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March 3, 1909. THE PRESBYTERIA
well as in intellectual ability, and that every school
may be a place of effective training in the formation
of character and preparation for useful lives.?United
Presbyterian.
GREAT BRITAIN, AND MISSIONS.
Great Britain is more conservative in most respects
. ! *
than is America, but in promoting intelligent interest
in missions that country is more inventive if not more
progressive last year. There was held in London an
elaborate display and object-lesson presentation of mission
work in the Orient. Mission stations, converts,
heathen rites and customs, were presented true to life,
and a great pageant was conducted at intervals. Another
exhibit is being prepared for next summer to be
called "Africa and the East." Still another method employed.
to awaken interest and diffuse intelligence is
the organization of a modified parliament which is conducted
on the plan of the British parliament. Mission
fields arc divided into departments and assigned to separate
members of the narliament whose duties rennire
that they study their fields and inform the entire membership
through meetings conducted much after the
plan of the legislative body of the empire.
THE POSITIVENESS OF JESUS.,
Never docs doubt or uncertainty appear in Jesus. In
His course in life He did not hesitate; He lived as one
who walked in the light, to whom the path of duty was
plain, and from which nothing could turn Him away.
Temptations came to Him, but His decision was
quickly made and there was no variableness nor shadow
of turning from His decision. When He was taken up
to Jerusalem, young as He was, He took His place
witn tne learned men, Hearing and asking questions,
He was not, we may be-assured, forgetful of His
mother, but in the unfolding consciousness of His relation
to God and a mission in the world, He rose above
the relation of His home, and said, "I must be about
My Father's business." From that service to the Father
He never wavered. The will-and the work of
His Father commanded the first place in thought and
action. Not for a moment did He at any time allow
even the love of His mother to delay Him in the performance
of His duty. "He that loveth father and
mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me." The
presence of danger did not cause Him to hesitate.
There was no compromise, no shrinking, but in every
word and every act He stood firm in His position as
one who came from the Father to save the World.
We SPP tVllQ in all Hie tpacliinor Tliora fimoi!
when we feel the temptation to modify our words,
times when it seems that prudence requires either silence
or modification. But to His disciples, to the people
in the presence of His enemies and before Pilate,
He was the same. "Even the same that I said unto
you from the beginning," was His answer to the questioning
of the scribes and Pharisees. From the beginning
of His ministry He spoke with authority. He
did not grope His way to the truth ; He did not rise
to higher and clearer views as He advanced in life, but
from the first He taught the people with the absolute
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N OF THE SOUTH. 13
authority of His own consciousness that He came forth
from God.
Jesus never wavered or hesitated in the consciousness
of His power. Men approached a great crisis with
hesitation, but Jesus never did. Whether it was the
appeal of the deaf, the dumb and the blind, or of the
leper, or of those possessed of evil spirits, or of the
bereaved mourners, the word was spoken or the touch
was given. He said, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," as
promptly and as confidently as He said, "Rise, take
up thy bed and walk." He rebuked the storm as con
fidently as He reproved the Pharisees.
We may, therefore, rest upon Him with confidence.
"I give unto them eternal life" is just as positive to us
as was His order to the disciples, when the hungry,
fainting multitude was about Him. The whole life of
Jesus is such as to give us confidence in Him as the
Lord our Saviour, able to save to the uttermost all
who come unto God by Him. When temptation comes
to us, when duty seems too difficult, when faith trembles
and hope is in the shadow, we may come to this
Jesus and feel the inspiration of His faith and accept
.His promise in grace, His assurance of His love in
that definiteness, in that vast extent, that positiveness
of nivino * 1 .
? autwvjiiiy, in wnicn tie always spoke while
on earth. It is easier for the heaven and the earth to
pass away than for one word- of His grace to fail.
ON JOINING THE CHURCH.
Personal goodness does hot qualify us for joining
the church of Christ. A man must have a better, more
enduring claim than that if he would be received into
the church as a worthy associate of the other church
members. Yet some good people are actually remaining
outside the church today because they hold to the
mistaken notion that goodness is the test for membera
amp. /\ young man who gives freely to church work,
but who refuses to connect himself with the church
that he largely supports, said the other day that he
had "never seen the time yet when he was good enough
to join the church." He never will. Nor has he ever
seen the time when any one else he knows was good
enough to join the church. If, indeed, he thought he
had attained to that standard of goodness, What assurance
would he have that tomorrow he would continue
to hold it? He misses the fact that his present
conviction of personal unworthiness is his first qualification
for church-membership. The next question is
whether he believes that Jesus Christ is able to save
that which was lost. If he does, then his only rational
and honorable conw ic ,f
.w s.vv. IIIUI3CII iinconcntionally
and publicly into the keeping of.the Savior. This
is "joining the church." The church is not a collection
of "good" people; still less a collection of people
who think they are good. It is a body of persons who
know that they are^ in and of themselves, hopelessly
evil, and who because of this conviction have thrown
themselves on to the love and mercy of an omnipotent
Savior, knowing that their only hope for salvation
and half-way decency lies in him. They find comfort
and strength in banding themselves together in the
name of their common Savior.?S. S. Times.