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November 26, 1913.
A FAMILY PAPER,
THANKSGIVING.
It was said for many years, that no
professing Christian had heen chosen
(President, that is, one who was a
member of the church when elected.
That time has long passed. Two have
heen chosen who were not only professing
Christians, but officers in the
Church, Benjamin Harrison and
Woodrow Wilson, being Presbyterian
elders, Grover Cleveland was the son
of a Presbyterian minister, but not
a member. He alone has the record
of having named the Redeemer in the
Thanksgiving Proclamation, The
following is the proclamation for tomorrow:
"The season is at hand in which
it has been our long-respected custom
as a people to turn in praise and
thanksgiving to Almighty God for
His manifold mercies and blessings
to us as a nation. The year that has
just passed has been marked in a peculiar
degree by manifestation of His gracious
and beneficent providence. We
have not only had peace throughout
our own borders and with the nations
of the world, but that peace has been
brightened by constantly multiplying
evidences of genuine friendship, of
mutual sympathy and understanding,
and of the happy operation of many
elevating influences, both of ideal
and of practice.
"The nation has been prosperous
not only, but has proved its capacity
to take calm counsel amidst the rapid
movement of affairs and deal with
its own life in a spirit of candor,
righteousness and comity. We have
seen the practical completion of a
great work at the Isthmus of Panama,
which not only exemplifies the
nation's abundant resources to accomplish
what it will, and the distinguished
skill and capacity of its
public servants, hut also promises
the beginning of a new age, of new the result of a true revival.
contacts, new neighborhoods, new We give thanks because we can
sympathies, new bonds and new trust and not be afraid. Our God
achievements of a co-operation and will not fail those who have trusted
peace.
in him He wiU not forget us,
" 'Righteousness exalteth a nation' neither will he forsake us, nor fail
and 'peace on earth, good-will towards
in what he has undertaken on our
men' furnish the only founda­
behalf. A revival brings renewed
tions upon which can be built the
lasting achievements of the human
faith in his protecting care. Jacob
spirit. The year has brought us the
satisfaction of work well done and
fresh visions of our duty which will
make the work of the future better
still.
"Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson,
President of the United States
of America, do hereby designate
Thursday, the 27th of November next,
as' a day of thanksgiving and prayer,
and invite the people throughout
the land to cease from their wonted
occupations and in their several
homes and places of worship render
thanks to Almighty God.
"In witness whereof I have hereunto
set my hand and caused the seal
Of the United States to he affixed.
"Done at the city of Washington
this 23rd day of October, in the year
Of our Lord one thousand nine hundred
and thirteen, and of the independence
of the United States of
America the one hundred and thirtyeighth.
''(S-gned) WOODROW WILSON.
"By tbe President:
"W. J. BRYAN, Secretary of State."
E D I T O R I A L P A G E
THANKSGIVING FOR REVIVAL
MERCIES.
A true revival is a turning from
self to God, from sin to righteousness,
and is wrought by the power of
divine grace. Next to the gift ot
God's dear Son and of his Holy Spirit
it is the greatest cause of thanksgiving
in the world; nay, it is the
outworking of the grace of the Son
and of the communion of the Spirit
in the soul of man.
We praise God becatfte a revival
turns away his anger. We often forget
that every sin is displeasing to
God, and that, though he is slow to
wrath, he is angry with sinners every
day. When we make God angry, we
are reaping where we have sowed
much seed. The children of Israel
went into captivity under the power
of their enemies because God was
angry with their shameless idolatries.
When they turned to him, he
brought them back to their own land,
and this return is the great Scriptural
type of a revival of religion.
Then had they great cause for
thanksgiving; then was their mouth
filled with laughter and their tongue
with singing.
JOHN W. PRITCHARD, Editor.
We rejoice and give thanks when
we are assured that God has become
our salvation. We are safe in him.
He protects us from every enemy and
even from ourselves. Salvation is a
mighty a wonderful word. It is safety
frorn our sins, safety from condemnation,
safety from hell, safety from
Satan and from every spiritual foe.
To he saved is to be safe, to be safe
is salvation, and to have God as our
salvation is blessedness itself and is
did not go down in sorrow to the
grave nor did David fall by the hand
of Saul, The Lord will not break
the bruised reed, nor quench the
smoking flax. It is a great cause of
thanksgiving to be free from fear and
to have an abiding trust.
It is a part of this trust and of the
results of a revival that we are made
strong in the Lord, We are called
upon to do, to be and to suffer, and
we need strength. And the Lord is
our strength. While we abide in him,
while we follow his footsteps, while
we seek his glory, we are strong and
will accomplish great things. His
Spirit dwells in a truly revived beaT-i
and he is a Spirit of power, Pentecost
was a great revival and it was a
.great manifestation of God's power
in man. A revived man is a man of
spiritual strength. This is and should
be a cause of special thanksgiving.
It is also a cause of thanksgiving
that a true revival brings happiness,
Tbe man who has a gracious experience
of a Saviour sought and a Saviour
found will feel like singing.
The Lord will be his song, A man is
lins rejoicing making of the are righteous,"
progress full and of salvation praise, when "The his in heart the voice tents and of
' COMPREHENSION."
Rev. Dr. James Martin, of Antioch,
Syria, writes for the November "Reformed
Presbyterian Witness," on
"Church Union on the Mission Field,"
Ke clearly discerns the trend of affairs,
the hands that are forming, in
the line of Delilah's working. He
has written for "The Christian," of
London, on the same subject. This
publication on the llth of September
had noted "with some apprehension
the rapidity with which the
movement grows," and quoted a resolution
of the Shanghai Conference:
"No Mission shall in future be opened
in any district already occupied,
without full consent of the forces
now on the ground," What forces?
Dr. Martin's article for "The Christian"
begins: "The goal of this movement
is, assuredly—^must be—Popery,
but craftily, via Prelacy." He notes
that the Mott meetings in India,
China, and South Africa placed in
the Presidency, Prelatical bishops,
"The Presbyterian" of iNovember
12 quotes "The Chronicle'' (Episcopalian)
on the last General Convention,
which says: "For the next three
years there will be but two parties,
the Protestant and the Catholic—
High, Low and Broad have been absorbed"
and then "The Presbyterian"
adds:
"With this spirit and contention in
the Episcopal body, surely it is
wholly unfit to lead in the work of
foimally uniting Christendom. The
further attempt to do this, in the
name of sincerity and good sense,
ought to stop, right short. When this
body itself is divided by the diverse
principles of Protestantism and
Catholicism, it should first take its
of his life are preserved in the bound
own medicine before it offers it to
volumes which by his ingenious gift
another. A union of Christendom
are made the property of the writer.
v/hich would simply mean a union
He knew that my files were incomplete
and that it has so far been im­
of form, with a diversity of doctrine
and principle, must ever breed mischief
and sorrow, and it is contrary
possible to recover the missing
copies, and the chief value of his gift
to the verdict of wisdom, peace and
is that grace of the heart which is the
love in all the ages. 'How can two
essential quality of every genuine
walk together except they be
gift, the voluntary giving to another
agreed?' The whole subject of organic
church union is undergoing a
because of its value to him that
which is valuable to the giver and
new consideration. Decidedly liberal
can not be replaced.
men resent it; decidedly conservative
men object to it; and it seems
These volumes cover the history of
the thirty most eventful years in the
to be left to the unstable and undecided
men to seek it and work it out, Church; they contain the richest fruit
life and growth of the Covenanter
and they will never accomplish it of the greatest minds the Covenanter
along present lines. The present Church has ever known. For these rea­
point .of agreement is, that those
bodies which are substantially one in
doctrine, principle and polity, and
which have been separated by some
passing condition, which has gone by,
can and should come together. The
rest should be left for further growth
and development. Where spontaneity
is lacking, uniformity means bondage.
It will not be long until the
agitation for church union along artificial
and tmreal lines will be offensive,"
YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORr
ROW!
On November 14, I received the following
letter:
"Philadelphia, Pa,, Nov. 13, 1913.
"Dear Mr. Pritchard:—I have the
first 27 years of the Christian Nation
bound in 9 large volumes, half leather,
and the last three years in loose
numbers, I have been thinking that
perhaps they may be of more value
and practical use to you than to me.
If you desire the whole outflt, you
can have it most cordially.
"I hope the outgoing year may
shower blessings upon you as editor,
during the remaining weeks, and that
1914 may be the best year in the history
of the Christian Nation, contending
for the truth!
"Sincerely yours,
"J. C. McFEETERS."
To which I respond with a full
heart. Amen!
I have a set of the filesof the Christian
Nation, lacking fourteen issues,
on the shelves of my office, in temporary,
but strong binders, to stand the
more or less constant handling of
business uses. But nothing delightful
ever surprised me more or gave me
greater genuine joy, in the course of
my work on the Christian Nation,
than this thoughtful and generous
gift of 8'0 years' files, covering
the entire life of the paper,
beautifully and substantially bound,
up to and including 1910, and the remainder
ready to bind uniformly at
the close of the present calendar
year. ,«
Dr. McFeeters was a comparatively
young man in 1884, but had even then
already achieved distinction in and
beyond the Covenanter Church. He
was a Contibutor to the firstissue of
the Christian Nation, sent out that
year, and the best writings of thirty
of the most useful and brilliant years
sons, and not for any part I have had
in the making of them, they will occupy
a place of honor in my home,
I am only too conscious of many unhappy
blunders of judgment, publishing
what, with riper knowledge, I
would have kept out, and omitting
som^e things which, with more experience,
I now put in. But we may rise
on stepping stones of our dead selves.
I am truly grateful for this gift.
and with divine help, today and tomorrow
shall be better than yesterdaj-—more
helpful to man and more
honoring to God,
JOHN W. PRITCHARD,