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re?s, and the strength and security of civil government,
should read these articles. Every
pastor in sympathy with their purpose should
see that his people have opportunity to be informed
of the facts, the principles and policies
that will be disclosed.
Permit us to entreat pastors that they respond
with alacrity to this suggestion. The fair, authentic
and convincing statements of fact contained
in these articles will reveal aspects of
civil and religious conditions in America hitherto
unknown to the average student of either saered
or profane history, and will appeal with tremendous
emphasis to the vigilance, the patriotism
and fidelity of the reader. The first number of
the series will appear in our issue of February
14.
THE ASSEMBLY'S JUDICIAL COMMISSION.
The leading features of the Judicial Commission
proposed by the General Assembly and contemplated
in its overture to the Presbyteries are
worthy of note, in the study of that overture. It
is not a "judicial tribunal," except in popular
parlances, but simply a commission of the Assembly.
It is to be appointed and given its
duties by the Assembly itself, the Synods nominating
those whom the Assembly is to qualify.
The commissioners are to be named quadr jnnially
by the several Synods, one ruling elder and
one minister by each. A quorum of the commission
is to be the same as that of the General
Assembly. The commission's findings are to be
the Assembly's only after the latter, as in the
ease of all other commissions, has heard and approved
its record. If there be not sufficient time
to complete the business before it, the commission
shall report and render judgment to the
next Assembly. In case any commissioner shall
be also a member of the Assembly, his duties as a
member of the commission shall ordinarily take
precedence of his duties in the Assembly. No
commissioner shall be allowed to serve in any
case coming from a lower court of which he is a
member. All judicial cases coming regularly
before the General Assembly, the Assembly having
itself passed upon the question of regularity
I xT T xl 3 -t- -11 1. /? 1 ? - i?
vy me usuai ineinou. snail De reierrea 10 tne
Assembly's commission, except that the right to
issue cases affecting doctrine is reserved by the
Assembly.
This outline of the proposed amendment to
our constitution shows a number of notable
features which commend that amendment. The
new measure provides, as the Assembly initiating
the movement sought, that "future Assemblies
may be relieved of the burden of judicial business
and may devote themselves to their other
functions. It introduces no new elements or
laws into the constitution, and erects no new
court, but at the same time accomplishes the
end desired. It makes the commission the appointee
and agent of the Assembly and its acts
the Assembly's acts through the usual channel
of examination and approval. It provides for a
method of nomination which secures a wide and
wise representation of the church, eliminating all
sectional or local influences. It provides for a
fair, careful, unhurried, uninterrupted, full
study of all judicial cases, providing even for
such as might require much more time than the
most protracted session of the General As?cmbly.
These and other advantages have been set forth
very clearly in the report of the Assembly's ad
interim committee, which in rather an unusual
manner is appended to the overture as sent down
to the .Presbyteries. It reads as follows (See
Assembly's Minutes, 1911^ :
"Your committee respectfully gives the following
reasons in favor of the above proposed
change:
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
'' 1st. It will accomplish the end dealred, m to
relief to the Assembly, and will enable the members
of the same to remain on the floor, while yet
it will provide amply for all judicial cases.
"2d. It will accomplish this with a minimum
of change in our Book of Church Order, only a
single paragraph therein being in any manner
altered, and the numbering as at present arranged
being untouched.
"3d. It does not provide for an additional
court or tribunal in our series of graded courts,
with all the changes which such an additional
court would require in many parts of our Book
of Church Order.
T a. ?_ a _ ii - 1 - -
tin. Li maintains tne present relation of tne
General Assembly to all judicial cases, though a
commission of the Assembly in which the quorum
shall be the same as that of the Assembly.
Tt thus preserves the principle of the Assembly's
authority and power.
"5th. It is thoroughly Presbyterian and represents
the genius of Presbyterianism, in that
the commission provided for is appointed by the
Assembly and submits its report and statement
to that court for its action as the judgment in
each case. It provides equally for all, and in
its membership recognizes the fundamental
principle of rulership.
"6th. Its provision for the nomination of the
members of the commission by Synods will secure
men from all parts of the church, and the ablest
and best qualified, and also a tenure which will
stimulate and increase special study and fitness
for the position and its duties.
"7th. It provides for such a practical distribution
of the power of appointment as will prevent
jui personal bias, sectional favor or influence, or
other conditions which might in any way affect
the judgment of a cause or give rise to serious
dissent."
NOTES IN PASSING.
BY BERT.
THE BEAUTIFUL. GATE OF THE TEMPLE.
Very soon after Pentecost,
The Incident. Peter and John going up to the
temple for prayer were accosted
by a cripple who asked them for alms. The
crippie naa never waucea. Ana tor years had
been carried to his place at the gate known as
the "Beautiful" gate that he might receive alms
from the worshippers as they went in or came
out. Peter and John were not only "unlearned
and ignorant" men hut they were poor men.
They had neither silver nor gold to give him,
but they gave him something infinitely better.
They cured him of his lameness in the name of
Jesus and he in a delirium of joy went in with
them into the temple to praise God. Acts 3.
No two of the disciples were more
Peter and unlike than Peter and John. Peter
John was impetuous, quick, full of fire
and nervous energy. Peter was all
and always atingle with the magnetism of abundant
vitality. There was more of action than
thought about Peter. John was a dreamer,
mystical, meditative, thoghtful. John was
always either delving into the depts of
great truths or soaring into the heavens of
spiritual discovery. In action nohodv onnld
keep rip with Peter; in spiritual insight, in familiarity
with the unseen and in knowledge of
the unusual, John had no fellow. These two, so
opposite, instead of shunning each other, were
mutually attractive; each possessed and was
just what the other lacked. These two made a
well-halanced man. And in the fact that they
are found together more than any other two of
the company we discover the deep charm of the
Almighty's work in effecting amongst the tin*
tJ T 11 [February 7,.lfU
likenewee, and pposltes a perfect equilibria!*
of forces for the attainment of the grandest results.
It was the doer and the dreamer who
brought the blessing to the cripple.
And this cripple lay at the
The Beautiful beautiful gate. Strange and
Gate. impressive lack of harmony. A
gate was not made to lie at but
to go through. A beautiful gate should be the
gathering place of beautiful, perfect, and holy
things and people. If cripples must lie, are
there no walls? "Why must the most beautiful
things suffer the contamination of the ugly and
repellant? But affer all isn't that just life?
The beautiful is not contaminated by the unbeautiful.
"What is your strength for but that
it may be made to minister to the weakness of
another? What is your Christian character for
but that it may be impressed by the Spirit into
the work of attracting the unchristian to the
Lord? The gate lost none of its beauty through
being the chosen position of the cripple, but it
brought his imperfection into prominence. The
beautiful are the ideals, the ideals which work in
our minds a mighty discontent because of their
distance above us, and therefore spur us on and
lift us up. We may be so crippled that we have
no hope of ever reaching them; still we will lie
in sight and wish for the power to walk within.
Thus must we be with Christ. He is of all the
mast Beautiful, he is the grandest of all ideals.
We long above all things to be like him, but we
are crippled and have been from our birth. We
can only lie and look up and admire and cry out
for some one to bring us alms.
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wvmj/iv v/x 111v, wiiuouau iixxj, auu wum,
and service has so many beautiful gates. The
gate of prayer, the gate of faith, the gate of
obedience to the will of God. So many beautiful
gates, and all wide open, and all crowded with
cripples who have never gone in, but who can
look inside and see the joy and fellowship and
peace and worthiness of the many who have.
Who is responsible for this
The cripple's long tarrying at the
Transformation, gate while so many are pushing
past to enjoy the pleasures
and blessings within! The answer seems
clear to me. The very first man who sees him
and can help him is. It is clearly Peter and
John's responsibility as disciples endowed with
power to lift this man up. That's why they were
given the power. And they did it. And the
man leaped to his feet and with joyous bounds
went right in through that Beautiful Gate. And
they are doing it everywhere. Souls of men are
longing to be used for God. Much of the un
happiness of men in this day, I am snre in my
own mind, comes from a consciousness of their
worthlessness for good, hut they do not know
how to correct the conditions. They are crying
out in their great need for help from those who
hove it to give them. And that we must do. Our
fife of faith is everything to us; glorious land of
abundant pasturage; well watered, and adorned
with boundless profusion of fruits and flowers
for the spirit's food and enjoyment, and we love
it and wish thousands more knew what we know
about it. And thousands more are lying at its
Beautiful Gate, and God" knows, we are doing
little enough to help them to enter. That was
a big day's work for Peter and John. By work
and prayer, or by prayer and work, have whatever
order you please so you get them both in,
we too may have the happy privilege of looking
into the face* of one and another lit no with the
inner glory of the temple and enioy the blessed
eonw-ionaness that they are through ns.
Always stand up for the ricrht. hnt do not
wear yonrself ont with worry heeame yon can
not turn the world and make it over in a day.