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2 (602) THE P
now toleration prevails and the pure gospel of
Christ is again making converts among its inhabitants.
The Lutheran Reformation in Germany
just a century after the Hussite movement
singularly substantiated the fact that the Roman
Catholic Church was very corrupt, in many particulars,
and needed regeneration, which is more
or less true today in those countries of Austria,
Italy and Spain. Luther, like Huss, was aroused
to protest and condemn ecclesiastical tyranny,
by the shameful sale of "indulgences," made
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was led step by step on from that erroneous
practice, to find and finally to assert (even when
threatened with excommunication and death)
that the holy Scriptures were superior in authority
for Christians, to that of the papal hierarchy
or the Pope. Hence true religion was
again established by Potestantisni.
Henry M. Hall.
Vienna, Austria-Hungary, May 23, 1911.
JEHOVAH.
4'The proper study of mankind" is not
"man," but God. To know Him is eternal
life, and of what other knowledge can anything
like this be said?
Satan introduced sin into the world by first
introducing into the mind of Eve hard
thoughts of God. He maintains his dominion
in the same way. Hence the following discussion
needs no apology.
Most persons think that the reason of their
reluctance to think of God is His unsearcliableness.
But He tells us that the knowledge
of Himself is not only attainable, but indispensable;
that those who follow on to know
shall certainly find Him out; that the possession
of this knowledge is the only thing in
which a man may rightfully glory: and that
the time comes whed the whole earth shall be
full of it. He requires it of us, would He command
what is impossible?
It is true that his spiritual nature is unsearchable,
but not more so than our own.
We never complain that we cannot know ourselves
or others, because we cannot tell what
a spirit is or how it exists.
Then when we consider those natural attributes
of God in which His spirit is infinitely
above our own, we una tnat tnere are otner
things which we do comprehend, and which
possess these attributes equally with God.
For instance, Time. It is without beginning
and without end, self existent, necessary, eternal.
God Himself cannot stop its wheels or
change its course. Independent, immutable,
indestructible, time would still run on even
if God should cease to be. Its nonexistence is
unthinkable.
We know space also. Omnipresent, self-existent,
necessary, eternal. Can God say to it,
"Hitherto shalt thou come and no further?"
Truth also is rightly called divine. In its
great volume there is much that is self-exist
ent, necessary, eternal. The theorems of pure
mathematics do not owe their certitude to the
will of God. Faith can accept the proposition
that matter was made by God, but it clearly
perceives that it was made only upon the condition
that it should obey certain inexorable
laws which are essential to its existence.
Among the eternal verities is the Moral Law:
irronealable not because God wills it. so hut
because it is self-extent. As the great standard
by which God judges and approves Himself,
and commends himself to us as altogether
worthy of our affection and confidence, it
stands apart from Himself and could exist
without Him. The principle that sin must
be punished either in the person of the offender
or a proper substitute, is a principle over
RESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
which God has 110 control, <?lse why did the
Son say "Father if it be possible?"
Now if God is a self-existent, necessary,
eternal Being like Time, Space and Truth,
always the same, it certainly follows that His
acts are necessary also. For action is but the
oreature of motive, and if God's motive, made
up of His knowledge, disposition, opinions, and
will is self-existent and necessary, all His plans
and acts are inevitable and necessary also.
"I am what I am" and cannot be otherwise,
He tells us in His name Jehovah. It is the
same as to say I do what I do and cannot do
otherwise.
As to the practieal bearings of all this,
notice:
1. Does this view of God dishonor Him?
Does it make Him a mere machine in the hands
of a greater god, Necessity ? How can it, when
He does what lie pleases, and when He has
no quarrel with any of the eternal verities (as
we have). Does it make Him a blind, unthinking,
unfeeling Fate? Far from it. He cannot
lie, nor repent, lor look upon sin, nor clear
the guilty. He cannot do an unwise thing,
nay He cannot but always do the wisest thing
possible. Is not this a glorious Being to deal
with. Whom would you rather trust, one
who may not, or one who cannot break His
promise?one who may not, or one who cannot
make a mistake?
2. It is evident that God is capable (according
to the Scriptures) of self-denial, even an
eternal self-denial. See Lam. 3:33, etc., "He
doth not willingly afflict." In all their affliction,
He was afflicted. "Punishment His
strange act," etc. Like Himself the eternal
verities are wise and just. He renders them
that honor and subjection which He requires
His creatures to render Himself. He cannot
and would not eliminate them. To them He
can sacrifice when needs be, an infinite Parental
affection, a boundless benevolence.
3. This subject lets light in upon such questions
as these: Why were sin and suffering
and death permitted to enter the universe?
Why, an eternal Hell? Why is Christ so slow
in coming? Why are not all saved? etc. More
than thirty times, in the New Testament alone,
is the word "must," which in the Greek is
"it is necessary," applied to the Divine action.
Upon what then must we vent our complainings
and cast our doubts and suspicions when
we seek to answer the above questions? Certainly
not upon God. He did not create the
"eternal verities." He Himself is subject to
them. When He tells us "offences must
come," when, in the Apocalypse, He prefaces
its dreadful unveilings with such expressions
as the "Things which must come to nass."
"must shortly be done," "must be killed,"
etc., shall we not believe him?
R. R. Houston.
Troutville, Va.
The true way to imitate the wisdom of the
olden time is this: To watch the conditions
of the age in which we live; to accept them
thankfully and freely, as at once the law of
Providence for our guidance, and the gift for
our encouragement; and when we learn by experience
that the tools with which other generations
wrought are not suited for the work
that is given us to do, then to find if we can,
some other tools which are.?"W. E. Gladstone.
As it is described in the New Testament, the
Church is not a strait-jacket, but it is an armory,
a radiator, and a dynamo. The Head of
the Church is Jesus Christ; the Church is his
body. The Church door is wide open for whosoever
will follow him.
UTH [ June 28, 1911
THE BISHOP OF HOMEVILLE.
BY ARTHUR W. HAWKS.
(The Bishop of Homeville passes among everyday
men as Rev. A. C. Hopkins, pastor of the Presbyterian
Church at Charles Town, West Virginia.)
llomeville lies in the Beautiful valley, close
by the Bluest Mountains. And the feet of the
Bluest Mountains are washed by the Laughing
Daughters of The Stars, as it goes on its laughing
way to join the deep bass of Old Ocean
in God's great choir.
Homeville has one main street and two long
narrow streets and they run from the Sunrise
to Sunset and then lose tliemeslves in the
wood paths of the Blessed Country.
At one end of the main street is a great hill
and from this hill you see the beehive and
at the foot of the hill is an old-time pump. If
you work the iron handle the sweetest, purest
water comes out of the wooden spout and finds
its way down Red lane and spills out on your
neck and shoulders and makes the laugh come
bubbling to your lips.
At the other end of Main Street in Homeville
is another hill, which passes toward the
Sunrise, and when the day is done you climb
up this gentle hill and see the Great Sun go
down behind the Bluest Mountains.
On this hill is the silent city, where the people
of Homeville?oh, so many of them?have
entered in through little Green Doors.
Grandfathers and grandmothers and mothers
and fathers and the little children all rest
so quietly there.
And from all over the world pilgrim feet
come to wander in the City of Sleep.
1 remember the first time I ever saw one of
the little Green Doors open into the Earth
Chamber below and the clods fall on the mother
face way up there in Homeville.
But that was in the Long Ago. Of all the
Babies and Children and Women and Men in
Homeville, who are dear to us there is one that
we all love and are fond of.
The church in which he is a preaching Elder
has no bishop and yet he is the Bishop of
Homeville. For nearly fifty years he has been
there.
Other voices have called him, but he has listened
to his heart and stayed in Homeville.
In the Glory Days the Bishop was young
and vigorous and patriotic and prayed in the
battlefield and now and then took a fallen comrade's
gun and shot it a time or two.
And when the Gray Men came home he came
along and, true to his colors, stuck to the boys
of his regiment in Homeville. His hair is
very white now?it catches the light from beyond
the range?his head is silver, but his
voice is golden.
And the gate that opens to the Manse could
tell many tales of heart-hungry, tired, world?j
J i -
Bi>aixjcu, uiii-cursea men ana women who have
entered in and come ont from the Bishop's
presence blessed and up-lifted.
The children rush to meet him in the streets.
The young folk gather around him in his
walks.
The business men always have time to talk
to him.
The shut-ins have his prototype squares
away.
And if you are rich in trouble, or if Death
comes a-knocking at your door, it doesn't make
any difference what church you are a member
of. vou send for the Bishot) and he enmen AnH
if you are away outside?not belonging to any
church?why, his hand is ready to clasp yours,
and his eye fills with the dew of pity as he
helps you.
But if you are a fraud or a hypocrite or