The Great opportunity 
 
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North Carolina 
 
 The Great Opportunity 
 
 ALEXANDER W. CRAWFORD 
 
 Superintendent of Home Missions of the 
 Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina 
 
 The Home Mission Committee of the Synod of North Carolina 
 in connection with the Presbyterian Church in the 
 United States, Inc. 
 
 JOS. J. STONE & COMPANY 
 Greensboro, N. C. 
 1923 
 
North Carolina — the Great Opportunity 
 
 The Great Development. 
 
 The Great Need. 
 
 The Peculiar Access. 
 
 The Great System of Mission Work. 
 
 The Great Movement. 
 
North Carolina— 
 
 The Great Opportunity 
 
 THE GREAT DEVELOPMENT 
 
 The rapid growth and development of North 
 Carolina is attracting notice everywhere, outside 
 of the state. 
 
 The big metropolitan dailies, like the New York 
 Times, and magazines of high standing, like the 
 Manufacturers Becord, are telling the story to the 
 world. 
 
 The New York Times:* 
 
 "It ever a commonwealth went in head over 
 heels, to boom and develop itself, that common- 
 wealth is the Old North State. That which has hit 
 North Carolina is not even a forty-seventh cousin 
 of the old time western boom. It is a financial, 
 industrial, commercial regeneration. " 
 
 The Manufacturers Eecord:t 
 
 "•North Carolina is one of the most prosperous 
 states of the Union. It is developing, industrially, 
 commercially, agriculturally, with amazing ra- 
 pidity. ' ' 
 
 GROWTH IN POPULATION 
 
 In the census period 1910 to 1920, the increase of 
 the whole United States was 15%, including large 
 bodies of immigrants from foreign lands. In North 
 
 * James Arthur Seavey, Staff Correspondent, New York 
 Times, October 22, 1922. 
 
 t Manufacturers Record, Editorial, September 21, 1922. 
 
Carolina, with practically no immigration from for- 
 eign lands, the increase was greater, namely, 16%: 
 from 2,206,287 in 1910 to 2,559,123 in 1920. In- 
 crease 352,836. 
 
 This corresponds with the fact that the birth 
 rate in North Carolina is the highest of any state 
 in the Union (in 1921 33 8/10 per thousand), while 
 the death rate is among the lowest (11 9/10 per 
 thousand of the population in 1921). 
 
 CHARACTER OF THE POPULATION— NATIVE 
 AMERICAN NOT FOREIGN STOCK 
 
 North Carolina has the largest per cent of 
 native American stock and the smallest per cent of 
 foreign stock of any state in the Union. The cen- 
 sus of 1920 shows the following startling facts: 
 
 New York City has 76% of foreign stock. 
 
 Boston has 73% of foreign stock. 
 
 Chicago has 72% of foreign stock. 
 
 In the ten largest cities of the United States 
 66% of population is of foreign stock. Nine of the 
 states have more than half of the population of 
 
 foreign stock, namely: 
 
 Rhode Island 69% 
 
 Massachusetts 68% 
 Connecticut and North Dakota 65% 
 
 New York 62% 
 
 Wisconsin 59% 
 
 New Jersey 58% 
 
 Michigan 53% 
 
 Illinois 50% 
 
 The New England States together 60% 
 
 Foreign stock includes those who were themselves born 
 in foreign lands or whose parents were born in foreign 
 lands. 
 
 4 
 
Outside of the South the foreign stock is 
 48 2/10%, or nearly half of the total population. 
 
 In the whole South it is 8%. The lowest states: 
 
 Virginia 3% 
 
 Alabama 2 2/10% 
 
 Georgia 1 6/10% 
 
 Mississippi 1 5/10% 
 
 South Carolina 1% 
 
 North Carolina 7/10 of 1%, the smallest in the 
 Union. 
 
 GROWTH IN AGRICULTURE 
 
 In 1919 North Carolina stood twelfth in the 
 Union in the total value of crop production. 
 
 In 1920 it climbed in one year to sixth place and 
 in 1921 to fifth place, only four states surpassing 
 it in the total value of crops grown, namely: 
 Texas first place, California second, Illinois third, 
 New York fourth. To appreciate this the size of 
 North Carolina must be remembered. While fifth 
 in value of crop production, it is twenty-seventh in 
 size, having a total area of 52,426 square miles, of 
 which 3,686 square miles are water surface, 48,740 
 square miles land surface. 
 
 GROWTH IN MANUFACTURES 
 
 In 1910 North Carolina was the twenty-seventh 
 state in the Union in the value of its manufactured 
 products. 
 
 In 1914 it had climbed to the eighteenth place 
 and in 1920 to the fifteenth place. 
 
 It now leads all Southern States except Texas 
 and all New England States except Connecticut and 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 5 
 
It leads the South in cotton manufacture and 
 leads the Union in the number of cotton mills. 
 
 The largest hosiery mill in the world is at 
 Durham. 
 
 The largest towel mill in the world is at Kan- 
 napolis. 
 
 The largest denim mill in the world is at Greens- 
 boro. 
 
 The largest damask mill in the world is at 
 Eoanoke Rapids. 
 
 The three chief items of manufacture are to- 
 bacco, cotton and furniture. 
 
 Tobacco manufacture centers in Winston-Salem 
 and Durham. 
 
 Furniture manufacture centers chieflv about 
 High Point. Hard wood, of which the furniture is 
 made, in the western section, and pine in the east- 
 ern section, together yield the largest supply in all 
 Eastern United States, the total only surpassed by 
 Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, in 
 the South, and Washington and Oregon. 
 
 The cotton manufacture, while more laroelv dis- 
 tributed, centers largely in the central southern 
 section about Charlotte and Gastonia. The town of 
 Gastonia alone has 49 cotton mills, and the morning 
 papers of October 4, 1922, reported the organization 
 of the 100th cotton mill in Gaston County. While 
 we write this the morning papers of December 5, 
 1922, announce the 103rd. 
 
 HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER 
 
 Xorth Carolina ? s handicap in manufacture was 
 in lack of coal, while states to the north of us 
 were booming in their development with the un- 
 
 6 
 
earthing of their untold power in coal. We have 
 discovered that all the while there was a greater 
 hydro-electric power undeveloped at our own doors. 
 We know now that no other state in the eastern 
 section, except New York, excells us in this respect. 
 
 The width of the state from mountain top to coast 
 is great, 503 miles. The area from mountain top to 
 the "Fall Line, 99 the boundary between " Pied- 
 mont 99 and "Coastal Plain, 9 9 which affords the 
 area for drainage, is great. Hence the length, the 
 regular flow and the great fall of its rivers and the 
 enormous hydro-electric power for the running of 
 its factories and the lighting of its cities. 
 
 The horsepower available is estimated by the 
 most conservative engineers at 1,000,000. Other 
 engineers estimate as much as twice that amount. 
 About one-third of the most conservative estimate, 
 namely, 360,000 horsepower, has been developed 
 and with that the present great development of the 
 state has proceeded. Full twice as much is yet 
 unharnessed. 
 
 THE OUTLOOK 
 
 Three unique features indicate what is before 
 us to conservative observers without, like the great 
 dailies, and the magazines of high standing, and to 
 friends within. 
 
 1. The raw materials for our factories are 
 giown on our own soil: the cotton, the tobacco, the 
 hard wood and pine lumber. 
 
 2. The inexhaustible hydro-electric power 
 which we have just well begun to harness. 
 
 Instead of exhausting our raw materials and 
 our power, we increase our wealth by stimu- 
 lation of the growth of the products of the soil and 
 
 7 
 
the wealth of power is ever being renewed by the 
 rains of heaven. 
 
 *" While other states are using np their iron 
 ore and glass sand, their coal and their gas fuel, 
 North Carolina goes ahead making its material and 
 its power from its constant resources, and it is the 
 one state in the Union that has its manufacturing 
 industries based on a permanent source of power 
 and material. 
 
 3. By no means the least of the three unique 
 features of the present outlook is the character and 
 amount of the supply of labour for our factories. 
 The manufacturers of the Xorth have to look largely 
 to immigration. Hence the unrest, the dissatisfac- 
 tion, the introduction of all kinds of evil and crime. 
 We have a law-abiding native born people increas- 
 ing with marvelous rapidity, more -rapidly than the 
 country as a whole, and that without immigration. 
 
 There is no state immigration office. The senti- 
 ment is against alien labour for our farms and fac- 
 tories. There is no appreciable conflict between 
 capital and labour except where fomented and 
 financed from without. "The white farm tenant 
 population could well afford double the present fac- 
 tory supply, which would mean an increase of ten 
 fold in factory production." (Dr. Branson.) Man- 
 ufacturers elsewhere are seeking just such labour 
 conditions as we supply, the large local native born 
 white population, especially in our milder climate 
 where conditions of living are more favourable and 
 the cost of living less. 
 
 * Bion H. Butler, in Universitv News Letter, Septem- 
 ber 13th, 1922. 
 
 S 
 
THE HIGHWAY DEVELOPMENT 
 
 In no other state except Pennsylvania is there 
 anything like North Carolina ? s highway building. 
 The legislature of 1919 authorized the expenditure 
 of $50,000,000 for permanent highways. This with 
 the amounts voted by the counties and the aid from 
 the federal government gives approximately $100,- 
 000,000. The State Highway Commission have in 
 hand the building of 6,051 miles of modern high- 
 ways in the state. 16,000 men are employed in the 
 work and they are completing about 5 miles a day. 
 The work is going forward at a cost of approxi- 
 mately $100,000 a day and $25,000,000 a year, look- 
 ing to the completion of the system now planned by 
 1925. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATION 
 
 The most noticeable thing to one who constantly 
 travels the state is the new school buildings. Hand- 
 some, modern brick buildings meet you everywhere. 
 This has been made possible in part by the growth 
 of the consolidated school. 
 
 $4,000,000 was expended by the state for ele- 
 mentary public schools in 1914. 
 
 $16,000,000 was expended for elementary public 
 schools in 1921-22, a four-fold increase in eight 
 years. 
 
 $42,000,000 was voted and expended for public 
 education in a single year, June 30th, 1921, to July 
 1st, 1922. 
 
 $6,000,000 to $7,000,000 is now being expended 
 by the state for new buildings for its university 
 and state colleges, with $20,000,000 as the ultimate 
 plan. 
 
 9 
 
In four years illiteracy has been reduced from 
 18 5/10% of the population of ten years and older, 
 to 13 1/10%. While the illiteracy of the whole pop- 
 ulation is more than the average, the percentage for 
 the white population, 8 2/10%, is not much greater 
 than that for the whole United States, 6 1/10%, and 
 the development of our educational system has just 
 begun to show effects. We have caught the pace. 
 We only need to keep it. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Greater than every other element of develop- 
 ment, population, agriculture, manufactures, hydro- 
 electric power, highways, even greater than educa- 
 tion, is the problem of the religious development — 
 the growth of the Kingdom of God. For some 
 things here we can thank God: While the growth 
 of the population in North Carolina was 16%, 1910 
 to 1920, the growth in membership of some of the 
 larger denominations from 1906 to 1916, the times 
 of the taking of the religious census, was as fol- 
 lows (the government figures) : 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in North 
 Carolina, from 151,808 in 1906 to 199,764 in 1916, 
 a growth of 47,954, or 31 6/10%. 
 
 The Southern Baptist Convention in North Car- 
 olina, from 202,798 in 1906 to 279,112 in 1916, a 
 growth of 76,314 or 37 6/10%. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church, U. S., in North Caro- 
 lina, from 41,322 in 1906 to 57,836 in 1916, a growth 
 of 16,514, or 40%. 
 
 This is the brightest spot in all the development 
 of our fair state, that the percentage of growth of 
 the Kingdom of God has been from two to two and 
 
 10 
 
one-half times the percentage of growth of the pop- 
 ulation. 
 
 The growth of the churches in all the South has 
 been greater than elsewhere in the United States, 
 but in North Carolina greater than for the balance 
 of the South. Compare: 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for the 
 whole church, growth 29 1/10%; for North Caro- 
 lina 31 6/10%. 
 
 Southern Baptist Convention, for the whole 
 church, growth 34 8/10%; for North Carolina, 
 37 6/10%. 
 
 Presbyterian Church U. S. (South) for the whole 
 church, growth 34 3/10%; for North Carolina, 40%. 
 
 THE GREAT NEED 
 
 We do well to rejoice at the great development 
 now going on in every department in our state, but 
 if so elated that we lose sight of the undeveloped 
 resources and the need it would be the profoundest 
 folly. In its material development see: 
 
 IN AGRICULTURE 
 
 North Carolina, Illinois and Iowa are of about 
 the same area. Iowa has 28,000,000 acres under cul- 
 tivation; Illinois, 27,000,000; North Carolina, 8,- 
 000,000. 
 
 While in the very forefront in the production 
 of cotton, tobacco, lumber, we are importing 48% 
 of food which we consume and of that which is 
 consumed by the live stock of the state, not count- 
 ing dainties and luxuries of diet, and thus sending 
 $232,227,000 (1920) to the farmers of the North and 
 
 11 
 
West for food and feed which we could grow on 
 cur own soil. 
 
 IN MANUFACTURES 
 
 Only about one-half of the present available 
 native labour supply and one-third of the available 
 hydro-electric power is being utilized. 
 
 IN EDUCATION 
 
 Including our negro population. 24 x o% of whom 
 ten vears and older are illiterate, we vet rank forty- 
 first, the eighth from the lowest, with a total per- 
 centage of 13 1 10% illiterate, ten years and over, 
 surpassed only by Georgia 15 3, 10%, Arizona 
 
 15 3/10 9c, Xew Mexico 15 6/10%, Alabama 
 
 16 1/10%, Mississippi 17 2/10 %, South Carolina 
 18 1/10%, and Louisiana 21 9/10%. 
 
 Of the native white stock S 2 10% over ten are 
 illiterate, surpassed only by Louisiana 10 5/10%, 
 and Xew Mexico 11 6/10%, while the average of 
 the native white stock for the whole United States 
 is 2%. 
 
 Tn per capita public school expenditures in 1919- 
 20, we ranked forty-fifth place, expending 63.74 per 
 capita, as compared with $20.57 for Xorth Dakota, 
 which stood at the top; only three states spending 
 less per capita: Mississippi 63.53. Georgia $3.46. 
 South Carolina $2.60. 
 
 THE GREAT NEED: RELIGIOUS 
 
 Deeply as we are concerned in our need in agri- 
 culture, in manufactures, and especially in educa- 
 tion, that which concerns us most vitally is our 
 religious need. 
 
 12 
 
Deducting 28% of our total population for chil- 
 dren under ten years, of the remainder, ten years 
 and older, the religious census showed 649,237 who 
 claimed no connection with any religious organiza- 
 tion, or 38% of all of those ten years old and over. 
 Keligious bodies, in the census, includes Mormons 
 and everything that calls itself religious, Christian 
 or non-Christian. Adding to this 38% in the whole 
 state, those which we do not recognize as Christian 
 and those on the church rolls who would not them- 
 selves claim to have a right there, we face the fact 
 that not one-half of our people are Christians. Six- 
 teen counties reported in the census more than 50% 
 connected with no religious body; four counties 
 more than 60%; one county, 69%. 
 
 Where are these people? 
 
 1. Eight about in our own homes, often those 
 in our own kitchens, the clerks in our own employ, 
 our near neighbor or business associates. We take 
 too much for granted. By personal work with those 
 who are in physical reach of us we need to know 
 where they stand. 
 
 A careful exact canvass by any church of its 
 own immediate surroundings will reveal many cases 
 which they did not know or of whom they did not 
 think. Such canvass should be often made. This 
 is G-od's first call to us. 
 
 2. The great teeming multitudes who are being 
 gathered into our mill villages. They are our own 
 American stock. They were tenants on our farms, 
 or from the little worn out farm in a back country 
 district, or from the little almost inaccessible home 
 in the mountain valley. They were many of them 
 
 13 
 
almost inaccessible in their old places. Now they 
 are massed together in great bodies where we can 
 reach them and where their children can be reached 
 and the call of God to us is great and strong and 
 clear. 
 
 3. The whole counties and sections of counties, 
 occupied by those of a religious faith which had 
 no place for Sunday Schools or mission work or the 
 pressing of the offer of a free salvation in Christ 
 Jesus. Though influenced yet by the faith of their 
 fathers thev are in the main without church con- 
 nection. A Sunday School is a revelation to them. 
 With the coming of the new development, in agri- 
 culture, in education, they are turning to the light. 
 They are in the main people of strong character. 
 A strong accentuation of the sovereignty of God in 
 their old faith, even if it was carried to the extreme 
 of fatalism, did develop strong types of character. 
 They occupy some of the most fertile sections of 
 the state, many of them well to do, but often less 
 than a half dozen out of the hundred of church 
 age in any church. 
 
 Here too God's call to us in North Carolina is 
 great and strong and clear. 
 
 THE PECULIAR ACCESS 
 
 1. OUR PRESBYTERIAN DOCTRINE 
 
 The large bodies just above mentioned, occu- 
 pying whole counties and sections of counties, re- 
 ceive us with peculiar favor because we preach the 
 sovereignty of God as their fathers did. They car- 
 ried it beyond the teaching of God's word to fatal- 
 
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ism. We mingle it with the free offer of God's 
 salvation in Christ Jesus and we have the access to 
 them as no other church has. The barriers are the 
 more easily broken down. The Sunday School 
 meets the great hunger of child life and the young 
 people and we do get the hold. 
 
 2. THE PRESTIGE OF OUR CHURCH 
 
 Our fathers won it for us. They may not have 
 emphasized evangelism as we do today, but by their 
 stand for a high order of church membership and 
 ministry they won for our church the peculiar con- 
 fidence of men. 
 
 Today go where we may in North Carolina the 
 way is open to us. Those of us who have worked 
 in sections of the new west know the contrast. We 
 had to earn there what our fathers left us here as 
 our heritage. 
 
 Other churches larger have a much larger fol- 
 lowing of their own people. But we believe none 
 has greater if any so great access to the unchurched. 
 
 3. THE NATIVE AMERICAN STOCK. 
 
 We do not have to deal with the foreigner with 
 the peculiar conditions which surround him, difficult 
 of approach, often suspicious, often criminal. These 
 are our own people, from our own farms and reared 
 on the same soil and mainly under conditions the 
 same as our own. The immigrant problem is great 
 where it exists. The call of God to it is strong. 
 But ours with our native American stock is a far 
 easier one. 
 
 The Great Development, the Great Need, the 
 Peculiar Access point to the Great Opportunity in 
 
 15 
 
North Carolina today. Shall the church of God 
 keep pace with the development in agriculture 
 and manufactures and roads and education? The 
 state goes forward with tremendous strides. We 
 must not fail. We must keep pace. We can do it 
 in His name. 
 
 W T e have the best possible organization of mis- 
 sion work to do it with and the movement is on. 
 
 Let us study then our fine system of mission 
 work and the movement. 
 
 THE GREAT SYSTEM OF MISSION 
 
 WORK 
 
 How shall we meet our great opportunity? We 
 believe with the best possible system of mission 
 work. Our whole Presbyterian system is based on 
 the power which comes from God's Spirit through 
 His people. It comes not down to us through Pope 
 or Council or General Assembly or any church court. 
 Given of God's Spirit to His people it comes up 
 from them and by them is delegated to the church 
 courts above. 
 
 So in all our church work, the responsibility 
 begins not with the General Assembly or any church 
 court, but with the individual. 
 
 The foundation stone of all our mission work 
 is then 
 
 PERSONAL EVANGELISM 
 
 It is the greatest dormant force in the church of 
 God today. The personal responsibility for the 
 man, the woman, the boy, the girl, that is next to 
 
 16 
 
me, whom I can personally influence. When God's 
 people hear this call, the Master speaking to me, 
 "I have chosen you and ordained you that ye 
 should go, *' and simply and honestly will under- 
 take to bring the one next, to Christ, then the 
 solution of winning the world for Christ will be 
 begun. There are signs of its growth. In an 
 honest sane way men are going after men and 
 banding themselves together to do this thing. 
 
 This is the great solution and the foundation of 
 the whole system. No action of church courts, no 
 work of Home Mission Committee can take its 
 place. 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL HOME MISSIONS 
 
 The chief purpose of the congregation is its 
 mission work. That is not just the statement of a 
 mission secretary. The Master says it was his pur- 
 pose: — "I have chosen you and ordained you that 
 ye should go." We exist as a congregation not 
 first for culture, but first for extension, and the 
 spiritual culture comes with it. It is just an organ- 
 ization of individuals to do together better what 
 could not be done as well separately. The church 
 that does not catch this vision misses its mission. 
 Not simply the mission work done by agencies 
 which we support with our money and even with 
 cur prayer, but first of all the mission work in 
 physical reach. Scarcely a church so small but 
 that it can open work in some adjacent community 
 where it is needed, and where the members them- 
 selves put their own personal labour into it. 
 
 Congregational Home Missions is thus finely 
 worked in some of our churches. One pastor of a 
 
 17 
 
good active, wide-awake church in the county which 
 reports the largest percentage of people out of the 
 church in the state, reported recently 12 Sunday 
 Schools being run by his peojjle or planned to be 
 organized and run bv them. Here, too, is a tre- 
 
 <ZT w 7 7 
 
 mendous dormant force. 
 
 We can lay it down as a rule that so far as pos- 
 sible every church ought to finance and control 
 the mission work in geographic reach and not to 
 call on the Presbvter^' for aid to do the work which 
 thev can do themselves. Thev are the ones first 
 responsible for it. 
 
 Many churches are now engaged actively in 
 this work. Last year they reported S44.S15.00 ex- 
 pended in this wav in the Svnod. 
 
 PRESS YTERIAL HOME MISSIONS 
 
 Just as the individuals organized into a church 
 can do better work, which could not be so well done 
 by them separatelv. so the work of the churches is 
 organized in the Presbvterv. It stimulates the 
 work of the congregations. It does the work be- 
 tween the bounds of the congregations which they 
 themselves could not reach. Through it the 
 stronger churches help support the weaker so that 
 the whole Presbytery can advance together. 
 
 Total of Presbyterial Home Missions. 
 
 Presbvterial Home Missions makes a fine show- 
 ing when the work of all seven of the Presbyteries 
 is combined. 
 
 In all for the vear closing with the 1922 Svnod 
 they aided from their own funds 211 of their 
 churches in the support of their work, in charge of 
 
 18 
 
115 workers, mainly ordained ministers, bnt includ- 
 ing seminary students and Sunday School workers, 
 men and trained women. These workers served 
 113 other mission stations. 1546 were added to the 
 churches in their work, upon profession of faith. 
 They organized 36 new Sunday Schools and 14 
 churches and expended of their own funds $61,024 
 for Presbyterial Home Missions. 
 
 In no Synod of our church are the Presbyteries 
 better organized for a more aggressive work. 
 
 The Synod's Committee in all its 34 years his- 
 tory has always aimed to push the Presbytery to 
 the front, in no case and in no department to take 
 the place of the Presbytery's work, but to work 
 back of the Presbytery and through it, on the 
 foundation principle of all our work that the re- 
 sponsibility for and the financing and control of 
 all our mission work should be kept as close to the 
 base as possible: 
 
 First, personal work; then the work of the con- 
 gregations; next that of the Presbyteries; then 
 
 SYNODICAL HOME MISSIONS 
 
 The year 1888 was a memorable one in the his- 
 tory of the Presbyterian Church in North Carolina. 
 In that year at the meeting of the Synod at Golds- 
 boro two great movements were inaugurated: 
 Barium Springs Orphanage and Synodical Home 
 Missions. 
 
 As we look backward it seems the beginning of 
 a new era and these movements grew out of the 
 awakening of a new evangelistic aggressive spirit. 
 The same spirit began to show itself in the awaken- 
 
 19 
 
ing of the Presbyteries to a new aggressive work 
 of which evangelism has been the keynote. 
 
 With the passing of the years this movement 
 has grown and deepened and the aggressiveness of 
 the church in North Carolina is the feature of our 
 church life today. So it was that Synodical Home 
 Missions found its place in our great system. 
 
 Its place is 
 
 1. To stimulate the work in all its bounds. 
 This is done by gathering and disseminating infor- 
 mation as to the conditions and need; by devising 
 plans and initiating movements in the Presbyter- 
 ies, as the survey made in the summer of 1922. 
 
 2. It unifies and co-ordinates the work of all 
 the Presbyteries so that the strongest parts of the 
 Synod will line up with the weakest in a unified 
 forward movement. 
 
 In some parts of the church, especially in the 
 weaker Synods, this is done by the Assembly's work. 
 In North Carolina this is done through the Synod 
 upon the same principle upon which our whole sys- 
 tem is established: to keep the responsibility for, 
 and the financing and control of, the work as near 
 the base as possible. 
 
 This was expressed in the memorable action of 
 the Synod at Durham in 1891: 
 
 "Synod recognizes that upon it and upon its 
 Presbyteries is laid the responsibility for the evan- 
 gelization of its territory, and in humble reliance 
 upon the Head of the Church, receives this trust 
 from His hand and pledges itself to its faithful 
 prosecution. ' ' 
 
 20 
 
3. It presents to God's people the distinct ap- 
 peal of a state wide interest for their support. The 
 work about your own church has its own strong 
 appeal. Some even can see it when they cannot 
 see beyond it. It should be used to the utmost. 
 The Presbytery has its appeal. We would not de- 
 tract one particle from it. Let's put the claims of 
 its work the very strongest before our people. But 
 in addition old North Carolina has its big appeal 
 for the redemption of the whole state. More will 
 be given by God 's people, and given freely and will- 
 ingly, if the needs of the Presbytery, and of the 
 whole state, are presented, than would be given to 
 either alone, no matter how urgently put. This gen- 
 eral fund given in response to the state wide appeal 
 is then expended in every part of the Synod, where 
 it is needed most, the whole work is unified and 
 advances together and, aided as every Presbytery 
 is from the Synod's fund, it has more for the work 
 in its territory than it would from the appeal for 
 Presbyterial Home Missions alone. This is history 
 — not theory. 
 
 There is great force in unification. The Ger- 
 man government and army had it developed to the 
 limit. In unification it was the most powerful gov- 
 ernment and army on earth. But its weakness was 
 that it destroyed initiative in its units. We want 
 to get the power there is in unification. That is 
 the purpose of the Synod's work. But we want to 
 guard with scrupulous care and press to the very 
 utmost the initiative — in the individual, in the con- 
 gregation, in the Presbytery. In the combination 
 of the two lies the strength of our North Carolina 
 system. The development of both together has 
 
 21 
 
given its work its great enlargement and its present 
 standing. 
 
 The Organization of the Synod's Work. 
 
 Carrying out the original idea of the Synod's 
 work as just a unification of the work of the Pres- 
 byteries, the foundation of its Home Mission Com- 
 mittee is the chairmen of the Home Mission Com- 
 mittees of the several seven Presbyteries. To 
 these seven are added one elder from each Pres- 
 bytery elected or re-elected by the Synod at each 
 annual meeting, for the ensuing year. To these 
 14 are added the two general evangelists of the 
 Synod. Then the superintendents of the Presby- 
 teries where they are not chairmen of the Presby- 
 teries' Committees, five in number, namely: Mr. 
 Crane of Albemarle, Dr. Clark of Concord, Mr. 
 Smith of Fayetteville, Mr. Daniels of Mecklenburg, 
 Mr. Murray of Wilmington. To these 19 are added 
 the chairman of the Synod's Committee of Sunday 
 Schools and Young People's Work, which is affili- 
 ated with the Home Mission Committee, Eev. J. G. 
 Garth, and the Synod's superintendent of that 
 work, Mr. C. T. Carr. The superintendent of 
 Synodical Home Missions has from the beginning 
 been chairman of the committee, making 22 mem- 
 bers in all. 
 
 This large committee meets in regular annual 
 session just before the meeting of Synod in October; 
 occasionally in special meetings at the call of the 
 chairman. 
 
 At the regular annual meetings the large com- 
 mittee gathers from every Presbytery from every 
 part of the state and the sessions cover a full day. 
 Every department of the work of the year is re- 
 
 22 
 
viewed, a report prepared for Synod and plans made 
 for the ensuing year. Then a smaller executive 
 committee is appointed by the general committee 
 and it meets quarterly for the careful oversight of 
 all the work. 
 
 The Force. 
 
 1. The Superintendent. From the beginning 
 the policy has been to place the responsibility for 
 the conduct of the work largely on one man who 
 should give his whole time and energy to it, the 
 superintendent. He is elected or re-elected an- 
 nually by the Synod. The superintendent has al- 
 ways been chairman of the committee and has the 
 general management of the work. He is treasurer 
 and entrusted with the raising and disbursing of 
 the Synodical Home Mission fund. He is the sec- 
 retary of the committee and has charge of all the 
 records. He is also General Evangelist of the 
 Svnod. 
 
 This list of those who have served the Synod 
 in this office in the 34 years of the work will be of 
 interest to many. The first year there was no 
 formal superintendent, but the work was directed 
 
 by 
 
 Eev. J. W. Primrose, D. D., chairman, 1889. 
 
 Then the superintendents in order as follows: 
 
 Eev. Alexander Sprunt, D. D., two years to 1891. 
 Eev. Egbert W. Smith, D. D., two years to 1893. 
 Eev. William Black, D. D., three years to 1896. 
 Eev. A. J. McKelway, D. D., two years to 1898. 
 Eev. E. E. Gillespie, D. D., six years to 1904. 
 Eev. E. P. Smith, D. D., four years to 1908. 
 
 23 
 
Eev. M. McG. Shields, five and one-half vears 
 to March. 1914. 
 
 Eev. A. W. Crawford, nine vears to the present 
 time. 
 
 2. The General Evangelists of the Synod. 
 
 Through the General Evangelists it has been 
 the policy from the beginning to press the work of 
 evangelism throughout the Synod, providing for the 
 strong churches service the equal of any, and for 
 the weakest mission fields the same high character 
 of service that the stronger churches could secure 
 for themselves. A definite number of series of 
 evangelistic services is allotted to each Presbvterv. 
 Keeping the Presbytery's Committee to the front 
 as in every other department, arrangement for the 
 services is committed to the chairman or superin- 
 tendent of the Presbytery, the Synod 's superinten- 
 dent and the Synod's evangelist, working together. 
 
 Our General Evangelists are now two: Eev. 
 William Black. D. D.. and Eev. Leonard Gill. 
 
 Rev. William Black. D. D., has been in the ser- 
 vice of the Synod since 1S94, three years as super- 
 intendent, and continuouslv since as our honored 
 and beloved General Evangelist. He has held evan- 
 gelistic services in every part of the state in lit- 
 erallv hundreds of churches. His labours have been 
 greatly blessed of God and thousands have been 
 bi ought into the Kingdom of God under his preach- 
 ing. Seemingly handicapped greatly by impaired 
 eyesight, actual statistics of his work show the 
 latter vears of his labours have been the most 
 fruitful of any period of his long service. 
 
 Rev. Leonard Gill, formerly superintendent for 
 Mecklenburg Presbvterv. is in his third vear of 
 
 24 
 
service of the Synod and his labours have been 
 greatly and increasingly fruitful. 
 
 The whole Synod is indebted to God for the 
 faithful and fruitful service our two General Evan- 
 gelists are rendering. Last Synod ? s year 57 of the 
 508 churches of the Synod had their services, re- 
 sulting in 886 additions to these churches upon pro- 
 fession of faith and 111 by letter. 
 
 3. The Men in the Local Fields of the Pres- 
 byteries. 
 
 Of the approximately 250 pastors in charge of 
 churches and evangelists in mission territory in the 
 Synod, 60 ordained ministers and 10 seminary stu- 
 dents for summer work were supported wholly or 
 in part the last Synod's year by the Synod's funds. 
 In addition there were 14 Sunday School mission- 
 aries, 4 men, and 10 women, working especially in 
 the mill villages. Through these local evangelists 
 we aided in the support of the work of 135 of the 
 508 churches of the Synod besides 99 other mission 
 points. This indicates how widespread the work 
 of the Synod's Committee is, in every Presbytery, 
 in every part of the Synod. Through the meetings 
 of the General Evangelists and the work of the 
 men in the local fields 177 of our 508 churches were 
 served and 1709 added to these churches on profes- 
 sion of faith besides 358 by letter, and 19 new Sun- 
 day Schools and 12 churches were organized. 
 
 This, not as a work independent from the Pres- 
 byteries as a whole, or in any part, but in co-opera- 
 tion with them in every part, placing men as re- 
 quested by them, adding to salaries of men in the 
 field supported in part by Presbytery's funds; 
 
 25 
 
helping wherever help was needed and declining no 
 application from a Presbytery for assistance, urg- 
 ing them forward and promising the help of the 
 whole Synod so far as needed in every advance 
 movement. 
 
 The beauty of it all has been that under this 
 system every Presbytery has made the finest growth 
 in its own Presbyterial Home Mission work. There 
 is not a laggard among them. The more unstinted 
 the Synod's support of their work has been, the 
 greater has been their own initiative and hand in 
 hand the Synod and Presbyteries are working for 
 the taking of this great land we love for Christ. 
 
 Total Home Mission Work in the Synod's Bounds. 
 
 Combining the work of the Synod and of the 
 Presbyteries in the year closing with Synod 1922, 
 139 or fully one-half of all our ministers in the 
 active work of the church were engaged in its mis- 
 sion fields and 299 of our 50S churches were aided 
 in the support of their work by our mission funds. 
 There were 2152 additions to these churches on 
 profession of faith out of a total of 3691 for the 
 whole Synod as reported in the Assembly's min- 
 utes of 1922 for a vear. Adding the amount ex- 
 pended by the congregations for Congregational 
 Home Missions, the total amount expended on our 
 home mission work in the Svnod's bounds for a 
 year was $158,395. 
 
 ASSEMBLY'S HOME MISSIONS 
 
 Upon the basis of the action of the Synod at 
 Durham in 1891 when getting our Synodical Home 
 Mission work into operation: — that upon the Synod 
 and its Presbyteries first is laid the responsibility 
 
 26 
 
for the evangelization of its own territory — we 
 have gone forward with our task. In doing it we 
 should never lose sight, however, of the tremen- 
 dous responsibility laid on the General Assembly's 
 Committee in its great task. They are entitled to 
 our unstinted support in their great work especially 
 in the weaker (Synods. 16% of all our benevolent 
 contributions are assigned for the Assembly's work 
 and should not be infringed on. The task of the 
 whole church is one and though we work in our 
 own place in our own territory, only as we support 
 the Assembly's work can the church advance as a 
 whole in our great southland. 
 
 A GREAT MOVEMENT 
 
 A movement is on in North Carolina today 
 unlike anything we know elsewhere in our church, 
 a deliberate attempt to man our whole territory and 
 place the work of our church in every place in the 
 state where there is need of it. It began in 1917-18. 
 
 For 30 years, since 1888, when the awakening 
 spirit of evangelism expressed itself in the in- 
 auguration of Synodical Home Missions, and in a 
 new development in the work of all the Presbyteries, 
 from one aspect the church had been making re- 
 markable growth, uniformly 2y 2 times the percent- 
 age of growth of the population. It was a mar- 
 velous blessing of God upon a small amount of 
 effort expended. But openings for aggressive ad- 
 vance work were upon every side, into which we 
 were not entering, and a large part of our effort 
 was expended in holding back to keep from debt, 
 
 27 
 
when the call of God for advance and the pressure 
 from the need in the open fields upon every side 
 was almost irresistible. 
 
 With mature deliberation and much conference 
 and earnest prayer we came to this: Would it not 
 be possible for us in Xorth Carolina to face our 
 whole task, to rind just what God has for us as a 
 church to do today and to make an honest effort 
 to do it? 
 
 A fine response came from every side. Min- 
 isters and prominent laymen said: Do it. Ee- 
 sponse from the churches to the appeal on this basis 
 showed immediate and large increase. The move- 
 ment was on. 
 
 The Synod meeting at Ealeigh in October, 1919, 
 gave this expression to it: 
 
 "We do now therefore undertake, in co-opera- 
 tion with the Presbyteries, to place at the earliest 
 possible day a man in every field in the bounds 
 of the Synod where there is an evident need for 
 the work of our church.'' 
 
 Since the appeal was made on this basis from 
 1918 to this time the Synod 's Committee has not 
 had to decline a single request from the Presby- 
 teries for its support in any advance work. The 
 number of those aided in the local work by the 
 Synod's Committee has increased from 33 in 1918 
 to 84 in 1922, and contributions for the support of 
 the work of the Synod increased as follows: 
 
 1916 $13,154 
 
 1917 15,416 
 
 1918 18,038 
 
 28 
 
1919 28,358 
 
 1920 36,542 
 
 1921 41,563 
 
 1922 48,136 
 
 1923, our budget of appropriations runs to 
 $60,000. 
 
 The receipts of Presbyterial Home Missions in- 
 creased in like proportion and their work and the 
 Synod 's work grew together. 
 
 The movement is on and has passed the prelimi- 
 nary stages. We are now where the whole prob- 
 lem and our high resolve has to be faced in big 
 fashion and put over. We are trying to do it delib- 
 erately and in sane business way. 
 
 We had to know as definitely as possible what 
 our task is. Hence the 
 
 Survey. 
 
 At the request of the Synod's Committee it was 
 made in the Presbyteries in the summer of 1922 as 
 indicated in the exhibit of each Presbytery in the 
 following pages. The reports were made to Synod 
 from every Presbytery. Some were full and 
 exhaustive. Some of the estimates are low. But 
 together they give us a good safe working basis 
 upon which to plan the advance. 
 
 Together they indicate 41 fields in the bounds 
 of the Synod where we need to place men now, and 
 the way is open and the call of God is clear. The 
 additional cost is estimated at about $60,000 an- 
 nually for the Synod and Presbyteries combined, 
 perhaps about half that amount each. 
 
 29 
 
It means just the full amount apportioned to the 
 churches in the regular budget for Presbyterial 
 and for Synodical Home Missions, but it does mean 
 all of it. 
 
 $75,000.00 is now apportioned in the budget for 
 Synodical Home Missions or 10% of all our benev- 
 olent contributions. We will need every dime of 
 it, from the churches, the auxiliaries, the Sunday 
 Schools, the Y. P. Societies. 
 
 Churches and Manses. 
 
 The reports of the Presbyteries indicate further 
 what we must face to put the movement over. 28 
 organized churches and 12 other mission fields now 
 without buildings and needing them, and 50 fields, 
 mostly mission fields, without manses or homes for 
 those who man the work. If we go forward this 
 number will be rapidly and largely increased. This 
 need for equipment of the work cannot be met from 
 the regular budget, but we can make little or no 
 true advance without housing the work. The 
 Synod of 1922 appointed a special committee with 
 Dr. Foster, of Winston, as chairman, to study this 
 problem and formulate for the Synod of 1923 some 
 plan to meet it. 
 
 Affiliation of the Synod's Home Mission Committee 
 and the Synod's Committee of Sunday Schools 
 and Y. P. Work. 
 
 The committees are distinct but the work is 
 intimately connected and the lines between cannot 
 be clearly drawn. The mission workers supported 
 wholly or in part by the Synod 's Committee have 
 in the 34 years of its history organized 275 Sun- 
 
 30 
 
day Schools in North Carolina, 70 of them in the 
 last three years in the new movement. 
 
 It has aided each year in the expense of the 
 Y. P. conferences. 
 
 On the other hand the Sunday School work is 
 one of the greatest factors in the extension of the 
 mission work. 
 
 Because so intimately related in the great move- 
 ment now going forward, the 1922 Synod, without 
 uniting the two committees, affiliated them, so they 
 could work together. The chairman of each com- 
 mittee is a member of the other. Appropriations 
 for the work of the Sunday School and Y. P. Com- 
 mittee in North Carolina are made by the Home 
 Mission Committee, and the contributions of the 
 Sunday Schools and Y. P. Societies go through the 
 Home Mission Committee for the North Carolina 
 work. 
 
 So are both the better organized for the Great 
 Advance Movement. 
 
 The Great Development, the Great Need, the 
 Peculiar Access, the Great System, the Movement 
 Begun Constitute our Great Opportunity. 
 
 The work is mapped out along definite sane bus- 
 iness lines and our definite task is before us. Why 
 cannot this definite thing of placing the work of 
 our church in every field in the bounds of the 
 Synod where there is a need for the work of our 
 church be done and be done now? God has blessed 
 all out of proportion what we have done. The 
 cost is not unreasonable and not to be named be- 
 sides the amounts we, as a people, are putting up 
 for every other part of our advance. Shall we not 
 do what needs to be done to place the church we 
 
 31 
 
lcve in the place G-od calls us to occupy, and to do 
 what lies before us now — the present task, today? 
 
 Xow while the state is moving with such tre- 
 mendous strides in all else: v ow while we have 
 the access and have our own native people to deal 
 with, before the tides of immigration bring a peo- 
 ple infinitely harder to reach and conditions of 
 social unrest and upheaval infinitely harder to 
 overcome. Xow before the tides of destructive 
 criticism destrovs the vitalitv of our churches, and 
 isms of everv old and new breed take awav bv the 
 thousands those now accessible to us. 
 
 And if we will do this thing may not Xorth 
 Carolina^ already the strongest Synod in our church, 
 be made a great stronghold for America, and so for 
 the world, exerting a staying conservative influ- 
 ence in all the great upheavals and struggles of 
 coining vears in our own land, and sending forth 
 a power and support to the battle with heathenism 
 in the far lands beyond anything we now know? 
 
 This is not a dream, but a vision, based on the 
 facts set forth and the power and the promise of 
 God. 
 
 THIS IS THE GEE AT OPPOETUXITT. 
 
 North Carolina is the best field for our church 
 in America today. 
 
 Did not then the 1922 Svnod at Lincolnton do 
 well when, upon Home Mission night, after a few 
 earnest talks, with deeu solemnitv and evident feel- 
 ing, by a rising vote, it adopted this resolution: 
 
 "With the facts of the survey, just made, defi- 
 nitely before us, we accept the call therein as our 
 
 32 
 
appointed task. In humble reliance upon G-od we 
 resolve to undertake the whole of it, with, the 
 Presbyteries; we challenge them to meet us in the 
 supreme endeavor; and we call upon the church in 
 North Carolina to sustain us in it: — Until we have 
 carried through our resolution of 1919, and placed 
 a man in every field in the bounds of the Synod 
 where there is an evident need for the work of our 
 church. ' * 
 
 Upon this basis the Home Mission Committee 
 of the Synod is now going forward. It is aiding 
 the Presbyteries in placing new men in the fields 
 as fast as we can find them. Its appropriations 
 have gone to $60,000 and will go to the $75,000 
 assigned to the churches for the support of the 
 work as rapidly as the men are secured. We are 
 doing it with confidence in God and in his people, 
 and we are calling on them to sustain us in it. 
 
 33 
 
THE PRESBYTERIES 
 
 The North Carolina Presbyteries are doing a 
 most aggressive work. We give a brief account of 
 each. 
 
 Albemarle. 
 
 Albemarle Presbytery covers the northeast part 
 of the state. It extends from Kaleigh to the Albe- 
 marle Sound and south as far as New Bern. It 
 covers the largest territory of any of the seven 
 Presbyteries and contains 30 counties, in 12 of 
 which there are no Presbyterian churches. Some 
 of these counties are well churched, but in others 
 there are fine openings for our work. In this vast 
 territory we have 50 churches. Of these 21 are 
 aided in the support of their work from the Home 
 Mission funds of the Presbytery and Synod. Only 
 11 of the 50 churches have a pastor for his whole 
 time. There are 32 mission stations where there is 
 no organized church. With a large number of mis- 
 sion churches this Presbytery is doing a fine ag- 
 gressive mission work. They expended of their 
 own funds in the year closing with Synod 1922, 
 $5,243 for Presbyterial Home Missions. 
 
 Eev. A. J. Crane, of Tarboro, is the superin- 
 tendent of Presbyterial Home Missions. In the 
 survey made in the summer of 1922 he reported 
 seven new fields needing men and ready to be 
 entered now, and six organized churches and one 
 mission station needing church buildings and seven 
 fields without manses. The religious census of 1916 
 reported 180,360 persons ten years old and over 
 in this Presbytery without any church connection 
 or about 39% of all old enough. 
 
 35 
 
Wilmington. 
 
 Wilmington Presbytery covers ten counties in 
 the southeast, south of Goldsboro and New Bern 
 and from Sampson, Bladen and Columbus Counties 
 on the west to the coast. In these ten counties 
 the census reports 38% of those ten years and over 
 with no church connection, in number 59,595. Under 
 the leadership of Eev. J. J. Murray, of "Wilmington, 
 the superintendent of Presbyterial Home Missions, 
 the Presbytery is doing a vigorous aggressive work. 
 
 There are 66 Presbyterian churches in these 
 ten counties, only six of which have a pastor for 
 his whole time, and 47 are aided by the Home Mis- 
 sion funds of Presbytery and Synod. There are 35 
 mission stations where there is no organized church. 
 The Presbytery expended of its own funds $6,465.00 
 for Presbyterial Home Missions for the year closing 
 with Synod 1922. In the careful survey of the 
 Presbytery reported to Synod 1922, eleven new 
 fields were reported needing men and ready to be 
 entered now and five organized churches and eleven 
 mission stations without church buildings, and eight 
 fields without manses. 
 
 Fayetteville. 
 
 Fayetteville Presbytery covers nine counties: 
 Eobeson, Scotland, Hoke, Cumberland, Moore, Lee, 
 Chatham, Harnett, Johnston, lying west of Wil- 
 mington Presbytery along the edge of the Pied- 
 mont and the coast plains. It is the great Cape Fear 
 Scotch country. It has the largest number of 
 churches of any Presbytery in the General As- 
 sembly, as hard to count as the cotton mills of 
 Gaston County because added to so rapidly. We 
 
 36 
 
count 122 now, but that will probably not be correct 
 by the time this gets off the press. Only eleven 
 of this great number have a pastor for all his 
 time, and 49 are aided in the support of their work 
 by the Home Mission funds of Presbytery and 
 Synod. There are 30 mission stations where there 
 is no organized church. Eev. L. Smith, of Fayette- 
 ville, is the superintendent of Presbyterial Home 
 Missions. 
 
 The Presbytery expended of its own funds 
 $9,782.00 for Presbyterial Home Missions for the 
 year closing with Synod 1922. Seven organized 
 churches have no church building and eight fields 
 have no manse. 
 
 Mecklenburg. 
 
 Mecklenburg Presbytery covers six counties in 
 the centre of the state east and west and on the 
 south border in the Piedmont country, namely: 
 Mecklenburg, Union, Stanly, Montgomery, Anson, 
 Eichmond. In the census Mecklenburg Presbytery 
 makes a better report than most of the other Pres- 
 byteries of the Synod for church membership, yet 
 44,021, or 34 4/10% of those ten years and older, are 
 out of the church, and the need is great in some 
 sections of these counties. 
 
 There are 86 Presbyterian churches in these 
 six counties, 17 of which have a pastor for his 
 whole time and 46 are aided in support of their 
 work by the Home Mission funds of the Presbytery 
 and Synod. There are also 11 mission stations 
 where there is no organized church. The Presby- 
 tery expended of its own funds $14,196 for Pres- 
 byterial Home Missious in the year closing with 
 
 37 
 
Synod. Six new fields were reported needing men 
 and ready to be entered now, four organized 
 churches needing buildings, and ten fields without 
 manses. 
 
 Eev. M. F. Daniels, Charlotte, N. C, is the 
 superintendent of Presbyterial Home Missions. 
 
 Kings Mountain. 
 
 Kings Mountain Presbytery is the little sister 
 of all the seven Presbyteries. It covers five coun- 
 ties lying west of Mecklenburg, along the southern 
 side of the state, extending to the Blue Eidge 
 Mountains. The counties are Gaston, Lincoln, 
 Cleveland, Eutherford and Polk. The religious 
 census 1916 shows 33,385, or 34 1/10%, of those 
 ten years and older, out of the church, a large part 
 of whom are in the immense mill settlements of 
 Gaston County, with its 103 cotton mills. 
 
 There are 39 Presbyterian churches in these five 
 counties, seven of which have a pastor for his whole 
 time and 25 churches are aided in the support of 
 their work by the Home Mission funds of Presby- 
 tery and Synod. Two churches have no church 
 building and two fields have no manse. 
 
 The Presbytery expended of its own funds $2,951 
 for Presbyterial Home Missions in the year closing 
 with Synod 1922. Kings Mountain is the only 
 Presbytery which does not have a superintendent 
 of Presbyterial Home Missions. Eev. J. H. Hen- 
 derlite, D. D., the pastor of the Gastonia church, 
 is the efficient chairman of the Home Mission Com- 
 mittee of the Presbytery. 
 
 In and about Gastonia we have the finest illus- 
 tration of the fact that the Presbyterian church 
 
 38 
 
is for those in the mills as for every other people — 
 if only we go to them in the right sympathetic and 
 aggressive way. The fine Armstrong Memorial Sun- 
 day School in the work of Eev. Geo. E. Gillespie, 
 in connection with the First Church, Gastonia, and 
 the aggressive, growing West Avenue Church, under 
 the pastorate of Eev. E. C. Long, are notable ex- 
 amples. 
 
 Concord. 
 
 Concord Presbytery is the middle one of the 
 three Presbyteries that extend from the central 
 part of the state to the mountains. From the 
 heart of the Piedmont, Cabarrus, Eowan, Davie 
 and Yadkin, it covers Iredell, Catawba, Alexander, 
 Caldwell, Burke and McDowell, ten counties, to 
 the mountains. 58,460, or 32 7/10% of all, ten 
 years and over out of the church in the 1916 cen- 
 sus. There are 65 Presbyterian churches in these 
 ten counties, 18 of which have a pastor for his 
 whole time and 26 churches are aided in support 
 of their work by the Home Mission funds of the 
 Presbytery and Synod. There are also 17 mission 
 stations where there is no organized church. 
 
 The Presbytery expended of its own funds 
 $12,921 for Presbyterial Home Missions for the year 
 closing with Synod 1922. A very careful survey 
 of its unoccupied territory was made in the summer 
 of 1922. Four seminary students were employed 
 under the direction of the Presbytery 's superin- 
 tendent and a careful house to house canvass was 
 made in the unoccupied sections. The result of the 
 canvass indicated five fields of special promise 
 needing our work and ready for men as soon as 
 we can place them there. 
 
 39 
 
The organized churches of the Presbytery are 
 well supplied with church buildings, but ten of the 
 fields of the Presbytery are without manses. 
 
 Eev. J. M. Clark, D. D., Statesville, N. C, is 
 the superintendent of Presbyterial Home Missions. 
 
 Orange. 
 
 Orange Presbytery, the mother Presbytery of 
 them all, stretches across the north side of the 
 state from Durham, west to the state line. It has 
 a large territory of 15 counties, the eastern part 
 in the fine Piedmont country, with three of the 
 largest cities of the state, Durham, Greensboro and 
 Winston-Salem, with their strong churches, the 
 western part covering the mountain country to the 
 state line. Because of this combination it is the 
 strongest Presbytery financially, but at the same 
 time it has the largest percentage of unchurched 
 population of any of the Presbyteries, 414/10% 
 of those ten years and over being reported out 
 of the church in the 1916 census. In number this 
 was 137,892, only surpassed in number by Albe- 
 marle, the great mission Presbytery, with its 30 
 counties, twice the number of Orange, which has 
 180,360 without church membership. 
 
 There are 89 Presbyterian churches in these 15 
 counties, 24 of which have a pastor for his whole 
 time, and 41 are aided in the support of their work 
 by the Home Mission funds of Presbytery and 
 Synod. There are also 18 mission points where 
 there is no organized church. 
 
 The Presbytery expended of its own funds 
 $9,564 for Presyterial Home Missions for the year 
 closing with Synod 1922. 
 
 40 
 
The Presbytery 's superintendent reports eight 
 new fields needing men and ready to be occupied as 
 soon as men can be secured. Four organized 
 churches are without buildings and five fields with- 
 out manses. 
 
 Eev. S. M. Eankin, Greensboro, N. C, is the 
 superintendent of Presbyterial Home Missions. 
 
 The west line of the Presbyteries of the North 
 Carolina Synod runs in the main with the top of 
 the Blue Eidge Mountains. North Carolina beyond 
 this belongs to the mountain Synod of Appalachia, 
 including all of Asheville Presbytery and the coun- 
 ties of Watauga, Avery, Mitchell and Yancey, for- 
 merly in Concord Presbytery, and now attached to 
 the Presbytery of Holston (Tennessee). 
 
 Though this review of the Presbyteries is neces- 
 sarily brief for each, in the study of the work in 
 each Presbytery application should be made to the 
 Presbytery ? s superintendent or Home Mission 
 chairman for more detailed information. 
 
 A careful study in each, of your own Presby- 
 tery 's work, will be a revelation to many and full 
 of deepest interest. 
 
 41 
 
f 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
NORTH CAROLINA— 
 
 THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY 
 
 This little booklet has been prepared with 
 much care for all who love and want to know 
 North Carolina, and especially the religious 
 problems which we face: 
 
 For the ministers, officers and members of 
 the Presbyterian church that we may have an 
 intelligent grasp of the task which God has 
 committed to our trust: 
 
 For the Auxiliaries, the Y. P. Societies, 
 the Sunday Schools as a handbook for care- 
 ful study. 
 
 The study of the facts has made the writer 
 lift his head with a new pride in our great 
 state as it lunges forward with giant strides 
 of achievement in every line : 
 
 It has appalled him with a fresh revela- 
 tion of our need — the idle power, the unused 
 resources, the illiteracy; truly — but way be- 
 yond all, the great unchurched and unsaved 
 mass of men: 
 
 It has humbled him with something like 
 trembling before God lest His church fail to 
 see and to grasp her opportunity in this her 
 Great Day. 
 
 We believe the Facts will grip you as they 
 have gripped him. 
 
 They are given you in His name. 
 
 Any number of additional copies can be secured at bare 
 cost of printing and mailing, 5 cents, by addressing 
 A. W. Crawford, Supt., 
 320 S. Mendenhall, 
 Greensboro, N. C. 
 
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