HOLSTON-ALEXANDER CHAPEL AND SCHOOLHOUSE AS IT IS ROCKY FORK, NEAR FLAG POND. on his own humanity, and moreover must keep away from ecclesiasticism, denominationalism and other isms. Through his joyous, friendly and hearty living among his mountaineer friends he will be able to do better work. I have called this article "first impressions," for I have been in these mountains of North Carolina near the Tennessee border less than six months, and therefore am unable to give more than mere impressions. The new comer is at once attracted by the quiet beauty of the laurel country, especially if he comes in the The game of baseball is as popular in the laurel country as in Chicago or New York, and practically every Wednesday and Saturday during the summer there have been games. The preacher is eligible for his neighborhood team and is expected to be at the games and help his team on to victory. Merely playing ball with the men might not be justified, but two results seem to have been achieved which have made it worth while,-a better acquaintance with the men and boys has been made possible and an influence for good sportsmanship and clean playing has been exerted. It surely pays to ride several miles and play in the hot sunshine for several hours on, an August afternoon if you can thereby strengthen your influence among the men. The life of a mountain preacher is full of variety and quite free from monotony. Apart from the necessary hours of study, devotions, preparation for the Sunday services, there is always a wide field for pastoral activity. The people are scattered along the creeks and in the coves and on the slopes of the mountains. There are no such things as villages or even hamlets in this part of the country. The wide distances make it necessary for the preacher to do considerable traveling. Happy is that minister who has for his use a strong, reliable horse. It will mean much to him to have one. I suppose the same problems in regard to religious life are to be met with in all parts of America. There is the same ceaseless struggle with sin and temptation everywhere, the eternal conflict between the spiritual and the material, here as elsewhere. How can the lives of the mountaineers, of the dwellers on the plains or in the cities best be reached and transformed into Christian characters? That is the problem which all American ministers are trying to solve, and we here are trying to solve our part of the problem. The mountain minister finds variety in his life, I have said. It will be to his advantage to know about farming, the care of horses and chickens and a garden, a practical knowledge of carpentering will be of great assistance; and to know how to shoe horses, to play baseball. to sing, to ride well, will not be amiss. In short, it will be well if he is a veritable "Jack of all trades." A specialist is of value in many fields, but an all-around man is of more value in the mountains. A Choice Spot in the Vineyard By the Rev. Robert H. Taylor, Burnsville, North Carolina. Yancey County, North Carolina, with Mitchell's Peak standing as a sentinel on her southern border, head lifted above all competitors, though Clingman, Celo, and the beautiful Bald are close rivals, prides herself in her picturesque scenery, bracing atmosphere and limpid water. These, together with the character of many of the people's ancestry, no doubt help to account for the type of manhood and womanhood to be found within her borders. In physical makeup, it would not be easy to parallel the following facts: Fifteen out of less than fifty grown young men in attendance as students of the Stanley McCormick School last year, measured from six feet to six feet five and a half inches tall, their average height being six feet one and a half inches. Where opportunity has not been too long delayed, some of them measure up as well also in mental and moral stature, their developmenttransformation, rather-being as striking as their manly and womanly appearance. A few months in our schools effect marvelous changes. Even the Sunday school, meeting but once a week, and the preaching service, rarely more than once a month. effect great changes in comparatively short periods. The writer was deeply impressed with this on his last visit to one of the branches of the church organized about three years ago. Very near the spot on which a young boy was shot down in cold blood a little while before our work was begun, with no provocation for the shooting except that constantly arising from excessive drink, a union Sunday school of more than a hundred in its membership is in successful operation. Though meeting in a building of another denomination (the German Baptist), Presbyterian literature is used and paid for. The superintendent is a Presbyterian, young in years and Christian experience, so are also the Bible class teacher, who has three native preachers in his class, the primary teacher. the secretary, treasurer, chorister,-in fact every officer and teacher but one (a substitute teacher) is a Presbyterian, mostly present or former students of the Stanley McCormick Academy at Burnsville, the county seat. Few traces of the former liquor-ridden condition of the neighborhood remain, and we are getting some of our best and brightest boys and girls for the academy now from that section. What a Presbyterian building or buildings THE OLD SCHOOL-HOUSE, ROCK FORK. This was used until the erection of the Holston-Alexander Chapel. An average day's attendance-enrollBuilding, 20 x 28. ment, 88. witnessed such changes. When the writer began work in the county four years ago he was warned by friends familiar with the situation against traveling certain roads late in the day, especially during political campaigns, or after any public gatherings. Now joint political canvasses are made, and elections held, sessions of court completed and even Fourth of July celebrated on a large scale, with but little evidence of the existence of intoxicating drink. In fact, the last known transportation where they would so gladly be used in a legitimate way, the old temptation to "make some use of them" would be removed. We rejoice in the growing and increasingly manifest sentiment against all that is associated with strong drink. Fully two-thirds of the voters of the county are strong advocates of rigid temperance legislation, and are becoming more willing to assist in its enforce ment. Among the strong levers in bringing this about has been the work of school, Sunday school and church. It has gone quietly on throughout these more recent years, moulding opinion, recreating manhood and womanhood. While "the kingdom of God cometh not with observation," as many are looking for it and trying to hasten it, while with invisible sights and inaudible sounds its steady and most assured progress is being made, yet all need but "lift up their eyes to behold a new era upon them." This new era, it is true, has still within it very much remaining to be done, but what has been done is our assurance for the accomplishing of what yet remains. Many generous friends are eagerly helping our boys and girls to secure a Christian education, upon which more than anything else this steady and assured progress depends. With these our larger needs are ever increasing to keep pace with the demand for church and school work. The homelike girls' dormitory which the generous hand of Mrs. Nettie F. McCormick has provided urgently needs to be matched by a boys' dormitory on the same grounds here at Burnsville. Four thousand dollars would build and furnish a most commodious home for the increasing number of sturdy young men who are being attracted to the Stanley McCormick School from year to year. Thus, with manual training to match the excellent department of domestic science established for the girls by their friend, that practical Christian education upon which we are so largely dependent in our work would receive a new and telling impetus. Educational Work in the Mountains By the Rev. Albert Reid, Jupiter, North Carolina. Our Presbyterian work in the Southern mountains is largely educational. There are colleges and preparatory schools, industrial and other boarding schools, of almost every kind and grade. There are graded schools and day schools associated with many of our churches, and day schools in many places where we have no organized churches, but only preaching stations and Sunday schools. Our work is educational in another sense. We endeavor to make our Sunday-school work of a high character, by having the best available teachers the teachers sent by the Home Board to take charge of the school work doing duty in the Sunday school. These are women of high Christian character, as well as ability to teach. We do not, however, try to take children away from other Sunday schools, but encourage loyalty to their own, while we try to gather in those not attending anywhere; and they are many. In some places other denominations have no Sunday school in connection with their church work; so we are helping them in training up their children. Some, fearing our influence will make Presbyterians of their children, have organized Sunday schools in self-defence. Surely if we succeed in spurring others on to greater and better efforts we are accomplishing something, and we can but rejoice in their progress. Again, our work is educating them to the fact that something more is needed than a service once a month, as is the case with the great majority of the country churches in this locality. The people have grown used to that custom and many desire nothing better. In fact, we have to contend with that old idea right among our own membership. But things are changing for the better in education and in religion. It is an unfortunate circumstance. however, that there are not enough Presby terian ministers to do the work on the basis of a service every Sabbath. We are endeavoring to lift up a higher standard in every respect. The old idea that a minister of the gospel need not have any education, and need not give his time to ministry, must die. The Christian life must be something more than an empty profession. The people are slow to heed instruction. whether in farming, stock raising, building, or in the Christian life, if precept only is given; but quick to see a good example and to follow it. And so by all these ways, and many more. we are trying to set before the people the higher standards of an intelligent Christianity, and the higher ideals of life demanded by the teachings of Holy Scripture, for which the Presbyterian Church has ever stood, and we trust, ever shall stand. Cross Country to Presbytery-and an After-Thought By the Rev. Frederic Lee Webb, Flag Pond, Tennessee. one was no exception, but carried his "presbytery clothes" and other luggage in a pair of those bulging mountain suitcases. There are shorter roads than the one chosen in this case, but shortcuts are seldom paths of ease, hence the choice. Down Big South Indian to Rocky Fork, then up Devil's Fork Creek to the state line, and out of Holston into French Broad Presbytery. Crossing this arm of North Carolina, one follows the head waters of Shelton Laurel, then rising above the source springs of this creek the traveler comes out on the scured the eye could feast on views of range after range of mountains rugged and bold, with the soft green of spring still upon them, and of farms freshly plowed lying in their valleys. Out from one of the most secluded and seemingly inaccessible ravines, a light waft of smoke curled lazily-suggesting to the tutored mind the probable location of a small "mountain laboratory" where visitors are few and select. Oh, these noble mountains! Their very air suggests freedom. Can any one wonder that |