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March 24, 1909. T1
work of advancing the Kingdom, until the
"earth shall be full of the knowledge
of the glory of .the Lord." It may be
said that the Kingdom of God is "within
you"; as in Luke 17: 21. But the passage
undoubtedly means, also, that while .the
Pharisees were asking for.a visible kingdopi,
it had already begun, in the little
group of disciples, "among you," but
whom they despised as ignorant and unlearned
men.
Again, it is true that preaching the gospel
is "heralding the glad tidings" that
the Kingdom of God is at hand. It is
attempted to restrict this proclamation to
the exposition and defense of a system
of theology which rests partly on Aris
tone, partly on tne early ratners, and
partly on "proof texts" of Scripture. This
system is called "the gospel," and it is
taken for granted that the Church has
only to call upon individuals to accept
it for themselves, and to disseminate it.
It seems to be manifest from the
apostolic commission, that our, L<ord intended
his kingdom to be eternal and
universal. He did not intend to limit
it to one age. or one people, one race,
or one set of theological opinions. He
came that men might have life and thai
they might have it more abundantly.
This kingdom of God has not yet come
in all Its fullness and power. Great as
has been its progress, "there remainetli
yet very much land to be possessed. "The
principles of the kingdom are to be
woven into the texture of society, each
individual believer is to labor, not alone,
but in concert with others; and eacli
group of believers is lo co-operate so
far as possible, with every other group.
Yet the so-called Christian world is
flecked with dark spots of ignorance,
vice and injustice. We have around us
evils, social, civic, legal, economic, educational;
and much of this evil is contrary
to the plain and simple principles
of Christian morality. The observance
of the Lord's Day, divorce, child-labor,
oppression of the poor, temperance, the
abolition of war, the establishment of
universal peace, are all great moral
questions which affect the very life and
welfare of Christian soc'ety. It is true
that the pulpit is not the place to discuss
or to settle these questions. It may
be true that church courts can not
handle or settle them. But that grave
evils shall exist, about which Christian
people as Christians are not to
open their mouths, that the intelligence,
the wealth, the social power of Christianity
may never be evoked to put an
end to righteousness, that there i3 an
iron wall built up to shut out Christian
workers from the "world," seems to be
a proposition too narrow to be discussed.
Now a program may bring
'before the mass of Christian people,
causes which they can influence in the
mass. The literature of the world is
hill of such discussions, may not the
literature of the church at least discuss
thorn upon Christian principles? Surely
this is not to "bind the church to the
chariot wheels of Caesar," or to degrade
the church by mixing her influence with
Politics. When all professing Christians
carry Christian principle into their
business, their politics, their society,
their leisure, their amusements, the
Mngdom of God will have made a
KE PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOU
great stride in advance. At least we
may face these problems with hope
and courage. "All things are yours,
whether the world or life or death."
"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are honorable, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever
things are of good report, if there be
any virtue, and if there be any praise,
think on these things." "If ye know
these things, happy are ye, if ye do
them."
W. S. Bean.
Clinton, S. C.
ELECT INFANTS.
The mere believing of a thing does
not make that thing true; many theve
are in the grasp of a belief that is
utterly false. Desiring a thing to be
true is not an infallible proof of its
nitHfiilnnnr. 41 1 *
uuiuiuiucos, nui uut-s ilie assertion 01 a.
thing make it true. In the things of
the Spirit we must have a "thus saith
the Lord."
We notice that some of the good
brethren seem to think and to asse>-?
that the nature of the love and mere/
of God is such as to afford a presumptive
or necessary ground, to hold that all
infants dying in infancy are saved.
Do not we as Calviuists believe, that
all men are born under the law? That is
to sav that all men am " >
penalty of the law, under the obligation
of the broken law. This penalty we
believe to be separation from God
which when it reaches its logical and
necessary end results in absolute forsakenness.
The Christ said on the cross,
"Why hast thou forsaken me?" We believe
it was because he was then paying
the penalty of sin in its fullness. For a
man to be utterly God forsaken is hell.
Do we not also believe that all
remain under this penalty, separation
from God, unless he sees fit to reunite
man to himself in Christ by the Holy
Spirit? Now, because a man is growrf to
maturity does not make him any ntore
able to save himself, more capable to
accept Christ, than when he was an
infant. Is he not still an Incapable? A
man has no more power to accept tho
Christ than an infant; then can not we
Just as well charge God with being unmerciful
In not saving a nonelect man
as he would be in not saving a nonelect
infant, when one is just as unable to
save himself as the other?
If I were one of the nonelect, with my
present vision, I believe that God would
be showing me vastly more mercy to
let me pass out in my infancy than to
permit me to grow to manhood and add
to my already heavy burden of sin.
The Confession of Faith, to say the
least of it, in our humble judgment, goes
as far as the word will permit us to go
in a declarative statement.
H. P.
THE GRAYBILL MEMORIAL 8CHOOL.
At the meeting of the Executive Committee
of Foreign Missions in March it
was decided to make the boys' school
in Mexico the special object for the contributions
of Children's Day this year.
It is also the purpose of the Committee
to call this school the Grayblll Memo*
"
TH. 17
rial School in honor of the beloved and
lamented founder of our Mexico Mission.
Let us build him a memorial worthy of
the noble life which he lived and the
splendid work he did for the people
of Mexico.
Children's day this year will be held
on the 23rd, day of May. The literature
for the observance of the day,
including programs and mite boxes,
is now being prepared and we hope to
have it ready for distribution before the
middle of April. Supplies will be sent
to each pastor, the number of programs
and mite boxes being equal to threefourths
of the Sunday school enrollment
as published in the minutes of the General
Assembly. Anyone desiring a
larger number than this can write to
us and we will try to "All the orders as
sent.
Address: Executive Committee Foreign
Missions, Chamber of Commerce Building,
Nashville, Tenn.
S. H. Chester, Secretary.
"ELECT INFANTS."
The question before our Presbyteries
is: Shall there be any change in our
Confession of Faith on the "elect infant"
clause?
The General Assembly of 1902 took the
following action on this subject: "We
are persuaded that the Holy Scriptures,
when fairly interpreted, deeply warrant
us in believinp' that ??ii ?1 - ?
a an illiaillO W HO
die in infancy are included in the
election of grace and are regenerated
and saved by Christ through the Spirit"
(Minutes of 1902, page 265).
Now this action of the General
Assembly has never been rescinded,
amended or changed, and no protest has
been entered against it, but it stands on
our official records today as the accepted
doctrine and belief of our Church on
this subject. Then why should we not
put it into our Confession in the place
of the objectionable clause, "Elect
Infants," etc.?
What is a CnnfaocUa
m %/vutvooivn ui I' ell ill : IN UC
"dogmatic statements," as intimated by
some, but a simple expression of our
honest belief. Why do we publish a
Confession of Faith? Not merely that
we ourselves may know what we believe,
and that theologians who have studied
may understand it, but that the world
may know it; then it should be in
language that the world can understand.
Make it plain, that he may
run that readeth it.
Now this clause as it stands in our
Confession of Faith, is injuring our
Church, and especially so since the
union between the Northern and Cumberland
Presbyterians. To some of our
people this whole matter may be a
question merely of theory or sentiment,
but to some of us it is a serious reality.
There are people today waitine and
ready to Join our Church as soon as this
objectionable clause is changed. No
amount of "foot notes" or explanations
will suffice. Nothing but an actual
change in the language of the Confession
of Faith, will remedy the evil.
E. M. Munroe.
MUford, Texas.