THE BIENNIAL UNION CONFERENCE MEETING
As TIME is rapidly passing, attention should
be called to the important biennial meeting
f the Southern Union Conference to be held
mn Nashville, commencing Jan. 14, 1908, for
the election of officers of this conference for
the ensuing two years.
This meeting will be a very important one.
As the years go by, and the importance of
the Southern Union Conference increases, and
our various institutions become more and more
important, these meetings will also grow in
interest.
We shall expect a large attendance at this
meeting. Questions of great moment will
come up for consideration. Plans will be
aid having an important bearing upon the
prosperity of the cause throughout this South-
ern field.
These biennial anniversary meetings will
ever be important in connection with the prog-
ress of our cause. ‘They naturally furnish oc-
casion for a review of the past as well as to
lay plans for the future. For various reasons,
it is well, from time to time, to consider the
past. It is profitable to consider our mistakes.
“To err is human.” We all make mistakes.
We fail in our weak human judgment, and
often leave important interests neglected. Hu-
man effort is always fallible. Past mistakes
should, if possible, be rectified and improved
upon. How can we do this without taking
time for reflection and consideration? We
learn lessons from past successes, and are bet-
ter equipped for future labors.
We must take time to consider the needs
of the cause and plan wisely for future suc-
cess. Great advancement must be made in the
near future here in our great Southern field.
The constituency of the Southern Union Con-
ference has made a very creditable growth
during the years the writer has been connected
with it. Many improvements have been made.
For these blessings, gratitude is due solely to
our heavenly Father. The past year has been
one of great progress. Our institutions have
been greatly advanced because of the help
we have received from the contributions of
our people. For these blessings we should
be most grateful to God and to our dear
brethren and sisters throughout the country.
In the coming general meeting in January
we wish to meet full delegations from each
state conference, and also a goodly number of
our brethren and sisters who love the cause
which we all feel is the cause of God. Why
should we not meet together to join in united
efforts to advance its interests in every way
possible, to plan wisely for future advance-
ment, and to seek God together? We believe
this would be to his glory.
There are many omens of future success.
We have no reason to be discouraged. The
cause 1s onward. Never before was its prog-
ress so rapid as at present. ‘This truth has
girdled the earth, and is rapidly advancing in
all directions. It is a time for courage, and
for moving onward to victory. The laggards,
faint-hearted and unbelieving, can, if they
choose, linger, complain, find fault, talk un-
THE WATCHMAN
belief, and fall out by the way; but the good
soldiers should press to the front and go for-
ward. Calebs and Joshuas are needed to lead
out, and press the battle to the gate. We have
long been wandering, as did the Israelites in
the wilderness. Hearts have become cold;
many of our brethren have lost their bearings.
Now, let all faithful ones press forward as
never before. We hope our January anni-
versary meeting will mark a new era in the
work in the South. Begin to prepare for the
meeting. We expect efficient help from the
General Conference. Serious questions con-
front us. We need the help of our General
Conference brethren. This is a call to this
important gathering. Let the state delega-
tions be chosen. It would be well if each state
conference would give notice beforehand, tell-
ing us who are to come as delegates. We ex-
pect preparations will be made so that those
who come can find lodgings and provisions at
reasonable prices. Come, praying for the suc-
cess of the meeting,
Gro. I. BUTLER,
President Southern Union Conference.
VAL aN
EDITORIAL NOTES
Ir appears that prohibition does prohibit in
some sections of the country at least. We
have the testimony of an anti-prohibition pa-
per, the Charleston (S. C.) News and Cou-
rier, which says: —
“If the entire disappearance of the whisky
traffic from public view, the reduction of re-
tail sales to one fiftieth or one hundredth part
of their former volume, the complete oblitera-
tion of stationary whisky shops and the de-
struction of the treating habit, constitute pro-
hibition enforced, then it is enforced in the
rural counties of South Carolina. There are
numerous towns and villages in the state where
one may spend weeks without seeing, hearing
of, or smelling whisky, and where one would
find it a commodity about as rare as paregoric
or other staple articles of the druggist.”
SoME one recently started a report that
choice has been made of a successor to Mrs.
Mary Baker Eddy, to be the head of the
Christian Science Church at her death. ‘The
official spokesman at the Christian Science
headquarters, Mr. Farlow, sends out a denial
of the report, in which he says:—
“Mrs. Eddy, founder of the Faith, and to-
day in supreme control of the Christian
Science Church, will have no successor.
Neither Mrs. Augusta Stetson, the leader of
the New York church, nor the Lady Dun-
more, who has been prominently mentioned,
will ever fill the position occupied to-day by
Mrs. Eddy. With the death of the aged
leader, the Christian Science Church will have
no single personal leader. The business of
the organization will undoubtedly be consid-
ered by a board of directors, while the mem-
ory of the founder and discoverer will remain
_ the only name ever connected with the Faith.”
731
On this the New York Christian Advocate
appropriately comments :—
“Whatever is done in the future, the fore-
going contains two absolute truths: The first
is that Mrs. Eddy is the ‘ founder of the faith’
That charge cannot be laid to Christ or any of
his apostles. Even if she got many of her
ideas from Dr. Quimby, she is entitled to the
name ‘ Founder of [that] faith” The second
is that she will die. She is here spoken of as
‘aged.’ She is also deaf, and acknowledged
the same to the commissioners appointed in a
recent suit to ascertain whether she is com-
petent to manage her financial affairs.”
Jesus said of the work of the Holy Spirit,
“He shall testify of me;” and “He shall
glorify me.” John 15:26; 16:14. The pur-
pose of God is to lift up Christ before the
world as the one all-sufficient Saviour of sin-
ners, and every agency of God is engaged in
this work; every gospel truth exalts Christ.
Manifestations which are really the work of
the Holy Spirit will not, therefore, draw the
attention of the beholder to the agency through
which they came, leaving Christ in the back-
ground or altogether out of sight, but will
bring before the beholder a clearer view of
Christ, while the agency will remain in the
background. On this subject the editor of
the Missionary Review of the World well
says :—
“We may be too much absorbed in what are
called ‘Holy Spirit manifestations.” Sir Rob-
ert Anderson thinks there is risk of substi-
tuting for the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
a sort of ‘cult of the Spirit.” Our Lord said
that the Spirit would not speak from himself
—i. e., of his own suggestion — but would
testify to, magnify and glorify, him. When
the Spirit's activity is most unhindered, he re-
veals the beauty and glory of the Lord Jesus
more clearly, and makes him more attractive.
What utterance of the Holy Spirit terminat-
ing upon himself can be found in the Scrip-
tures? Placing the Holy Spirit before us as.
the focus of spiritual vision may hinder his
work as the medium for clearer, fuller vision
of Christ. Most great heresies have come
from some misdirected attention to the Holy
Spirit as the object of vision.
“What pertains to the Spirit is always il-
lusive if outside of Scripture limits, because
the whole realm of spirit is invisible and in-
tangible. Here is the devil's chance for mas-
ter counterfeiting, because as a spirit he can
easily impose caricatures and imitations on the
unwary. How much discernment is required
to distinguish the human spirit, the demonic
spirit, and the divine Spirit, when the sug-
gestions are plausible and seem good and true!
The devil finds it hard to imitate simple faith
in the objective work of our Lord on the cross
and at the throne. But the psychical and
pneumatical realms lie close together, and we
may unconsciously pass from one to the other,
mistaking fleshly enthusiasm and emotional
excitement for spiritual ardor and fervor —
and hysterical mania for supernatural exal-
tation to some third heaven.”