The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume], October 09, 1918, Page 2, Image 2

About The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1909-1931

Image provided by: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

                
"THE NEW ERA MOVEMENT."
The Presbyterian Church U. S. A. (North
ern) is awaking in a remarkable way to the
great responsibilities resting upon it, the great
opportunities before it, and the great privi
lege of meeting these conditions. It realizes
that the Church throughout the world has come
very far short of measuring up to the standard
to which it ought to reach in doing the Mas
ter's work. It is determined to make up as
far as possible for its share of the shortcomings
of the Church.
The last Assembly launched what is known
as "The New Era Movement." It was in
trusted to men of outstanding ability. This of
itself almost guarantees its success.
It would be well if all the branches of the
Church, including our own, should awake to
the fact that, during the remainder of the war
and during the years that follow, the world
will be passing through an era that will re
quire changed methods of work, involving
great enlargement, as the business world is
recognizing it must do.
This movement in our sister church is de
scribed by the Philadelphia Presbyterian, as
follows, and we commend it to the careful
study of our readers:
"The New Era Movement can be best de
scribed today as the 'allied strategy' of the
Presbyterian Church. Instead of attacking the
common foe of indifference and need in a piece
meal way, one agency working at one end of
the line and one at another, all of the agencies
have combined under one co-operative leader
ship ami are to go forward side by side and
step by step to victory.
The Council of War.
"The committee appointed by the General
Assembly consists of twenty-seven men, nine
of whom represent the boards and permanent
agencies of the General Assembly, nine from
he Executive Commission, and nine from the
Church at large. The names of the members
of the committee will be easily recognized as
comprising a widespread and eminent array of
Presbyterian leadership: Rev. William L. Mc
Ewan, I). I)., Pittsburgh, Pa.; Rev. William R.
Taylor, I). I)., Rochester, N. Y. ; Mr. Alexander
R. Nicol, New York, N. Y. ; Rev. Aquilla Webb,
I). D., Philadelphia, Pa.; Rev. Charles Wood,
D. 1)., Washington, D. C. ; Mr. John T. Manson,
New Haven, Conn.; Col. D. S. Alexander, Buf
falo, N. V.; Rev. Alexander Ilenry, D. 1-)., Phil
adelphia, Pa.; Rev. Hugh T. Kerr, I). I)., Pitts
burgh, Pa.; Rev. J. M. Gaston, D. 1)., Pitts
burgh, Pa. ; Prof. Charles Scanlon, Pittsburgh,
Pa. ; Rev. George G. Maliy, D. I)., Philadelphia,
Pa.; Rev. John W. Maclvor, St. Louis, Mo.;
Rev. h>. V. V. Holmes, D. D., Buffalo, N. Y. ;
Mr. A. H. Whitford, New York, N. Y. ; Rev.
Joseph W. Cochran, D. L)., Detroit, Mich.; Br.
John Willis Baer, Pasadena, Cal.; Mr. Robert
Garrett, Baltimore, Md.; Mr. Robert Johnston,
?St. Louis, Mo. ; Mr. Cyrus R. McCormick, Chi
cago, III.; Rev. John A. Marquis, U. D., New
York, N. Y. ; Rev. A. W. llalsey, D. D., New
York, N. Y. ; Rev. David G. Wylie, D. D., New
York, N. Y. ; Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D. D.,
New York, N. Y. ; Rev. W. O. Thompson, D. D.,
Columbus, Ohio; Hon. Nelson II. Loorais,
Omaha, Neb.
Why We Fight.
"The New Era Movement is under the obli
gation to restate to the Church the purposes
for which the Church exists. It is to present
old tasks in a new light, and that light the
light of war. Its business is to survey the
whole field of human need and to marshall the
resources of the Presbyterian Church in terms
of men and money to meet its share of that
need. The agencies of 1 lie General Assembly
do not exist for themselves, but in order to ac
complish groat tasks. The Church has what
the world needs. It must organize itself in the
light of the new era to give the world what it
has.
The Spiritual Center.
"The New Era Movement has a spiritual cen
ter. It is the renewed recognition of Jesus
Christ and his kingdom as the source of the
world's only and all-sufficient hope. There can
be no other center than this.
A Sacrificial Motive.
' The motive of the New Era Movement must
be supremely sacrificial. Millions of men are
sacrificing everything possible for the sake of
cherished ideals. The Church cannot hope to
enlist the same measure of service unless it ap
peals to similar motives. A spectacle of a
Church saving itself, maintaining its traditions,
and all its methods unbroken, and heedless of
the needs of a lost world, is not an inspiring
one. The only way for the Church to build up
its life is to give up its life. The New Era
Movement will succeed as it is able to carry
out into the heart of the Church the same spirit
which the sons of the Church and of the world
are carrying into the war.
Creative Rather Than Administrative.
' It is not the purpose of the New Era Move
ment to take over any of the administrative
work of any of the General Assembly agencies.
Its business is to inspire rather than to ad
minister. It gathers together under one lead
ership all the promotive work of the various
agencies and directs it toward the accomplish
ment of a definite objective. It is not to be
wondered, therefore, that all of the boards
have heartily entered into the movement and
are a vital part of it. It means that they will
be left free to do the work and to expend the
money entrusted to them by the Church, while
the New Eera Movement, of which they are a
part, and in their behalf, will lead the Church
to furnish adequate resources both in men and
money for their task.
A Definite Objective.
"By the direction of the General Assembly,
the New Era Movement has formualted its
plans in terms of a five-year practical program
big enough for the whole Church, and small
enough for every individual church. The plan
embraces certain underlying elements. Since
the Church is the great spiritual agency, in
whose service Christian men are asked to invest
their lives for the sake of the whole world, it
is inevitable that the underlying elements of
the plan should be stressed. The mission of
the Church has been invested with new urgency
by conditions arising out of the present war.
A program that might have been adequate for
a world at peace will not be sufficient for the
new era. The whole practical program of the
Church must be conceived anew. It should in
clude such items as The Rehabilitation of the
Christian Home; The Re-establishment of the
Family Altar; The Return to the Lord's Day;
The Adequate Christian Care of Children and
Young People, with special attention to the
field of secondary education, where the Church
through its academies used to be influential,
and where today, because of its practical lack
of interest in high school education, its influ
ence is sadly lacking; the recognition of the
Church's obligation to the unchurched people
of the community, including the adaptation of
its service and program to the needs of the
community, and not its own convenience or its
traditions, the bringing of multitudes to Christ
through personal and pastoral evangelism; the
f '
recruiting of a new army of young men and
young women for heroic Christian service in
the ministry, and in the missionary field at
home and abroad; the training of an increasing
number of Christian leaders for all callings and
pursuits; the adequate care of the nation's sol
diers as they come home wounded and unfitted
for normal service, coupled with a fulfilment
of a new mission to the families in every com
munity out of whose midst men have gone to *
the front; the faithful and fearless facing of
the obligation resting upon the Church to meet
I lie needs of individual communities from the
interdenominational viewpoint, guarding
against unnecessary overlapping and looking
toward the possibility of evangelical federation,
as one of the solutions of the problem; the
conscientious and courageous acceptance of the
opportunity which God is presenting to the
Church in the wide open mission fields of Asia
and Africa and Latin America, and the wide
spread proclmation of the principles of stew
ardship, relating it to the New Era Movement
as an integral part.
"The New Era Movement has already per
fected its plans to present such principles as
the above in such a form as they may be suc
cessfully carried out by the Church. Public
meetings, the printed page, stewardship con
ferences, posters, leaflets, banners and buttons,
all of which constitute an important part of
every great campaign, arc already in the pro
cess of preparation. It promises to be only a
short while until the entire Presbyterian Church
from coast to coast will be fully informed of
the spirit and the methods of the New Era
Movement.
"The financial elements of the plan are being
carefully and thoroughly considered by the en
tire New Era Committee, and it is expected
that before the next General Assembly there
will have been launched and successfully car
ried out a campaign for the beginning of a vast
sum of money, all of which will be urgently
required for the actual work of the Presby
terian Church during the first year of the five.
It is plain that the present hour is no time for
the accumulation of vast intimate resources. It
is only for the immediate work of the Church
which must be done if the Church is not to fail,
and a Church that fails spells a doomed na
tion, that the new era ingathering will take
place in the month of March, 1919."
A MENACE AND AN OPPORTUNITY.
Students of social questions have noted the
remarkable change in the immigration within
the last forty years. Before that time the im
migrant came in the main from the northern
part of Europe, Germany, Sweden, Scotland,
Ireland and England. Now that stream has
almost entirely dried up, and countless millions
have come from Southern and Middle Europe;
Russians, Ruthenians, Slovaks, Italians and
Croatians have poured into our land, with large
numbers of Greeks and Syrians from Asiatic
Turkey.
These are fleeing from the political and eco
nomic oppressions of their respective countries.
They gather in great masses and are in the
main unskilled laborers. They build our great
public works of various kinds and furnish
brawn from which our great improvements
come. They live in the most unsanitary part of
our cities and crowd and pack together in a
way that Americans cannot, and-will not, do.
They constitute a menace in that they become
the prey of every evil influence; used to drink
ing in their own country, at least the wines
that abound in Europe, they become the main
stay of the liquor traffic, the bond-slaves of the
wholesale and retail whiskey houses.
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