Newspapers / The Christian Sun (Elon … / Feb. 6, 1907, edition 1 / Page 1
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i.Si ABL1SHED 1844. GREENSBORO, N. C., WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1907. VOLUME LIX. NUMBER 5. CL EDITORIAL COMMENT. THE SUPPORT OF THE CHURCH FRANCE. IN Recently a law was passed in France sep arating church and state. The difficulty the states authorities are having in making the law effectual has occasioned enquiry into How is the church in France supported?” Some facts gathered at first hand from the records in Paris by The Independent 'are instructive. Under the government, any re ligious body that has as many as one hun dred thousand members or communicants is entitled to state aid. Three religious sects have been reciving aid under this law: Cath olics, Protestants, and Jews. Catholics far exceed in numbers both of the other two sects. There are upwards of thirty-two thousand Catholic officials that draw salaries from the government. Of this number 52 are bishops who receive $1,950 each annual ly. Sixteen archbishops receive each $2, 925. The poorest paid officials are the priests ■of whom there are 2S,700 receiving from $195 to $253.50 each annually. Each church dignitary is furnished also a house to live in, rent free. The total appropriation for the Catholic church is $7,884,322. There are two branches of the Protestant church. There are 635 ministers in the Re formed church and 61 in the Lutheran. These ministers are rated as to salary in three clas ses. The first class of whom there are 22 in Paris receives $585, and a much larger number in other parts of the republic who receive $429 - each. The second class are paid $390 and the third $351 each. The total appropriation for the Protestant church is. $304590,..- The J^otestantjministe^ have no parsonages provided by the government, lienee their salaries are more, in proportion to their rank, than are the salaries of Cath olic officials. The number of Jewish rabbis is not given. The government, however, appropriates $31, S88 for the support of the Hebrew religion. The overwhelming majority of Catholics -shows that the separation law, that provides lor the gradual disunion of church and state governments, is not a Protestant measure. The affair is complicated by the Pope of Rome refusing to accept the separation law passed by the French House of Deputies. Whatever the Pope may do or may not do the separation of his spiritual empire from the* political government of France is alA ready virtually accomplished. This fact together with the vigorous movement in Spain towards the same result should bring con solation to those Americans who have fears that the Pope has designs upon the free in stitutions in the United States. If over whelmingly Catholic France and ultra Cath olic Spain can throw off the Catholic yoke from evil government, this intensely Prot estant America certainly is not going to put «on the papal yoke. EVANGELIST FIFE DEAD. The Sun family will recall frequent ref erences in the Sun to W. P. Fife, erstwJiile evangelist and then mining stock speculator. Mr. Fife died in St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 28th, 1907, of fatty degeneration of the heart. The end came suddenly while he was talking •to friends in a hotel lobby. Mr. Fife was born in Newbern, N. C. fifty .years ago and married the daughter of Col. ■Jno. D. Whitford, of that place. For a number of years he was a tobaccc •drummer, representing several N. C. factories. •Twenty years ago he was. converted n a revi val in Charlotte, N.C. Immediately after his •conversion, he took great interest in the Y. M. C. A. and later became an evangelist, holding many successful revivals in several large cities. His title then was the “Drum mer Evangelist.”. He was forced to give up preaching after ■a few years because of a throat trouble. His •career from’ that time on is not very whole some to contemplate nor inspimg to think on. Bis reputation as an evangelist gave him {'rent favor with good people. This favor he peiceived had a commercial value and he preyed upon it most mercilessly, offering the greatest impossibilities in mining stocks most of which was on paper. He himself amassed a quarter million dollars from his dealings and speculatons in mining stocks; but we have yet to learn of a single investor who has realized anything of the sanguine hopes rais ed by his alluring proffers or even Who has recovered the money invested through ‘ * Brok er Fife.” He said he was speculating to raise money for African Missions. But the African Missions like the great wealth prom ised to his victims failed to materialize. His is a sad case to contemplate. Great is the pity that a man of God, a consecrated minis ter, should ever come to the low level of a stock speculator and plunderer of the honest ernings of simple-hearted ' men ancl women. Death took him, as he took his victims, un suspectingly and in an hour he thought not oi. Vcrburn sapienti-satis ect.* - THE POV; ER OF A QUIET MIND. In the crowded aisles of the huge depart ment store men and women were pressing eagerly about the counters. Christmas was almost at hand, and many gifts were to be bought for loved ones at home and far away. Many a face was brighter and cheerier than on other days in the year; yet many a face looked out through the crowd with frowns and anxious, troubled glances from eyes that snapped w’ith impatience. It was a restless, moving crowd, now ed dying turbulently where broad aisles crossed, now drifting in long lanes reaching as far as the eye could see, breaking into waves and rapids, flowing hither and thither without a moment’s rest. % In sharp contrast to the scenes along the busy aisles was the scene within a small room high up in a corner of the building. There, with a single helper near him, sat a man, who, to all appearances, might be qui etly reflecting on a philosophical problem that had just occurred to him. He was talking with a visitor,—talking as though in his home library on a winter’s night; talking in a low voice whose cadences betrayed not the least commotion within. He was not wasting words. Every word counted. And there was no hurry, no jostling of unruly thoughts, but a steadifiess that told of a curbed and dis ciplined mind. No man in all the city was more quiet in demeanor, more easily urbane, 'tffrqre orderly and patient in word and look, .rWfcp this man, whose toiling, driving, over cohjrHjjr miltxl frad’-iq^ented the process, plan ned me® workings, and designed the attrac tiveness of a collossal mart where human needs are so„ met that the restless, happy, anxious crowd is drawn thither without quite knowing why it is so. That steady, low-voiced watcntul man in the small room is a contradiction to the pop ! ular notion of high efficiency. The world looks for bustle and stir beneath the accom plished big result, and measures a man’s efficiency by the number of motions he makes, rather than by the number of useful motions he can lead others to make. But the mind that achieves is the quiet mind, the mind that is not flurried by events or its own activi ties. And the quiet mind is in itself an achievement which must precede such work as we may do. Clear thought is not possible to the mind that is clouded by flurry. The business man who faces a great opportunity cannot lay hold of it with a masterful grip if he allows himself to become too exeitedly interested in the gains which he thinks he see* just be yond the stroke. He must steady hii thoughts by hard work on the problem before him. The man who faces a crisis in his kffairs can easily become helpless by dwellinglnervously on the crisis, and fail to ■win throwjh it, not from lack of average ability, but from sheer lack of steadiness and quiet thinking. The minister ean.take a sermon-germ, nourish in to life, and then kill it by mental uneasiness over what he vaguely fears may be its effect on his people. Nowhere is the power of a quiet mind more definitely felt than in the home circle. The father who rise* in the morning, anxious and not rested, looking ahead apprehensively to a day of events not to his liking, can throw the home life for th^t day into a fit of the blues which the brightest sunlight cannot drive away. Or, of he so chooses, he can quietly go about his day’s duties m so steady and helpful a fashion that his dear ones will share throughout that day the spirit in which he began it. The mother with her crowding duties and numberless in terruptions, her countless steps about the house, and with a mind full of the ever-re curring problems of child-training which she is not to discuss wisely before a mothers’ meeting, but must settle on the spot,—that mother can by an unquiet mind make need less problems for herself, double her bur dens, and ruin the joyousness of life which should be her children’s daily portion. Or, she can learn the art of quietness, keep the family in balance by her own poise, and move steadily on from one duty to another, refusing to be deprived* of the power which comes with quietness of mind. What is true of the home where this pow er is found is true of every circle in life’s relationships. Good work and worry do not go together, clear thought and flurry cannot dwell together in the same mind at the same time. And: in his plans and purptises for his children God has ever given prominence to the power which comes from a mind stead liy Holding to its appointed tasks, in restiul, When David charged his sorrj Solomon, to build a house for Jehovah, the God of Israel, he said to him: “As for me, it was in my heart to build a house unto the name of Je hovah my God. But the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build a house unto my name, be cause thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Is rael in his days. He shall build a house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father.” And David himself, humbled in spirit, and seeing deeply into life’s se crets after many bitter experiences, cried out: ‘ ‘ Jehovah, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; . . . Surely I have stilled and qui eted my soul; like a w^eaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. 0 Israel; hope in Jehovah from this time forth and for evermore.” Thus the Preacher, when he had seen how man is envied of his neighbor for skilful work, which “is vanity and a striving after wind,” utters his conclusion: “Better is a handful, with quietness, than two handfuls, with labor and striving after wind.” Or, again, “Wisdom is better than strength; . . . The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the cry of him that ruleth gmpiig yet ever-achieving trust fools.” w nen Anaz was in cure distress in me fear of Rezin and Pekah, Jehovah directed Isaiah to say unto Ahaz, ‘ ‘ Take heed, and be quiet ; fear not, neither let thy heart be faint, because of these two tails of smotelng firebrands. ... If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.” And when the same prophet threatened the people for their tru^t in Egypt, he reproached them with the charge: “In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness'1 and in confidence shall be your strength. And ye would not. The New Testament has a like message again and again, and nowhere more precisely than in the story of the life of Jesus, he was busy, but never hurried; harrassed, but never impatient; faced with social and re ligious problems of the most complex kind, yet never for a moment other than quietly clear in his answers. He pressed home hi£ message with unparalleled, vigor, disregard ing the consequences to himself, save as he needed to secure by reasonable care the op portunity to utter the truth whenever and wherever it would couij^ for the most. The steadiness of Christ among adverse currents even among his friends; his majesty calm as a storm center of controversy or bitter hatred, were not to be his achievement alone; such power as this he taught his disciples to gain, and they did gain it, even as we can gain it, through him. Lacking the power of a quiet mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, we lack what we can have at the cost of let ting go our nervous forbodings, our petty, fussy, hurrying anxiet'es which have no right ful place in the life of any child of God. With a mind at rest in God, and yet work ing tirelessly at the tasks he has set for us, we shall waste no time or tissue over the things that our un-Christian forebodings cre ate, but we shall work, perhaps for the first time in our lives, with faie power of a quiet mind free to do its utmost. “Dear Lord and Father of mankind, ■. .Forgive. Qux feverish ways! .— Reclothe us in our rightful mind; In pprer lives thy service find, In deeper leverence, praise. ‘ ‘ Drop thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of thy peace. “Breathe through the heats of our desire Thy cooling breeze and Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire: Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire, O still small voice of calm!” —S. S. Times. “i Eelieve in foreign missions.” (David J. Brewer, Justice of the United States Supreme Court.) I believe in Foreign Missions because Chris tianity is adapted to the most urgent needs of man, so uplifting in its influence on'indi vidual and nation as to carry evidences that it is of divine origin and that it was designed for all time and for all men. I believe in Foreign Missions because the work not only blesses those to whom the missions go, but those by whom they are es tablished.^ It is universally true that they who are most devoted to the cause of mis sions, most interested in the work, give to it the most earnest support, are the finest types of Christian character. I believe in Foreign Missions not merely because of the reflex influence on individual character, but because of the standing they will give^tp this American republic in the sight of the world. As a citizen I love my country; and long to see her the recognized leader among the nations. That is possible only as she touches them in the most helpful and uplifting way.. I believe in Foreign Missions, because the Master so commanded. “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creat ure” was a command not only to His .then disciples, but one going with His religion to every one in all ages of the world.—The Mis sionary. INFLUENCE. Influence is to be measured, not by the A man may spread his mind, his feelings, Iris opinions, through a great extent; but if his mind be a low one, he manifests no great ness. A wrptched artist may fill a city with daubs, and by a false, showy style achieve a a reputation; but the man of genius, who leaves behind him one great picture, in which immortal beauty is embodied, and which is silently to spread a true taste in art, exerts an incomparably higher influence. Now the noblest influence on earth is that exerted on character, and he who puts forth this does a great work. The father and mother of an unnoticed family who in their seclusion awaken the mind of one child to the idea and love of perfect goodness, who awaken in him a strength of will to repel all temptation, and who send him out prepared to profit by the conflicts of life, surpass in influence a Na poleon breaking the world to his sway.— Channing.
The Christian Sun (Elon College, N.C.)
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Feb. 6, 1907, edition 1
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