The Christian Sun.
IN ESSENTIALS, UNITY; IN NON-ESSENTIALS, LIBERTY; IN ALL,THINGS, CHARITY.
11.50 THE YEAR
ESTABLISHED 1844.
ELON COLLEGE, N. C., WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1902.
VOLUME LV : NUMBER 37
Cl^Pistiart SUr\
PUBLISHED WEEKLY.
The Official Organ of the Southern Chris
tian Convention.
CARDINAL PRINCIPLES.
1. The Lord Jesus is the only Held oj
the church.
2. The name ChrisUan, to the exclusion
of all party and sectaAu names.
3. 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.
5. The right of private judgment, and
the liberty of conscience, the privilege and
duty of all.
CURRENT COMMENT.
HB. VANDERBILT, FARMER.
(Editorial Correspondence.)
Asheville, N. C.,
Sept. 8, 1902.
Dear Sun Readers :—Mr.
George Vanderbilt has a farm
out two miles from here that is
worth seeing. I went out there
today and enjoyed going over
it. Mr. Vanderbilt is a good
farmer. He raises wheat and
corn and vegetables and pigs
and cattle and milk and butter
and firewood in abundance. He
sells wood by the cord, bv the
hundreds of cords—Mr. Van
derbilt does And he cuts it
out of the forests on his 140,000
acre farm. Asheville people
buy and burn Mr. George Van
defbilt’s cord wood. But his
wood and forests might not in
terest you like his cattle and
dairy. I saw them milking the
cows today, 125 of them, eight
men were. Thtir cows average
2-k gallons of milk per day, some
of them giving as much as 6
gallons per day, so I was told.
The cattle barns and stables are
elegant, stone building, stone
floors, heated (in winter) by
steam and lit up with electricity.
Oaly Jersey cattle are kept.
And for milk and batter there
-are none better. Mr. Vander
but will sell you a nice one lor
as little as $100 or as much as
five times that. His pigs are
also elegant, all of the Berk
shire breed. You can buy the
cheapest three months old for
$27.70. 1 saw one nearly two
years old that weighs, “they
told roe, 780, but would reach
the 1,000 pound mark by the
time he was grown—he seemed
to me nearly grown now. Tne
superintendents of the pig farm
and of the cattle farm are now
in Europe to buy pi3s and cat
tle, car loads of them, for the
farm here. Mr. Vanderbilt
raises pigs to sell—does not
butcher any. He buys his meat
ready dressed. He can afford
to do so when he sells young
pigs for from $27.50 to $50 a
head. He sells milk and cream
also. Has an ice cream .^taud
•on the larm and can make as
good ice civ am as you wish
to or 15 cents the p’ate, accord
ing to tne kind you wish. Milk
is five cents a glass, and it you
drink one glass you will wish
one or two more. “They say”
Mr. Vanderbilt makes enough
•on his farm to support it. I
doubt that. There are 600 men
on the pay roll. And many of
them are superintendents with
large salaries. The general
superintendent gets an elegant
home and $10,000 a year sal
ary. Under him is a superin
tendent of each of the half dozen
or more departments of the
farm. All of these superinten
dents have lovely homes on the
estate.
What sort of home does Mr.
Vanderbilt live in on the farm?
Well, I cannot tell you. It beg
gars description.’ It took hun
dreds of hands five years to
build it. The cost in building
and equipment went up to sev
eral millions. It is a great,
grand, towering, wide spread
ing palace, built of stone from
quarries in Indiana. It takes
35 to 40 servants to keep the in
terior brushed, rubbed and
dusted. His stables, adjoining
the mansion, are finer than most
houses you see and 18 horses
are kept there for riding and
driving—for Mr. Vanderbilt
alone. To erect all this enor
mous building, they, tore off the
top of a mountain, leveled it
down and terraced it up to suit
the purpose desired. Their pur
pose seems to have been accom
plished. It is a sort of plateau
with the most perfect lawn and
terrace work I have ever seen.
That great lawn seems as per
fectly level as any flaor could
be.
Now to all this there is an
other side—I mean to all this
expenditure of effort and money.
Biltmore estate is the biggest
advertisement Asheville ever
had. It has made Asheville a
populous, thriving, busy, hus
tling city. Hundreds ot people
come here for awhile who would
not come but for this estate ot
Mr. Vanderbilt’s. The work
there gives employment and
food and shelter and clothing to
thousands ot people. Farming
on such a scale has shown this
part of the State what lands
hereabout can and will produce.
When a man farms well it
makes farming seem worth
while. Somebody else wants
to farm well also. Anything
well done makes that thing
seem inviting, charming and de
lightful to do. So says George
Elliot, and she is right. A good
preacher makes other people
want to preach—makes preach
ing seem inviting. So of all the
vocations of life. Is life worth
living, was never a question with
a person who lived the right
sort of life. The trouble is that
so many people live to make a
living rather than to ihake a life.
There is a vast difference be
tween a living and a life. Mak
ing a living is an easy matter.
Making a life means sacrifice,
toil, effort, prudence, discretion.
Asheville is a good place to
come to—for awhile. The scen
ery is glorious hereabouts and
the atmosphere is delightful to
breathe.If on a cannot sleep here,
one would better take treatment
for insomnia. You are consider
ably over two thousand feet
above sea level here and the air
is cool, crisp and invigorating.
Tourists are here all the year
round. People from the South
come here for the summer. Peo
ple from the N >rth spend their
winters here.
Tn » world in which we live is
■indeed varied, diver sified, filled
with much that is beautiful,
grand, glorious. In every region
some beauty, some grandeur,
some glory is manifest. How
thankful, how grateful we frail
mortals should be for all that is
good and noble and beautiful
and pure and lovely that is
about us.- Let us look for the
good and the noble and the pure
and be thankful for it.
J. O. A,
While you clasp the darkness,
you will never come into the
prosece of the light.—Sel.
\
The* Rise of the Christians
in St. Louis, Mo.
Faper IV.—Struggle and Growth.
BY REV. A, E. NELSON, D. D.
Whatever the ‘‘Reformer”
may be, he is not popular. This
we discovered shortly after hav
ing organized an independent
church in this city.
When we first began the work
we were quite eagerly sought
after by several of the religious
bodies, by whom we were look
ed upon as “legitimate prey.”
The Presbyterians and Church
of God made overtures to us :
the Episcopalians proffered me
to the rectorship of one of their
city churches: the Congrega
tionalist galled a special Council
and invited me to attend it, offer
ing to build me a church and
guarantee my salary, if we would
become a Congregational
Church : and the Disciples sent
their most expert professors of
proselytism among to endeavor
to teach us “the way of God
more perfectly.”
When we would hear none of
them, however, the men and
women who should have been
the best friends to the move
ment, soon manifested the ut
most unfriendliness for it- Men
who had been the most profuse
in their advocacy of the estab
lishment of a church free from
sectarian bias and dictation,
began to display the most des
potic tendencies and to reach for
the reins of government, “and
when these would not readily
fall into their hands, they adopt
ed the “rule or ruin” policy so
common to all devildom.
As stated elsewhere in these
papers : we began our operations
in a tent which we pitched on a
vacant lot, by the kind permis
sion of the owner. This tent
was purchased by us at cost
which drained our meager
finances: imagine our dismay
then, in finding that one of. our
false friends had sold this tent
from over our heads, thus leav
ing us without shelter, and as he
fondly hoped, without the means
to acquire another of any des
cription ; and ia order to make
surety doubly sure, he had de
stroyed and carried off our seats
and other furnishings in the
tent, and importuned the owner
of the vacant lot to refuse the
further use of the same. Should
it be thought strange that we
had a “Judas” in our company
of some twenty persons, when
the Master had one in His little
band of twelve?- What course
did we pursue with reference to
this “son of perdition? ’ Why,
we followed the plan so beauti
fully taught by the Saviour in
His dealings with that first be
trayer—we gave him all the
rope he wanted, and “he went
and hanged himsell.” It is true
that he tried to hang all the
balance of us with the same rope,
but he o sly. succeeded in *abras
ing t le skin on the necks of a
few, when his knots slipped and
the would-be victims escaped.
One, only, was so sore from his
experience that he went into the
Presbyterian fold thereafter.
We then secured a building
which had been used for busi
ness purposes, and which had a
store-room on the first floor, and
a flat of three dingy and dirty
rooms on the second, for which
we were to pay $20 per month.
This we thoroughly cleaned
and fitted up for permanent
quarters. As we. had no use
for the rooms upstairs, and
being fearful lest we should fail
to rent them, wife and I con
cluded to surrender our comiort
able flat in which we had lived
for the cold, inconvenient and
noisy place over the new assem
bly-room. It was a poor trade,
from the standpoint of our own
material affairs; but it was a
blessed experience to us in learn
ing to suffer with Christ and for
the sake of establishing His
kingdom in the hearts of men.
In these quarters we carried on
our work for more than two
years, during which time we
grew in numbers from 19 to 75
in the church membership ; be
came thoroughly organized;
gathered a Sunday school which
had an enrollment of more than
250 members,Hess than half of
them could find room in the
building at one time, and then
only by having three children
seated on two chairs) and gained
the confidence and respect of all
the community. The building
which we had secured, however,
was situated within a few feet of
several railroad tracks, where
much switching was being done,
where trains passing would in
variably ring their bells, blow
their whistles and make all other
noises permissible in our city.
They would verj frequently
blow out a steam chest or break
in two a long and heavy laden
ed freight rat which times the
language of train crew would
become most unhappily interject
ed into the sermon and other
service going on within.
Having secured a special dis
pensation from the owner of the
building to permit us to rent the
store-room separately, we vaca
ted the living room, only to have
a family of ten children and a
widowed mother move in. They
were poor; could not afford
carpets, and we could not see
our way clear to supply them
with this luxury ; they all work
ed during the day time, and on
evenings and Sundays when our
services were in progress down
stairs, this (Roman Catholic)
family upstairs did their week’s
washing, sewing(upon the ma
chine) and other neglected
work, while the younger element
was engaged in games ot base
ball, hand-ball, wrestling
matches and such other inno
cent amusements as would tend
to “drive dull care away.” Of
course, we thought very many
things, who were endeavoring
to hold divine services under
such circumstances. Why did
we remain there? It was the
only building in that vicinity
which was obtainable : to move
was to disband : to remain was,
in the estimation of some, even
worse than to disband; it was
plain that we could not hope to
do more than simply mission
work in that condition, and that
a permanent work would never
grow of it. The only thing to
do was to acquire property of
our own ; as, did we continue to
rent, even iu a good building,
the rent would eat our very life
away and discourage the few
who had it to pay ;or, on the only
other alternative, remain a “mis
sion church,”..neither of which
we desired to do.
During this period my atten
tion was called to the fact that
the Non Sectarian Church prop
erty was lor sale. This w.as an
independent church in our city,
having been -organized twelve
years ago by the Rev. Dr. Rob
ert C. Cave, who was formerly a
Disciple preacher, but who had
repudiated the narrowness of the
Creed of Alexander Campbell,
and who had been forced out of
his pastorate by the “defenders
of the faith.” Many of the
wealthiest of his former parish
oners withdrew from the Disci
ples in sympathy with him and
his views ;they purchased a large
lot of land in the most desirable
location in town, and erecfed
upon it one of the handsomest
church edifices that could be
built,—completely and tastefully
finished and equipped—at a cost
of about $60,000 where4for about
eleven years they operated un
der varying circumstances and
experiences. Dr. Cave’s health
failed him ; the congregation be
came depleted through deaths
and removals, and those who re
mained lost heart; the property
was listed for sale in the real es
tate office of one of the members
—at that time representing a
value of about $85,000 by rea
son of improvements and natural
enhancement.
When built, because they had
no affiliation with any other
body of people, and to supply
themselves with some work to
interest and activity, they had
wisely permitted about $30,000
to remain upon the property un
der a Deed of Trust, falling due
in annual notes of $2,000 with
8%. This original indebedness
had been reduced to $16,000, but
certain other obligations owing
by the old congregatian swelled
the total indebtness to $20,877.
53. Upoi investigation, I learn
ed to my joy, that we could se
cure this beautiful property for
its bare incumbrance.
(.To be Continued.)
Norfolk Letter.
%* Oct. 8th the American
Christian Coavention meets with
the Memorial Christian Temple,
Norfolk, Va.
*** All delegates to the
American Christian Convention
who wish entertainment should
read a notice elsewhere given in
this issue by the pastor.
%* These are busy days
about the Memorial Christian
Temple. The preparation tor
the entertainment of 400 to 500
people is a task that requires
work. We have begun in time,
and hope to be ready promptly
on time.
%* Visitors from a distance
to the Convention in Norfolk in
October may get entertainment
provided they give notice of their
coming not later than Sept. 25th.
This is important. See notice
from pastor elsewhere in this is
sue. If you are coming, write at
once—use a postal card, and
do it now.
%* From every direction, so
far as we have heard there seems
to be a hungering for a spiritual
feast in the Noilolk Convention.
’Let every body join in the cry
i tor the feast, and I believe it will
be given. The Lord hears the
earnest plea of His people. From
the North, the East and the
West, and the South, too, there
seems to be a reaching out after
all thfe lulness of the Christ-life.
If we come together, seeking,
we shall doubtless receive of
His fulness. The Convention
will mark a new Era in all lines
of our work as a people, it we
come together in the spirit of
Jacob when he said: “I will not
let thee go, except Thou bless
me!” This is our hope for a
j new spiritual era in the Chris
tian church.
%* If every one will kindly
do just what he, or she, is asked
to do to assist in the entertain
(
(Continue! on 8th page.)