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August 2, 1911 ] - THE!
OUR CANADIAN BRETHREN.
The Presbyterian Church of Canada has this
year passed the Southern Presbyterian Church
in total membership, reporting 287,944 members
" to our 286,174. This is the result of a much
larger increase dnrina the nnot vooi- TVm
w ? Q w?v J VUi. X liV XXX"
crease in the Canadian Church was 7,388, while
ours was only 4,254. This was partly due no
doubt to the large Scotch immigration to "Western
Canada, but it must be credited in a great
degree to the virility and zeal that are apparent
in the activities of our sister Church and to
its liberality in sustaining its great home mission
enterprises.
There is some prospect of the vanishing of the
Canadian Church as a branch of the great Presbyterian
fraternity and its consolidation with
the Congregational and Methodist organizations
of Canada. The consolidated communion would
scarcely stand for any historic type of doctrine
or polity and for that very reason would be exposed
to almost certain decline in zeal and in
purity of faith.
No branch of the Church can flourish spiritually
on mere pious sentiment. There are not
enough dynamios in vague pious inclination to
accomplish the heroic ends for which the Church
is ordained and to which it is commissioned. A
stalwart faith, clearly defined and cherished
with a conviction that grips the whole soul and
that masters communities and eras of human
life, and which forms an intelligent basis for
meeting great crises in which "iniquity shall
abound and the love of many shall wax cold," is
essential in a great struggle between the powers
of light and darkness, in which "the flesh lusteth
against the spirit and the spirit against the
flesh."
The proposed consolidation would adopt a basis
of union. This basis would include an evan
gclical creed and a defined polity; but in adjusting
such a creed to the sincere conviction of
Methodists it would be impossible to incorporate
a clear cut statement of the doctrines of grace
such as is involved in the Pauline or Calvinistic
system. If these doctrines are suppressed in the
symbols of the Church they will inevitably be
obscured in the subjective faith of the people.
The same may be said of the scriptural polity
of the Church in alliance with Congregationalism.
Compromises cannot be made without abandoning
scriptural models. Indeed the merging of
the three prominent forms of church government,
Episcopal, Presbyterial and Congregation
al into a compromise which is neither one nor
the other, is a confessed abandonment of scriptural
authority in adopting a system of government.
Such considerations may not be deemed to be
vital, but they at least justify serious doubt as to
the righteousness of compromising or suppressing
revealed truth in adopting standards of doctrine
and government, merely for the sake of an
outward unity which may have eliminated the
very elements which make a Church strong, aggressive
and enduring.
The recent Fourth of July was undoubtedly
the "sanest" that our country has known in
many a year. It was undoubtedly noticeable that
in the cities where the sale of explosives has
been forbidden the law or order concerning such
sales was universally obeyed. And here comes
out a fact that is to be carefully noted. It is the
difference between the merchants or others who
deal in articles found to have been dangerous or
disagreeable, and the dealers in intoxicating liquors.
The former keep the law, the latter defy
it. The former have respect for'themselves and
for their own good name, while the latter openly
and shamelessly declare that they do not intend
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
to observe the law. "Prohibition will not prohibit"
because those who get the blood money
that is in the business do not intend to let it
prohibit. They serve notice in advance that it
shall not prohibit. And yet there are people
pretending to love humanity and law who are
willing to give license to this class of dealers!
CONDUCT OF PUBLIC WORSHIP.
Addressing a class of candidates for licensure
at the Irish General Assembly the moderator,
Dr. MacMillan, said:
I ou will allow me to offer you this brief counsel
: Carefully study the Scripture lessons beforehand,
and read them intelligibly and audibly
so as to give the sense and without note or comment
from you. Let the "Word speak. Arrange
the different acts, performed by head and heart,
which go to constitute what we call public worship,
so that no part will be neglected, and no
part made unduly prominent. Above all give
diligence to prepare the subject and even the
wording of your public prayers. Free prayer
has immense advantages and disadvantages. It
is an essential part of the service, it demands
absorbing preparation and care; if it is not an
essential part of the service it is an unnecessary
addition to the mental and moral strain upon
the officiating minister. Personally, I should
like to see the congregation joining in repeating
the Lord's Prayer?if they agreed to do so?
in saying "Amen" to the prayer offered by one
speaking on their behalf; but I am convinced
that there will always be a place for free prayer
in our Church, and that the absence of it would
inflict an incalculable loss upon the congregation
and upon the spiritual life of the minister
who would, by disuse, forfeit the gift. Over
thirty years ago a convention of ecclesiastics belonging
to a liturgical Church was in session
when the members learned that the city of
Chicago was on fire, and that the citizens were
in the most imminent peril. It was agreed to
unite in intercession for them, but there was
no form of prayer to suit the turn of the convention,
which had to be satisfied with going
over the Litany, laying before the throne of
grace " almost every woe but the woe of a burning
city." "Surely," said Phillips Brooks,
"bishops, clergy, and laity should have liberty
to pour out their souls to God, wherever they
may be, for the v6ry things they need, instead
of being compelled to go in a roundabout way,
praying for other blessings and trusting to Omniscience
to give them the things which are in
their hearts." John Calvin wrote his prayers
and read them; so did Dr. Chalmers; so did
ur. AsiiDei ureen, ot ?Tinceton; so did Principal
Dykes. Dr. Samuel Miller, of Princeton, took
as much pains in the preparation of his prayers
as in the preparation of his sermons; so did Dr.
William Adams, of Union Theological Seminary,
New York; and do you never enter upon a service
without having most devoutly prepared
yourselves for this most important act of worship,
and the people will follow every word of
the sermon. You will never call or treat the
devotional parts of the service as "the preliminaries."
Preliminaries denote that which has
reference to the threshold of the door, the part
of the building giving access to the temple.
God promised to meet his people "at the door."
The altar was there. In prayer and praise we
surround the altar at the door and bind theroon
our sacrifices with cords on which we sprinkle
the incense that lifts its wreaths heavenward.
In olden times, if God did not meet his people
at the door, they did not meet him throughout
the entire service. For until they had wor
shmped at the altar they' might not make any
nearer approach. There was no shovel of oals,
and the incense lay inert on the censer, and
V T S (?3l) 11
was sprinkled in vain. If he does not meet his
people at the door in what some rather profane
ly call "the preliminaries," they may not meet
him at all. But when he meets ns "ut the door,"
when inr presence is felt in these devotional
exercises, when the soul draws back its bolts
and the eyes let fall their scales, and the heart
is prepared to seek and to see the Lord, what
a key-note is struck for the whole service, and
how the minister is inspired and lifted into another
world! The hand of the Lord is upon
him, and he is ready to prophesy as soon as
the singers have ceased to sing.
Do your best, leave no part of your Drennrn
tion undone.
A little more, and how great it is;
A little less, and what worlds away'
VICE IN THE ARMY.
It is a sad commentary on the morals of the
United States army that is made by the report
of the Surgeon-General, which is to the effect
that admissions to the government hospitals for
the treatment of diseases due to alcoholism and
other vices amaunt to nearly one-fourth of thw
entire army. The admissions for the treatment
of drunkenness average 25 in 1,000, while admissions
for the diseases of vice are about 200
in 1,000. This is far in excess of the figures
for any European arrpy, the percentage being
more than four times as great as the average
in those armies. When we reflect that it is the
apparent policy of many army officials to conceal
as far as possible the facts of vice and
crime which prevail under their supervision,
these figures are a terrible commentary on the
evils of army life and on military discipline.
Desperate efforts are being made to show that
the prevailing demoralization is due to the fact
that army posts are not authorized to sell in
toxicants to the soldiers who consequently get
intoxicants from outside sources. But it is significant
that the Surgeon-General does not advise
the restoration of the canteen, and it is
further significant that General A. S. Daggett
who served through the Civil War, also in Cuba,
the Philippines and China, is quoted as saying:
' My own experience with the canteen was gained
as a company post and regimental commander.
My opinion of the canteen is that it made the
total abstainer a moderate drinker, the moderate
drinker a hard drinker and sent them all
to the outside saloons for something stronger
than beer."
.......iJ ^ ' ' * - -* ?
it vtuuiu seum mat 11 is time tor tne military
people who on occasion are so sensitive about
insults to the army, should see to it that the
whole tribe of them are not an insult to the
nation.
The number of deaths from sun-stroke or heat
stroke during the recent June and July season
of high temperature was something unprecedented.
There is one aspect of the matter, however,
which ought to be carefully noted, and that
is the close relation between the fatalities and
the drink habit. Says one dispatch, coming from
one of the larger cities of the country on the
day following the Fourth of July, "Yesterday,
being a holiday, was chosen by many laboring
men to attend picnics, where they drank freely
of intoxicants. The night was so intensely hot
that sleep was almost impossible, and when
these men went to work todav tVi? firat Kinot nf -
the sun's rays crumpled them as though they
had heen shot."
Not a throne in Europe could have stood
against Washington's character.?Anon.
Genius is a ship on fire at sea, for the diversion
of the people on shore.?Carlisle.