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2 THE PRESBYTERIAI
STAGNATION IN THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION.
It is fashionable just now for those who hardly know
what they are talking- about to characterize the teach
ni? in some 01 our seminaries as utterly unsuited to
the times, the demands of the age, the conditions of
humanity. As the Seminaries are now opening it may
not be amiss to pause a moment and see if the detractors
are right or if the instruction is what it should be.
The glib talk about the minister's relation to civic,
economic, and social problems has in it much more of
speciousness than of common sense. The growing
complexity of social ami civic life is demanding, it is
claimed, more and more of the ethical function of the
pulpit. The minister must he prepared to meet this
demand. He must be a "preacher of righteousness,''
that is, as the outside world interprets it, of the obser-.
vance of law, and to be such he must understand fully
all the relations out of which duty springs. The suggestion
is taking and the words catchy. It is no wonder
that many are misled by them. It is no wonder,
esnppiallv tliat cnmo vmm/r >??? i?1..'?? j- ?1
, , ov.nv llltll lUUMIIg luwarus II1C
ministry are made to think that the wisdom of years
and the consecration of a life time to the study of the
best methods are nothing but oldfogyism .that theological
instruction has stagnated, and that new life and
new blood should be poured into our long established
schools.
Is the minster to be a "preacher of righteousness"
in the sense of that phrase which the world uses? Is
he not rather the proclaimer of Christ's righteousness,
and is not his commission limited to offering that
. righteousness and in Christ's stead beseeching men to
be reconciled unto God by accepting Christ and finding
in him the true life? Is he not to exalt Christ as the
substitute for the sinner and thereby both source and
example of all godly living? Has he a right to place
righteousness upon any other ground than that of the
Bible presentation of it? Is it not through the gospel,
the power of God unto salvation, that men are to be
: ? *.rx *1? u:~l UM . ? -
nuu me i"^iicr mcr va nat Dusiness, then has he
in forgetting his great commission so that he may
come down and take part in the smaller range of mere
human ethics, important as is the latter in man's rela-.
tion to man?
The primary end of the theological seminary is to
prepare men to preach the gospel of Christ, not the
gospel of "social salvation," to lead men to Christ
rather than to better man's environment. It is to acquaint
them with the duties of ambassadorship,to make
them familiar with the commission entrusted to them,
anrt to pnnin flinm (r\r- tlin ? M 1 '
? i me niusi cuc?_iivc possiDie delivery
of their authoritative message. They are to be
taught to convince, men out of God's Word of the need
of a personal Saviour, of the way of salvation rather
than of the methods of sociological reform. To npc
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lect. this primary end and to exalt the ethical relations
of certain civic and social facts is to put contempt
upon God's Word and its great principle of regeneration
by the Spirit, the only way of securing a genuine
higher life.
None will doubt that the minister should have a
deep and abiding interest in the great problems of
civic and social life which confront all of us in these
latter days. He should take part in every true re
4 OF THE SOUTH. October 6, 1909.
form and be ever ready and prepared to bear a large
part in righting the conditions of mankind. This,
however, is his right and duty on the same basis as
that of any other good citizen. lie is not dealing with
these matters in his ambassadorial relations, and he
r..i ??. < -
ut (.aiaui uui iu burrcnuer ine latier in oracr
to enter the arena in behalf of the former. A recent
writer has well expressed it when, attributing the decrease
of students in theological seminaries to this,
he adds that the student has his ardor cooled by "the
admonition that the business of the twentieth century
minister is to lead in sociological reform instead
of trying to convince of sin and show the way of salvation.
Leading men to Christ has been superseded
by leading the poor to a better environment. Hygiene
instead of heaven?food mthpr than fnrmvon?co?
country air in place of creeds and confessions of faith
?constitute, the mission of the modern minister."
COMMENDING FRIENDS.
A Roman Catholic paper lias recently given its readers
long editorials full of commendation of Belgium
^A ? T*1 1 1 ? -
a..u jimiii. x ncse Kingaoms nave been upheld as
marvellous for their strength, prosperity, ability to
handle great problems which have confronted them,
and other evidences of internal power. It is not unnatural
that such encomiums should come to such
nations from such a source. Belgium and Spain,
more than all other countries of Europe and America,
are under the spell of Romanism. The Church dominates
the civil power more completely in them than in
even Italy or Austria. It is a well-known fact that
Cardinal Gibbons defends the atrocities of the Congo
State, which is only Belgium in Africa. The King
of Spain was recently guilty of a most indecent
tergiversation in the matter of the marriage of his
cousin to a Protestant princess, encouraging and helping
him to secure his wife and then consenting to the
Church-State demajid that the young man be deprived
therefor of kis princely rights.
It is hard to believe that those who commend such
people and governments are any better than those
people and it is incredible, too, that those commending
them would, if they had the power, do anything else
than what those friends are doing or would do. They
would openly acknowledge citizenship in Rome and
fealty to the Pope as above citizenship in their country
and loyalty t'o its government. The rpaintenance
of the doctrine of the Pope's civil power means nothing
else, and the praise of Belgium and Spain shows
approval of their atrocities and bigotry. The light
is coming, however, even in those darkened lands.
Anti-rl#?rira1iim accortinrr ?i? -??*
? V.ug HOVU- 111 111C 1 CI. CI 1 L
disturbances in Catalonia, the restiveness of the people
under the Roman yoke was a marked feature. It is
to be hoped that the revulsion will not take the usual
form of disinclination towards all religions.
*
T?\r**f*r irifAllt/vAnf * n- - ? '
w.v>^ >wivi>i6viii v.un^:^(iiiuii installing a minister
understands that it has elected a leader. If he whines
because there are too many bosses in the church, he
confesses, without knowing it, that he was not born to
be a leader of men and therefore not qualified to be at
the head of a church
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