The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1877-06-20


debt. And report after report TO 1876 pre-
sented the same statement, and yet at thi
Assembly comes this terrible array of deb
altogether outside of the Publishing House
The debt is growing on US. We are getting
in debt-in debt-all the while. 1t becomes
us to stand between the Presbyterian Church
and this terrible circumference.
He felt called on to say this much in vim.
dication of the memorial sent through him,
and to present the motives of those that
signed it. He plead for unanimity in action
on the part of the Assembly.
DR.. Smith, wish to ask the attention Of
the Assembly to few thoughts-to an ex-
planation of difficulty in the way of prose
cutting this work of Publication. 1t is sim
ply a want of population. will show you
the application. You establish your Com
mittee; you entrust to them the preparation
and circulation of religious books and tracts;
you must have certain amount of agency
to conduct that institution. The same amount
of agency will suit for double or treble the
amount of work that has been done. When
you provide the service st first, it is gener-
ally more than the wants tlaapstitution may
require. When 1 was 60 cted with the
Presbyterian Board of Publication of Phila-
delphia, its entire expenses were but few
hundred dollars more than the expenses OF
your institution last year, and their business
was nearly three times as much. Now, to
this it is owing that the expenses seem to be
so greatly beyond the ratio Of work. Your
publications cost more for the same reason,
because of the insuficiency of the demand.
Such house as Scribner's can afford to puo-
lish their magazine at half the price that it
could be done at Richmond, because they do
SO much larger business. This is the COM
mercial aspect of the matter. As to the mis-
sonary aspect of it, the demand for gratuit-
Gus circulation has been as great on this Com
mittee, with it's $4,000 worth of business,
as on the Board of Publication, with its $143,-
900 worth of business. There is not much
demand for buying, but great demand for
giving. They have done the best they could
with the means they had. The great trou-
BILE is that you have not had demand enough
for the work you are able to do. This gen.
eral principle will explain great many diff
fCulties which occur to the minds of the
brethren. The Committee has come before
you with candid acknowledgment that they
have had too much confidence That is not
peculiar to this body. Construct your ma
chinery as you please, and at the last you
will have to trust somebody. The Commit
tee is not more guilty in this matter than all
the benevolent institutions in our land. Once
more, if we send a committee, as is proposed,
to Richmond, to examine all the books and
vouchers-suppOsing that the result of that
examination will show a large discrepancy
you will find thatsall this time there have
been two streams running there-one run
ming overground (you could measure it and
know all about it; but in the other, running
underground, you have disturbing element
which is always presented to you and will
embarrasS you at every step in your investi
cations. say, therefore, it is harsh judg-
ment for brethren to insist in duplicating this
Committee in this great trouble. l think the
appeal of the chairman last night ought to be
enough to satisfy you. Ihope the Assembly
will reach conclusion in this matter.
Mr.. Daniel moved an amendment to this
report, by striking out frou the third article
the last of the clause, beginning with the
word "unless !" SO that the Committee would
be directed to sell the house as soon as prac-
ticable. This publishing house had alienated
the affections of many from the Publication
cause. He was in hopes that every obstacle
would be taken out of the way, which could
be done by the sale of this building. If this
were not done, then we would be compelled
to 20 back home and tell our people that this
great stumbling block was still in the way,
and hence the people would be discouraged
in their efforts for this work. We have no
objection to parties presenting this house to
the Assembly; what We object to is to the
assumption on the part of this Assembly Of
this debt Of $31, 900. The best way to re.
move the debt is to sell the house and get the
money. He did not propose the house to be
sold at sacrifice, but he wanted it to be
understood that it was not the policy of the
Presbyterian Church to conduct Publish
ing House. Let this clause be taken out o.
the way, and the Assembly can vote with
unanimity for the report.
DR.. BeaU spoke for himself only; he hat
stood up for this Committee through thick
and thin-Publi8hing House and all. HI
showed that North Carolina was fourth in it,
gifts to this cause; thus proving that there
was not universal suspicion or general wan
of confidence in this publishing work, as seem
ed to be the fact from the speeches made b.
brethren from that Safe He thought i
was mistake that the Publishing House wa
failure, considered as only commercial
affair. Even with the terrible loss througl
defalcation, there was surplus of SIC, 600
while the business was not responsible to-
that defalcation.
He called attention to the moral work o
the Committee in the dissemination of pur
literature. The question of putting stol
to the pernicOus literature that is destroying
our youths and permeating our Libraries, i
more than question of dollars and cents.
Mr.. B1tJups SAID thas ne rose Wltn reluc
tance to express his views. A distinguiShe
Austrian Minister expressed a great trut
when he said, "Some things We fear to ur
dertake because they appear difficult, an
some things appear difficult because we fea
to undertake them" This means that diff
culties are born of our fears. That to under
take is to accomplish. So when it fashe
on the minds of this Committee that the
were involved in inextricable embarrassment
the difficulty was appalling. Yet when the
started out to overcome it, it was found 'tha
the difficulty was but apparent.
The same principle was illustrated in th
report presented. The gentlemen cOmpo
ing the Committee approached the dificu
subject in courageous, manly spirit, an
we're enabled to present report that wou
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