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6 THE PRESBYTERIAl
LIVING WITH GOD.
"He that dwellcth in the secret place of the Most
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."
The "secret place of the Most High" is not hard to find
if the seekers have the eye of faith and the determination
of will which God will cheerfully give. One has
well said: "The 'secret place' is easily found; it is an
'open secret' to the pure in heart. God himself does
not wish to hide it."
When one lives with God. he has God with him
everywhere. "If I take the wings of the morning and
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."
That presence everywhere will not be to alarm or distress.
"He is my refuge and fortress; my God; in
him will I trust. He shall cover thee with his feathers,
and under his wings shalt thou trust."
When one lives with God, one may sing with David,
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth
be removed, and though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea." Living with God, one has the
power of the new life. He can sav witt. pn..i "t ?
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crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. Yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live
in the flesh 1 live by the faith of the Son of God, who
loved tne and gave himself for me." If a sight of God
mortifies us to the world, as wc are assured, what may
we not expect of the life of God with us? How it will
reveal to us the nothingness of everything else, the
vanity, the emptiness of all the best that the world
offers! Living with him we will be complete in him.
Living with one another produces likeness among
men. The same life, acts, words, thoughts, principles,
produce not only like mindedness, but also, many think,
a certain physical agreement. Thought, habit, temper
and nrincinlf *u~:- * ? ?
t ... ..iciixv men uatKs ana grooves in
the very material of man. The problem is hardly yet
settled. But if it be true, and it may be, what may
be expected of living God but Godlikencss. And after
all, the word "godliness" is but another spelling of the
word "Godlikeness." John said that after awhile we
shall be like Christ, "for we shall see him as he is."
And this expectation, he adds, leads to one's purifying
oneself "even as lie is pure." David declared that he
would be satisfied when he should awake in God's likeness.
Living with God is communion with him. Communion
is having, holding, enjoying as one. One with
God through Christ, we partake of all his good things
and he accepts ours. "I will sup with him and he
with me."
Growing by giving is the normal condition of church
life. By giving is not meant bestowing or collections,
but giving to mankind what mankind needs most, the
precious gospel of Christ, a testimony to the truth, a
witness of right living, together with such incidental
ministration, if there be need, to physical wants as may
show the spirit of Christ, who came not to be ministered
unto but to minister and to offer his life a ransom
for many.
N OF THE SOUTH. May 5, 1909.
JOHN WITHERSPOON.
On Thursday, May 20, a monument erected by an
appropriation of $20,000 by the United States Congress
will be unveiled at the corner of Eighteenth Street
and Connecticut Avenue, Washington, D. C. The exercises
will be in charge of the Witherspoon Memorial
Association of which the Hon. John W. Foster is chairman.
The Rev. Jere Witherspoon, of Richmond, Va.,
will offer prayer. Vice President Sherman, the Hon.
James Brvce, British Ambassador, and President
Woodrow Wilson, of Princeton University will participate
in the impressive exercises of the occasion.
Dr. John Witherspoon, born in 1722 in East Lothian,
bcotland, was a man of distinction in connection with
four important movements: The struggle for popular
lights in the Church of Scotland; the administration
of the College of New Jersey at Princeton, and his influence
on the career of a number of American patriots;
the organization of the Presbyterian Church in America;
and the American Revolution. While president of
Princeton College he was a member of the American
Congress in Philadelphia and the only minister of religion
among the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
When others hesitated Dr. Witherspoon rose
and in a brief and eloquent speech so impressed the
Congress that there was no further hesitation, and the
Declaration was signed that gave independence forever
to the American States. He said:
"For my own part of property, I have some, of reputation
more. That reputation is staked, that property
is pledged, on the issue of this contest; and although
these gray hairs must soon descend into the sepulchre,
I would infinitely rather that they descend thither by
the hand of the ("vccittinnM tlii"
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the sacred cause of my country."
In England many regarded him as responsible for
the rebellion of the colonies. Horace Walpole referring
to Dr. Witherspoon wrote, "Our cousin America has
run off with a Presbyterian parson."
His grave is in the line of the great dead of the
Princeton cemetery. A monument to Dr. Witherspoon
was erected some years ago in one of the parks of
Philadelphia. His life by the Rev. D. W. Woods, Jr.,
of Gettysburg, Penn., is published by Revell.
TEMPERANCE IN TEXAS.
The "submission" proposition, that is, giving to the
voters the opportunity of expressing their wishes at
the polls, was called for in Texas by a substantial majority
in a primary election, was put into the platform
of the great Democratic State Convention, and was introduced
at the recent session of the legislature. Only
twelve men in the senate and forty-four in the lower
house voted against it. Unfortunately, the measure
was one requiring a two-thirds vote, and the submission
proposition, while having an overwhelming majority
in both houses, lacked two votes in each of hav
ing two-thirds. Thus a mere handful of men defeated
the will of the great majority, and; by technical means,
thwarted their wilk Thus, too, a few men denied the
fundamental principles of democracy, in order to preserve
a traffic about which the majority of the people
wanted a fair chance to express their will.