Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Tuesday, .May y, ivzz. THE PROBLEM OF THE URBAN CHURCH MOST URGENT Bishop Warren A. Candler in Southern Christian Advocate. One of the most common obses- : sions of our times is the mania for imagining problems and finding theo- ( j retic solutions for the Questions inus < \ raised. ; < This mania for making and solving i problems always takes the direction J of overlooking one's own problem and -?';Jrr f vr The i uiuaudi^, >> /..<? ...... - perplexing questions with which oth- i ers are supposed to be confionted. :; ^ Such is the current discussion by j ui'tan theorizers con^erni'ig the rural ; raster and the rural chaich. The i 4 . professional "surveyor' nas Deen , fi:ak!ng his "survey' of the c wniry jhvich and presc.'ibin.: pnna.cas for 1 v.ha* he supposes are ii3 ailments. : - ] ' thrugh he has njver seivc*! a iinal; pastorate and ne-er will s-rvr-. one I as long as he can get a living in the < field of a "surveyor," or in the office ( of some sort of "driver," or campaign < secretary. < Some of his proposed remedies are ' little short of the ridiculous. To a ( 1 ? ~ CUP- c preacner wnu nas sci?vu uuu ~ ceeded in a rural pastorate they seem ? positively laughable. For imaginary } conditoins are offered cures of pre- ( tentious and fanciful Impracticability. 1 It is time to call attention to some 1 I indubitable facts a'x>ut this whole 4 matter of the country prcacher and t the country church. c ' In the first place it is wortfty 01 ( remark that the urbaii church and the urban pastor are fir less Success- ' ful than the rural church and the ru- s ral pastor. The simple truth is that very many city churches are compos- s ed of country people who were con- I verted before coming to town and t who were more religious in their ru- r ral homes and churches than they -v h?ve ever been in the urban habita- j tions and temples to which they have c removed. s What would become of certain city t churches if they were no longer re- t plenished by communicants drawn t from country churches would be j HF hard. to say. / Their very best members, are "country ^people come to a town!" Urban life^eeois to be not t most favorable to'-t&e highest type of..j religious life. Damaging distracfr'ons r f are on all sides.Sights and shows 1 exclude meditation and prayer. The j. demoralizing "movies ana iwuui-cu t things impair piety and incite to sen- c suality. Divorce : suits and the pro- ii fanation of the sacred institutions of t marriage, which would shock rural c communities are tolerated in the r . . I * - cities. s . j u It was when a rural population s proposed to build them a city and a j x tower reaching to heaven that God's p judgment of the confusion of tongues a fell upon them, and since Babel cities t have been the points of greatest d strain upon civilization. Thomas Jef- c iferson expressed the hope that large r cities would never exist in the United c Stats and Prince Bismarck declared c that cities were ulcers on the body t politic which should be cut out." f TVie problem of the "urban church" is far more perplexing and urgent. * j.i j.1?t rural fhiirrh. Let o mail u;ac v??v, * e city pastors give all diligence to i; solve the problems right under their e noses before holding institutes and f delivering lectures for the solution u of the problems of the rural pastor b and his rural pastorate. t That the country church has not r failed half so badly as some would i: have us believe is established by the s fact that in the South, a section in-'d 1 5 Vir /inSin+rv naoueu laxgc^y u\ there is a greater number of church ,1 ^ members in proportion to population c than can be found in any other sec- s tion of our country. In no other c have the churches co.me so nearly to * uxi f i reaching and saving the people. < 7 The country church may be dying c in New England but it is not dying in r the South. There were never so ma- z ny prosperous churches in the rural c sections of the South as there are 1 .now. Here and there may be seen a < countrv church which -has been aban- ? i * doned, ;>ut in the majority of such c cases, investigation will disclose the i fact that it has been superceded by I a more commodious building in a c more convenient location. } A few rural churches have perished < by temporary shifting of population, ] but they are likely to come back.! With improved roads, rural tele- i phones, free delivery of mails and 1 (improved schools in the country, ru- ] ral life is becoming more inviting < than it was formerly, and this will 1 appear in improved churches also. i In country churches one is apt to 1 hear the best preachine: of the gospel, j Sensationalism in the putpit is scarce- < ly found?and never patiently en- < dured. in our rural churches. Nor is pseudo-science poured out on them j] by clerical pretenders. Rationalism j 1 finds no utterance there. For the i most part "the pure word of God is ! ^ preached and the sacraments duly ad- i ministered." The element of wor-j ??n??i?i ?? ??o??g???aa and ''St. Vitus-Dance activities" ar( not allowed to exclude that elemenl as is not infrequently the case witl urban churches. There is more preaching for edification and less pulpitstraining to be entertaining. Xo, the most perplexing problem confronting Christianity in the Unitrwl Crotni; +V>? nrnKlotn nf thp lirHiin t U U IV O 10 11 i V. |/l vusv. lit v. v v v.. :huivh, and it grows more perplexing every day. Now that "the wireless" !ias come, it is quite probable that many back-slidden members of urbar churches will forsake the assembling of themselves together in the sanctuary, and have their sermons Served at home "on the half-shell." Why not? They care little for spiritual worship or Christian fellowship, and ?. novel entertainment on Sunday will be quite satisfactory to them after :hey have taken a turn on the golf links. *1 If the Christian Sabbath, as it has been known in the United States, is ?ver overthrown, it will be pulled lown by urban people with the consent, if not the active cooperation. }f many members of city churches, rhe Christian people of our country ;hurches will have to save it, if it is saved at all. The cause of temperance and pro libition must find the most faithful iefenders and ardent advocates in ;he rural churches. It' is so now. UrDan influences and patronage keep 'moonshine stills'' going in rural districts to the discomfort of our best ountry people. "Bootlegging" relies )n urban support for its life. Dance halls, foul circuses, defiling 'movies," and such like, find their trongest- defenses behind city walls. Crimes of violence prevail in cities is they do not in the rural districts, n tjfie course of a year there are in wo ^cities of New York and Chicago nore "mysterious murders" for vhich no one is ever arrested and >unished than all the lynchings that ?<5cur in entire South. There is not io much ado made about the matter, >ut this is because the murders are oo numerous to be very shocking; hey are too commonplace to occupy nuch place in public attention. Festering masses of evil abound in ill our great cities, and indeed in all he cities of the world. A great gos>el is required for their clenasing and edemption, although the most dieted preaching in the world is found n urSan pulpits. "Problem navels," >oliti?aI issues, who shall have M'jslle Shoals, and other "current top:s" displace the gcspel of Christ in he pulpits of far too- many city hurches. The starving souls of urban >eoples. are given stones for bread in til many of them turn away frcni uch disappointing ministrations. It would-astound not a few city reachers to know how many men nd women are living- within a stone's hrow of their churches without once darkening their doors who were'once ommunicants in small Ijowns and ural districts.. Let them make one >f the "surveys" about which "some ~ ~ * t* J *"! ' _ J f them are so lonn 01 taiKing, anu hey will be amazed by what they will ind. . . In a number of our Southern cities 'simultaneous meetings" of an evanelical sort are being held. If durng these meetings the men and wom n, who have?come into our cities rom rural churches an J failed to mite with any urban church were rougfot back to revived Christian life he result would be n new era in the eligious history of the country. It 5 greatly 10 be desired that some uch energetic effort bo made in this [irection. There is a vast waste of Christian ife in our cities. They am sepulhres of multiplied thousands of ouls who were once active in rural hurches. Why this waste? It is time newspapers and maga :lnes took a'rest from their-tedious liscussion of the "problems of the ural church" and directed searching ittention to the "problems of the city :hurch." The urban problem is our mminent peril, and nothing else than > potential Christianity will suffice to olve it. Powerful prcachir.g must iisplace much of the pretty pulpiteerr.g in our city churches; and urban )astors who indulge such trifling ;ould get valuable lessons on how to jreach the gospel by attending some country churches and sitting in the sews. As far as my observation extend?, t seems to me that the country people are hearing the gospel in its most sure and powerful form. Very many sf the city people are being fed on tiomiletic salads whic are fearfully md wonderfully made?and of doubtful composition. God be thanked for our rural L-hurches and country pastors! They are saving much people alive upon whom the city churches of the future must depend for their best and most useful members. Emma Goldman is now longing foi the freedom which she scorned when *he had it. >fTRAVELERS HOLD ; ANNUAL MEETINl 1 i . I Meet Next in Charleston?Resok | tions for Roads and Public Schools ,! | The State. Sumter, May 4.?The 18tn annui ;; convention of the South Carlina div l 'jsion of the Travelers' Protective as sociation convened in Sumter thi i morning at 10:30 o'clock and pai j ; such close attention to business tha by 5 o'clock in the afternoon ac journment was reached and no morr 'ing session will be necessary. The convention was called L<? orde in the court room by the statu pres dent, H. Lee Scarborough of Sumtei ' and the invocation was made by th state chaplain, the Rev. W. E. Thaye i i of Sumter. Dr. Thayer also made th > address of welcome, which was re sponded to by William Coggswell o Charleston. R2ports,of the officers showed th organization in good condition, it membership having increased fror 107 members in 1905 to 2,025 May of this year. ! Among the resolutions adopted b; this convention was one commendinj the work and plans of the state high way department and pledging the or ganization's support to its future ef fort to create a state system of goo roads. Another resolution emphasiz ed that the public schools of the stat were crippled by the failure of thi last legislature to provide sufficien funds for these to meet their expens es and that the S. C. T. P. A. favore< unitinted support for free public f jhools. The convention went on rec ord as pledging the individual suppor of its members to the incoming pres ident and to working to make th< coming year a banner one. The newly elected officers are President, J. H. Woodward, Colum bia; vice president at large, H. Le< Scarborough, Sumter; post vice pres idents, S. C. Ballenger of Spartan burg, J. N. Spann of uolumcia, n. Jt> Tindal of Greenville, C. Ban Allen o: Anderson, William Gaillard of Char leston, W. /A. Friday of Greenwood Cheaffee Jones of Darlington, J. R Carson of Chester, A. R. Boozer o: Newberry, J. P. Poag of Rock Hill Dr. J. A. Ridley of Gaffney; secre tary and treasurer, Joseph P. Noblett Anderson; sergeant at arms, So Fleischman, Columbia; chaplain, th< Rev. J. T. Gongaware, D. D., Charles t j _ r j : .x ?~ n t> a ion; Doara 01 directors, v-. van -rvnt-i of Anderson; J. B. Shanklin of An derson, S. Mac Sloan of Anderson, J N. Wjatkins of Greenville, Georgi Dearman of Spartanburg. | The following were elected dele arates to the national convention to bi held at Atlantic City June 5: A large, H. L. Scarborough of Sumter J. M. Watkins of Greenville, J. M Patton of Darlington; from the posts Joe E. Gentry, Spartanburg; G? M Gornley, Columbia; Holmes Allen Greenville; J. B. Shanklin, Anderson TIT TT Tir^i. PL 1 . T T7 v> . n. watsoii, *w/iiai iwiuii , o. Grimes, Greenwood; L. I. Parrott I Sumter; E. E. CarneS, Darlington; J W. Young, Chaster; R. D. Smith, Jr. Newberry; Henry Massey, Rock Hill Dr. A. C. Crew, Gaffney. ! The following deaths were report ed during the past year: Charles R Smith, Union; Thomas C. Huiet, W W. Moore and Charles M. Puckette Columbia; John Joseph, Iler; Frank lin L. Henry, Greenville; Lee G. Hoi leman and Broadus B. Babb, Ander son; Junius H. Wooten, Nashville William J. Neeley, Rock Hill. I There were present at the conven tion 122 delegates from the posts a Spartanburg, Columbia, Greenville Anderson, Charleston, Greenwood Sumter, Darlington, Chester, New j berry. Rock Hill and Gaffney. Invifca i tions for tbe next convention wer presented from Charleston and Dar lington and that of Charleston wa accepted by a close vote. The social features of the conven tion were a luncheon served at th place of meeting at 1 o'clock, a driv over the city at 5:30 o'clock, suppe and entertainment at Pocalla spring at 6:30 o'clock, entertainment spec ially for the visiting delegates at ; theater at 8:30 o'clock. I -| WANTED IN GEORGIA i ' Man Said to Be Under Arrest a ] ? . Newberry The State, 5th. Governor Cooper yesterday receh ed requisition papers from Governo Hardwick of Georgia for the retur to that state of A. M. Marlow, wante ' n Atlanta on a charge of abandon ment. The papers allege that Mai low abandoned his wife and child ;>n 1 Mrs. Marlow swe-i"s r.cr husband bos her twice at Greenville while she v:z , living with him for a short time then Marlow, according to a letter wit the requisitorf, is under arrest i Newberry. It was indicated at th ! executive offices that a hearing woul | he held on the papers from Georgia. f 3Y-VYAY5 OF STATE HISTORY G i The Overhead Water Supply I Dr. .J. W. Daniel in Southern Christian Advocate. The providential factor, planned j_ by the Creator in all His works, is the i i r * ^c ^U.] . ! most wonucnui ieaLUlf Ui Jiii^aaa s j geography. Plato, old Grecian Philip j osopher, said, "The beginning oi tj knowledge is wondering at things.' I_ J Things new becauce they are out oi t_ the ordinary grasp of our thoughts are sure to attract our attention, and r therefore, awaken the mind to rej. search. The mental attitude of won. der holds a unique place "in the richer e revelation of God through His Son r All who heard the story of His birth e from the lips of the shepherds "Wondered at/those things which were tol<: f rhem." In the ministry of Christ the "Multitudes wonder" at His works e and the gracious words he spoke. The s Apostles and disciples wondered al TJNr. Pinfo c virrVif fVir 111^ ICOUX1CVV1V1I. A lUbV ?? AA^AAV; * .*?% j mind has to be shaken out of its lethargy by the unusual before it begins y to investigate. The Gospel of Christ ? recognizes that fact, ve have to be driven to thought by the wooing oi things we do not understand. No one can stand and think sciential fically of the scrub-crowned sandhills of Carolina without. thinking of a e Provident Creator and His wonderful 3 provisions for His children. I have I i j? 4-u? *; T f aireaay written ui uiu( nicAuausnu^ reservoirs beneath them and which ^ make them an inestimable blessing to c a large area of the state. God did not, -in H.;> creative skill, relative to j. the sandhills, limit His providential . blessings and forethought to the imB mense cisterns of fresh water that lie beneath their healthful heights, but, . wonderful to realize, he made an ov. erhead water supply for one of the 2 most fertile districts of the state. Be. fore the creation of an atom of mat_ ter God carefully considered and provided for the wants of all the living f beings that would come into exist-pnr>n Hp laid His hansi on thf> ocean in the centuries of throng ago and made it build the High Hills of the f Santee to minister .mastr prodigally to t"he needs of His creatures, and I can . not think or write of them without an Vfcerawing sense of .jwonder. Like 1. Wordsworth I am constrained to exa ' i/S? . ~~~~~~~ uw 11 HwwnawnMr-wMiiwi ;uii,iWnT^ i Jwr . K fcOJ : i j ARTHUR B i " ** ' f: y e 0 3 For Clues 1 | t r? First Chapter o Prize Offer Ser i ATL GEO] it I MOND^ t . I r. claim, ! c j !' "I have learned (To look on nature, not as in the hour! I ! i I Of thoughtless youth; but hearing^ oftentimes '} I . i . KniMitniK' ' i The still, sad music I . 1 Mot harsh nor grating, though of am- 1 pie power i ' To chasten and subdue. And I have . i i i felt js ( A presence that disturbs me with joy ? Of elevated thoughts; a sense sub-. t lime I 1 Of something far more deeply inter- ; j 'f fused, '; Whose dwelling is the light of setting i suns, i : And the round ocean and the living t *: air, t 1 (And the blue sky and the mind of': j( i man | I A motion and a spirit that impels ( AH thinking things, all objects of all : 1 I thought-, 1 And rolls through all things." ' } ;i i1 The unculturcd may see no use t ';for the sand-hills, but if they knew;' 'jGod they would see otherwise. The ; i barren sand-dunes are simply waste . 1 II lands to people who see no farther J r , than the dollar, and who estimate j ! things by what they can get out of ( 'l them by the quickest returns; such 1 ' men may be considered practical by , s , their kind. A little more culture on , i [ the part of such people, and in those \ : i whq esteem such men to be of good ; ( 'j practical judgment, would make them j s '^realize that the sand hills of, central | 1; Carolina are by far the most valuable j i I assets of the state. a j The High Hills of Santee slope to-; t wards the basins of Black and Santee [ i river and govern the rain supply of j \ | the entire upper Pine Belt. Mills j e ' i wrote in 1825 that thoughtful and ob- t , servant men had noticed for thirty ^ \ . years that all the summer ^showers r i came from the direction of the sand-1 r j : hills and that the only exceptions i were when there was continued wet \ weather and then the rains came : \ Jfrom any direction. That was a factja i then and will continue to be a fact j t as long as the nvorld stands. j s When we copnect these high >sand d ; dunes with the design of their Crea- f t I I tor we are over-awed with wonder! a : at the forethought of God. They 1 a i were "built just , high enough. They . I , were sipped so as to drain themselves a r lrixiMicf t-^.nwwv^Kran), jwmiiiejjji * f ' ' fj; , REEVE'S CREATE %s? & 1A l ?lh to the Secret Codes a EVERYONE HAS AF To Win Oi 5IG CASH f This Remarkable iai Appears in The ANTA RGIAN iY, MAY 15 iry. .That insures a dry atmosphere to enshroud them. Their soil was made porous so that the falling rain night sink quickly into the subterranean .'jins and the breezes fan their ops when it is calm everywhere to ceep them dry. Their height and the :lryness of their atmosphere condense ihe in rolling clouds of vapours from .he Atlantic and the coastal plains ind pour them out jn refreshing; showers over the broad fields of corn tnd cotton that stretch away towards f he ocean. If there were no sand hills, thereto re, stretching across our state, the i ,'apors from the Atlantic would flow xpward toward the Blue Ridge, and ' it last reaching the mountains, or; he Piedmont hills, before condensed he showers produced by them, just j it the time most needed by the agri ulturist, would rarely reach central: Carolina, and, therefore, the rich | and* of the Upper Pine Belt would ; )e almost worthless for agricultural, purposes, because they would be largely destitute of those over-head )le?sings so essential to full harvests. , The showers would exhaust them:ejves in the country that intervenes )etween central Carolina and the! nountains. The Blue Ridge was the first vapor, ?ondensing factor. At that far oflr :ime the ocean rolled" its waves; igainst the Piedmont counties; and r. the centuries that God was pre-; >?,ring to withdraw it from all lower 1 Carolina He was casting up great iand hills by means 01 tne inroiimg , vayes. When the work was com- i )leted the waters withdrew and left j l second line of defense, as the mili-; ary men say, against drought and an ! nsufficient rai supply on the central i >ortion of the state. Could design I ver be more really definite? Could I he beneficient forethought of Him | vho rules the wind and the waves be i nore plainly written for short-sighted ' nen's instruction? Surely, then, the sand hills are ! aluable and he is not a practical man j irho is so near-sighted as not to be ' i ble to see that far; but too illiterate^ o read the divine hand-writing in the i and. The Divine Son once stooped i own and wrote with His finger in he sands of earth because tie wa?( .shamed of the unblushing and self-1 scertive hypocrites who would have | iim underwrite the death-warrant of . poor, sinful woman. Ah, ihey jiid | i ' i U. r , * . J ST LOVE-MYSTE / ^iVHiifl 'fSBaB iwni bbiw? md a Solution of the * EQUAL CHANC ie of the award: IT MAY MEAN MONEY TO YOUGET-ACQUAINTED OR The Atlanta Georgian, Atlanta, Ga. 4 I am interested in "Mysterious paper at the regular rate.' Name Address (Special rates to R. F. i I # ijj not know that His mission was life and not death. The accuscrs went away to death but the poor woman , was saved by the hand that wrote in the sand. How many thousands of. men. women and children have been saved, clothed, fed and made happy in central Carolina by the hand writin<? of God in the sands of the Hiph ~ ? * ? -i? ? Hilis of the santee:- j\re mcy ^ia^~ ful? Do they appreciate His fore- * thought and protection? Or are they densely ignorant to read His message of love, providence and forethought? in the high sand-dune^1 that roll back the refreshing showers from the vapors of the Atlantic to fill their co-n bins and replenish their bank accounts? . .4 A Rare Honor Dr. Edward R. Hipp, a Newberriari in Charlotte, was recently elected'as an alumni memoer 01 me rwpiiA , Virginia chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha. As the chapter "exists primarily to recognize scholarship, character and promise of future efficiency in the students of medical schools," only one-fifth of each graduating class in schools only of the highest standing being eligible of election, it will at once be seen that the election of Dr. Hipp is a mark of great honor, esteem and confidence. "Elec- . . x tion to this honorary fraternity is the highest honor the medical student of today can attain in his four year / m .medical course." Dr. Theodore . Hough, dean of the University of Virginia, medical department, in conferring this honor upon Dr. Hipp, says: "The chapter has all along planned to avail itself of the privilege of electing from the alumni men whose names will v make the roster of the Alpha of Virginia representative of the best of the past," etc. The City of Not At All'' "Tomorrow 111 do it," says Bennicj "I will, by^and by," says Seth; "Not now?pretty soon" says Jennie; ' "In a minute," says little Beth. 0, dear little people, remember . That," true as the stars in- tKe sky, The little streets of Tomorrow, ' Pretty Soon, By and By, ' Lead one and all ' -*< As straight, they say, V As the king's 'mg^iway, To'the'city- of Not at All. ?Selected. > ?V; . .. ... . .. . , i ' <. **? / ?1 %. -:T ' : , ' - " ;' i r% f 3 .y *;: ? 3 8$S B9 HBl : -r ' ' - ' ?;;i |1 - J S& m . . &d m- \ ii I V I- x Si - 7 . s;/. f: X/'ry't*. i Mystery F I -ORDER THE PAPER NOW | I * DER BLANK 2 .. .-.A \ : W\ i Messages." Send me your . \ . 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