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4 THE PRESBYTERIAl
GREETING!
"The Presbyterian of the South" salutes you! You
are asked to recognize in it old friends and well wishers.
The journals which it embraces and for which it now
stands have not passed away. All of them greet you
here. Instead of looking into the face of one, you are
bid to see all of them. The new simply comprises the
old, but brings to you the old larger, better, fuller, more
helpful.
Do you ask where "The Presbyterian of the South"
stands and for what its testimony and work will be
given? It hesitates not a moment to reply that it stands
for the old faith and for our Church. Its purpose is to
maintain the principles and standards of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States, to do its part to preserve
the integrity and the doctrines of that Church. It
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fied. It believes that the perpetuation of her existence
and principles will make for the glory of the kingdom of
Christ.
The old faith is well worth battling for. The object
is of sufficient dignity and importance to justify the
struggle. A divinely inspired Bible as the sole source
of authority, a divinely devised scheme of grace as the
, sufficient means of redemption, a divine Spirit as the
new creator by regeneration, the efficacy of the blood of
Christ as a substitute, the gift of faith and repentance,
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of future reward and punishment, the impossibility
and unscripturalness of either a probation after
death or a remedial power in the sentence of the justly
condemned, these are old truths. But no truth is
weaker for age. The years only show its mightiness
and significance.
Our Church has been given a mission in the world.
It is said, not in boastfulness but because it has been
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today the purest type of Presbyterianism indoctrine
and polity in the world. In this day, when
many have departed from the line which God has set
in his Word as to the Church's function in witnessing,
and especially in witnessing for the fundamental principle
of the spirituality of his kingdom, our Church has
maintained a firm and consistent position. This testimony
became our Church's first duty, and to this day
she stands distinctively for this. Her history as a sep
<n ciic organization nas been linked into this duty and
doctrine. In that vital connection she has had success
and has been given a place in the sisterhood of
Churches. The time has not yet come for her to disconnect
herself from this great principle and testimony in
order that she might get herself into a more imposing
company, a greater marshalling of hosts.
And not alone as to the theological principle of the
spirituality of the Church, Christ's kingdom, is there
need for her to testify. She has occasion just now to
lift her voice against that form of the denial of this
ciple which is found in the too common resort to humV
means and methods to strengthen and propagate the
Church and her faith and to build up her numbers. She
is to set her face like a flint against any over-organizaV
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tion and over-methodizing which may obscure the\(|j?
vine organization and the divine method or which mLy
menace our reliance upon the Spirit of God to do thie
work. She should be in full sympathy with all progresA
and should be willing to adapt herself to all changes iii
conditions around her with sanctified common sensd
and with loving, Christian charity towards all who dif*
fer from her, but she is never for a moment to forgey
the cardinal fact, "Not by might, nor by power, bufi
by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."
With this declaration of its fundamental principles
and position, the combined paper again greets you! \
AFTER CHRISTMAS.
Now that the season is past, may it not be asked ir
all seriousness if Christmas is not coming to be a little}
overdone? Are there not too many expectations arousec |
in connection with it? Have not too many come to
regard certain features of it, in which they share ana
profit, as a matter of course? Is there not an overpliJs
of toil and care and worry and expense? Is not the <jr[y
over-observed ? ' 1
Not for a moment should any one desire to call a
halt on its expression or exhibition of love, nor sliced
any wish to lessen the brightness of it to little or cijder
hearts. Scant sympathy is due those who in < >Vermuch
conscientiousness would do away with Slanta
Claus or who deem the happy Christmas fiction h sin.
Those who would lessen the love and joy of thfjfseas0n
are men in whose breasts is little of the mill^jf human
kindness. Any who would take from Jflie children, ^
especially, the brightness of the time bfy casting over
them the gloom of their own hearts ^vould soon sour
that milk by their very looks should; it happen to be
about them.
Those who regard the myth of Sanj.a as a sjn forget
that it is but a figure, a poem in it^ beauty and ex^iat
resolves a principle^ jnt0 a person, a
beautifuTi^pS^?"ation of an ideV Thcy should
throw away theiN^"7an. for. the ?ama reason for I
which they would e^e that naPPy embodiment of
affection and kindness ^Jjichjdu^hild WOrld has come
to regard as the great dispens^^fi?j^??^ things to
good children. The very myster^N^ the fictitious
personage is a happy setting of the jVinciple l?ve
giving without recognition, the left haffd not knowing
what the right hand has done. Theri *s no danger
of idolatry in it. It is not so much pa^&n'srn as it IS
poetry. V
Yet for all this there is danger of overdofn?- Christmas
itself may be worn out, as one has puti it? by being
overworked. The extraordinary work andl worry ar>d
waste put into it may cause a reaction. T^be element
of surprise may be taken entirely away ffrom it > in"
deed, it has already been taken away in |be main. A
return to sane methods will tend to presferve it as a
happy, sweet season of loving deeds rafttier than
splendid gifts, of kind acts rather than! ?* priceless
gems, of home coming and home gatherirwS"' reunion
and rejoicing, rather than of added toil atd care- S.