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March 9, 1910. THE PRESBYTERIA
ity of the preachers, were faithfully to undertake it, we
might readily grant that they would do some good. Unfortunately
for our author's contention the history of
the Church shows conclusively that men are not converted,
not regenerated, not revolutionized either individually
or in mass, by such preaching. Universally
the experiment, it must admitted, has not yet been tried ;
but it has been tried on an extensive scale, almost universally,
within limited regions, such as Scotland, England.
and ntlipr rnnntripc in riirict-on^nin Tlio UJcf/M-..
, Ml V/..1 luivwuvui. X 11V. illOLVl J
of these experiments show that just in proportion as
the pulpit has devoted itself to the discussion of public
and private morality, to the exclusion of the great
evangelical doctrines respecting sin and its future penalties,
concerning salvation by grace alone through
faith in Christ's atoning work and the supernatural
work of his Spirit in and over the hearts of individual
men, public and private morality has declined.
Professor Rauschenbusch would have the Church
enter into a close alliance with that class o( working
men and their leaders who propose a social revolution
on this basis: solidarity instead of division; co-operation
instead of competition; equal instead of unequal
/ , social opportunity and power. Any one who takes in
v jL the scope of these pregnant phrases sees at once that
Ptney inaicate a revolution as radical, as profound, as
far-reaching, as ever the human mind conceived under
present material conditions; a revolution opposed, as
our author admits by "the solid granite of human selfishness."
In this striking phrase is to be found the
difficulty which underlies this whole problem. How
tis this solid granite of human selfishness, rendered
tough and enduring by the dreadful struggle for a comfortable
life, imposed by Nature, or Nature's God, on
humanity, to be removed? Our author thinks that there
is now going on in our country a swift mental and
moral evolution that "proves the. immense latent perfectibility
of human nature," p. 422. He is easily satisfied
with proof. His discussion ends with another
. <?Tc ?11-- ~ rf . < ' *
uig 11 . 11 we.can rauy sumcient religious laitli and
moral strength to snap the bonds of evil and turn the
present unparalleled economic and intellectual resources
of humanity to the harmonious development of
a true social life, the generations unborn will mark this
as that great day of the Lord for which the ages
waited," etc.
What is all this but to affirm: If we can and do blow
awav the granite of human selfish 11PQQ WP will fArrrvln.
tionize human nature and human society. And this
leaves us where we started.
The real question for all devout Christians is this:
What is the revealed will of God as to all this? Does
He intend that the forces which He has already given
to men, to redeem men, in their utmost and most
faithful exercise, shall, under present earthly and material
conditions, reconstruct the whole of human life?
Thc-Christian socialists and the post-millennarians seem
to think that He does. The pre-millennarians and the
non-millennarians think that He does not. The question
is to be decided by the views we take as to the divine
inspiration and authority of the Holy Scriptures and
by our interpretation of those Scriptures.
Meanwhile the Church will do well, if it faithfully
and fully preaches the Gospel; it it teaches all it can
reach to observe all things whatsoever Christ has com
N OF THE SOUTH. 293
manded; if it thus does its part in promoting the organic
development of the good, the children of the Kingdom,
looking for the coming of the Lord; who, according to
His own word, will, when He comes, separate the evil
from the good. "Then shall the righteous shine forth
as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father."
Lexington, Mo.
Christianity and the Social Crisis. By Walter Rauschenbusch,
professor of Church Historv in Rnphnstor Thonimnnoi
Seminary. The Macmillan Company. 1908.
SHOWING OURSELVES IN WHAT WE COMMEND.
Next to being manly is to appreciate manliness.
Next to being womanly is to appreciate womanliness.
There is, indeed, a measure of the high quality in man
or woman that makes one recognize it when exhibited
in another. It is the lack of the high quality that makes
one undervalue it as it stands out in its commendable
ness. In view of this truth, we must remember that
we disclose ourselves by our estimates of others.?Sunday
School Times.
MOSQUITO ISMS.
A BLUE MONDAY RECREATION.
Bib Mosquito nipped my forehead, scientific, fair and square;
Only pure hallucination, Boston Princess would declare;
Matter never in existence and no sort of evil creeturs,
No nothing but mortality, no forehead and no skeeters;
No insect hordes infesting with their venimous intrusion?
Ergo, all this buzz and biting but phantasmal, sheer illusion!
Yet I make my affidavit?there's the lump and there's the bump;
Otherwise I'm an impostor or the veriest sort of gump;
But I stand on my veracity?there's that irritating patch,
And that tantalizing itching that I've got to die or scratch;
And if famous Mrs. Eddy thinks Mosquitodom a joke,
We would love to have her test it on the classic Pocomoke!
All your skeeter bars abolish, down with all your foolish
screens;
Discard your smokes and smothers and forswear your human
means;
For all that's necessary In the good old summer time,
Is to think there are no skeeters, not in all this skeeter
clime;
Don't you try to brush them off, don't you fidget, don't you
twitch;
Don't you use your finger nails for forsooth it doesn't itch!
0 my Muse, just wait, a moment, for I've got to scratch awhile;
How I wish that Mrs. Eddy that sensation could beguile;
I'm convinced she, too, would scratch, all her finger nails in
focus,
Notwithstanding all the glamour of her Christian hocuspocus;
For it itches, itches, itches, with all sorts of aggravation,
Yes, in spite of all the antics of occult imagination!
On and on from Noah's deluge has the pesky old mosquito
Been bedeviling human skins, yes, and their religion ditto!
If the skeeter is not real, if the skeeter is no evil,
1 may soon admit the premise that neither is there any devil;
Surely both of them exhibit something of the same persistence?
Both are mighty hard to conjure out of our mundane existence!
Fact is, through all Mosquito time, I'm just about as ready
To believe there is no Boston, that there is no Mrs. Eddy;
That she, too, and all her buzzing are only dim illusions,
Though many splendid people share her spiritual confusions;
But while there still are wiggle-tails and victims still to catch,
I just must believe in skeeters and ditto in Old Scratch!
?L. P. Bowen.
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