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10 (826) THE!
need to buy so much and so would have more
money to give to God. He built sheds, and when
he was through with a machine had it cleaned
and oiled <and housed; other economies presented
themselves about the farm, and in a short time
instead of being impoverished by the tithe he
found he was actually growing rich. This is one
instance to show the wide ramifications of the
system. But illustrations of the benefits are too
numerous for us to go into them just now. If
it 'is right to tithe let us do it even if no man
was ever financially benefited by it.
Tho nraotion nC iVin lillin imnlJ 4-U?
{/1UW1VV v/i. iriiu liiliu nuuiu OCi V U I lie
church well in doing away with the necessity for
fairs and bazaars and baby shows and all other
unscriptural and anti-scriptural methods of raising
money for the church. I believe God has
given the Church all the money it needs for His
tiTAflr of fV?o ~ ? ~ *~ ? 1 3
? vi i\ at tuu pi uouni, anu ?ncii mure is neeueu
und can be wisely used He will furnish that, too.
And I believe only want of faith, and living at a
distance from God makes it necessary to do other
than put your bands into your pockets and pay
for what His Church needs.
These methods of raising church funds are
open to so many serious objections that not one
good thing can be said for them. "Make not my
blather's house a house of merchandise," said the
Lord to the Jews, and he took a scourge and
drove the guilty ones out of the sacred courts.
If he were here today and looked upon the bad
dinners served in the name of the Church at two
or three times more than they are worth, or the
8unbonnets and aprons worth about twenty cents
sold for a dollar, and other things in proportion,
T think he would first lluncr his hond in tlnon till
miliation and then I think the things he would
say would make his denunciation of the Jews
sound like commendation. With our means and
our blessings from His gracious hand to go into
such things is a, burning shame.
T will take up some of the objections to this
styU of money raising for the church next week.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL QUESTIONS IN
THE PULPIT.
The temptation to turn aside from the direct
preaching of the gospel is very great. The ministea
is sometimes persuaded that it is a. means
of filling his pew?, and weakly yielding to the
clamour of a few thoughtless people he takes up
civic and social matters and tries to exploit
them from the viewpoint of the church. Perhaps
the while he reioiees in a little oKnrt_lWfo-l
crowding of his pews. Or, with a higher motive,
he conceives it to be his duty to testify against
prevailing evils and to urge the people, from the
pulpit, to take active steps towards the eradication
of those evils. His motive is good, and in
the consciousness of its purity he devotes attention
to the specific ills in the body politic or social,
showing their nature and endeavoring to
move the people to the application of a political
and social remedy.
The mistake in this matter is that the power
of the gospel as the great remedial agency is apt
to be forgotten, and the call to the people has to
be made upon the basis nf
v<T AW Til IUO lldtlicr
than of spiritual. Regeneration rather than reformation
is to be the sure cure for ills of every
kind. The pulpit is given authority to declare
I God's will as to this, and to offer to men the opportunity
and to call on them to ask for the
Spirit who will make men new creatures in
Christ Jesus. Its work is to be for the heart,
out of which are the issues of life. It is to work
from the center towards the circumference, and
not from the circumference towards the center.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation
from present ills as welUas from those which are
hereafter. , V j
i \
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SC
One of the best statements lately given concerning
the general subject we find in a recent
editorial note in the Cumberland Presbyterian
Banner: "Of one or two things we are always
sure. (1) Humanity has ever been in a state
of unrest and inquiry. (2) There is nothing to
compare with the gospel of Jesus Christ as a
complete and satisfying answer to that everpresent
spirit of restless inquiry innate in every
human heart. Ilence we might conclude that one
chief concern of the Church should be in the
exclusive ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ
as offering the sole anchorage and satisfying anc\rnn
in fVt 10 ovan.onrormr* r\ f innnimr A-rwl
""VI ivy i n i%-? l I/IUV' l/x 1IIVJUII J . ilUll
to give a full and satisfying answer to this restless
state of inquiry, means a cure for the many
disorders that follow."
THE OLD TIME RELIGION.
The fact that a thing is old does not make it
right. A good many old things are far from
being the best things. Neither, on the other
hand, does newness of methods or features constitute
the leading factor in the correctness of
those methods or features. Search has to be
made elsewhere than in the age assigned.
In the "old time religion" there were some
features which were away above any age value,
or, rather, which should belong to all the ages.
For one thing, there seemed to be in it a deeper
spirituality than we see today, and more universal
as a type. Externalism was not so pronounced
as it is nowadays. The religious life
was not so much secularized, and its manifestation
and work so much cast in the mould of
modern business ways. The spirit of worldliliess
which marks the modern methods was not
so often seen. True, there was often present
a certain measure of cant and hypocrisy, but
these were more infrequent than the spirit of
worldliness which often now appears; and in
the boast of modernness and business-like ways
there is just about as much danger of cant of
a certain kind as in the old.
i il ^1 i1 .1 J 1! 1 ' If
iiiioxner ming in xne oia ume religion,
wanting these later times, was the emphasizing
in preaching and hearing and living of the need
of the sinner for pardon of guilt and for the
power of the new life. The doctrines of sin and
the judgment, of the justice of God in the punishment
of the guilty and in exacting of their
surety full payment of the debt of the law,
and of the inability of the human heart to move
itself towards righteousness, were much preached
and applied. Much used to be made of the
phrase, and that for which it stood, "conviction
of sin." With the passing of this emphasis,
little is heard or said or thought, and, alas, still
less is felt, of the "sense of sin" that was once
much spoken of or testified to. How many
sermons have you heard lately on such topics
as sin, death, hell, primitive justice? How many
of those who have come into your church have
come echoing the cry of the publican, "God
be merciful to me a sinner?"
The priestly office of Christ used to be much
more emphasized than it is today. The necessity
Pr>r> Vile u: 1 e il._
11,o uiicuug w niiiiseii, me vicarious nature
of his sufferings and death, the divine satisfaction
in the atonement which is made, the completeness
of the redemption purchased for us
by his priesthood, are too much like back numbers
in the catalog of religious truth. Not that
Christ has been passed by or ignored. Much is
still rnsHn r\f ~ ^ - ? 1 ' *
vi. uuu, uut tnu uiucii is xargeiy oi
his kingly functions and of our duty as loyal
subjects, doctrines that need to be emphasized
but which grow out of the others which pertain
to the way in which he could become our
King and we could be his subjects. The whole
round of religious truth used to be more studied
) 0 T Hi [August 30, 1911
aiul applied than it is nowadays, and the effect
of it was wholesome.
That the modern religion has much more of
aggressiveness in it is not to be gainsaid. That
there has been great improvement in all its material
aspects is undeniable. Churches arc better
equipped and supported, ministers are more numerous
and better paid, missionaries have been
multiplied almost beyond comparison, charitable
work has increased, and expansion and growth
have been marked. No one who is wise will
a li. < - ? .
vicj/iuumiu wtvurituic signs 01 xnc unnst
life in the souls of his followers, but will thank i
God for them. Our plea is that in this material
advancement we do not allow ourselves to get |
away from the adequate conception of the great '
fundamental principles on which this material
advancement must base itself if it would be
permanent. If we get too much like the world
in our religious ways the world will after awhile
claim us.
NOT GOING TO FAIL.
The Church is not going to fail. The gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. It is Christ's
heritage by covenant with the Father. It is
Christ's purchase, bought with his own precious
blood. It is his to secure its triumph and success.
His honor is involved. His power will be
evoked to make it complete. "Thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory.''
Individual churches, and individuals in the
church may fail. The love of the world will now
and then root out love for God. Unfaithfulness
to the truth will sap the principles and thus affect
the life of some who allow themselves to
grow unconcerned and careless. The sophistry
and smootliness of errorists, and especially of
those who pretend to revere the Bible in order
that they may fight from within the citadel, may
undermine the faith of many. But the latter arc
not the church, and their going out is itself a
proof of the Scriptures, which declare that such
go out that it might be manifest that they are
not one with the church, for were they one with
it they would without doubt remain.
The difficulties already overcome, and the
crises safely passed, show that God will not let
Ilis Church fail. The Bible, His message, has
withstood all the attacks upon it and is more
J i 1
wiueiy circulated, more universally read, more
devoutly studied today than ever. It has demonstrated
its power to live. It smiles serenely down
on its enemies of all the ages ?nd sees the ruins
of all the citadels that have been built to oppose
its progress. The power of faith, the Christian
faith, has been demonstrated, and its superiority
has been shown, to its acceptance by the best
thought of the highest culture. The treachery
of the pretended friends of religion has been unmasked,
and Satan appearing as an angel of
light has been detected. The inertia of Christian
people has been more and more overcome, until
today they are doing more than all history for
the proclamation of the truth and the spread of
the kingdom. Christian activity like that of today
has never been equalled.
The chief fear that the churclf may indulge is
that her people, seeing the marvellous
funv <"1
Christ and realizing that he will bring all to pass
that he wills, may grow apathetic and forget
that he uses them as moans to accomplish his
ends. Another fear is that in their acknowledgement
of the instrumentality of means they
will come to rely upon these in undue confidence
and give themselves over to ingenious devices
and human inventions, substituting these for
the simple and powerful methods which God has
given, and relying upon them more than upon
the Spirit of the living God.