Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

October 13, igog. THE PRESBYTER] over, the social and charitable problems of a great city are always present and urgent. Many are in want and sick and dependent and wayward. The appeals for all manner of charitable and beneficent schemes arc never silent. There is always more right _ 4. 1 1 1- 1.^ J -1 .1 iii 11*11in iu nc none man tne l nristian and charitable people can overtake; and the religious people arc those who support these schemes most largely. This magazine writer proceeds to advertise a certain guild, which is his ideal of the religion the people need, a social settlement for employment and charity and all temporal relief and improvement. It is an example, lie thinks, of a better work than the churches are doing. But all these schemes, and charities, are the product, he fails to see, of the religion of Christ. They are not round where Christ is not known. Like Dr. Eliot and the Unitarians, he would accept the fruit and reject the tree that bears the fruit. The substantial charge of this writer is that the churches are attending to religion, and he, like many around him, have no use for that. OUTSIDER'S VIEWS. One of the most interesting features of the Calvin commemoration has been a study of the estimate of the great Reformer's character and work by representatives of churches and classes which do not accept the distinctive theological doctrines which he taught. Almost all of these representatives have extolled in 110 limited terms the services of John Calvin to humanity. Especially have they recognized him as the great organizer of the forces of the Reformation arid paid tribute to him for his clear declaration of its principles, for his exaltation of the Word of God, for his proclamation of a pure and free gospel. The at~r -e 1 - ? ' uiuuc ui iiic writers ui cnurcncs ouisiae ot tne uaivinistic fold has been a credit to them, and has signally illustrated, in most practical form, the substantial unity of the leading Protestant churches. About the only quarter from which another, a discordant, note has sounded, but that from'only a part, not all, has been in the secular press. The attitude of this part of the secular press is to be accounted for, however, though iiwi cxcuseu, on me ground ot its ignorance of the great work of the great scholar and organizer of the sixteenth century. It knows only the name of John Calvin and has heard only a denunciation of his doctrines or a travesty of his faith. It does not even know that Calvin was a great leader and organizer of republican government, that he gave it form and stability, that he fostered universal education, as well as the highest forms of literary culture, that he was the founder of the public school system, and that in many other ways he was the greatest citizen as well as the greatest theologian and scholar of his day. It does not know, either, that of all the theological systems taught in that day Calvinism is today the most universally prevalent and that amongst the cultured and thoughtful of all lands around the entire globe. It is a significant fact that the church is not en\ gaged so much in the defence and advocacy 6f misV sions as in the prosecution of them. The day is \l)ast f?r proving the urgency of the call. The day wias come for the work itself. / :an of the south. 3 the home of the soul. The Rev. Charles Wagner, of the "Simple Life," calls his church in Paris, "The Home of the Soul," a place for religious rest and health and culture. His latest book bears the same title. It is a true and beautiful name for the sanctuary in which one worships. To the school one goes for mental education and training, that there may be preparation for the duties of life. To the hospital one is borne that bodily health may be secured and injuries repaired. To the home one comes back for rest and comfort, for love and happiness. But school and hospital and home, however consecrated and happy, do not embrace all of our wants or cover the needs and aspirations of the whole of our hpinir Wp mav Vnoil Uocn ? "1, them efficiently and in highest value, and yet not attain our peace, our manhood or any fitness or hope for a better life beyond. Where shall the soul find its school, its hospital and its home? The House of God, the sanctuary where one worships God in His own appointed way, is the Home of the Soul. lie who knows perfectly the whole nature He has given to man, knows its wants and how to supply them, its sickness and how to heal it, its perplexities, and how to solve them, its longings and how to satisfy them. He has made the assembly of His people and the ordinances of His stated worship to he the means of the srrace that we need. It is in the direct and personal approach to God in His house that the squI finds its cure, its rest and its hope and joy. Out of the world, up from its turmoil and evil and care, we go up on our Mount Zion and present ourselves before the God of all grace, and make bare the soul within, hiding nothing that the whole spiritual being may be uncovered before the life and light ami love of the unseen presence of its Maker and Father and Redeemer. We lay our burdens down at His feet. We make petition for our need. We give Him thanks for His mercies. W'e wait before Him for His peace. Messages of His ?...1 .... ? e n: . nr ' 1 ! - limn unu iuiiic lu us Hum nis wuru, hhu intelligently, truthfully, we feed upon the bread of life, and drink again of the living water. The sanctuary is not for social entertainment, nor for occasional aesthetic diversion, nor for the discussion of themes that belong to the world and its order and well being. It is ordered and designed for the 'real man, though spiritual and immortal. It is school and hospital and home for the soul which can never die. And in it the soul finds the light and the love from God, without which it can find no joy nor rest. The church where we trulv worshin is the Home i?f the Soul. ? The great error of organizationists is that they seem to think that organization gives vitality. Organization is, in its last analysis, but a mustering of forces. An % organization made of lifeless elements can not be made tn liup Tt rlnpc r?r?t imnart 1ifr? T ic speedy failure. It is only as living component parts are brought together that the organic body lives. Dependence upon organization to secure permanent results is sure to disappoint. The power back of the organization is the thing needful.