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10 (348) THE]
THE BIBLE FOR ALL THE WORLD.
It is well known that Presbyterians are liberal
contributors to the publication and circulation
of the Scriptures. In this service they are wise
and all Protestants would be wise to contribute
generously to this vital cause. All the denominations
profess to base their doctrinal distinctions
on Bible authority. Why are they not zealous
as representing their ideals of Bible truth to have
the Scriptures scattered far and wide and multiplied
in the lantruasres and dialects of the earth 1
Let the inspired Book bear its own testimony and
interpret itself, say some, and so say we. Then
why not all give liberally to send out the light
and the truth of the Word of God which "is not
bound" with the bonds of the prison cell and
which "abideth forever."
The call for the Bible in foreign lands is beyond
the capacity of all the Bible presses and
colporteurs to supply. The world is hungering
and famishing for the very message of life which
the blessed book contains. We are hurrying missionaries
to the rescue, but many a cry will be unheard
for the rescuers will be too late. Why not
scatter agents and distributors everywhere and
appoint readers who will make known the inspired
message to the unlettered heathen and
the deluded masses in papal lands.
A new and tremendous responsibility rests
linnn thp crrp?t. Rihlp Snpiptipc r?f Amprinu onrl
Britain in the evangelization of the world. Practically
all the world is accessable to the one Book
for whose publication and distribution these societies
were founded and are being sustained.
They should hurry their books to the front as
surgeons are hurried to the help of the wounded
on the field of battle. Commerce, transportation,
international peace, the revival of learning all
over the world, the welcome extended to industrial
arts and to enterprises of internal improvement,
all contribute to the wide and rapid circulation
of the Scriptures. The American Bible
Society has recently had something like three millions
of dollars added to its endowment. That
means opportunity. The British and Foreign
Bible Society is heavily endowed. No doubt the
managers of both these great institutions are
awake to the situation. Certain it is that the
world was never so wide open to the incoming of
the living and powerful Word of God. And it
must be remembered that the Omnipotent Spirit
conquers through the inspired Word which is his
sword.
Of people who are without the Gospel, those
in papal lands probably present the most urgent
need of immediate help. Spain and Portugal
have just broken with the Vatican and the Bible
is unchained in those lands. The circulation of
the Scriptures in Italy and Belgium is now welcomed.
The South American republics and
Mexico have found the source of their intellectual
and moral stagnation to be in the absence of the
printed oracles of God. Many are amazed that
their religious masters have held them in the
bondage of ignorance of God's message to mankind.
The priesthood still persists in Bibleburning,
but the people are thinking for themselves
as they have never done.
Knmp foil no fVlof fVlO nonoA.. ? J
uu I.WUI Wb papuujr tuiciaiCN uie renuing
of God's "Word by the people. The facts refute
such overwrought charity. The Scriptures
are practically unknown to the masses in
papal countries. The Bible has been a sealed
book through the centuries of the past in lands
where popery has been a dominant religion. It
is still so and must ever be so, else the exposure
of its true character to its people is inevitable.
The attitude 'of Rome (whose boast is that it
never changes), toward the Bible is indicated in a
document now in the National Library of Paris,
eon tain ing advice by the cardinals to Pope
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
Julius III. on his election as pope in 1550. The
following extract is significant:
"Of all the counsels that we offer your holiness
we have kept the most necessary to the last. We
must open our eyes well and exercise all possible
force in the matter, viz.: To permit the reading
of the Gospel as little as possible, especially
in the common tongue in all those countries
? t a.
yuui jui i5>uieiiun. xjct uie very nine
suffice that is usually read in the mass and let no
one be permitted to read more. So long as the
people will be content with the little, your interests
will prosper, but as soon as the people
want to read more your interests will begin to
fail. This is the book which more than any other
has raised against us the disturbance and tempests
by which we are almo;t last. In fact if any
one examine diligently and compares the teachings
of the Bible with what takes place in our
churches he will soon find discord, and will see
that our teaching is very often different from it
and more often contrary to it. And if the people
understand this they will never cease challenging
us till all be divulged and then we shall become
the object of universal scorn and hatred.
Therefore it is necessary to withdraw the Bible
from the sight of the people, but with great
caution in order not to rftise tumult."
A DEAD LETTER.
Many years ago, quite long enough to have
tested the matter practically, our church provided
in its organic law for the transfer of
church members in certain cases without the
usual certificates of dismission. The provision
was made with a view to the breaking up of absentee
membership and the closer identification
of newcomers with the church's life and work in
their new homes. It reads, "When a church
member or officer shall remove his residence beyond
the bounds of the court to whose jurisdiction
he belongs into the bounds of another, if he
shall neglect for twelve months, without satisfactory
reasons given to both these courts, to transfer
his ecclesiastical relations, the court whose
bounds he has left shall be required to transfer
him. And should that court neglect this duty.
the one into whose bounds he has removed shall
assume jurisdiction, giving due notice to the
other body."
When is this law ever observed, and where?
Have church sessions been brave enough, on the
one hand, to transfer members when they have
removed without an application from them; or
bold enough, on the other hand, to tell a sister
court that it has not done its duty and to assume
jurisdiction over the unwilling members
who have moved into their bounds and whom the
other court has not transferred? Occasionally
we hear of a case of assumption of jurisdiction
and notification, as provided for by the law, but
in every such case of which we have heard the
authorized and constitutional act has been performed
by the assuming court at the request of
the nartv ennoprnpH and nannllv Ko??ne?
party has been so long absent from the court of
original jurisdiction that he has lost his right to a
"fair" letter.
There are certain difficulties which perhaps the
framers of the law did not anticipate or fully regard,
and which the church as a whole did not
duly consider when it adopted the law. Where
a member moves to a city containing several
churches of our faith, to which one shall that
member be transferred at the end of the twelve
months? If the new-conier worships occasionally
in several such churches, which one of them shall
claim him and assume jurisdiction? If a member
goes back to the old home on an occasional
visit, or now and then sends a contribution to it,
desiring to retain his connection there, for some
sentimental or other reason, shall this be looked
upon as making the law inapplicable? In the
cities, where congregations overlap each other
and interlace earth other most inextricably ao far
UTH [March 13, 1912
as parish lines are concerned, how is it possible
to carry out the provision?
Most Presbyterians, too, emphasize personal
liberty to a degree that is sometimes abnormal,
and against the true interests of the church. The
rigid application of the law would in many cases
antagonize them and result in their practical
? lit, J 1 * J " ? * *
w luiurawai irura ana repuaiation 01 tne cnurcn.
And there are few pastors and members of the
sessions who would find any plasure in forcibly
enrolling those who have shown no inclination of
their own accord to come into the church in the
new locality. Identification would seem to be by
name only. The type of members who fall in
between two churches and seem to relish the
irresponsibility which appears to give is undesirable
and useless enough as it is. Its desirability
would hardly be increased or its efficiency augmented
by an enforced membership. Few
churches or pastors wish to accentuate this condition
by an act of constitutional force.
The "parish" system, towards which the rule
looks, is practically out of date in all the churches
except the State churches where official records
are made and preserved and the Roman Catholic
Church. In the firrst exception it is maintained
only by the strong arm of the law, which has no
right in the church. In the second exception it
is maintained only by the power which the priest
exercises in witholding or granting the offices of
the church which their "subjects," for such they
are, are taught to believe are essential to salvation.
It is exclusively the use of the "whiphand"
of the State church or the militarized
sacerdotal church that parish lines and connection
are defined and put into effect. Against anything
akin to such power the Protectant mind almost
instinctively revolts. If ever any "parish"
sysit-in is m De carried out practically in Protestant
churches it must be on different grounds,
such as anneal to rea?on. opportunity, effectiveness.
fellowship, usefulness. ?
The class of church members that has to be
dealt with, if dealt with at all. by such process as
that which our Rook provides, is after all not
very desirable, as a rule. They are hardly worth
the effort to hold or secure bv an artificial method
in which they have no heart or will. "Corralling
church members," as a neighbor expresses it,
does not pay.
The spirit of the Roman Church and its attitude
towards civil authority where it dares to
express itself and where it seeks to carry out its
purpose, is clearly shown in the recent papal
decree that "No Roman Catholic ecclesiastic is to
be summoned before a secular court, either in a
civil or a criminal case, unless permission has
first been obtained from a Church authority."
Shall the gracious permission of the hierarchy be
also obtained, after awhile, for the holding of any
courts or for the making of any laws whatevert
mat amiable organization is trying to set aside
the civil laws as to marriage. Now it is trying
to set aside the civil authority as to trials in the
courts. Where will it stopt
When we first encountered the initial habit we
got almost beyond our depth when we came to
the A. B. C. P. M., the abbreviated way of saying
"American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions." But how will this do, the
name of a very vigorous organization in England,
headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and
numoenng rnsnops, non-conformists, noblemen,
scholars, and parliament men in its ranks, "A. C.
C. B. O. E. P. P. R. T. P.T" It stands, in abbreviation,
for common nse, for "Associate
Councils of Churches in the British and German
Empires for Postering Friendly Relations Between
the Two People*." In spit# of it* name 1ft
is doing a good work. ^