Newspaper Page Text
October 25, 1911 ] THE
within its reach who need the gospel oall and the
means of grace, yet are indifferent or lack opportunity.
It may well be asked if those who
are adjacent to us in the providence of God are
not cared for by us spiritually, from whence
shall their needed spiritual ministration be derived.
Philips Brooks said: "It is a terrible
thing to have seen the vision and to be so wrapped
up in its contemplation as not to hear the knocking
of needy hands upon our doors."
THE MEN ANT) PTRTTamv
? -own 1UV (JQlUXlllX.
In judging of the "Men and Religion Movement."
it will be well to do two things, if one
would be fair. The first is to note the fact that
the projectors and executors of this movement
utterly disclaim any intention to set it up as an
organization or new piece of machinery in the
Church. The second is to do all one can, when it
touches his community in any way, to keep it
well within the bounds which have been so wisely
set for it by its active originators.
It is not an organization but an effort. It seeks
for the great mass of men who seem to be lost to
the Church in the latter's activity. It is striving
to increase the number of men and boys encrfljyp.d
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forms of Christian activity or service. It emphasizes
the great missionary appeal of the
Church and of her Lord. It is trying to exalt
the spiritual power of the public worship of God.
These are great and worthy ends, and, whether
sought by personal, individual effort or by concerted
action, are just such as every true Christian
should be engaged in.
There is always a tendency in concerted work,
especially if it be upon a large scale, to get away
rom the simplicity of method and purpose with
which it begins. It is this departure that de
ats it, or that justifies criticism or opposition.
Hence it is the duty of all earnestly devoted to
i he tnds had in view, if they be worthy, so to
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&uc?i.u mo C11.VAL us lu Keep u witnxn proper
bounds aud to make it yield only desirable fruits.
A wise attitude towards it, and a faithful effort
to guard and direct it and to hold it to its legitimate
ends, will produce far better results in the
case before us than the entertainment of suspicion
or indulgnce in an unwarranted condemnation.
Our brethren of the Presbyterian Church
U. S. A. are considering with much favor a
Ministerial Sustentation Fund, the design of
which is to provide amply for ministers in case
of their disability, or in case of their death to
provide for their families. The plan contemplates
raising a sum sufficient to assure a sound
business basis for developing and administering
the fund. An annual premium would be
required in behalf of each beneficiary, twenty
per cent, of which premium would be paid by
himself and eighty per cent, by a general fund
of the Church. Three advantages would be
gained. Ample provision would be made for the
comfort of the minister and his family. The
cost to the beneficiary of this form of insurance
would be but twenty per cent, of the actual
cost. The insurance would provide for both
disability and the comfort of the dependant
family in case of death. Laymen of the
Church are enthusiastic about the plan and propose
to finance the enterprise so as to place it
upon a thoroughly sound business basis. Some
such system ought to commend itself to all
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ministers would avail themselves of the advantages
afforded hy paying the small annual premiums
required. The appearance of dependence
on the benevolence of the Church would
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
be removed for the revenue would be derived
principally from an endowment similar to the
endowment of a college.
THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION.
(Continued from page 3.)
ministers and instruct them in their message or
silence them entirely. We are told that our
gospel of grace and atonement is antiquated and
not suitable for the age, and that we should cease
to preach it and conform our message to the
thinking of our times. It calls for men of conviction
and boldness to tell the world that "Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever,
" and that his gospel is suitable for all men
in all ages of the world.
3. IIanest men. "For we are not as many,
which corrupt the word," say the Apostle, but
"seeing we have this ministry" we "have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, not
walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of
God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the
truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience
in the sight of God." (2:17; 4:1-3). It is
easy "to corrupt the word of God" and "to
handle it deceitfully," and many are tempted to
do it. All religious faddists claim it in .support of
their peculiar views, and the ingenuity they
practice in interpreting it to suit themselves is
worthy of a better cause. The true ministry of
Christ should shun every temptation to misuse
the word. Intellectual honesty is a great faculty.
The question for us is, What does the word of
God teach? Not, What would we like for it to
teach, or What, by crafty interpretation, can we
make it seem to teach??but What is the will of
God therein revealed which it is our duty to proclaim
to the people? That we must labor to
understand and that must be our me.-sage.
4. Aien of haith. "We having the same spirit
of faith, according as it is written, I believed,
and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and
therefore speak." (4:11). it is only the man
who believes the message who should venture to
deliver it. If he has become unsettled by criticism,
or naturalism, or Ritschlianism, or pragmatism,
or by any other modern "ism" he should
withdraw from the ministry of reconciliation,
and not attempt to speak in the name of the
Lord Jesus. 1 hazard nothing in saying that if
a man does not believe that men are lost and
helpless in sin and can only be saved by the
grace of God through the mediation of Jesus
Christ, it is impossible for him to be an able and
honest minister of the New Testament. We can
only preach to others, with any degree of force,
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iiuii wnicn we ourselves are convinced is true.
It the trumphet give an uncertain sound, who
will prepare himself for the battle t
5. Men of persuasive speech." "Knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade
men." (5:11). "Now then we are ambassadors for
Christ, as though God did beseech you by us;
we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to
God." (5:20). The ambassador of Christ, who
is both a messenger and a representative of his
master, should know what to say, and how to say
it He should study the language of the Spirit,
and he should seek to clothe the yearning
thoughts of the Saviour over the lost in loving
burning words like those that fell from the
lips of him "who spake as never man spake."
It will always be true that those who use the
1 _ i? A 1 . Ml ? *
language oi tne r>pint wiu not speak as men
ordinarily speak. The language of the gospel
can only he learned by the Spirit-taught man.
Paul says: "We speak, not in the words which
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy
Ghost teacheth; comparing spirtual things with
spiritual." (1 Cor. 2:13). It is a task worthy
U T H (1019) 11
of an angels tongue, but 1 suppose impossible for
an angel, to represent the mind of Christ to
sinful men. That is left to sinful men themselves
who have heard the voice of the Son of
God in their own souls and have thus learned his
precious message. They only are prepared and
commissioned to deliver it to their fellows who
have had like experiences with themselves. What
a task it is. and how carefully and tenderely it
should be fulfilled!
G. Men of loviny hearts. Paul says: "The
love of Christ eonstraineth us." This is the impelling
motive in the ministry?the love of Christ
and the love of men in the heart. We are not
tit for the ministry of reconciliation without
love. All other qualifications will fail in the
absence of "love unfeigned." (6:6). The loving
Saviour calls for men of loving hearts to deliver
his message to the needy. 1 had a class
mate at Princeton, Win, K. Eddy, who went to
Sidon, Syria, as a missionary and travelled for
thirty years, day and night, over the hills of
Samaria and Galilee and far up the precipitous
slopes of Mt. Hermon, preaching the gospel and
ministering to the needs of the outcasts and the
poor of that desolate country. He was the friend
and helper of everybody, and was so kind and
gracious, so loving and sympathetic, that he was
known throughout all Syria as Eddy, "the AVellBeloved."
About two years ago while on an
expedition in the Samaritan hills his life came
to a sudden end. He was accompanied by his
two boys, one twelve and the other ten years of
age, and by two servants, Selim, whose life he
had once saved, and Mohammed, an old Bedawy
hunter, whom he had redeemed from a life of
outlawry. The party had encamped for the
night, and the two weary children had gone to
bed, when the father was stricken with heart
failure, which was indicated by a torrent of blood
gushing from the mouth and nose. Knowing his
hour had come, he called the two faithful, frightened
servants, and directed them how to get the
children and his body down to the coast, and left
with them messages for the people with whom he
had spent his life. The sleepy children were awakened
and he bade them a tender farewell. Then
he sat by the dying fire, with his Bible open 011
his knees, until midnight when the end came and
he went home to glory. Mr. Alexander Powell, the
American consul, attended the funeral, and he
says, in an article in Everybody's Magazine, for
September, 1909, that, although he had followed
t'? the grave the remains of many great ones of
earth, he had "never witnessed such a spontaneous
outpouring of grief as was accorded to this
simple missionary. It seemed as if all Palestipe
and Syria had come to do him honor. The
route from the mission church to the little Protestant
cemetery lay for two miles or more
tnrough the narrow streets and subterrenean
passageways of the ancient town, and every toot
of those two miles the Hag-draped coffin was carried
aloft on the tips of the people's fingers?not
Christians alone, hut Mohammedans, Druses,
and Jews struggling for a chance to do honor to
Eddy, the Well-Beloved, in this peculiarly Oriental
manner." So this noble missionary finished
his course with joy. and the ministry which he
had received of the Lord Jesus to testify the
gospel of the grace of God. T trust, my brethren,
that all of you, who are called to this work, may
so fulfill your ministry as to win the hearts of
the people whom von are endeavoring to direct
to the Saviour that they may accept of him whom
yon represent and preach.
Don't helieve that the universe is going to ruin
at aeroplane speed because of an attack of dyspepsia
or the appearance of seary newspaper
headlines.