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© r ESTABLISHED 1844. IN ESSENTIALS—UNITY, IN NON-ESSENTIALS—LIBERTY, IN ALL THINGS—CHARITY. GREENSBORO, N. C., WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1907. VOLUME LIX, NUMBER 10. EDITORIAL COMMENT. Price and Wages. The price of commodities and the wage of labor do not always vary at the same time, nor in the same proportion, but on the whole, they rise and fall together.. When prices -are high, wages are high; when prices are low, wages go down. I was much interested in readng the other day of conditions back in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In -those days $1.20 would buy a yoke of oxen and 72 cents more would get a good, heavy draught horse. Then, $50 would equip a .three horse farm (including, beside the three horses, half dozen yoke of oxen, twenty cows -and two hundred sheep)with tools and imple ments as were necessary. One could then Tent land from two to twelve cents per acre. The Lord Mayor of London paid only $4.80 a .year house rent. As to wages, and what the producer had to sell, here are some of the figures. The .good house wife could only get two cents for a pair of chickens, five cents for a goose, five •cents for a pair of ducks, a penny a dozen for nice, fresh eggs, etc. The farmer could expect only five cents a bushel for his wheat (and the brewer was compelled by law to sell beer at two cents for three gallons). On the other hand, three cents a day was consid ered good wages for ordinary labor, and in harvest time labor in plenty could be had at four cents a day. A father who sent his son to the University and allowed him four cents a day was considered indulgent and liberal in the extreme. Salaries at $24 a year were considered large. The Chancellor of the Britsh exchequer (our Secretary of State) received the enormous salary, of $192 per year. King Edward VI gave his daughter the liberal allowance of $4.80 per week and $247.60 a year for the maintanance of her eight maids and servants. It is safe to say that a king and his daught ers in those good old days did not live as com fortably and have as many of the necessaries and luxuries of life as thousands of wage earners and their daughters of our day. Things That Endure.—Because man is born with the instinct of immortality he is often askipg himself the question, What will en dure while the ages pass? And because of this same instinct he endeavors in some word or work to project or initiate that which shall abide while the aeons of ages come and go. With this in view the Pharaohs built 1;heir Egyptan pyramids, the Greeks their A cropolis and the Romans their Collosseum. The national instinct of immortality led these pagan peoples to undertake things that would not perish. But, strange to say, the things that have really endured are wells, aqueducts, reser voirs. These are they which bring forth, ■convey, or hold water ; and so it comes about that the ages show the power and the force ■of our Savior’s words when he said “I am that living water, the water of life.” We were struck with this beautiful quota tion from some unknown author:— “Although the tomb of Moses is unknown the traveller of today slakes his thirst at the well of Jacob. The gorgeous palaces of the wisest and wealthiest of monarchs, with their cedar and gold and ivory, and even the great temple of Jerusalem, hallowed by the visible glory of the Deity Himself, are gone; » but Solomon’s reservoirs are as perfect as ever. Of the magnificent and costly architec ture of .the Holy City, not one stone is left upon another, but the pool of Bethesda com mands the pilgrim’s reverence at the present ■day. The columns of Persepolis are moldering into dust, but, its cistern and aqueduct re rnainto challenge our admiration. The golden house of Nero is a mass of ruins, but the Aqua Claudia still pours into the city of Rome its limpid stream. The Temple of the Sun, at TFadmor in the wilderness, has fallen, but its fountain sparkles in the rays of the morning as when thousands of worshippers thronged the lofty colonnades. And if any work of this generation shall rise over the deep ocean, of time, we may well believe that it will be neither a palace nor a tenqjfjP, but some vast aqueduct or reservoir; and if any name shall hereafter flash brightest through the mists of antiquity, it will probably be that of the man who in his day sought the happiness of his fellow men, and linked his memory to some such work of national unity or benevolence. ’ ’ Passing of Old School Statesmen.—A cor respondent of the Philadelphia Press calls at tention to the fact that with the adjourn ment ^of Congress, March 4th only three of the old school of statesmen from the South are left in the Senate, Morgan and Pettus from Alabama, and Daniels from Virginia. That typical Southern gentleman, and Con federate veteran, Beary of Ark. is succeeded by the light-weight, reckless “Jeff” Davis. Cormack of Tenn. gives way to “Fiddling Bob” Taylor, the venerable “Joe” Black burn of Ky. yields his seat to “the boy gover nor’ ’ Beckham. A younger and different class of men are succeeding these fine old Southern gentlemen—these courtly, honorable and statesmenlike gentlemen whose kind ~KSve been famous in the halls of Congress since the days of Clay and Calhoun. It is to be seen whether the younger men will make good. But for honorable bearing, courtly conduct, gracious manners, a high sense of right and justice, the old school type of statesman will likely never be surpassed and we regret indeed that his day and kind are passing. A new political era has come and with it some strange, deplorable changes in public life. , A Priest’s Service.—We of this country have much brutality (in prize fights and foot ball for nstance). But we have nothing quite as savage and bloody as the Spanish bull fight. These bull fights are always held on Sunday (strange to say) and begin each year on Easter just after the solemn service in the Catholic cathedrals (T?pain is entirely un der the sway of Catholics). Statistics now printed show that there were 585 of these bull fights last year. The salaries of the 849 toreros who took part amounted to $600, 000. The profits were $700,000. There were killed 2,879 bulls, and horses worth $177,000. At all of these (Sunday) fights they have a Catholic priest present to ‘‘confess and prepare for judgment” the unfortunate men who, engaging in the fights, may be gored to the point of death. These are awful facts to contemplate, that a people may be-^p blood-thirsty as to desire such, so sinful air to thus desecrate the Lord’s day, and a Church with its officials present will sanc tion such. Spain also needs missionaries. Experience.—When the cavilers question ed the man that had been born blind he could only assert: “Whereas I was blind, now I see.” Many a man has been uplifted and helped who could not tell by what power it was done—but the experience is sufficient without the philisiphy. Ellison Capers, a bishop in South Carolina, described *at a dinner in Columbia a grace ful incident that had befallen him. “I preached one day, years ago, in Bur gaw,” he said. “I liked my sermon rather well. An old, colored cook at the house where I was staying told me, after services, that she liked the - sermon, too. She said that she had found it improving. What was it about?’ said I. “‘Ihdeed, sir,’ said the old woman, ‘I can’t remember.’ “ ‘If you remember nothing of the ser mon,’ said I, ‘how can it have improved you?’ “She pointed toward a great array of clean white linen, spread on the lawn to dry. “ ‘Do you see that linen I have been wash mg and drying, sir!’ she said. & “ ‘Yes,’ said I * “ ‘That linen is all the better for its washing, isn’t it?’ “ ‘Yes, ofcourse.’’ “ ‘But not a drop jtt soap and water is left in it, is there! Well, sir, it is the same ^rith me. Not a word of your good sermon stays in me, but I am all the better and clean er for it, for all that.’ "—Homiletic Review. THE TITHE AS A PRINCIPLE IN GIV ING. NO. 2. As I write again on this subject I am re minded of the remark of our good editor as to one difficulty in the way of writing on a subject like this: “Many people do not want to be taught to give.” But in the face of the difficulty I am going to venture out again along this line. And I am doing so with the conviction that I am advocating a Bible plan for giving. When our people shall see it in this way and act accordingly such say ings as the following will be out of date: “I am tired of hearing the cry money, mon ey, money’.” “There are so many calls, and we just can’t give to them all.” “Our as sessments are too high.” “If we pay up in full they will raise on us again next time.” Our assessments may be higher in propor tion than that of some other church, but I have not heard complaint from those who have adopted the tithe principle in giving A minister preaches on the subject of giv ing, and some good brother who tithes his income comes up after the sermon and says “I certainly did enjoy what you said to-day. Why don’t you preach more along this line?” He likes to hear the subject dis cussed, because he is getting joy and satis faction out of the matter of giving. He has learned the force of the teaching of Jesus. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” When a call comes for money for a certain cause he does not squirm in his seat, and knit his brow, and ask in confusion, how can I give this? He has entered into co-opera tion with God and by so doing enjoys fel lowship with Him. Thousands are testify ing “I am getting more out of the nine tenths than I could by using the entire amount of my income for myself.” But while these are getting joy out of giving we ‘are told: that not more than half of those who claim to 'be Christians give any thing ‘at all, and perhaps the most of these give under pressure. Remove the pressure and the giv ing ceases. Their giving does not represent worship. It reminds me something of an old pump that has to be primed and worked over, before it will give forth of its sub stance. There are some ministers who have to prime the - pump right heavily before they can get a sufficient flow to satisfy the demands of conference. But some do not prime much and consequently there are some churches that come up behind in their assess ments. This ought not to be and this, would Sot be if the church would adopt th’e system that we are now advocating. The minister ought to give and so far as he can be an example of giving for his people as well as in holy living, but he should endeavor to lead them into that relationship towards God in the matter of giving that when he is gone or if they have no pastor at all the stream of their giving like an artesian well will con tinue to. flow as the Lord may prosper them. We do not present the tithing system as a panacea for all the perplexing problems of the Christian life or the church, but it has an important place, and many things are to be said in its favor. Now just a word for it as a regulative principle and we will leave the matter for another article. Where giving is done under pressure and under pathetic ap peals sometimes the giver feels afterwards that he gave too much or under other cir cumstances it may be he feels that' he has not given enough. We believe that this principle will serve in a great measure to regulate giving. And the giver in most cas es, will have something to give dnd if he has not he will rejoice any how for he has gone on the plan that the Lord has institut ed and sanctioned. Some one says ‘‘Before I commenced giving the tenth I had no tenth to give” but afterwards he did have ;something and if he was hot at the last business meeting before the annual confer ence when all the assessments were raised he did not feel that he had gotten out of pay ing something, but he sent his tithe on as a special for foreign missions, or for home missions or for the orphanage. Pray that the Lord may give us light and give us grace to walk in it. W. D.Harward. IF. This is a little word, but its significance and importance are tremendous. Often it intrudes to eheck our enthusiasm, and turn us back even as the young ruler who came running into the presence of Christ was turn ed back. It keeps us in mind of the fact that much of the good of this life and the life to come depends on ourselves. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” It seems strange that salvation should hang on an “if.v “If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in.” Each individual must remove this contingency for himself. The death of Christ on the cross, the Holy Spirit who has come into the world, the holy Bible given for our instruction in righteousness, all these cannot save us “if” • we grieve the Spirit^ and refuse to open the door.—N. Y. Christian Advocate. AS WE FORGIVE. “Forgive us our tresspasses, as we forgive those who tresspass against us:” this prayer has been to some a stumbling block. What! it is asked, shall we set a standard of for giveness to theAlmighty in our mouths, bid him note how merciful we are, and call upon him to be equally merciful? On the contra ry, if we did not limit our petition for for giveness, we should be guilty of effrontery. No request is worthy to be called a prayer which expresses a desire for that which we ourselves are unwilling to grant. The debt or who, while pressing those who owed him, asked his lord to remit his own debt, was guilty of a double offence; he was guilty of the debt and he was guilty of arrogance. A prayer for forgiveness. uttered in an unfor giving spirit is a piece of brazen impiety The petition, “Forgive us as we forgive oth ers,” is not only a prayer for pardon; it is also a prayer for a spirit of decent reverence. There is, however,- another reason why the petition for forgiveness is qualified by the degree of the forgiveness we extend to oth ers. It lies in the fact that it is imperish able for God to forgive us otherwise. The limitation is not in God, it is in ourselv es. We can be forgiven only according to our capacity to receive forgiveness; and our capacity to receive forgiveness is measured by our ability to forgive* What is forgive ness? If it were remission q£ penalty, this would not l|e true. But forgiveness is some thing much more fundamental than that; it is the establishment, or rather the re-es tablishment, of friendly and intimate rela tions between persons. As it takes two to make a quarrell, so it takes two to achieve reconciliation. To be forgiven by God means to be once more in agreement with him, to have a spirit compatible with his spirit, to have a will like his will. An attitude of ani mosity toward our fellows, however, is in consistent with agreement with God; it is the product of a spirit incompatible with his spirit, of a will unlike his will. He who does not love his fellow-men cannot be on friendly terms with the Source of all love. We must choose. If we wish to cherish our grudges, let us do so knowing what price we pay. If we really desire forgiveness, that is really desire to be in right relation with our Ruler and Father, we shall hate the very notion of holding a grudge. 'There is no way by which we may walk humbly with God, unless we do justly and love mercy. —The Outlook. John Alexander Dowie, the man who claim ed to be “Elijah IT,” died at Zion City, 111., March 9. Only Judge Barnes and two oth ers were present. This man enly a few years since had in his possession $28,000,000 of property and had many thousand followers. Senator Spooner of Wisconsin has resign ed. In the earlier days of the Republic Sen ators often resigned, but it is a very unusual occurrence in our time, a seat in the Senate being the highest honor in the gift of the people, outside of the presidency.
The Christian Sun (Elon College, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 13, 1907, edition 1
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