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ESTABLISHED 1844. GREENSBORO, 0., WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1907. VOLUME LIX, NUMBER 34.
IN ESSENTIALS—UNITY, IN NON-ESSENTIALS—LIBERTY, IN ALL
* it . '
All communications, whether for publica
tion or pertaining to matters c- ^ isiness,
fihould be sent to the Editor, J. 0. Atkinson,
Elon College, N. C.
EDITORIAL COMMENT.
Religion Universal. Anybody with half
:sense can start a religious fad or fraud, and
many will follow. This does not prove the
weakness, but the strength of religion. Man
lias no stronger instinct than the religious and
this instinct seeks to assert itself. This asser
tion is frequently erroneous, and often fatal,
but this does not deny that the instinct for
religion is innate in man.
Think how the thousands, falsely led, ran
■off after John Alexander Dowie, and how
even they clung to his leadership when he had
gone to the extreme folly of declaring him
self Elijah the Prophet, 'the poor fellow
went down to his grave amid the wreck of his
■own folly and madness, but hundreds still
believed in him. Now it is announced that
his successor, Yoliva, has shaken the dust off
his feet and fled from Zion in high dudgeon
and is to set up for himself. He, too, will
Rave followers. Of course. Any religious
fraud will have a following. There are those
who are ever willing to accept the leadership
of pious humbugs. This does not argue
against religion. It shows its universality.
The strange thing is that such fads and
frauds die so hard and have so many lives.
Prohibition in the South. Prohibition may
he a failure in Maine and Kansas, but the
South is determined to give it a trial.
Very rapidly state prohibition is coming to
the fore as an issue in North Carolina. Un
less all signs fail the people of this common
wealth will have an opportunity before many
more elections to say whether they wish pro
hibition from mountains to seashore. Georgia
has already enacted state prohibition to go
into effect January 1, 1908. In their recent
canvass, both candidates for governor of Mis
sissippi declared in favor of state prohibi
tion, and it is believed this means that Missis
sippi win enact state proniDition wnen tne
Legislature convenes next January. Louisi
ana has been agitating the subject and recent
ly the large parish of Nachitoches in that
state voted out saloons. Alabama and Texas
Lave both recently had exciting campaigns
for prohibition laws, with the result of
strengthening the saloon and letting the ques
tion of prohibition go over until the next ses
sion of their legislatures two years hence.
Prohibition is certainly making progress and
the people of the South will give it test and
trial.
Sunday Opening. Director-General Barr
has submitted a request to Secretary of the
Treasury Cortelyou that the Jamestown Ex
position be open on Sundays with a small
admission fee, but none of the concessions
open. This is a surprise. True, we have no
doubt, the Exposition is in need of more rev
enue and an increase of gate receipts would,
of course, be very acceptable, but to ask the
Government now, through one of its execu
tive departments, to do that which the Gov
ernment, through its legislative department,
long ago said should not be done, seems to us
both silly and “cheeky.” Our Government
granted a money concession to the Jamestown
on the distinct condition stipulated that the
gates should be closed up on the Sabbath.
Heaven knows there are always enough, and
all too many, inroads upon the sanctity of
our Sunday, now and good people everywhere
should oppose with all zeal any steps that
would further invade. We fear this man
Barr is getting beside himself. Maybe much
power doth make him mad.
,y The United States has more newspapers
than any other country. Every week-day
there are 19,600,000 issued and on Sundays
the number is 11,500,000.
Booker T. Washington says that the 10,
000,000 in the United States are the most
advanced Africans in the world, Specially in
religion and educatiqa.
THE PLEASURES OF THE .MIND.
In my last I had occasion to notice what a
man said to me about the mind, and it sug
gested afterthoughts on this subject. It is a
real pleasure to think the thoughts of the
mind which ascend illimitable heights add
descend the profoundest depths. The often
and distant excursions it takes and the
pleasure and profit it derives from them are
great and wonderful privileges to enjoy. If
I were asked which is the greater, the powelf
that holds the earth in its orbit, or the earth
itself, I would answer the unseen power il
the greater; if I were asked which is this
greater, sixty cars holding one hundred thous
and pounds each or the unseen power called
steam working through the engine, I would
quickly answer that steam is greater in every
degree than the Whole load. Or, if I were
asked which can travel around the world fast*
er, the mind or the body, I would say the
mind. The mind travels round it in a second
of time—but it will take the body months ol
travel to get there. It takes hut a moment—
a flash of thought—for the mind to travel
ninety-three millions of miles to the sun—but
you cannot tell how long it would take the
body to travel that distance if it could. A
ray of light is supposed to take three minutes
to come from the sun to our earth—but the
mind can go and come ninety-three millions
of miles in a second of time. It is myster
ious—wonderful—and pleasant thus to think.
What a great comparison, and what a magni
ficent difference between the two. The super
iority of mind over matter is clearly seen in
these simple and natural illustrations. The
body forms a base from which the mind sends
its influence and power, giving out good or
bad influences according to its environment.
No one has explained to you what electric
ity is—but you know it is a power, and you
believe in it, and use it. So no one has fully
explained to you the Great Spirit of the uni
verse—but you believe in Him and receive
^SHis influence. For yon know, “he that com
efcjb to God must believe that he is, and that
he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. ’ ’ The forces which are not seen are the
strongest forces. You have only to think
them up in nature—then find them and apply
them—these silent unseen forces, 0, how
great! Learn from these illustrations that
mind or spirit is greater than matter—that
mind can and will predominate, and if prop
erly disciplined and cultivated will produce
most helpful and pleasing results. Mind
when freed from sin, prejudice, and ignor
ance soars high into intellectual greatness and
grandeur until it meets the mind of God.
Then there is a flood *pf radiance and spiritual
happiness which binds and blends the finite
under the heavenly spell of. the infinite Mind.
To use the mind in thinking good, pure
thoughts is certainly elevating, healthful and
helpful to both soul and body. The mind
which has become injured by sinful habits
needs to stop and think of the splendid oppor
tunities it has for improvement. That which
has lead the heart and body in the wrong
way must reflect, turn back and pursue the
right way. There are so many diseased bod
ies today—made so by the power of the mind
in some cases, that it is with pity one has to
look upon their condition—but there is great,
fresh hope for them in the future develop
ment and training of their minds. The will
has as much to do with helping you to get
well as some other things. If any who may
read these thoughts are sick, feeble, or in
poor health, commence from this moment to
look at the bright, beautiful things which you
can see, and think the charming, splendid
thoughts which will come into your minds if
you will let them. Do not be afraid to try—
trust .in the Great Spirit that pervades all
space and time—looking upward and onward
for the present health and everlasting happi
ness. You must have confidence in yourself,
and if it. is regulated with prudence and
proper care it will give you a splenlid recom
pense of reward; I believe in medicine and
take it when needed. It takes medicine to
cure some diseases—and if the right sort is
used skillfully at the proper time it helps—
but the mind can greatly help in removing
many causes of disease. Use plenty of com
mon sense always, and medicine when neces
sary. When you practice honesty and purity
you feel good, but when you practice the op
posite you feel bad. That is the size of it
plainly told.
A beautiful and entertaining writer in con
templating the immortal mind expresses him
self clearly on the subject when he says in
part:
“The stars shall fade away,
The sun himself grow dim with age, \
And nature sink in years,
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth/’
It has already been stated that the silent,
unseen powers are the strongest and most
useful in the economy of nature. Let us con
clude therefore, that the silent and unseen
mind in man is the strongest and best part of
him, and that it is all and in all concerning
his everlasting life. I see through the mind a
very old man come to the end of the long and
eventful journey with but little means and
few friends, but here he stops, leaves them
behind, puts down his staff, and lies down
upon the ledge of a rock to die. His form is
bent—his body weak, ready to yield to dust,
but his mind clear and strong. While breath
ing out his life he thinks with his mind and
utters with his pale, trembling lips: “Is
there rest, home and heaven for me?” Just
then a lovely angel hovered over the dying
pilgrim and whispered, “Yes,” pointing up
ward to the throne, “there is a home in
heaven for you.”
J. T. Kitchen.
*A DESTRUCTIVE CRITIC OF 2907.
(To the Reader of 1907.
Dear Brother: Although interested in the
able writings of the higher critics of 1907,
especially in their assumption of having dis
covered something valuable, as if the “his
torical method” were new in studying the
Bible, I confess I became somewhat1 drowsy
under their monotonous efforts to make the
^aoeed writings seem to abound in misstate
ments. But I gradually absorbed their
genius and spirit, and seemed to become a
destructive critic, though calling myself a
higher critic.
While in this state of mind, sleepy though
I was, I seemed to live rapidly through the
centuries, century after century, until I
found myself moving among scholars who
dated their letters with the numerals, 2, 9, 0,
7.
On seeming to be roused from a semi-con
sciousness, and supposing that a thousand
years had passed from the time I fell asleep
under the dreary chanting about the mistakes
of the Bible, 1 seemed to be walking among
the fancied alcoves of my library, now in
creased by the additions of a thousand years,
and coming across the following correspond
ence I give you the letters, believing that it
may be interesting to the reader to observe
how the reasoning of the future destructive
critic (writing in 2907 of our times in the
spirit in which the destructive critic of 1907
writes of Bible times) will make the condi
tions of our generation to appear.
If we of the year 1907 know something of
the conclusions of the learned gentleman of
2907 to be false, whose letters I now reveal,
or if his modes of reasoning are absurd, or if
he lays stress on insufficient data in hisYogic,
or, especially, if he is ludicrously given to
denying the statements of eye-witnesses to
the facts which we of our time know to be
true, these faults must not be Attributed to
me: for I copy the letters and publish them
exactly as I found them a thousand years
before they were written.
J. J. Summerbell.)
Dayton, Ohio.
•Copyrighted by The Christian Sun. All
rights reserved.
SIXTH LETTER.
Kinkade, New Zealand, 30, 9, 2907.
My Dear Grandson,
In my searches concerning conditions in
America in 1907 I found that Americans of
various sections, north and south, were in
the habit of burning negroes alive. It does
not clearly appear whether these burnt offer
ings we^e sacrifices to the god Jupiter, or to
the goddess Juno, or to the other gods wor
shiped by the Americans. But that there
were reformers among the ecclesiastics of
1907, and therefore among the statesmen,
who wished to abolish the sacrifices of burnt
offerings, in which the victim was alive when
offered, appears plainly from the following
f
language used by an ex-governor of some
state or province in the republic of the United
States; which language I found in the frag
ments of a periodical called the “ Independ
ent, ’ ’ published in the year 1907:—
“I consider people who burn negroes as
savages hot from hell.
“Many are trying to belittle this negro
question, and say it would be better not to
agitate it. It is greater than all other prob
lems combined. Just now we are lapsing into
barbarism, and our civilization is slipping
from us. Something must be done. ’ ’
Possibly, if I had been able to find the
whole of that great speech of Mr. Northen, I
might have been able to learn what sect he
belonged to that so boldly opposed burnt
offerings of that kind. You will notice, my
dear grandson, that he uses theological lan
guage; the theologians of that time talking
much' about hell. You may also notice how
clearly he states what I set forth in the
opening of this discussion; that the manners
of the people of 1907 were those of barbar
ians. The great reformer, Northen, who
seems to have been an ex-governor of a prov
ince called Georgia, uses the words ‘ ‘ savages ’ *
and “barbarians'” of his own contempora
ries, when denouncing their religious ceremo
nies.
That the years from 1850 to 1910 were bar
barous appears also from the manner in which
the people of that time used their own lan
guage. I find the following, which I hardly
understand, in a periodical of the same per
iod
“I have been told of an old negro preacher
who delivered himself on this wise :
“ ‘ Brethering, when I first heerd tell of
this thing they call higher criticism, I was
agin it; but since I have looked into it and
got down to the very bottom of it, I am fur
it. For one thing, them old brothers what
wrote the Bible was too forgitful to write
sech a book. You see, right thar in the begin
ning of Mather, it says, “Abraham forgot
Isaac, and Isaac forgat Jacob, and Jacob for
gat Judas and his brethren.” Now, do you
think that men who was that forgitful could
write a Bible without any mistakes in it? I
don’t.’ ”
The language difficulties of that passage
are great. And yet it is certain that the
negro referred to must have been a cultivated
man. At least, “the historical method”
compels us to consider him one of the choic
est, as to blood and favor, of the Americans.
I may briefly give you the outline of the
reasoning which compels this opinion: Al
though the Americans do not seem to have
obeyed the law of Moses, as is proved by
their use of pork for food, and therefore did
not select their finest citizens for burnt offer
ings from any sense of obedience to him, it
is well established that all heathens and bar
barians that offered human sacrifices invari
ably selected victims, if possible, from lead
ing families of the state; even from the no
bility. They were to. be well formed physi
cally, without blemish, of high moral char
acter, and of approved social standing. (Re
member the human sacrifices of the city of
Carthage, where the victims were from the
families of the aristocracy.)
As I before pointed out, in America the
negroes were the class of society almost in
variably selected to furnish the victims for
the burnt offerings. This single fact proves
that the negroes in America included the
highest classes.
We see, further, that the negro, from whom &
I made the quotation above, being a “ preach
er” (that is, a clergyman), and a higher
critic, must have been a cultivated man in
his day and generation.
Now that the negro race has disappeared,
it is an interesting question, if it was ex
hausted in burnt offerings.
I trust, my dear grandson, you have not,
since you left the university, become rusty
in the English language. By recalling its
rules, you notice that the language of the
learned negro clergyman quoted above is
not fully grammatical. Evidently English
was his native tongue. It stands to reason,
that if the cultivated men of that time would
write or speak so incorrectly, the masses of
the people must have been very ignorant.
This might excuse their worship of Jupiter
(Continued on page 5.)
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