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8 THE PRESBYTERIA
WHICH IS THE WORST?
By Rev. James B. Converse.
The word "Church" has various meanings. From
two of these spring two heresies which bear evil fruit.
Which bears the worst it is hard to say.
Sometimes the wnrrl fl-i.it-.~K "-> ---**?
-wwvtivii nivalis v-uilsiians, ail
who profess the true religion and their children. Sometimes
it means the organization of such people for worship.
What is true of the Church in one sense is very
easily and imperceptibly transferred to the Church in
the other sense.
Thus, for example, it is the duty of the Church to
lead in all the great movements that make for righteousness.
As a matter of fact, all such movements have
sprung from the Church, that is, from Christian influences.
Take the Turkish revolution as an example.
Turkey is a Moslem country. The majority of its people
are Mohammedans. But if we could dig up the
roots of the young Turkish movement and examine
them we would fin/i j
. . ... ...viii me missionaries wiio have
for eighty years been preaching and teaching in all
parts of the empire, and the intercourse with western
Europe and America. But because the Church thus
does and should lead reform some assert that the Church
in the second sense should lead the great movements
that will make the world better. Because as Christians
we should purify politics, they hold that we should do
it as ecclesiastics, through ecclesiastical methods.
This is the old popish error that has done so much
harm in the world, the union of Church and State, that
we have cast out as evil, and only evil.
The Church in its second sense cannot lead reforms
...w,
from its very nature. Harmony is essential to worship;
controversy is the life-breath of reform. So Christ
sends not peace, but a sword into the world. When,
therefore, the organization for worship enters the political
sphere it becomes the defender of all that exists,
both good and bad. It cannot engage in controversy
without committing suicide; and, therefore, if it is a
political leader it necessarily defends the eviU tl-io* / ??
only be removed by controversy. The reigns of the
popes were the dark ages of Europe.
Another result also follows. The political reforms
that the Church does not endorse, and from its very
nature cannot endorse, are regarded as non-moral. Thus
today in our own land some qifestions are regarded as
moral questions on which in some pulpits the minister
feels free to speak, and other questions are thought of
as simply political, about which he should be silent.
In the first class are prohibition, divorce and Sabbath
observance; and in the second, tariff, taxation, child
labor, the referendum, etc. This distinction between
moral and non-moral questions is the root of our graft
in politics, business, legislation. The Church has been
4 t- ~ A
icatuing /vmerica that a part, and the larger part, of
our lives, of our actions and our thoughts, are outside
the dominion of morality, the authority of God and the
rule of the Bible. The wonder is, not that there is political
corruption and business oppression, but that there
is any piety or fear of the Lord left among us!
N OF THE SOUTH. January 20, igog.
The other heresy, starting from the second meaning
of the word Church, is equally mischievous. The organization
for worship aims only at worship. Its sole
and only aim is to lead men to worship God. In other
words, it strives simply to save souls. Therefore it is
taught that the only duty of the Church is to save souls,
that politics, commerce, manufactures, legislation, are
outside of her dominion ; that if her members take any
part in these matters, they do it simply as citizens and
not at all as members of the Church. In other words,
that because it is the duty of ecclesiastics to lead the
worship of believers, therefore Christians should not
<;ppL- t ? ? ?*
iviuuii me auuscs mat exist.
This argument overlooks one fact. It is the duty of
the Church in the larger sense, of all Christians, to
save souls. The organization for worship is one, and
only one, of the instruments it uses for this purpose. It
uses many non-ecclesiastical instrumentalities, such as
the family, the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., the A. B.
S., the A. T. S., the A. S. S. U., the religious papers, etc.
It also should use civil and political instrumentalities?
must use them to do its work in saving souls. The W.
C. T. U. has done a vast good. Prohibition laws have
saved many souls. The juvenile courts in Denver and
Chicago have saved souls. Indeterminate jail sen
tences in New York State have saved souls. The
abolition of the trusts and tariff reform will save souls.
The limitation of child labor in coal mines and cotton
\
mills will save souls.
This reform work we are to do as members of the
Church in its larger sense, as Christians, as followers
of Christ, as believers in the full inspiration of the Bible
as an infallible rule of faith and practice. We cannot
do it merely as citizens; we have tried and failed. We
cannot do it merely as philanthropists, for outside of
the influence of Christianity there is no philanthropy,
and the weaker that influence is, the feebler is ohilan
thropy. If, as agnostics, we try to reform the evils of
our civilization we will make a 1794 France; if we do
it as Mohammedans, we will produce a Morocco; if
as heathen, a China; if as Romanists, a Venezuela.
Christ came to fulfill the law and the prophets; and
his followers will carry on his work.
'IM.? c. ? -r ?
j. iic in sl ui mese two neresies is more prevalent in
the north, and the second in the south. Which is
worst, we will leave the reader to decide. Both lead
practically to the same end, the separation of our business
and politics from morality and the fear of God.
Morristown, Tenn.
Self is the only prison
That can ever bind the soul;
Love is the only angel
Who can bid the gates unroll;
Anrl urlrnn V*/* 11 1 1
. ...u niivn nv tunics iu can ince,
Arise and follow fast;
His way may lie through darkness,
But it leads to light at last.
?Henry van Dyke.