Newspaper Page Text
2 (818) THE
Apart i'roiu the work that Mr. Smith and Mr.
McDonald are doing, Dr. Young and myself are
busy every Sunday addressing churches, Sunday
schools and Y. M. 0. A.'s and other organizations
sometimes twice and three times on the Sunday.
We have introduced the Pocket Testament
ague to the (Jideons, which is an organization
^/oted to seeing that the Bible is put into every
bedroom of every hotel in Canada?the Boy
Scouts, the Andrews Brotherhood and the St.
Andrews-Phillips Brotherhood. In all oi' these
organizations the matter has been officially taken
up and an endeavor made by the officials of these
different organizations to see that every member
becomes an active member of the Pocket Testament
League.
"It is really a constant surprise to us the way
the work takes hold, everyone seeming interested,
and once they join, they are all advertising
agents for us. I must mention the way the business
men of Toronto ax*e taking hold. Men who
never read a Testament or had neglected to do
so for years have signed up and we number
among our members many prominent men in
Canada.
"You will be delighted to hear that the Anglican
Church has given our movement official sanction.
The representatives for the Council of
this Church are not as yet complete. The Most
Reverend Dr. Matheson, Primate of all Canada
of the Anglican Church, has written to us on
several occasions expressing his sympathy with
and approval of the Pocket Testament League.
This has aided us materially and we are justly
proud of the work in this connection.
"The Salvation Army have also given us official
reception. Commissioner Rees is sending out
a personal letter to all his commanding officers
in Canada bringing the League to their notice
and urging them to promote it. In fact all denominations
have taken up the work and all are
pushing it, so much so, that I feel safe in saying
that before the summer is over the Pocket Testament
League in Canada will be a recognized organization
for good in all parts of the Dominion.
Our first supply of 20,000 membership cards has
become exhausted, and we have just received
from our printers the first consignment of a
100,000 order.
"We are working especially through the Sunday
schools. The different Sunday School Associations
are all back of us. Must give you just
one instance of what the League has done in this
connection. Some three months ago it was introduced
into Beliefair Avenue Methodist Sunday
school. Since then 198 scholars have joined
and Mr. Ferrier, the Sunday school secretary,
told us only the other day that since the League's
introduction the Home Study Department had
increased 70 per cent., the church attendance of
the scholars over 20 per cent., and that as a
result of the League's operation, they expect this
year to receive more scholars into the church fellowship
than ever before. The League so impressed
the pastor of this church that he is devoting
his Sunday morning sermons to the New
Testament for the benefit of his scholars, and
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? niuiiiiug nic^ are uaving a rocKei
Testament League service with special addresses,
solos, etc. I have been invited to attend as secretary
of the movement for Canada. All the
members will be wearing a white ribbon badge
with the letters 'P. T. L., May 21, 1911' upon it.
"This is but one incident of many. "We are
keeping a record of all interesting incidents in
connection with our work. Might say that ou?
office is run on a strictly business plan of operation
and everything is kept right up to the minute.
In connection with the work in the Sunday
schools, we are if arrangements can be made.
sending a representative throughout Western
Canada this fall to address six Sunday School
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S
Conventions, at which will be some 2,500 active
Sunday school representatives.
"Our prospects l'or the future are very, very
bright. We expect to sweep Canada, at the
same time making our country the banner country
as far as the Pocket Testament League is concerned.
As yet we are only creeping, but with
God's blessing if things continue to grow as they
have been doing, we will soon be forced to seek
larger quarters for our office and employ at least
five or six stenographers. What is making it so
successful in Canada? Without a doubt it is the
fact that we are standing on a firm spiritual
foundation, our aim and object being the spread;???
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fact that we have a devoted band of Christian
friends working and praying for us, and you
have the secret of our success, but we give all
glory to Him, whose Kingdom we are extending
and for whom we are working.
"With best wishes, believe me,
"Yours faithfully,
(Signed) W. S. Dinnick."
Cod willing why not us too? W. H. F.
NOTES HERE AND THERF
by e. h. h.
Ilow bright is the light the Bible throws on
the way that leads to heaven and our duties
here on earth, and how little light on what does
not pertain to life eternal and practical morals
and holiness.
Our Lord said very little on social problems,
all those miestinric oBnnf ?
j ?_ ui/uui, inuigo niuuu su liiiliiy
now seem to think the great questions and problems
of civilization. Christ's object was to make
saints, not philanthropists. He knew that if
men's hearts were right toward God they would
be right toward men, that morality and philanthropy
would grow out of holiness.
Our Lord fed the hungry and healed the sick,
yet he taught that men should labor for the
bread of life and put soul health and soul wealth
before mere bodily well being. The present adjustments
of men in their social, civil and business
relations, may not be the best, but all these
relations are but temporary. Men will soon pass
away and these relations cease, therefore if our
fellowmen are in such condition that the more
primitive wants, food, clothing, shelter, are tolerably
provided for, then it is far more important
to get them into that adjustment toward God
which will make their eternal destiny a happy
and holy one, than to give all our energies to
making tneir civil, social or business relations
better than they are. Our business here is to
make the most of ourselves and others possible
to be made for time and eternity, and this is
accomplished by bringing ourselves and our fel
lows into right relations toward God.
"The angels have the holiness of creation. Redeemed
humanity has the holiness of regeneration
and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. By
our participation in Christ we who are real
Christians are introduced into the very bosom of
the Holy Trinity." Our Lord says, "I in them
and thou in me." And again, "As thou Father
art in me and I in thee, that they also may be
one in us." And again, we are said to be partakers
of the divine nature. Temples of the
Iloly Ghost.
The language then of Archer Butler, though
startling, does not seem going beyond Scripture
when he says, "Had there been no redemption,
humanity could not have been the contained of
God?never could it have filled so wondrous a
patre in the hist.orv of tVio nnWown ? ?
w - ^ nc UCVCl
could have pointed to a brother on the throne of
heaven. We could have never felt as we do now
that we are inseparably linked with all that is
loftiest in the economy of the universe, that
1
*
ODTH [August 30, 1911
there can be nothing effected or undertaken in
which we are not personally interested as effected
by Him who in one divine manifestation of his
nature has been pleased to bind us to himself
forever." What an awe-inspiring thought, almost
overpowering in its intensity, that we
Christians, as the body of Christ, His Church
are united to Him as branch in the vine, the
members in the head, so as to be identified with
all his acts who sits upon the throne of the universe,
we in Him united with the eternal plans
and procedures of heaven because we are forpvpr
hlptldprl U/ifli TI ir? fVirv "Amr ~c tx:_
??.?u ^.uu buc vcxj luumucrs Ui. ins ?
body. This seems to claim so high privileges for I
the regenerated, exalts them to such high posi- n
tion, that we shrink from this language as irrev- *
erent, as almost blasphemous, were it not that
seems justified by the statements of the Scriptures,
declaring the closeness of our union with
our Lord, and how identified with Him, we are
brought into a very close and peculiar intimacy
with the blessed Trinity?an exaltation and privilege
of which perhaps no other beings in the
whole universe partake. We do not yet understand
what is involved and what is yet to be
evolved from the Cross of Christ for man.
There is one short period in the history of
Christ on this earth of which the intensity is beyond
conception, an interest for the world beyond
imagination and a worth beyond language
to express. It is when our blessed and stricken
Lord cried, "Why hast thou forsaken me," and
said it is finished and died thus bringing heaven
and earth together, laying a foundation for reconciling
God to man, and man to God. A scene
angels could never have imagined and which in
all the world God alone knew its fulness and its
mystery.
Would we know how weak and small we are?
Just think, "One grasp of Gods hand could
crush all the stars into powder."
"IN FOR A LONG WALK."
BY REV. M. B. LAMBDIN.
4' Take one step with the devil, and you are in
for a long walk," rings a proverbial warning
from some unknown source.
It contains a tremendous psychological truth.
Satan never comes to a soul with the startling
disclosure, "I am the devil, and I want you to
join me in a long walk."
AVith instinctive dread and horror we would
melon f 1 TT VVA?1? ? 1 - 1 *1
.uoiiuivij oiiuua ikiciv Hum suen a loatnesome
invitation.
But he usually comes arrayed "as an angel
of light," and with the claim that the "one
step'' of moral divergency is altogether a trifling
step, nothing whatever gross or dangerous about
it in nature or results.
And the devil assures us, with blandest tone
and ingraoiating manner that,'' Everybody takes
that step to advance their personal interests;
and why shouldn't you ? " " Nothing is so successful
like success," and all that is needed to
win it is just a little shading of the truth, a
neat trick in trade, and adroit scheme in vote
getting, a fashionable function, and think what
a mighty factor it will be in the upward climb
of your laudable ambitions in business, politics
or society.
And ere the person is well aware of the final
consequences of that "one step," he is vigorously
striding along at a steady gait down the
"broad way that leadeth to destruction," unsuspecting
that he "is in for a long walk with
the devil."
That "one step" is sometimes taken when the
person is off on a trip to some distant city, or,
when summering at seaside or mountain resort,