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10 (566) THE]
NOTES IN PASSING.
BY BERT.
A Workman "Study to show thyself apUnashamed.
proved unto God, a workman
that needeth not to be
ashamed," is Paul's advice to Timothy, in the
fifteenth verse of the second chapter of the
second epistle. Paul had a right to speak of
work and to advise a workman, since he himself
"wrought" at his trade of tent making.
Paul was not a man merely to have a profession
; he worked at everything Ihj professed
with energy and zeal. When he was a per
seeutor, he worked at it; he "persecuted this
way unto the death." When he was mad, he
was "exceedingly" mad. A workman who
was not zealous, and earnest and honest and
ready to defend his calling was something Paul
could not excuse.
A Perfcst A true and worthy workman is
Pattern. one who works to a worthy pattern.
I have seen in machine
shops, workmen at the plane and lathe producing
parts of intricate machines to correspond
with wooden patterns furnished them.
They were expected to exactly reproduce the
pattern. They were not given an imperfect
pattern and told to improve upon it, but the
pattern was perfect before it was given to the
workman and he was given the task of makiner
snnipfliinir that wnnl/1 ni>n?iou1.r
with the shape and measurements furnished
him. In the shaping of character everything
depends upon the pattern; There arc many
pure and noble human lives which move us
to great admiration, and many take them as
patterns, but the best of such lives had its
weaknesses and its misalignments; few of them
were symmetrical in every direction. We
have a better Pattern than the best of them,
and since our work can never be better than
the pattern we try to copy, let us make the
best of onr pattern.
A Trained Something more than a perfect
Conscience. pattern is needed to produce a
perfect work. The workman
must have a conscience. He is to present his
work approved unto God. There is no reason
why so lofty a purpose ought not to get into
every factory in the land. Many a piece of
work is spoiled, many a valuable piece of material
thrown aside, not because the pattern
was wrong, but because the workman was. He
Was a mora timflsprvpp wnrlrinr* liio ,1,nr'u
pay with his eye upon the clock. Any kind of
I work becomes luminous with the glory of
"heaven when it is done "unto God." The application
of these two words lifts human activity
out of the rubbish and the misery of
drudgery into the realm of a calling and places
upon it the stamp of a Divinely ordered enterprise
worthy of the best of the heart and mind
and body of the workman. Even more strongly
does this apply to religious work. Much
of it is really not "unto God." Fear of the
disapprobation of man, love of reward, thirst
for human favor, these and the like considerations
press us and shape our actions more than
we care to admit; indeed, often more than we
are aware. They create an atmosphere, and
mould a philosophy of life from which it is
difficult to get away. For these evils the only
remedy is the single eye. A conscience always
on the job, a judgment trained to the minute, a
sympathy always looking upward, a heart that
knows no fear, a spirit right with God; these
are the essential equipment of a workman.
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A Well directed A workman for God is
Industry. expected to be always
working. But activity is
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PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SI
often mistaken for work. Many an intensely
energetic man wears himself out doing nothing.
It often happens that while we are busy
here and there, that which we ought to have
guarded escapes from us. It is all right to be
busy here, and it is all right to be busy there,
but it is a sad waste of usefulness, a deplorable
squandering of time and energy to be busy
here and there. Nothing is more useful than*
a tine sense of the right proportion in life, a
discrimination in things worth while, and a
courage to say "No" to the merely attractive.
In these days, and especially in the cities, tlie
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uciiiunuH macie upon tne average minister are
far beyond his power of compliance; he must
select, and often he must select at once be
tween things which appear equally urgent,
Too often, it is to be feared, under the stress
of this modern life, he chooses the spectacular
rather than the really important, often blinded
by a momentary brilliance he makes the permanent
subservient to the temporary and
worse than wastes himself. There is need for
a programme of life that is worth while and
then for a determination to follow it which
will not be side-tracked.
MORE TENTATIVE THAN TRIUMPHANT.
Commenting on the property dispute between
the Presbyterians U. S. A. and the Cumberland
Presbyterians, The Presbyterian, of Philadelphia
SflVS "TllP wllnln Qdlinmo ic a ^icnrn/lif
the Christian religion and goes far toward discouraging
further attempts at union between
kindred denominations. We have had several
letters from the brethren, both the so-called
Unionists and Anti-Unionists, and they have
made our heart sore, and we are constrained to
believe that something ought to be done to put
an end to this strife." In an earlier number
The Presbyterian had said, "From conversations
and correspondence of brethren in the Presbyterian
Church, IJ. S. A., we find a good deal of
difference as to these court decisions."
We believe the last property contest between
these two churches was decided by the Supreme
Court of Tennessee in favor of the Cumberland
Church. Whatever may have been the technical
issues involved, or the competency of courts in
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uieir contacting interpretations oi law, we must
believe that this decision was just. The standards
of the Cumberland Church were the constituted
bond of union between the two parties
in the Church, and subscription to those standards
was the sole basis of its organization, and
of official relation to it and title to its property.
Those standards constituted a covenant which
included property interests as well as spiritual,
and when those standards were abandoned by
one party to the covenant that party forfeited
its right to an interest in the property which
that covenant secured. Those who were true
to the compact were the rightful possessors of
that which the compact secured.
This is certainly the moral aspect of the case
whatever else statute law might determine. It
would be a deplorable construction of law to decree
that the result of faithfulness to a covenant
must he the lows of that which the covenant
What is a constitution worth if at any time a
majority can over-ride its provisions and de:1
n minority who are true to its provisions,
of their rights? Every capable lawyer is familiar
with the principle that a constitution is
for the protection of either party against force
or usurpation on the part of the other party.
Constitutions in representative government are
made to secure the rights of minorities.
Tt is contended that the Cumberland majority
accented and subscribed a constitution substantially
like .the one which they abandoned and
J U T H [May 22, 1912
were accordingly entitled to the property of the
Cumberland Church. No such contention would
be respected in civil affairs. A business partner
who should contend in court that he had renounced
the articles of agreement in a business
compact but had subscribed others that were
substantially the same and was therefore entitled
to disputed property would get no further
hearing. The court would rule in favor of the
other partner who had been true to the letter as
well as the spirit of the co-partnership.
But the majority in the Cumberland division
were not true to their former standards.
Leading men in the Northern Church had de
clared before the separation and have declared
since that there were essential differences between
the creeds of the Cumberland Church and
the U. S. A. Church. Among these men were
Dr. Warfield, the Princeton theologian; President
Patton, of Princeton: Dr. Roberts, clerk of
the Northern Assembly, and many others. Dr.
Roberts had said in substance that whatever else
might be said of the Cumberland Confession, it
was not Calvinistic. True, he said later, when
union was about to be consummated that there
was substantial agreement between the two confessions.
but times had then changed. It needs
no theologian to see that there are radical differences
of doctrine between the two Confessions of
Faith.
Tf the Cumberland Church had adopted a constitutional
provision by which that church could
unite with any other body by a majority or
two-thirds vote of its Presbyteries (or threefourths
as in the case of the Southern Presbyterian
Church), the case would have been different,
but no such provision existed and it was hazardous
to delay in order to secure such an amendment.
As we see the case the majority simply
irmored constitutional limitations, went into another
organization and laid claim to the entire
property of the Church which they abandoned.
The minority has suffered greviously, their only
offence being that they were true to the articles
of faith and government which formed the constitution
of their Church.
THE ROMANISTS AND THE BIBLE.
The Romanists who advocate the throwing out
of the Bibles which the Gideons have placed in
the hotels, and who advise their people to "use
for kindling wood" the copies which they have
been deceived into buying, claim tihat they are
not against the Bible but against "spurious editions"
of it. They would not have the Douay
Bible so treated, and whatever is not in the
Douay Bible is not the Bible. This is their so
phistical reasoning. And yet, who that knows
anything of the nature and history of the versions
does not know that the Douay Bible is just
as much a "version" as the King .Tames or any
other, and that, in addition, the Douay is a translation
of a Latin version rather than of the
original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures? It is,
as an actual fact, not any special version that
these Bible-burners and Bible-ejectors are concerned
about. It is the Bible in any form, and
especially unaccompanied by the priests' interpretation.
They do not wish the Word of God
to be in the hands of'the people. They pretend
differently, and bring all sorts of alleged proofs
that they encourage Bible reading and circulation.
But ask the masses, the common people,
and see what they are taught to do and to think
about the matter!
The power of a comma is clearly shown in the
following sentence in one of our editorials of
last week: "They have found them loyally desiring
to see the church freed of an obligation,
which is not to her credit." Take that comma
out, for it had no business there, and see the
difference!
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