The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume], November 02, 1921, Page 7, Image 7

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

                
tainly not less than the 12 % per cent,
asked for.
6. Plan for the Day of Prayer for
colleges and other definite times set
apart for this cause.
7. Prepare a full report of your
year's work for the annual meeting
in March.
8. Last, but not least, keep con
stantly before yourself and your mem
bers these fundamental facts: The
need of prayer; the need o'f men; the
need of money; the need of our help.
May each one of you realize the
vital importance of this work, and
may you inspire others with zeal in
promoting it.
Petersburg, Va.
ITEMS FOIl YOUR HOME MISSION
CLASS.
The Ten Commandments
Unknown.
A test made last month in a Brook
lyn. N. Y., public school to ascertain
how many pupils knew the Ten Com
mandments, needs no comment. Out
of 1,373 children questioned 499 did
not know the commandments and
351 had never heard of them. Some
of the answers were:
The First Commandment is not to
shoot craps.
Don't marry.
Do not make love to your neigh
bor's wife.
There shall be light.
The Ten Commandments were the
ten amendments to the Constitution.
Children must keep off the steps
of street cars.
Not to swear for anything.
Don't hitch on wagons.
Don't crook anything.
Thou shalt not hit thy father or
mother.
Love thy neighbor's wife.
Don't swindle.
There shall be water.
? The Missionary Review of the
World, July, 1921.
Protestantism's Weakest Spot.
If you would point to the weakest
spot in the Protestant' Church, you
would put your finger on the army
of twenty-seven million children and
youth in our land who are growing
up in spiritual illiteracy and sixteen
million other American Protestant
children whose religious instruction
is limited to a brief half hour once
a week, often sandwiched in between
a delayed preaching service and the
American Sunday dinner. Let it be
burned into the minds of our Church
leaders that a Church which cannot
save its own children can never save
the world. ? New York City Mission
Monthly.
Sunday Movies.
The nation-wide assault on the
American civil Sabbath has been car
ried into practically every State in
the Union having a Sabbath law of
any value. The moving picture bus
iness. largely controlled by Jews, is
determined to wipe out all public sen
timent and law which stand in the
way of commercializing the day.
They have massed their millions and
are pressing their political power to
this end. ? The Christian Statesman.
God "Answers Prayer.
"I know not by what methods rare,
Rut this I know, God answers pray?y,
I know not when He sends the word,
That tells us fervent prayer Is heard;
I know it cometh soon or late;
Therefore we need to pray and wait.
T know not if the blessings sought
Will come in Just the guise I thought.
I leave my prayer to Him alone
Whose will is wiser than my own."
? Onward.
Laymen and Their Work
BIBLE FOR DISARMAMENT
CONFERENCE.
The New York Bible Society an
nounces from its new Bible House,
No. 5 East Forty-eighth Street, that
word has been received from Presi
dent Harding that he will be glad to
accept a Bible presented by the so
ciety for the disarmament confer
ence. The Bible is beautifully bound
in morocco and with large type. It
is one of the finest copies of the
Scriptures published and will be en
grossed on the outside with a panel,
as follows:
"This Bible is presented to the dis
armament conference and is dedi
cated to the promotion of good will
among the nations by the New York
Bible Society, November 11, 1921."
The Bible is now on exhibition at
the Bible House, and will be for
warded in due time to Washington.
There may be also seen Bibles in the
fifty-three languages which the so
ciety is daily distributing among the
immigrants and all nationalities. A
pamphlet giving a verse of the Bible
in each of the fifty-three languages
will be presented to any one inquir
ing for the same.
MORE PUBLICITY FOR OUR
CHURCH.
By Rev. M. E. Melvin, D. D., General
Secretary Stewardship Committee.
The Assembly's Stewardship Com
mittee has taken what many believe
to be one of the most important steps
in recent years, in the establishment
of a publicity buceau to function in
the main through the secular press
of the country. For this work a com
petent Presbyterian layman has been
secured at a modest salary. His
headquarters will be with the Stew
ardship Committee in the Times
Building at Chattanooga.
He will divide his time between
the Stewardship Committee in the
promotion of the Progressive Program
and the School and College Campaigns
under the direction of the Assembly's
Committee of Education, The writer
will direct his work so that he will
be kept busy all the time, either in
the Synods being canvassed for col
lege endowment or throughout the
whole Church in the plans of the
Stewardship Committee for the Pro
gressive Program.
It is the hope of the Stewardship
Committee that all news of interest
coming through any of the four Ex
ecutive Committees of our Church will
be given to the public through this
bureau. Moreover, any happening in
any local church throughout our As
sembly, which may have more than
local significance, can be easily told
through this bureau to the public at
large.
It has been noted by many In the
past that Presbyterians are very mod
est in their publicity. We are not
much on advertising ourselves. The
annual gatherings of other denoml'
nations, as well as happenings of their
important committees, are told far
and wide. Our Church has never told
Its own story to the public as it
should have done. The meetings of
our Church courts have never been
reported as fully as the opportunity
given to us by the papers Justify. As
a Church, we have lost perhaps in
not telling of our work as much as
we should have done.
Dr. W. S. Campbell, editor of the
Presbyterian of the South, said re
cently that the creation of this pub
licity bureau by the Stewardship
Committee is the most important and
significant thing, in his judgment,
done by the committee in recent
years. We hope to prove to the
Church at large that there is a place
for this work with us.
We plan to have in each town or
city where there is a daily paper, a
local representative, carefully select
ed, whose duty it will be to see that
any news matter sent to him or her
will be promptly turned over to his
local paper. We will follow this plan
instead of sending out news stories to
the papers direct.
The only way in which this bureau
can succeed in the largest measure is
through the co operation of our pas
tors and representative men and
women in helping us to form the
proper point of contact with the sec
ular press. We invite all or oui
churches to furnish any item of news
of interest. Anything sent to the
Stewardship Committee, Times Build
ing, Chattanooga, will receive prompt
attention.
M. E. Melvin,
General Secretary.
SHALL WE HTliP EUROPE?
By Rev. Henry H. Sweets, D. D.
The Committee on Protestant Re
lief in Europe of the General Assem
bly of our Church is issuing a call
through its chairman, Dr. James 1.
Vance, for $7 5,000 to be contributed
by the churches.
This is not a large amount to be
given by our Church, but there is
great danger that this importaut mat
ter may be overlooked.
When I sat a few days ago in the
meetings of the Pan-Presbyterian
Council in Pittsburgh and heard the
heroic story of the Presbyterian
Church in France, Belgium. Hungary,
Poland, Transylvania, Bohemia, Li
thuania, Czecho Slovakia and the
Waldensian Church in Italy, I said:
"Can it be possible that the Presby
terians of North America shall fail
to hear the cry that comes from the
awful need of these members of our
own family across the sea"?
They have endured suffering and
privations untold. In many of these
lands they are to-day being perse
cuted and martyred. Their homes
have been destroyed, their places of
worship have been razed to the
ground or confiscated, they are now
poor and needy. They have proven
true to the faith and are following
the paths their fathers trod.
We are now wisely spending more
than a million dollars a year in plant
ing the Church in China, Japan, Ko
rea, Africa, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico.
What will be the gain of the king
dom of God If we go on with this
work and let these true and tried
churches of Europe, with their mis
sionary zeal and their unparalleled
opportunities, die? What would we
think of our sons and daughters if
similar distress overtook the Church
we are now erecting in these seven
countries and they left them to suf
fer and die?
Every appeal of sympathy, of
Christianity, and of strategy should
lead us to give this temporary assist
ance that is so greatly needed. What
a thrill would come to the hearts of
all local Presbyterians in our coun
try. and what strength and blessing
would be given to our brothers and
sisters in torn and distracted Europe,
should we send this offering of our
love to them now in the hour of their
darkest need!
If there be therefore any consola
tion in Christ, if any comfort of love,
if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any
tender mercies, let us press on to
make Jesus Christ known to the
whole, wide world, and let us also
provide with loving hearts and gener
ous hands ? now, to-day ? for these of
our own household of faith who are
in need.
Louisville, Ky.
AMERICA'S WEAKNESS.
"It is a weakness of the American
people that we do not follow up and
exploit a moral victory, but lose in
terest in it as soon as it has ceased
to be 'news.' We seem incapable of
sustained efTort in reform. Like in
experienced soldiers who sweep exul
tantly on after taking a position only
to find that enemy machine gunners
from supposedly captured dug-outs
are firing on their rear, we have
time after time hailed with joy the
passing of a corrupt regime and then
folded our hands and let the 'same
old gang' infiltrate back into power
at the very next election! Mopping
up a captured position is always "un
pleasant work, but in a fight against
a foe like the liquor traffic it is ab
solutely essential. The liquor deal
ers were taking in over $2,000,000,
000 annually before July, 1919. A
small part of one year's earnings
would be as many times as much as the
drys could put into the fight. At the
very time when some church people
are cancelling their pledges for tem
perance reform and withdrawing
their support, the wets are forming
new organizations and raising vast
sums of money to keep prohibition
from ever becoming effective in
America. It matters little to them
that prohibition is in the Constitu
tion of the United States. From the
days of the Whiskey Rebellion, when
Washington was President, down to
the present, the liquor business has
been essentially a law-breaker, vio
lating 'the divine law of love and
the statute laws of men.' Certainly
no resident of greater New York
needs to be told that there is need
for a great deal of mopping up.
"Why worry now about prohibi
tion or its enforcement? Will not
the Federal Government enforce it,
however adverse the public sentiment
of the great cities in formerly wet
States? The government has already
answered that question. It has no
illusions on the subject. The Fede
ral Prohibition Commissioner, John
F. Kramer, said recently: 'The bat
tle for prohibition is not won. It is
still on. It is true we have secured
advantageous g'ound; positions of
great strategic importance; but these
must be held and advanced positions
taken.' The great temperance organ
izations and societies cannot demobi
lize while the enemy is massing men
and munitions for a tremendous
counter-attack.
"What has the Church school to
do with the conservation of prohibi
tion? It should do much more than
it did in the past. There Is no phase
of life which is outside the realm of
religious education. The Church
school must put Christ into every
thing. I believe It will be possible
to Christianize the social order in
the next generation if the boys and
girls of this generation can be given
a Christian political and social vision.
This goal can be attained if religious
educators avail themselves of their
opportunities.
"There will never be 100 per cent,
enforcement of the prohibition law??
any more than of laws against theft
(Continued on page 16)