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10 (874) ) THE
fully niakng those listeners who were unfamiliar
with the intricacies of logic or the power of
language to conceal thought, really believe that
he had satisfactorily answered each- direct
question. For instance, many having doubted,
from his utterances whether he believed in the
diety of our Lord, the question was asked him,
"In what sense is Jesus the Son of God?" His
reply was that he was the Son of God in many
senses, so numerous indeed, that it would not
be practicable to name them, but the following
might be mentioned: Jesus was the Son of God
in his unique perception of the Father's will;
in his unique attainment of unity with God,
this unity thus attained being complete, and
being an ethical unity; in his absolute and unique
dedication of himself to the accomplishment
of the will of God; and in his unique and triumphant
accomplishment of the Father's purpase.
Pressed, immediately after this public
evasion of the main issue, by one of his hearers,
with the question, "Is Jesus the Son of God
v a yy i. _ J < < T J l J J
in ni8 mature, ne aiisw?reu, 1 uuu i hliuw.
"Is he as to deity the Son of God?" "I cannot
think in the terms of deity; I don't know."
Pressed with the question as to the personality
of the Spirit, he declared his belief in the
personality of the Spirit, but personalized in
the Father and the Son, not a separate personality,
his beinef being in the trinity but not in tritheism."
Asked the meaning of Isaiah's words,
"He hath laid on him the iniquity of us all,"
his reply was, "This refers primarily to the
people of Israel in exile. Israel was hearing the
sins of us all." Asked Ms interpretation of a
miracle of the sun standing still at Aijalon, he
replied that this was a mere figure of speech,
like the poetical statement of the mountains
bowing themselves and the little Mils skipping
like lambs. Asked to interpret the statement
a? Ponl lin+li morln Viim +a lto cin
\J L X Ultl. XXV; 11" 111 U1UUV IIX 111 u" MV win
us," etc., he replied that it meant that Jesus
was "implicated in the whole problem of life,"
that Jesus percieved the conditions of weakness,
sorrow, trouble, difficulty, calamities of humanity
and plunged into the depths of all these problems
of human life."
Thus the attitude of this professor towards
led him to practical denial of
is supernatural, of the deity
of Christ, of the personality of the Spirit, of
the atonement whereby Christ redeems us. And
strange to say, and illustrating again the Bible
statement concerning the giving up of men to
all manner of strong delusion, his belief has led
him into abounding credulity.
This faith is a curious compounding of agnosticism,
unitarianism, humanitarianism, pantheism.
The tenets of the new spiritual therapeutic
school, and Roman belief in modern miracles.
The speciousness with which such presumptuous
denials of the Bible and Bible truth
are presented, the seeming intense reverence
with which they are uttered, and the honied
words with which the vagaries are expressed,
make them more than ordinarily dangerous. To
listen to them and to encourage or applaud
them is to play with fire.
Let patience have her perfect work and cs
pecially watch lest you lose it. For when you
lose patience you lose much more with it. Esnooiollv
/In lmn lfton AL- "
Ii>/?c jvui ^ri|j Ull illlll^H- OUCccss
in the matter over which you are impatient
rarely comes after yon have onoe yielded your
serenity. Impatience is the be^inninfc of a
lack of firmness. God puts a premium upon
"patient continuance in well doinfc." "He that
cndoreth to the end shall be saved."
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
LIGST ON ORDERS.
No new evidence is needed to prove the antiquity
of the Presbyterian Church and the uhiformity
of its government. New confirmations,
however, are always interesting and welcome,
such we have in a document, the translation of
which was recently published in The English
Presbyterian. The editor states by way of introducing
this unique specimen that it "now appears
for the first time, after being hidden for
about sixteen hundred years. It is nothing less
than a 'Disjunction Certificate' or certificate of
church membership given to one on leaving a
church, and forming an introduction to some
other Christian church he may join, This Greek
pprtifioafp wna <linpnvpred ifri thp mass of mrtst
valuable documents found a few years ago ih
Oxyrhynchus, and which experts have beCii
since translating and indicing, and is supposed
by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt to be of the fourth
century. Here is the document itself:
"Leon, presbyter, to the presbyters and deacons
who share the local service, beloved brothers
in the Lord God, fullness of joy. Our brother
Ammonious, who is coming to you, receive
in peace; through whom we and those with us
greet you and those who are with you kihdly
in the Lord. I pray for your health in the Lord
God. Emmanuel is my witnesss. Alftett."
It would seem that inasmuch as Paul ahd
Barnabas "ordained them elders in CVCr.y
church" in Lystra, Icobiuhb Abtioch abd vicinity,
and Paul several times wrote pavticU
lar instructions as to how elders and deacons
should conduct themselves personally and officially,
and inasrmieh as he instructed Titus to have
elders ordained in every city, and discussed the
eldership and diaconate as though they were universal
in the Christian churches, we are warranted
in affirming that Paul is irrevocably committed
for all time to Presbyterian church government.
Then we find Peter and John claiming
that in addition to being apostles they Were
also elders, and John was delighted at frequent
appearances of the elders in his heavenly vision
on Patmos. All this and much more convinces Us
that the chief apostles were PresbyterianBv
Then we have the Waldensians of Northern It
aly, who trace their organization unbroken back
to the time of the apostles, and the are Presbyterian
in government and doctrine despite the
age long persecutions of the Romanists.
Also in these last times we have the same system
of organization distributed almost throughout
Christendom under several different names
and being closely imitated under hominal guises
by dissidents, who nevertheless must have the
system.
Furthermore we find some of the fathers in the
earlier centuries assuming the Presbyterian order
to be authoritative and others enjoining and
contending for it. Nowadays we are recovering
from buried ruins and from ancient cloisters
confirmatory evidence, of which the above is a
specimen, so that we are almost ready to suspect
that ecclesiastical autocrats and ecclesiastical
socialists will soon be abandoning their traditions
and embracing that stable, symmetrical,
ecective, enduring, historic system which the
apostles thought so well suited to secure the
purity and stability of the church, promote its,
growth, and extend its organization throughout
the world.
The readiest and quickest way to prodnce suspicion
of onesself is to be found in always suspecting
others. So also, the best way to arouse
confidence in ones own motive and purposes is
to show confidence in others. The measure with
which we mete is the measure that is meted to
us.
0 1 fl [ September 13, 1911
WHAT IS IN A NAME?
Sometimes a great deal. The nomenclature
of science ill mahy eases sharply define the constituency,
powers, or conditions of the materials
or forces named. Often, too, history is wrapp.u
up in the name, or the principles for which a
body stands. In no case is a name proper which
misleads or misinforms, or that implies or assumes
more than belongs to the object nam^d,
or that takes to itself as distinctive any association,
principle, or history that belongs as much
to another.
An attempted appropriation of a name that
belongs to others, that is hot properly distittc
tive, and the restricted Use bf which beCbrtlCS
a reflection UpoU others, is tlidt bf the detioiiiinatiofl
which Aleiahder Campbeil fouhded oiil^
about one hundred years ago. The majority of
the members of that denomination repudiate any
other name than that of "Christian," and want
the rest of us so to designate them and their
Church. Thus it comes about that in naming
the several denominations we must say they are
the Presbyterian Church, the Baptist Chutch,
the Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church,
trie Uttristidii ChUrch, etc., ds if the latter is
differential from the others ih respect to hdViHg
Christianity which the others do hot possess, ds
if the others nra not to be regarded rts ih the
category of Christidfas at all.
Shall wte yield to this fahcy or Clairri of oiir
brethreh of that dehomihatiobj bh shflii Wb; by
quiet and rbapfcfctfhi use of some other title, make
practical protest against the assumption of a
general name by one branch of those who arc
properly called Christian Churches? The adherents
of Alexander Campbell, unlike the followers
of Luther, Calvin, and Wesley, dislike to
be called by the name of their founder, the mail
who shaped the "creedless creed" to which they
clintr. Whether this is bpr??iio?> ika** ?? *
UMtKsjJ Cfcl Xj OCJllttlllCli
of him Of ftte opposed otl principle to beittg
designated by a matins haine> it will be nothing
but discourtesy oh out part to give them the
property distinctive title 1' Chhipbellites.'' ifdfr
mahy decades they did hot object to this, but
as they object How We should be cheerfully content
and careful not to offend their sensibility
by using a name which is hot agreeable: This*
however-, does hot at all hieafa or require that
we shall give them, in common speech, a title
which does not express a proper distinction or
which, in the restricted use of it, reflects upon
others. The title "Christian" applied to a single
denomination is as offensive to the great
body of people who property carry the name,
a body vastly larger than that one which arrogantly
appropriates the name, as the term
"Campbellite" is to the limited constituency
of that one denomination in the sisterhood of
Christian Churches.
The term "Disciples" is perhaps the best we
can use to designate that excellent people. They
do not object to it. Many of them use it. It
is made use of, if we mistake not, in their official
designation and m? -
w wvumxiiw. r or many years
it was popularly applied. Like the word "Christian,"
it does indeed express a little too much
for exclusive use, but it is hardly as objectionable.
~ }<
The claim that the name "Christian" is warranted
by Bible usage is entirely without reason.
There are three places in the Scriptures where
it is used: "The disciples were called Christians
first in Antioch" (Acts 11:26) ; "Agrippa said
unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a
Christian" (Acts 26:28); "If any man suffer
as a Christian, let him not be ashamed" (1
Peter 4:16). The appelation given the believers
first at Antioch, many years after Pentecost,
was in derision, and by a people noted for their
habit of inventing and applying such terms.
Had it been intended that it should be accepted