BY* ATKINSON * LAWRENCE.
establish .4# 4.
_ _
IN ESSENTIALS, UNITY; IN NON-ESSENTIALS, LIBERTY; IN ALL THINGS, CHARITY. $1.50 THE YEAR
ELON COLLEGE, N. C., WEDNESDAY, APRIL 33, 1903. VOLUME LV : NUMBER 16
\K<* Christian $Ur\
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
The Official Organ of th« Southern Chris
tian Convention.
CARDINAL PRINCIPLES.
1. The Lord Jesas Is the only Head of the
chnroh.
1. The name Christian, to the exclusion
of all party and sectarian names.
3. The Holy Bible, or the Scriptures ol
the Old and New Testaments, sufficient rule
of faith and practice.
4. Christian character, or vital piety, the
oily test of fellowship or membership.
5. The right of private Judgment, and
the liberty of conscience, the privilege and
duty of all
A DAY’S JOURNEY.
(Editorial Correspondence.)
Dear Sun Readers :—An
alarm clock frightened me out
of bed at 4 o’clock yesterday
morning (Tuesday). Twenty
six minuetes later Mrs. Atkin
son and I were aboard Capt.
Weatherspon’s train facing west
ward from Elon. This morning
at 7 o’clock a porter called out
at our berth that Memphis,
(Tennesee) was nearby. Thirty
minuets later our train was
standing, like a steed panting
after a noble race, on the brink
of the wide spreading mississip
pi. The time table showed that
we had come in the day and
night seven hundred and fifty
seven miles; not a slow day’s
journey it you take into account
the fact that three mountain
ranges had been gone through
(under or over), hills, rivers and
valleys without number, crossed,
and one hundred and forty
towns and cities passed through
and, mostly, stopped at and four
states, partly, traversed. You
can easily travel, by many routes
and roads, more miles in a day
than this journey covered ; not
often will you tind in a single
day more varied and diversified
scenery than that in Western
North Carolina, East Tennesee,
Southern Aalabam and Missis
sippi. What is it, after all, that
the labor of man, backed by skill
and capital, cannot accomplish?
Are there no limitations to its
daring, achievements, possibili
ties? Labor, skill, capital, the
mighty factors of human power
and progress ! They will show
you the glory and grandeur and
greatness of the world while you
recline at ease and comiort in
a palace car: Ttiey scale the
mountains, or tunnel them,
bridge the broadest rivers, blast
the biggest barriers, bid defiance
to distance and make time ol
small moment for the pleasure
and profit ot man, for the honor
and glory of God. Here let it
be said that labor, skill and cap
ital are, and must ever be part
ners in a common cause: other
wise they are mutually and
equally ineffectual and self
destroying. Capital supports,
skill directs, labor creates. Un
supported labor will perish.
Misdirected capital will vanish.
But neither capital nor skill can
create ought without labor.
1 do not know which attracted
me most yesterday the glorious
and ever changing natural scen
ery along the route or the energy
and enterprise of man in open
ing up and traversing that scen
ery. Both fed my soul and of
tejn caused me to wonder at the
miraculous achievements of man,
this snatchless power and majesty
of God. Surely there must be,
as Lyman Abbott says, some*
thing sublimely human in God,
something nobly divine in man.
This is indeed God’s world and
he who does not see and recog
nize His hand and power every
where must be poor of soul and
small of heart indeed. Had I
never heard there was a God, a
Creator, a Ruler of the universe,
I should be compelled to believe
and feel there was one when 1
beheld the wonder, the majesty
and the magnitude of the moun
tains. ^
I need not tell here, what
reader of The Sun, has not al
ready heard a hundred times
over, of the rugged, grand and
glorious scenery of Round
Knob, of the composed beauty
and inviting scenery around
Asheville, of the charm and
life and vigor of the rushing,
racing, roaring French Broad.
Instead of this, which any guide
book will give better than I, will
the reader bear with me, if his
patience is not already exhaust
ed, while I quote a phrase much
to my feeling and my liking,
from Croly on the beauty and
glory of the mountain. You will
find the quotation in his “Sala
thiel” and it runs like this:
‘•Of all the sights that nature
offers to the eye and mind of
man, mountains have always
stirred my strongest feelings. I
have seen the ocean when it
was turned up from the bottom
by the tempest, and noon was
like night with the conflict of
the billow* and the storm that
tore aQ<$ scattered them in mist
and loam across the. sky. I have
seen the desert rise around me,
and calmly, in the midst of thou
sands uttering cries of horror
and paralyzed by fear, have con
templated the sandy pillars com
ing like the advance of some
gigantic city of conflagration
flying across the wilderness,
every column glowing with in
tense fire and every blast with
death; the sky vaulted wiih
gloom, me earm a mrnacc. uui
with me, the mouatain—in tem
pest or in calm, whether the
throne of thunder, or with the
evening sun painting its dells
declivities in colors dippea in
neaven—has been the source of
most absorbing sensations;
there stand magnitude giving
instant impression of a power
above man—grandeur that de
fies decay—antiquity that tells
of ages unnumbered—beauty
that the touch of time makes
only more beautiful—use ex
hautless lor the service of man—
strength imperishable as the
globe ; the monuments of eter
nity—the truest earthly emblem
of that ever-living, unchange
able, irresistable Majesty by
whom and for whom ail things
were made.’’---"~"“~
I never felt the meaning of
those words of Croly more for
cibly than I did yesterday when
we traversed what has so often,
and rightly I think, been called
“the land of the sky,”, “the
Switzerland of America.”
About the skill and ingenuity
of man just one wor^tnore. In
that day’s journey of more than
750 miles across' rivers through
mountains and over plains via
Salisbury, Asheville, Morris
town, Knoxville, Chattanooga
and Memphis there was not a
hitch or a hinder, not a variation
of five minutes, most of the way
not a variation of half-minute,
from the schedule time of either
of the four trains on which we
traveled. There is a triumph ot
steady nerved, even gauged la
bor, of precise and accurate
mathematical calculation for you
that defies criticism and beggars
deception. I could fill these
columns—and then not tell the
story—about, the brave, fearless,
sleepless men who pull the
throttle and fire the engines and
control these giant steam and
steel horses that make us feel
sate when in the tunnel or on
the bridge. They are indeed a
brave, sober and faithful set—
heroes every day and every
night at their task and toil.
But I write too long. The
scenery about me now charms
and invites me. We are flying
across the fertile plains of the
great Mississippi valley. Here
boundless acres in native grass,
soil into which a plow or a hoe
has never been put, feed thous
ands and tens of thousands of
grazing, tat and lazy, herds.
The broad, long river is behind
us, the rich and teeming fields
are about us, God’s sunshine
fills the day. Little Rock, the
capital of Arkansas, looks
smok^ in the distance. We
hurry on our journey to the
famous Hot Springs from which
another, and we hope, a better
account of ♦■our travels will be
sent. But no more now.
April 16, 1902. J. O. A.
Sunday Newspapers.
BY REV. H. Y. KUSH.
The Sunday newspaper is a
subject in almost every confer
ence and convention report on
moral reform. Well it may be.
Its influence is insidious, de
moralizing and damning. The
appetite for opium and tobacco
is no more dominating than is
the habit of feeding upon the
ensationalism of the Sunday
paper. The mind so filled is so
far unfitted lor any decent
thought, it is unfitted for hear
ing sermons and for doing the
highest order of Sunday school
work. Its appetite and fitness
! ire lost for all Christly service.
Hence the Sunday newspaper
reader ceases at last to be a
church attendant. He prefers
filth to spiritual food, and so fits
himself for the companion ot
castaways. The Sunday news
paper has come to be one of the
greatest enemies of the home—
of wife, of children, abd the
church. Its poison blunts all
on’s fiuer sensibilities and grad
ually faces all one’s moral being
toward the brutal. The Sunday
paper is unfit to go into the
family. It would be better to
put poison in the children’s food
than to put before them a paper
that poisons the mind and low
ers the tone of morals and of
virtue. The Sunday paper is
made popular by its recitals of
vice and its summary of sensa
tionalism. Thus feeding all the
lower appetites, it destroys a
love for the pure, becomes the
enemy of decency and the abet
tor of crime. Brother, you must
die by and by. The Sunday
newspaper and the coffin hardly
seem like suitable companions.
West Milton, O.
If the grocery bills did not
have to be settled till the fall,
and rents did not have to be
paid but once per year and dry
goods were not needed till about
Christmas, and horse feed did
not cost anything and preachers
did not need their salaries to
live on during the year it would
not make so much difference if
your pastor’s salary was not
attended to in the least till just
before conference. But, breth
ren, preachers are mortal and
i creditors are nervous. Verbura
1 sap.
The Art of Bringing Things to Pass.
BY MISS BETTI E STEPHENSON.
How few of us know this art!
How tew of our ideals are ever
materialized ! What a different
’world this would be if some ma
terializing and less idealizing
were done. Yet I heartily agree
with the writer who said that
no work is ever greater than the
person conceiving the plan. We
are helped and uplifted by even
cherishing high ideals, if by un
avoidable circumstances we are
not allowed the happiness of
their materialization. But the
altogether idealistic life is as un
successful as the one. wholly de
void of ideals. As in almost
every phase of life it is the me
dium between the two extremes
that seems most sure of success.
Take for instance, the boy or
girl who reaches the years of
accountability or sufficient years
of maturity to begin to compare
the ideal with the material side
of life. See him or her in the
morning of their youth fairly
bubbling over with life and en
thusiasm.
What noble impulses spring
from the heart of such a youth.
There hidden treasures of be
nevolence and philanthropy lie
dormant, which if properly cul
tivated will later develop into
actual existence, “a thing of
beauty and joy forever.” Ah !
who would dare undertake to*
measure the possibilities of such
a life! But, alas! how often
just beyond this horizon so clear
and promising, are the gather
ing clouds of sorrow and ad
versity that are to so quickly
mar and sometimes almost de
stroy these happy, youthful
dreams!
On the other hand let us com
pare the unambitious youth, of
which our country has its equal
share. He has no specific aim
in lile, no special purpose to
ward which his every movement
and ettort in me is tending, out
is merely drifting along on the
tide of life to some end, he has
but little idea where. Which of
these youths do you suppose is
apt to carry out that part which
he placed him in the world and
at last fill that place in eternity
for which he was designed?
Why this difference? Individ
ually this question will probably
not be answered until the dawn
ing of eternity. It is often due,
however, to some influence of
which the one wielding it is
wholly unconscious, as in some
cases it seems to be an inborn
attribute, to possess noble pur
poses and high ideals, while it is
more often the result of increas
ing efforts on the part of kind
teachers and loving parents to
awaken and arouse these heaven
born principles . in their loved
ones in the case of the former
youth and a lack of these things
in tne case of the latter. How
hard he to whom the training
and moulding of young lives are
entrusted should strive to im
press upon them that they
should:
“Live for something, have a purpose.
And that purpose keep in view;
Drifting like a helpless vessel,
Thou canst ne’er to life be true.
Half the wrecks that strew life’s ocean,
If some star had been their guide,
Might have long been riding safely,
but they drifted with the tide ”
The most obvious reason why
so few of our ideals are realized
is that we have not learned the
art of doing things, of ‘bringing
things to pass,’ and sadder still,
will never learn it until our
most precious opportunities are
beyond our. grasp. We plan
our work, but fail to work our
plans. Oftentimes we spend
our time in talking and dream
ing of what we hope to accom
plish when we should be ac
tively working to bring about
the accomplishment.
This twentieth century is not
an age in which we may shape
our ideals and idly dream about
them while waiting for a chance
to materialize them. But if we
are to bring our lives to the
highest standard of development
we must, by His help, who has
promised to help, make a chance,
and set about our work with
that earnestness and zeal char
acteristic of our Savior’s work
on earth.
Have we as a body of Chris
tian workers yet successfully
learned the art of bringing
things to pass, of materializing
our plans? For years and years
we have met in conferences for
the purpose of talking over our
work and what we as a denomi
nation and a conference hoped
to accomplish, at the same time
carefully discussing and laying
plans for these accomplishments.
Still we hear people (mostly of
a pessimistic nature, however)
complaining that we have never
gained much if any material
benefit from these meetings. I
believe that any meeting of the
Lord’s children together for a
good purpose is never devoid of
some , good, yet I believe that
many of us are pessimistic
enough to admit that they have
not been as prolific of good re
sults as they should have been.
Why? Because when our pas
tors and delegates return to their
respective fields of labor after
these meetings they are either
too much engrossed in worldly
affairs or have too little of the
church’s interest at heart to
trouble themselves to material
ize these well made plans ; con
sequently they soon pass from
their minds and the work of our
blessed Master is soon labori
ously moving along in the same
old ruts. Why is it that we
hear both pastors and people at
this season of the year com
plaining ot a dulness in church
work? Does God withhold any
more of his blessings either tem
poral or spiritual during the
winter season than at any other?
A thousand times, No. The
fault is wholly our own. We
tail to provide our church with
heaters and other things neces
sarj for our comfort and are,
thereiore, on account of the
severe cold weather, forced to
forsake the assembling of our
selves together, thereby disobey
ing an implicit command of our
Savior. Often, too, we let such
little things as unfavorable
weather such as we would never
think of letting hinder our
worldly business serve as an ex
cuse for absence from church
service. I tear too many ol us
are more careful about material
izing our business plans than we
are our church plans. For the
sake of our loved ones who are
yet living in the darkness of sin >
and for His sake who shed His
blood for all mankind let us get
out of these worn out ruts and
place our wheels on the firm,
solid^ ground of progress and
activity.
Milltown, Ala.
We hope soon to have some
thing interesting, from Rev. J, G.
Bishop, D. D., Mission Secreta
ry of the American Christian
Convention, who is now on a
visit to Our mission in Japan.