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2 THE PRESBYTERIA1
"BY THEIR FRUITS "
What credentials does the new theology furnish to
commend it to public confidence? It has been prominent
under its present title for more than a quarter
of a century. So that the "New" is really getting
somewhat time-worn. There has at least been opportunity
for establishing a claim to the confidence of
honest inquirers after truth. What tangible bene
iciLuoii nas it Destowed on mankind? Does it offer
anything to match the miracle of modern missions?
What names does it set over against those of Carey,
Judson, Morrison, Duff, Moffet, Williams, Livingston,
Paton, Hannington, Mackay and others that have
been glorified, or the heroes of the faith now in the
foreign field? We read of John Howard who at peril
and sacrifice reformed the horrible prison svstem of
Britain and the Continent; and the compassionate labors
of Florence Nightingale and Clara Baston, but
these all were devotees of the "old" theology, not the
"new". What self-oblations for humanity's sake is
liberalism making? Are there any men among these
scorners of traditionalism that are arousing and reforming
great cities as Chalmers did, or great nations
as Knox did? Are there any names like Moody or
Torrey or Chapman or Gipsy Smith among them?
i\ot one. it is time that this boasted religion of development
was developing some specimens of genuine
leadership in the world's progress. Why is it that advanced
thought has no representatives in the forefront
of the advance of the Kingdom of light upon the Kingdom
of darkness? Let us have a roll call of their leaders
in the great temperance movements of the day.
Have they any names corresponding to those of John
B. Gough, or Frances Murphy or Frances E. Willard?
Are they working in the slums for the uplift
of the submerged macc#?c \L-v m?a..i
0 iiv jvnjr iuv.niiiiiys i*J
rise up and call them blessed. They are "higher
critics," but they do not lift the burdens of humanity
with one of their fingers. Or if they do, they are far
more quiet about it than they are in trumpeting their
crude and conflicting negations of Bible history. They
tell us that Biblical standards of morals are defective,
but what are they doing to elevate the moral standards
of present day life among the masses?
This school of prophets furnishes an army of bookmakers.
They are even in evidence in current magazine
literature. They exhibit a peculiar fondness for
notoriety and university chairs; especially if the chairs
are liberally endowed, but they are scrupulously shy
oi martyrdom and it is not recorded that any one of
them was ever awarded a hero medal.
It is time now for scholarship and religion and
civilization itself to take a stand and say to these gentlemen,
"You must prove your title to existence by
doing something more than selling queer books and
holding down university chairs. You claim that no
scholar now holds to the old ideas about inspiration
and atonement. Very well; you monopolize the
world's scholarship, now apply it to the betterment of
human life." This is an age of social, civic and economic
reforms. It is time that you most modern
thinkers were becoming renowned in tVi*? <*!????
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either your money, or time or your precious selves
to making the world really better, or it is time for
your getting out of the way of the world's progress."
N OF THE SOUTH. September 29, 1909.
A SINNER IN SORROW.
W e are in receipt of a touching letter. As the writer
of these lines is in utter ignorance of the name or
locality of its writer, and as we feel sure that it represents
the feelings of a multitude of other men, we
print a large extract from it.
Dear Sir: I am deeply concerned about my spiritual life
and I can not get comfort. I write to ask if you will please
give me some encouragement or comfort, through the columns
of your paper which I read with eagerness each week.
1 joined the church early in life; but in prosperity and
youth and gayety I wandered from the house of my God.
For a while I lived among the gay and thoughtless throng.
What I then thought was pleasure, 1 now know to be sorrow.
I became worldly, thinking I would have pleasure while
young and live a better life in old age. But one thing led
to another. Now I am old; in deep affliction, bereft of loved
ones, with few comforts, with loss of property, almost destitute.
I want comfort. I realize my awful condition. I feel
the need of religion. I pray much and often, but do not get
the comfort 1 need. I fear that God is still angry with me.
I am so miserable, so sorry for my wrong life. Is there any
hope for me? A Sinner in Sorrow.
i. When Dr. Archibald Alexander was at the head of
Princeton Theological Seminary, he found a student
for the ministry under great distress because he feared
that he had never been converted. The doctor heard
hint calmly and then replied, that the important question
is not whether your former conversion was genuine,
but rather whether you are now penitent. You
know how to kneel and confess your sin before God
and how to trust in Jesus Christ. Do it now. The
Doctor's reply was simply right.
A similar answer would we give to this inquirer.
Ilis former experiences may or may not have measured
up to the standard of true piety. The answer of the
x M ^4. a. 1 t A _ ? f
iaiiu is nui 1-uin.ci "n'K ycsieruav, uui, loaay li ye
will hear his voice." Today "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "Him that cometh
unto me, I will in no wise cast out." The first thing
for this inquirer to do, and we hope that he has done
it, is to cry like the publican in the temple, "God, be
merciful to me a sinner." And then he shall go down
to his house justified.
2. But suppose that he has done this, and yet fails to
find in his soul the comfort that he expects and desires.
What then can be said?
UTAIlIrl rpfpr Uirvi f r\ fllO A?rrv/>??1 /?/? T^V ??1 A
x. 1V1V. >11111 HIV ICIII.C ui ivaviu. l Jdvid
sinned, and continued indifferent to his sin for
months, until the time when his child was born. Then
the prophet, Nathan; awaked him to a consciousness
of his sin. David repented. He cried, "I have sinned
against Jehovah." It was true penitence and the Lord
accepted it as such, for Nathan replied, "The Lord
also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die." (2 Samuel
12:13). He came to the Lord, and he was not
cast out. He was pardoned and saved.
Rut Nathan told him two other things. One was
that because David had brought reproach upon God.
therefore the child should die. And the child did die.
For a week, day after day, David fasted and pleaded,
but God let the child die. It was part of the discipline
J ~ J t T\ ! J>- ? " "
ii.ni was nccucu iui L/avius own saice ana lor the
sake of the nation. God pardons. He takes us out of
the relation of servants who are subject to punishment,
and puts us into the relation of sons, who may