Newspaper Page Text
August 30, 1911] T H E X
tiauity. This is indeed true wherever it prevails
in purity.
The golden age of Grecian civilization was
the age of her vilest moral corruption. They
had artists in vice and crime. The conquering
Romans inherited that polished civilzation without
improvement in morals. They furnished
classics for our universities, but women like Cleopatra
and Aspacia lured and swayed the literati,
and the cruel sports of the amphitheater were
most popular. In the theater the cry, "Mimae
Nudentur," "let the actors disrobe," was
instantly obeyed. The intellect has no necesIsary
connection with the conscience. Refined
flesh is as far from God as coarse flesh. Refinement
may veneer depravity. There is no essen
uai element in music, poetry, sculpture and
painting, to elevate men morally.
Civilization, culture and genius, cannot cast
out demons. Paul gave only a passing glance
at the art wonders of Athens, and then preached
the gospel. Christians, though mostly poor and
illiterate, were men to be wondered at. For
three centuries they had no church houses, to
draw by architecture, furniture and garniture
with elegant forms, but they employed moral
and spiritual forces alone. It requires supernatural
faith to overcome a rich, luxurious and
fascinating civilization like ours. There is no
Christian state and never will be one until Christ
somes to erect it. Persons of all grades of sociey,
learning and intelligence, have been made
new creatures by the gospel; some transformed
from proud scoffers to humble believers, from
vile profligates to self-denying, holy and useful
men. We find such cases in every community.
What kind of a tree bears such fruit? When
rklci nWA <1 C11 Z~i-- ? *? *' 9
uiiiucia cue (5?uu auu vjuriHiimis are oaa it is a
kind of inconsistency. The early Christians
challenged attention to their blamelessness and
well-doing, and their enemies were compelled to
admit it. Their lives of unparalleled excellence,
boundless benevolence, resistance to worldly allurements
and corruption, heroism under torture
and zeal in propagating their faith, amazed the
Pagan world. When Christianity appeared the
Roman world was a mass of rottenness, and
Christians sprang up like lilies from the muddy
ooze of a pestilential swamp. Said a French
writer to Voltaire:
"Dare you assert that we may expect models
of excellence in philosophic fmilies? Your observation
and conscience contradict this.''
A learned infidel after conversion said to a
humble and illiterate friend: "I fear I have
poisoned you."
"0, no," said the humble disciple, "I knew
your life." The learned infidels, Herbert,
Hobbs, Voltaire, Hume, Paine and Bolingbroke
taught many forms of dishonesty and immorality,
and some practiced them.
Voltaire was blasphemous, malignant, regardless
of the decencies of the family, hypocritical
and disgusting by his loathsome vices. When
near death he said:
"I am abandoned by God and man and I wish
T had never been born." Rousseau, by his published
confessions, was a thief, a liar, and a
debauchee. Late in life he said: "I have been
a rogue and am so still." Paine's first wife died
of ill usage, his second left him and his third
was the wife of another man who had given him
hospitality. Aaron Burr was an infidel and a
master of wickedness. David Hume regarded
death as a necessary evil. He was uncertain
whether he was to be annihilated, happy or miserable.
His death was a leap in the dark. Chesterfield
spent his last hours revising his essay
in favor of suicide, reading books of amuesment,
playing cards and jesting about the river Styx.
Sometimes they bitterly recant. The Earl of
Rochester dying, said to an infidel friend: "O,
RESBXTER1AN OF T H ? SO
remember that you condemn God no longer! He
is an avenging angel and will visit you for your
sins; and I hope he will touch your conscience
sooner or later as he has mine. You and I have
been sinners together a great while. We have
been all mistaken in our conceits and opinions;
our persuasions have been false and groundless;
therefore I pray God to give you repentance.
1 warn vnn nn mni<n 4-n -"1- ~c
j vu uv niui V/ tu mane a muciv UI Slii^ UI*
condemn the pure and ever excellent religion
of my ever blessed Redeemer, through whose
merits alone I, one of the greatest of sinners,
do yet hope for mercy and forgiveness."
"What a contrast between these and the deathbed
scenes of Christians so often recorded, as
they triumph over the last enemy and enter into
glory. Intellectual culture alone, without the
training which Christianity gives the conscience
and heart,, fails of the chief good. It may make
skilful knaves and dangerous neighbors. The
exclusion of the Bible from our public schools
is a challenge to our fidelity in the Christian
training of the home, the Sabbath school and
the Church.?Neiv York Observer.
HOW THE GERMANS CELEBRATED TWO
GREAT VICTORIES.
BY PROFESSOR ADDISON HOGUE.
When we were boys and girls many of us used
to wrestle with Caesar in his account of the way
he wrestled with the Gauls?and also with a German
leader named Ariovistus. How many asso
?" -
biaiiuus inaL uitniH win can up m some minds.
Well, we remember that Ariovistus led a large
host of untamed Germans across the Rhine; that
he and Caesar had a famous colloquy, in which
the German showed a great deal of fire and
spunk. In the ensuing battle the disciplined
Romans beat the brave but untrained Germans,
killed a large number, and drove the survivors
hack across the Rhine. For most of us this was
perhaps our first linking together of the Rhine
and the Germans; and now we know that the
German national song as Die Wacht am Rhein,
"the Watch on the Rhine."
It happened this summer that the writer was
reading about the two great wars Germany has
waged in our day?the war of 1866 against Austria,
and the greater war in 1870-71 against
France. In the first war the greatest battle (and
a most terrific one it was) was fought on Tuesday,
July 3, 1866, near Sadowa. When night
fell, leaving the Prussians completely victorious,
the German writer whom I was reading said:
"Close to one another camped the troops, rejoicing
and congratulating one another. The military
bands were playing the choral, Nun danket
?n? /xt? xi r*. -
\jtuii,, vi>ww fi11 manK uoaj ann thousands
of the victorious warriors joined in with enthusiasm."
In another history, about the Franco-Prussian
war, the German writer describing the joy among
the Germans at the surrender of Sedan, tells of
the illumination of the camp, and adds: "Far
and near resounded the choral, Nun danket alle
Gott."
These German writers laiid no special emphasis
on the fact, only mentioning it as a natural
incident. iNot so, however, Mr. Archibald
Forbes, a special correspondent of the London
Daily News. In the first \o1ume of his acconnt
of bis experiences he says, in regard to the great
surrender at Sedan:
*'Before going to sleep T took a walk around
the half obliterated ramparts. The scene was
verv fine. * Phe whoh. horizon was lined
w^th the reflection of fire. All along the valley
of the Mouse on either side were the bivmacs of
the German host. Two hundred thousand men
lay here around their king. What were
the Germans doing on this their night of triumph
? Celebrating their victory by wassail and
riot? No. There arose from every camp one
unanimous chorus of song, but not the song of
ribaldry. Verily they are a great race, these
Germans?a masterful, fighting, praying people,
surely in many respects not unlike the men whom
Cromwell led. The chaunt that filled the night
air was Rinkart's hymn, the glorious Nun danket
alle Oott. the Old Hundredth of Germany. To
hear this great martial orchestra singing this
noble hymn under such circumstances was alone
worth a journey to Sedan, with all its vicissitudes
and difficulties."
Times had surely changed since the host of
V?OQ 4"V?nn ?- J 1 11
?v?i.uv<u uciiiuuja my ciicamptui arouna inoir
king Ariovistus confronting the invincible Caesar.
Washington & Lee University, Lexington, Va.
THE SPIRIT THAT WINS
It seems to be very difficult for many professedly
Christian people to understand the fact
that the spirit which wins victory over error and
opposition is a gentle and gracious spirit.
Those people are much mistaken in thinking
that a defense of the truth requires the manifestation
of a censorious and severe temper.
They often resort to acrimonious accusations
against opposers. Too frequently they make,
damaging insinuations in reference to the motives
of those who disagree with them. There
appears to be a purp.ose to injure those who
held to opinions and positions different froin
their own.
Now, I do not say that one ought not to be
absolutely earnest in the advocacy of his principles,
beliefs and practices, for he should be;
but I insist that one's earnestness ought to be
characterized by a genuinely Christian spirit.
Such a spirit will keep one from indulging in
harsh personalities. It leads one to have due
consideration for the opinions of those who
differ from him. He makes allowances for the
infirmities, prejudices and misinformation of
those who disagree with him. Forbearance and
patience accompany this good spirit. And such
a spirit will win to one's cause more friends
and supporters than can be won by a censorious
and sour temper; indeed, the latter spirit disgusts
sensible and just people, and drives them
away from all sympathy with the harsh contestants.
One of the worst hindrances to many a good
cause has been the spiteful and splenetic spirit
shown by some advocates of the cause. In trying
to whip certain ones into a support of their
j " - - -
r...icipic? aim policies iney nave provoked them
into a fixed prejudice against them. Those who
succeed in winning people to their side exhibit
a kindly temper. This was one great element
in the success of the apostles and their assistants. .
Though they were intensely earnest, yet they
were also gentle and sweet-tempered. There
was a persuading tenderness in their speech and
conduct. We should imitate their example.?
C. H. Wetherbe.
It is said that once, in a company of literary
gentlemen, Mr. Webster was asked if he could
comprehend how Jesus Christ could be both
God and man. "No, sir," he replied, and added.
"1 should be ashamed to acknowledge him as
my Saviour if I could comprehend him. If I
could comprehend him, he would be no greater
than myself. Such is my sense of sin and consciousness
of my inability to save myself, that
I feel I need a superhuman Saviour, one so great
and glorious that I cannot comprehend him.
When the Church is a social club or a lecture
platform or a high-class concert hall it has lost
its power and usefulness and is sailing under
false colors.