Newspaper Page Text
January 81, 1812 ] .THE!
writes for mere entertainment, who afters to our
homes volumes to engage the interest and admiration
of young minds interested in social
methods and standards, those whose minds are
all attent to the words and deeds of heroes
and heroines whom the writer's skilful pen has
endowed with powers or charms that hold the
reader spellbound with admiration?the romancer
too often presumes to interlard sentences
and intersperse paragraphs and pages with blatant
profanity.
To what extent are such writers guilty of the
profanity which they invent? They are not re
cording facts, they are creating the material of
which their books are constructed. To what extent
does their profanity represent their personal
taste? To what extent does it expose the
company they have kept, their social contacts
and choices? To what extent is their profane
language a confession of paucity of ideas and
language ? To what extent is it a desperate
effort to maintain interest where real talent and
other merit are confessedly inadequate and
mediocrity is threatened with humiliating exposure
? To what extent are all the arraignments
of profanity herein recorded applicable to the
writer who artfully selects the most telling,
or shocking, or to his mind the most exhilarating
combination of profane words? We leave the
answers to these suggestive inquiries to the reader's
intelligent judgment. Sure we are that the
author of such literature is the promoter of one
of the grossest, most prevalent and most debasing
vices. "Evil communications corrupt good
morals.''
MEDITATIONS ON "FAITH AND ORDER."
Early in the spring there will be held in New
York a "World Conference on Faith and Order,
'' called by men who are authorized to speak
for the Protestant Episcopal Church. The design
in general is to confer on subjects of faith
and order concerning which religious denominations?Protestant,
Roman Catholic and Greek
Catholic differ, as well as the articles of belief
on which they agree, and if possible devise plans
and methods by which differences may be removed
and the organic union of all professedly
Christian communions may be secured.
As an evidence of the present attitude of the
esteemed communion from which the call for a
World Conference on Faith and Order has
emanated, it may be noted that while that body,
the Protestant Episcopal, refuses to recognize the
ordination of Protestant ministers outside of its
own communion, it does recognize the validity
of orders in the Roman Catholic and Greek
Catholirt CVhnroVloa Tri ~ lU;
VMW< X1A WILLI tills at LItude,
during the past year Protestant Episcopalians
and Eastern Catholics adopted and
entered into "a plan of comity" in America,
and in the Episcopal report of the Protestant
Episcopal Church for the year is the "clergy
list" of Russian, Syrian, Greek and Polish
Churches," representing "the Eastern Orthodox
Communions."
These latter facts indicate the wide gulf that
projectors of the World Conference on Faith and
Order propose to bridge?not a gulf between
Protestant Episcopal and Catholic Churches, but
between these and other Protestant bodies. Shed ding
light upon this feature of the situation is
an extract from a sermon preached some years
ago by Dr. John Watson (Ian Maelaren), on
"The Grace of Orders," about the time of a controversy
between The British Weeldy and Canon
Hammond, of the Church of England, on Apostolic
Succession. After arguing at length that
the minister's office is prophetic and not priestly,
his mission to teach and not to confer sacra
mental graea, the praaahar aaid: ^
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S<
TBS POINT TO DXCIOm.
"By what was the Christian Church adraneed
from the beginning f By sacrament, however
beautiful, however spiritual; or by the preaching
of the Word? There is nothing on the face of
the earth and nothing in human history so strong
as preaching. By preaching wickedness is beaten
down; by preaching men are brought to faith;
by preaching we obtain our civil and religious
liberty. Therefore, I say, there stands the prophet?preach
the Word, and also administer
sacraments. And there stands the priest, with
the sacraments in the foreground and the Word
in the background, and if he gets full power, no
Word at all. And then you take the priest; well,
well he is, strictly speaking, an official; he may
}w* mA**o Kn 4- 1
? uui, miuiiiuuii as iie is more ne is a
prophet; but, strictly speaking, an official, ordained
after a particular fashion, and by that
act of ordination, date and hour to be given,
qualified to do?what? To preach? That is of
no importance. To administer the two sacraments,
so that in the sacrament of baptism he
can regenerate a human soul, and in the other
sacrament he can turn bread and wine into the
body and blood of our Lord. It is
A TREMENDOUS CLAIM !
"And now what does it depend on? Well, it
J J- ? *
uepeuus on a long mstorical succession, so long,
so minute, so confused, that there is every probability
that links are wanting, and if a link is
wanting he is not ordained, and there is no
sacrament, and there is no salvation brought near
to these people. So much turns upon mechanism.
And I ask you: Do you so understand the
Gospel of Christ? and was it such a Church he
intended to create??that none of us is a valid
minister of Jesus Christ unless he can trace thus
his genealogy?ecclesiastical genealogy?back
through such extremely muddy and disgraceful
channels?
"But that is not all. I am aghast at this claim.
I want to ask questions. I feel that I cannot have
understood it?that the mere act of ordination,
this formal act, on that day and that hour, has
given him this power, and that is all.
I WANT TO ASK QUESTIONS.
"Of course, I say, he must be educated, trained,
so that he understand the Bible, and undercf
onrl J A 1 "1 *
wcutvgjf, ouu uuuersiana tne nistory of
the Christian Church. What! will it make no
difference if he has not been? None, none to a
priest, if he has been properly ordained; none.
But suppose?and I have heard of such cases, of
South American and Greek priests?suppose he
is so illiterate that he never read the Bible at all,
and never in all his days read the four Gospels
of Jesus Christ? Duly qualified to preach, fully
qualified; that would not enter into the matter!
Suppose he be an utter fool? An excellent
priest!
"That is not all; that is the least, literally.
Ah, there be men of very simple understanding
and limited knowledge, although not of course
so low down as that, who might set an example
of godliness, and also lead some in the way
everlasting. It is a serious business if you do
not claim intelligence as n neeeaai+ir
w ? ~ W v ? WJ XUl llic
priesthod, but it is not final. T have other questions
to ask.
ONE THING I TAKE FOR GRANTED?
that he be a holy man, and that if he be an evilliver
he is no longer a priest. What! the sacrament
valid, and the bread and wine turned into
the body and blood of the Son of God, though his
hands be unclean and his life black? Quite so;
it will make no difference to priests; the sacrament
will be equally valid, though he be the
worst of the South American and Italian priests.
This is fearfull Where am I nowt This is
mechanism certainly, with a vengeance!
"But I have another question to ask. Of
) U T H (107) 11
ftouree h? must at least be a believer of Jesus
Christ; however ignorant or however gross, he
must surely hold yet to an atom of faith f Suppose?it
is impossible, but just suppose?that a
man who did not believe in Jesus Christ at all,
and who made a mock at the mysteries of the
Christian religion, an infidel of the Renaissance,
should be a priest; is the sacrament valid ? Perfectly.
What! perfectly valid? Perfectly valid.
Then if a man be ordained, though he knownothing,
though he be an evil-liver, though he be
not himself a believer, if he be properly ordained,
he is a duly qualified minister of Jesus
Christ, with power to administer the very body
and blood of the Son of Qod! I stand aghast.
A CONTRAST.
' Vo? A -11 T *1 - " 1
i w, cu-iu tn<ii/ ja uul au. x luae mis aoject?
for it goes to prove my case, and a case where
theory is carried so far?I take this abject, this
poor wretch of a Brazilian priest, one of the
lowest types under a ministry of any kind that
can be discovered?I take him, ignorant, dirty,
evil-living, not intelligent enough either to believe
or not believe, I take that creature, and I
say: Then that is a valid minister of Jesus
Christ? Yes; then I bring John Bunyan, I bring
in John Bunyan. What of him? Was he a
minister of Jesus Christ? No; never properly
ordained ! Ordained nf tV?e T.er?d Knt
V* UUl UUl UA
man. Had he any right to administer a sacrament?
None! Was the sacrament ineffective
from his hand? Yes! Was he an intruder? Yes!
Was he an imposter? Yes. Is there any hope
for him? "Uncovenanted tnercies!" I remember
the sermons he preached, wherein he took
sinners in his arms, as in Jerusalem's city, and
literally carried them up to the mercy seat, that
they could not escape from the salvation of God.
And I remember his life in Bedford Gaol, and
all that he suffered for the Lord. And I remember
the book wherein he has opened up the deeps
below and the heights above, and hath made the
way luminous for millions that they may enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven. And when I hear
that creature is a minister of Christ, and this
great prophet is an imposter, then I go down on
my knees and implore God that from this debasing
error and superstition he would be pleased
to save us, and our children after us."
POSITIVE PREACHING
Much of the religious thinking and preaching
of our day has been smitten with the spirit
of negation, and compromise. It is a certain
element of weakness. There is no comfort in
a non-affirmative position, and any preacher
who is tempted to seek refuge in mere negations
is guilty at bottom of cowardice. Successful
preaching depends upon positive elements; and
faith and character, which are the ends of the
work of the ministry, can not be secured withont
those elements.?Christian World.
"Asa man thinketh in his hea-t, so is he." We
do not often enough remember ihat as we think
of others so are we to them, it ?s in us. as human
beings, instinctively to recognize and t'? hate insincerity.
Nobody is in the end deceived by expression
that is merely outward and perfunctory.
Our inner life is transparent; it cannot conceal
itself; if it is a true life it has no need or
desire of concealment. To think the loving
thoughts of each other that God thinks of us all;
to harbor no malicious, no ungenerous feeling toward
others, and to leave Him to indcp nf fUo?!.
seeming unkindness to us?this is not only our
human duty, but our divine privilege. And a life
of good will to men is also the only life of peace
on earth.?Lacy Larcom.
The conventional fault-finder is one who thinks
that right always lies in the opposite direction.