Church Review/Vol. 3/No. 18

VOL3NO18P06

THE CHURCH REVIEW. <br><br> Christian Endeavor Dep't. <br> EDITED BY CHAS. T. HAWKES. <br> [Contributions to this department will be welcomed at any time, and should be sent to the above, care Geo. M. Scott & Co., before Tuesday morning of each week.] <br><br> Prayer Meeting Topic for today <br> "Communion with Christ," John 14:18-33! <br> For the Juniors-"Why, and when, and how shall we pray?" Ps. 34:1-10, 15, 17. <br> Meetings for prayer alone are suggested for today. <br> The powerful athlete has become so by constant exercise; the strongest Christian is the one who spends the most time in actual communion with the source of spiritual power, Christ prayed all night on the mountain before stilling the boisterous elements, and how can we expect to accomplish the work he has given us to do without continual prayer. All the sweet Christian graces spring from communion with Christ; and quiet meditation on His word develops the deepest trust and a most fearless doing of one's duty. <br><br> Notice. <br> The regular monthly meeting of the Local Union Executive committee will be held at the Y. M. C. A. rooms, Tuesday, April 30th at 8 p. m. Delegates are especially urged to attend, as at least two important matters will be presented for consideration. GERTRUDE WHITMAN, Sec'y-Treasurer. <br><br> Convention Addresses. <br> Many hearty words of appreciation have been said by those who heard Prof. Warren's clear and convincing presentation of the duty of Systematic Giving at the Ogden convention, and we are more than glad to be able to share its inspiration with every reader of this department. Next week Rev. Mr. Richardson's rousing Good Citizenship address will be printed on this page. <br><br> Systematic Beneficence and its Relation to Missions. <br> By Rev. Henry K. Warren, President of Salt Lake College. <br> I am well aware that the Gospel of giving is not always a welcome Gospel. It is perfectly possible to stir the mind and heart, lift towards the sky and send away with a glow of satisfaction even though the hearer, when the collection place it passed, fumble in his pocket among sundry small coins trying to decide which were nickels and which were dimes and with an unerring instinct selected a nickel for the contribution. Such a man may be really helped even though he is not reminded that he is stingy and niggardly. You have all doubtless heard of the good deacon who thanked the Lord that he had been a member of a church forty years and it had only cost him twenty-five cents. I am sure that I look into the faces of none who have a like spirit. Under the wise tuition of the Endeavor movement your thought of consecration has no such narrowness. You do not cling to your purse-strings because they are interwoven with the tissues of your being; nevertheless there are too many to whom the Gospel of giving is not a welcome Gospel because a vivid reminder of sordid love of gain and littleness of soul. Nevertheless it is a gospel that ought to be preached and on me is that duty tonight. <br> Why ought Utah Endeavorers to give? First, because to them much has been given, "Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price." Because we are not our own, our possessions are a trust therefore we should give. My thought turns to a mount without a city wall. The sun hid his radiant face and the mountain rocked with a sympathetic and terrible dread; the multitude, but a few moments ago jeering, shrunk away in the darkness and the centurion an honest man awed by the portents, paced up and down before the diving man hanging there and said, "Truly this was the Son of God." The red currents of his blood that dyed the mountain top, which the red band of your badge may fitly symbolize, was cleansing not only to it and sections and fragments of the earth, to favored regions and lands, but was destined to cleanse every rood and inch of it the wide earth round. In that supreme hour you and I were bought with a price; therefore we should glorify God in our bodies and spirits which are his. These endowments of brain and heart are not ours. They are a trust from a giver, these possessions which our hands have gathered or other hands have gathered for us are not our own; they belong to another. We owe an annual return for the use of His possessions. We are tenants at will; we must give them all to him when He so requires. <br> Again looking at it on the human side we ought to give because for us much as been given. We live on the summit of our civilization and advancement because along the track of ancestry very much of service and giving has been laid at our feet. We talk about the decisive battles of history. Did you ever think how much of history hung in the balance that oriental night when Paul lay beside the gleaming waters of the Hellespont and in the visions of the night the man of Macedonia came and he heard his distant cry, "Come over and help us." Suppose Paul had disobeyed that voice and had turned back upon the upland of Asia. Perhaps there would have been the vital and fruitful centers of Christianity, and from thence missionaries would have been coming to Europe and America. But he was obedient unto the heavenly vision and Europe and America have led the van of Christian civilization. Has there ever been a merely human decision on which as much of history turned, as hung that night on the wavering decision of Paul? We sometimes speak hesitantly of the value of missions and they have their perils; there is always danger of waste and some times the spirit of self helping independence is weakened, but we do well to remember that missions have made us what we are. Had not others come to our savage ancestors in the forests of Germany and Britain and had not others given, we should not have emerged from heathen darkness. Round about us is light and before us high privilege, because to us much was given. We ought therefore to put forth missionary endeavor for others. <br> Again looking at the question from a local standpoint we ought to give because to us much has been given. It has been generally felt throughout the land that Utah was a point of peculiar peril; that polygamy must be cut down even though it was necessary to use the sharp sword of the nation's power: that the spirit of her people must come into accord with that of environing states; or else this mountain region would become an increasing menace to our national weal. Hence the gifts of our protestant Christianity have been swift and generous for the redemption of Utah. Sometime last fall I noticed a tilt between Dr. Iliff and the Salt Lake Tribune as to whom, credit was due for changed conditions in Utah. The editor of that paper had wrapped himself round in the robe of self-sufficiency and announced that the Tribune was the chief instrument in the change that had come. Dr. Iliff sent a note reminding him that the Protestant churches of the country had spent two millions of dollars in Utah and that their gifts and labor had been the primary source of the progress that has come. I have taken occasion within a few days together the facts as to their expenditure <br><br>