, uufoiding, and applying the Word, and -you will convert sinners, feed souls, a u d d evelop Chris*, ian char a cter. I charge you to preach the Gospel, “not in words which men’s wisdom teach, but in the demonstration of the Spirit, and in the power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” Thus did the Apostles, and thus have all soul winners and spiritual church-builders preached. Further, I charge you to “give attention to reading, to ex hortation, to doctrine.” To Reading : No matter how long you may live or how much you may know, you must read and keep on reading ; you must study and keep o» studying. The preacher that stands still must expect soon to see the church pass by him and leave him. To Exhortation : Is the gift of exhortation one of the -‘lost arts?” And what a loss to the church ! I charge you to culti vate this gift as a supplement and seat to your ministry. After informing the judgment and quickening the conscience, ap peal to ^the will through the emotions. This is the avenue through which most souls are reached. Not necessarily by death bed stories—but, remem ber that the tears of the congre g; ion are the true praises of the minister, and not the flattering words about his sermon. To Doctrine : Not exhorta tion alone: doctrines, teaching, truth. These produce convic tions, these form the basis of faith—without which' there can be no stability, no development of Christian character. Yes, in due proportion, preach doctrine, I and you will grow strong, intel ligent Christians. <1 AS TO MANNISH OF l.IFK. I charge you not to lose the man in the preacher. David said to his son Solomon, "Show thy>elf a man.” Very essential i lements of a true preacher are true manhood, and good “com mon sense.” Show thyselt above every low, discourteous, or dishonorable act. Let your conversation be scrupulously chas.e, pure aod clean. “Let no filthy com munication proceed out of your mouth”—no matter where or in what company. I charge you to avoid debt as you would the small pox. A ' preacher might afford to wear very plain clothes and live on very coarse and scanty fare (though his congregation can not afford to have him do so), but he can not afford to run bills and go into debt. If you would not compromise your manhood, jeopardize your influence, avoid debt as you would a pestilence. Trust God, my brother, aDd do your duty, and He will take care of you “He that honor eth me, him will I honor, saith the Lord.” Finally, I charge you to preach the gospel faithfully, lovingly, sympathetically, and to do this until death, or as long as the good Father gives you strength and ability to preach. Yes, be thou faithful in His work until death and thou shah have a crown of life ; for “They that be wise shall shine as the bright ness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.” May such be thy reward. The Sunday School. LKSSOJi FOK MARt H 3, 1901 BY REV. H. SCHOLZ, A. M. JESUS BETRAYED. Golden Text.— The Son o Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.—Matt. 26:45. Read John 18:1-14. After the institution of the Lord’s Supper Jesus and eleven of his disciples went across the brook Kidrou into the garden oi Gethsemane. Judas, by some means, knew that Jesus w'ould be in that garden and he, there fore, got together a band of men and officers from the chiei priests and Pharisees, and went to arrest Him. The crowd car TiecTTanTerns and torches to light their way, and they were also armed with weapons by which they could fight, it necessary. When the crowd approached the garden, Jesus went forward to meet them and asked them whom they sought. They .-told him that they sought Jesus of Nazareth. He, thereupon, in formed them that he was the one For whom they were looking. As soon as they heard this, it seems that something in Christ’s calm demeanor struck fear to their heaits and they tell back ward and prostrated themselves on the ground. Perhaps Christ exercised supernatural power to show them how helpless they would be, should he refuse to give himselt up. He again asked them whom they sought, and he received the same reply. Theu said Jesus, if you seek me, let these [my disciples] go their way. Just then Simon Peter drew a sword and cut ofl the ear of Maichus, servant ot the high priest. Christ rebuked PeteV for this, and healed the servant’s ear, at the same time saying: "The cun which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. 1. “Aud Judas knew the place.” The devil is always well acquainted with the places where God’s people are gather ed. And he is always ready to gather his forces for the purpose of breaking up the meeting. Sometimes the devil takes his seat in pulpit with the preacher. You can always find him among the pews in the rear of the church. 2. Jesus said, “Whom seek ye?" The question was not ask ed for information, but for the purpose of getiing them to com-, mit themselves. He wanted them to say sought him, so that he might keen his . i ciplcs from I b-’ing arrest u also. The ques tion efijcled its purpose. Noue I of his disciples were arrested, I but when Christ re quested them ! to let these go their way, there was no ■ objection raised and the disciples all forsook him and fled. 3. These men sought Jesus for a wicked purpose. They found him, but their finding him did them harm. Perhaps, there are those today who seek Jesus for a sinful purpose. It is pos sible for us to pray sinful pray ers, and entreat for something that wou’d not be right. 4. “Ancf tell to the ground.” The wicked are always cowards. The man with murder in his heart cannot keep from shrink ing before the gaze of him whom he would unjustly put to death. Conscience will most assuredly make cowards of us all if we have been guilty of wrong doing ; but “thrice armed is he who hath his quarrel just.” “The w'icked flee when no man pur sueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion.” 5. “Let these go their way.” Christ is always solicitous for the welfare of his people. They may have to undergo hard ex periences sometimes, but they will never have placed upon them more than they can bear The apos’.les w'ere mai-treated in many ways, but they were given strength to bear them up in all their trials. 6. Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it. fie would tight his way out. But the world is not to be redeemed that way The Christian warfare is not to be fought with swords. Relig ion canoot be beaten into a man. Mohammed established his re ligion that way, but what ac count i- it r It lacks the power to save, and is useless, a mere nelp-meet to the devil. Christ’s religion is a religion of peace It is to be promoted by preach ing ihe Word, tyid living the Word. Jesus emphasized this when he healed the servant’s ear. Mission Department BY REV. J. P. BARRETT-, D. D. A> OPEN LETTER. v. BY RF.V. JH. J. RHODES. In view of the tact that many of the people of our churches have not had the means at hand to study the “Porto Rican” question, I think it advisable to lay*certain facts before them in this manner. Yesterday 1 was permitted to go with the Super visor of public schools for this district, and visit two of the schools taught b.y Porto Ricans, and learned several things that it would have been hard 'for me to understand without the aid of my eyes. The United States govern ment is doing a large amount of .vork here in providing books, pencils, blackboards and oth er supplies, - but there is very poor provision in the way of buildings. In one of the buildings where I visited a school, there were forty-nine children, and they were obliged to sit so clo e on the tour bench es that they could not move the position of their b»oks without some one getting down off the seat. Thirteen little folks were sit ting on a bench about eight feet long, seven inches wide, and so high that more than half of them could not reach the floor with their feet. Add to this the heat of a trop ical sun, and a corrugated iron roof, and you have a combina tion that i#hard to beat for dis comfort. Into this room the teacher and children come at eight o'clock in the morning and remain six hours. I make, this statement that you may appreci ate some of the difficulties in the way of a rapid growth of knowl edge in the island, and also that I may call your attention to a matter that is in need of imme diate notice, and one in whjfeh all w.io are willing may have a part. The people of the island arc very poor, add must have help for a few years until they over come the difficulties growing out of the change of government. Public free education is new and many are not able to avail them selves of it because they are not able to clothe their children. With the coming of the Ameri can army there came a new or der concerning dress, and now the people must be clothed ac cording to the manner of Amer icans. Thousands of children could go to school if they had clothing. The climate, as you know, is warm, and only thin clothing is of use. The ladies of Ponce have organized themselves into an Aid Society for the purpose of taking charge of the work of making and distributing such clothing as may come into their hands, and I am charged with the duty ot writing this letter to our churches to ask if there is not a number of persons among us who would esteem it a privil ege to contribute cotton cloth in such quantities as they can af ford to be cut and made here by the above named society. Small packages of two or three pounds can be sent by mail at one cent per ounce, and I think arrange ments can be made for larger packages through the Mission office. The steamship com panies carry freight at sixteen cents per cubit foot from New York. There is another need—If-we had a number of young men who are willing to teach school for about what it would cost them to live, there are splendid openings for mission work of the real sort. Prather think transportation could be secured from the De partment of Education for the island for possibly ten Christian young men, if they would agree to teach out in the country tow ns. This supposition is not wholly guess work, but is partly inspir ed. I believe this the day of op portunity for a great work on the part ot the Christian people of America, and God will call for an accounting for our ac ceptance or rejection of it. Three hundred thousand chil dren, who are to be future citi zens'of the great republic of the -Western hemisphere, are reach ing out their hands to you for help. Will you answer to their cry, and send the relief? Send your answer to Rev. J. G. Bish op, O., or to the writer.—Chris tian Messenger. Ponce, Porto Rico. i Kt atsn In all the great slaughter houses where thousands ot beef cattle are converted into army rations, there are trained and employed decoy animals whose sole occupation is leading their kind to the shambles. The old time drover used to ride behind his steers and force them with blows and goads to their doom, but not so to-day. It is found much more efficacious to take advantage ot tne natural trust fulness ot the poor dumb crea tures in those of their own order. So in each yard there is kept an ox, called by the driver, “Judas Iscariot,” who slowly and eutic ingly w alks before the new-ly ar rived drove, along the schutes and up the elevated bridges, to the killing room. Just before his arrival at the end the decoy steps aside, and the following multitude falls under the ax. Although he is only a brute trained to his bloody business, every man and boy in the stock yard's hates h m. But the mis erable four-footed betrayer is an angel of light compared with the man who is luring on the trustful youth, hope of home and darling ot his mother’s heart, to hts sure death and fionl damna tion. And every boy who grows to manhood, whether in city or country, must meet more ! than one “procuress te the lord* f hell.”—The Interior. Life is a brief race. It looks like a long one to hi n who from childhood looks ahTad, but ul 1 ways to him who looks back i ward from the summit of age at a very short race,—Sel.
The Christian Sun (Elon College, N.C.)
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Feb. 28, 1901, edition 1
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