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_>90 THE PRESBYTERIA
CHURCH PAPERS.
At a time i 11 which the products of the printing press
are so manifold and multiform, the Church paper is very
liable to be crowded out of its place in the family cir
cie, and to he superceded by a literature which, if not
positively harmful to character, is at least not conducive
to Christian intelligence nor to the confirmation of faith.
It is not to be expected that the young people in the
home will grow up with an enlightened interest in the
Church, or in those great truths and principles for
which the Church stands, if they are not made familiar
with the life of the Church in applying those principles.
The pastor is pre-eminently the instructor of the people
in gospel truth, but the religious paper is, or ought
to be, the expositor of the truth as illustrated and enforced
by the Church at large, in its activities. There
may be zeal without knowledge, but it is unusual and
lacks high and lasting quality. As a rule, the uninr
?
iormed are inactive because indisposed. Loyalty, which
is reliable and valuable is necessarily enlightened, and
if parents or children are to have a zeal which is more
than mere partisanship or sentiment or bigotry, they
must be instructed as to the character, the aims and
achievements of Christ's visible Church. They should
he informed of its great undertakings, its progress, its
perils, its conquests, the great issues that are.at stake,
the principles for which it must contend, and the errors
which it must refute. A wise and steadfast devotion
to the Church, that great spiritual organization
which our Lord calls his body, must he based on intelligence.
In imparting this intelligence a handmaid of
the pastor is the Church paper. If parents wonder why
their children srnnv nn 1
0 vji uie cnaracter ot the
Church, or indifferent to its enterprises, let them inquire
whether their sons and daughters have been supplied
with sources of information, as to what the Church is
and what it represents.
The religious journal has a special mission in our
day as a defender of the faith, not mainly by highly
critical or technical methods, but by exposing error,
whether insidious or blatant, and by bearing uncompromising
testimony to truth that is being assailed. This
writer can not endorse the idea that the faith of the people
is to be preserved by keeping them in ignorance of
the forms that unbelief is assuming. If it were thought
to be good policy it would yet fail, for the secular press
gives* ample notoriety to the most novel and most aggressive
forms of current skepticism. As to the place
of the religious journal in exposing error and vindicating
truth, "The Advance" (Congregational) recently
had en editorial which was quoted by "The Presbyterian"
of Philadelphia, with the remark: "Because the
editorial expresses, in clear and vigorous language,
what this paper holds to be the business of a religious
liewsnaripr - * *
?. is icprouucea nerewith." The quotation
is as follows:
" 'The Advance, endeavors to strengthen the hands
of the pastors and the churches in the work which
they as Congregationalists and believers in the gospel
of Jesus Christ are doing. The paper has no sympathy
with the Unitarian movement, which is now on in certain
sections and among what are called advanced
thinkers. In our opinion, the movement is an advance
backward, another slump after the manner of that of
a hundred years ago. It means dry rot, division,
spiritual desolation, and more ills than the latest and
most improved psychotherapy could contend with. 'The
I
N OF THE SOUTH. March 9, 1910.
Advance' is sent to the study of the pastor to strengthen
his faith and courage, not to enervate him with doubt.
The paper wants, him to believe in the Bible, behind
which he must stand when in the pulpit, and not to
think of it as a mass of wreckage, tattered and torn, reduced
to old rags, old iron and any other old thing
which a killing criticism wants to make of it. Xor does
'The Advance' want to come into the homes which have
trusted it with the blight of unbelief 011 its pages. The
paper kiiows omy too well that the members of the
churches already have enough to contend with in the
world, the flesh and the devil, without a weekly attack
on the beliefs which have been anchors to their souls.
Attacks on the trustworthiness of the records of the
Gospels, on miracles, on inspiration, on revelation, on
the meaning of the cross, on the fact of resurrection, are
not calculated to strengthen the religion of the family
or to send its members to Sabbath-school and church
with eager interest and cheerful step. Congregational
churches were not built up by denying declarations of
the New Testament and forsaking its great doctrines,
but by denying self and forsaking sin ; not by attacking
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but by attacking the
devil and the wickedness of the world. 'The Advance'
believes that the tendency to reverse this time-tried order
is reactionary in spirit, deeentivo in form
( ^ ... .vitu OilU U13"
astrous in effect. In a time like this or any other time
that the world ever has seen or ever is likely to see, the
churches must have faith if they are to build up, and to
strengthen 'this faith is what 'The Advance' is here
for."
This is 110 time for neutrality as to the authority or
credibility of the Scriptures, or the value of evangelical
truth. The trimmer is a distinct encumbrance to his
Church and a source of enervation to the cause of truth.
However uncongenial to the Christian temperament and
taste of editors, the call to faithfulness in warning
against error and bearing testimony to truth is clear
and imperative.
In British politics religious affiliations very strongly
influence party policies. As a rule, the Liberal party
is supported by Nonconformists, and the Tory party
represents the Established Church. In the recent elections
the Liberals were retained in power by a reduced
majority. The main issues were the adoption of the
budget, which proposed increased taxation on large
landed estates proportionate to their value, and restriction
of the veto power of the House of Lords. These
issues are now before Parliament and radical changes .
are immanent. Irish Home Rule, Welsh Disestablishment,
Unsectarian Schools and Restriction of the Liquor
Traffic are other Liberal measures. The landed aristocracy,
the authorities of the Established Church, and
the powerfully intrenched liquor interests are in alliance
against these measures. The strength of this alliance
is in the House of Lords, which is composed of peers
and of archbishops and bishops of the Church of England.
3.559.5?? are tlle figures which indicate the present
membership of the Young Peoples' Society of Christian
Endeavor. The number of local organizations is 71,662.
The society is now almost
?vnu-wiue in its scope, being
established in France, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Iceland,
Macedonia, Costa Rica, British Guiana, Samoa, Cuba,
the Phillippines, Spain, South Africa, New Zealand
and China. Its greatest strength of course is in the
lands where Christianity is most thoroughly established,
such as the United States and Canada, Great
Britain, Germany and the smaller Protestant countries
of Europe.