ESTABLISHED JH44.
GREENSEORO, N. 0., WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1907. VOLUME LIX, NUMBER 40.
t ■ •_ _ __
All communications, whether for publica
tion or pertaining to matters o» business,
should be sent to the Editor, J. 0. Atkinson,
Elon College, N. C.
ED1T0K1AL COMMENT.
“In God "We Trust’’—For the life of us
we cannot see the pith or point of President
Roosevelt’s* decree that the words ‘ ‘ In God
We Trust,” shall come off our national coin.
The President’s claim is that since money
passes into all sorts of hands, and is put
to all sorts of uses it is a desecratin to have
•such sacred words upon it. Thus rather
than that the words shall be desecrated they
.shall be removed.
Our own view of the matter is different.
Would our national coin better not carry
a good motto even if vile hands do corrupt
and desecrate? That is the fault of those
vile hands, and not the fault of the noble
sentiment itself, nor of the purpose and in
tent of putting the words there. The motto
shows at least that our Natin has a high
and holy sentiment and as a Nation desires
.that sentiment, yea even that faith, to
be expressed. The motto serves to show
■what we as a people in our national faith
.and sentiment stand for. The Nation thus
speaks a good word even if vile mouths lisp
those words in unbecoming and unholy
fashion.
We could certainly wish better things
■of our worthy President than that he should
.have this mark of our acient and steadfast
faith removed.
The Deadly Work Continues.—Your Sun
day morning’s daily told that a young man
ran to catch an out going train from Raliegh
, N. C. an£*ptyasiug his hold, £*H between the
cars and the platform, and by quick work
•of train men the unfortunate fellow, snatched
by a hair breadth escajie from death, only
lost one arm cut off under the moving wheel.
* ‘ The young man had been drinking and
listless from liquor waited till the train start
ed before he attempted to board the cars.”
So liquor will send that man through the
rest of his life with only one hand when the
.good God had given him two. Charge that
up to the saloon.
The same daily of same date told you of
how two young men, hale and hearty fel
lows they, had on the night before taken too
much booze at a station east of Raleigh by
some miles, and had “serenaded” a neigh
bor at a late hour, and of how one of the
young men staggering under the weight of too
much whiskey fell on the railway and slept
.there in a drunken debauch till an early
morning train came along and crushed and
mangled him in a most horrible manner and
beyound recognition. Liquor sent this poor
fellow to a drunkard’s grave while yet in
the vigor of health and strength when the
.good God had blessed him with a mind and
heart and body worthy a better fate. Charge
that up, also to the saloon. -
Oh! my brother shall the saloon be legaliz
ed and go on with this deadly dastardly,
awful work, forever? In heaven’s name, dear
friends, how long!
A Word of Hope.—“As sure as I stand
liere, young men, in fourteen months from
this day, the tide of prohibition will have
swept over North Carolina and shut up the
;saloons of that good commonwealth. ’ ' Such
a sentiment is Governor Glenn of this State
credited with voicing at the International
Young Men's Christian Association at
Washington D. C. when he addressed that
body one evening last week. And the good
words from the good Govenor were applaud
ed to the echo.
And why should it not be sof Already 99
per cent of the territory, and 95 per cent
’ of the population of the State, have prohibi
ten or enjoy immunity from the open
saloon. The great majority of the people
therefore have already spoken and have de
clared in emphatic terms that saloons are not
wanted ; are deadly, dangers and dectructive
iin fact and must go. Give the people of the
\ .
State a chance and we believe tehy will
make good on the splendid prophecy of
our chief excutive.
Georgia has already spoken and ousted
the saloons. Last week the Legislature of
Alabama spoke in almost unanimous voice
and decreed that the saloons all over that
good commonwealth must go. Herald the
word of hope. These Southern States at
least were determined to shut up the saloons.
A Desperate Fights Also.—Wherefore the
saloons are becoming aroused. They too are
fighting. We have never seen the like. The
saloon men are resorting to all sorts of
tricks for the benefit of their nefarious
traffic.
Almost daily we get a circular or a“ per
sonal” letter recommending the best liquors
and calling attention to the ‘ ‘ lowest. prices
in order to introduce into your home this
special brand of whiskey.” Why, by one
mail last week a sample of fine wine, so
declared, was sent. Yes, they have an in
genious bottle or vial now which, containing
a drink or so, is sent you direct as a sample
through the mail.
All sorts of appeals come for “better
grades and lower prices.” One is before
us now. “A Beautiful Christmas Present, is
Our Delightful Wines.” “We come to you
with Christmas Greetings.” What a blas
phemous desecration of that good time and
name. Yes all kinds of enticing words,
fancy prices, catching offers^ are the saloons
now making to get customers in prohibition
territory. By such acts and cunning devices
are saloon men determined if possible to make
prohibition and local option of none effect.
The devil is ever busy to destroy tips human
family, abolish its peace of mind, take away
its happjsess, destroy its hope._asd porspeet.
its happiness, destroy its hopea nd perdilion is
never busier than when (the children pf
Light and Life become anxious for their own
welfare.
HISTORY OF THE HOME DEPARTMENT.
In the year 1881, at a district convention
in New York State, the attention of Dr. W.
A. Duncan was directed to a consecrated
woman who was gathering on her porch every
Sunday a group of the neighborhood chil
dren and teaching them the Sunday-school
lesson. Dr. Duncan conceived the idea of
connecting such classes as these with pome
Sunday-school and making the members of
the class members of the Sunday-school.
This work was brought to the notice of the
delegates at the New York State Convention
and also to those assembled in the Interna
tional Convention the same year, and receiv
ed their approval.
It was not until 1885 that the Home-De
partment received this name by which it is
now so widely known. With its enthusiastic
;orps of workers the Home Department has
gone on in ever-increasing power and effi
ciency until at the present time over 373,868
are enrolled in its ranks. In our own State
there are 1,119 Home Departments with a
membership of 47,812.
Should each county in Pennsylvania reach
the standard of 30 per cent of the schools
reporting Home Departments, we would be
able to report 3,047 Home Departments.—
Pennsylvania Herald.
SIMPLICITY, THE TEST OF RELIGION.
Simplicity is the elimination of the non
essential in all things. It reduces life to its
minimum of real need; raises it to its max
imum of power. Simplicity means the sur
vival,—not of the fittest, but of the best. 'In
morals it kills the weeds of vice and weak
ness so that the flowers of virtue and strength
may have room to grow. Simplicity cuts off
waste and intensifies concentration. It con
verts flickering torches into searchlights.
All great truths are simple. The essence
of Christianity could be given in a few
words; a lifetime would be but continued
seeking to make those words real and living
in thought and acts, ^he true Christian’s
individual belief is always simpler than his
church creed, and upon these vital, founds
tion elements he builds his life. Higher crit
icism never rises to the heights of his sim
plicity. He does not care whether the whale
swallowed Jonah or Jonah swallowed the
whale. Hair-splitting interpretation of words
and phrases is an intellectual dissipation he
has no time for. He cares naught for the
anatomy of religion; he has its soul. His
simple faith he lives,—in thought and word
and act, day by day. Like the lark he lives
nearest the ground; like the lark he soars
highest toward heaven.
The ministers whose sermons are made up
merely of flowers of rhetoric, sprigs of quo
tation, sweet fancy, and perfumed common
places, is—consciously or unconsciously—
posing in the pulpit. His literary chariotfe
ruesses, sweet froth on a spongy, pulpy base,
never helped the human soul,—the\ gpvo
neither strength nor inspiration. If the mind
and heart of the preacher were real'y thrilled
with the greatness and simplicity of religion,
he would, week by week, apply the ringing
truths of his faith to the vital problems of
daily living. The test of a strong, simple ser
mon is results,—not the Sunday praise of
his auditors, but their bettered lives during
the week. People who pray on their knees
on Sunday and prey on their neighbors on
Monday, need simplicity in their faith.—
(William George Jordan in “The Kingship
of Self-Control,” published by Fleming H,
Be veil Company.)
*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
BiWe* I confess I beeama somewhat dtbway
under their monotonous efforts to make the
sacred 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 1 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.
\lf we of the year 1907 know something of
the conclusions of the learned gentleman of
2907 to be false, whose letters 1 now reveal,
or if his modes of reasoning are absurd, or if
he lays stress on insufficient data in hm logic,
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 1 copy the letters and publish them
exactly as I found them a thousand years
before they were written.
J. J. Summerbell.)
Dayton, Ohio.
FIFTEENTH LETTER.
Kinkade, New Zeland,15, 2, 2908.
My Dear Grandson,
In one letter I intimated to you that my
description of the conditions prevailing in
America and western Europe in the year 1907
might make you suppose that the people of
that time had relapsed wholly into mater
ialism. I wish to modify that impression.
The age was in part redeemed from total re
ligious degradation by the existence of heroic
higher critics, some of whom denied that
Jesus rose from the dead. This one denial
marks a man as an intelligent and intellectual
observer. Not one of the higher critics of
1907.ever saw such a thiug.
They belonged to the class mentioned by
Paul in his letter to the Corinthians (ICor.
16: 12), “How say some among you that
there is no resurrection of the dead?” Un
fortunately, those un-named brilliant eritics
af the church at Corinth, who maintained
such reasonable tents, were soon convinced
t>y the testimony, conversation and lives of
the living witnesses of the resurrection of
Jesus, and gave their adhesion to belief in
that supposed event, which carried conviction
to so many hearers: just as Jesus expected it
would, when he said that he would give no
sign to the critical Jews “except the sign
of the prophet Jonah;” that as Jonah was
in the belly of the great fish and escaped, so
he would be in the earth and rise again. That
one fact has made our critical labors difficult
all through the ages.
One of the great higher critics of the 19th
and 20th centuries gained great fame by his
wonderful discovery of the doctrine of the
“immanence of God.” The higher critics
of that age sometimes spelt the first word
with a capital letter: * ‘ Immanence of God. ’ ’
This seems to have made the doctrine more
imminent to its opposers; so barbarous and
childlike was the age.
There is some uncertainty as who was the
real discoverer of the doctrine; but I am of
the opinion that the honor belonged to a
higher critic. Anyhow, the higher critics of
that age considered it to have been discover
ed then.
How barbarous were those centuries will
appear plainly from one difficulty encount
ered by the higher critics :-Their opponents
all cried out that the doctrine was not new;
that it was only a feeble way of setting forth
the omnipresence of God;that the word im
manence was only Latin for indwelling; and
that the use of the word was only a stilted
way of teaching an old doctrine, a doctrine as
.old as Christianity; that there could be seen in
it nothing new; and that if there was even an
appearance of novelty about it, that appear
ance only made it look like galvanized pan
theism.
These opponents of the higher critics went
so far as to say that the doctrine was older
than Christianity, and impudently pointed
out the saying, brought down through the
ages on account of the care of Moses (in the
book of Genesis), about the days of creation:
“And the Spirit of God was brooding upon
the face of the waters. ’ ’ And the opposers of
the doctrine went even further than that,
and said that the doctrine as advocated by
the critics was hardly as sweet and helpful *
as the doctrine of the pagans to whom Paul
preached on Mars’ Hill at Athens, when he
quoted their poets to them, saying,(Acts 17:
27) God “is not far from each one of us: for
in him we live, and move, and have our being;
as certain even of your own poets have said,
For we are also his offspring.”
inis malignant opposition to rne aoctrine
of the immanence of God betrays the general
ignorance prevailing about the year 1907,
and before, as well as the heroism of the
higher critics, who modestly and humbly as
serted their own superior intellectual attain
ments and genius over those who believed
that Jesus rose from the dead, or felt, with
'Paul, that their hearts might become verit
able “temples for the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit.” People who believed, with Paul,
that their hearts might become “ temples for
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,” could not
be considered as intelligent as those who be
lieved in the immanence of God.
But the higher critics of that age were
nearly all merciful men; and they did not put
their opponents to death; although,as I show
ed you in a former letter, it was an age of
burnt offerings.
P. S. Since writing the foregoing, I have
found in the ruins of the city of New York
a well preserved copy of a book of Harnack,
the great higher critic of the 19th and 20th
centuries. Its publication at that time ex
plains some o.f the events so disastrous to true *
learning that followed the year 1907, and
which we have hitherto not fully understood
In a later letter I will give you my full op
inion on it.
Yoursaffectionate grandfather,
Higher Critic.
H. C.