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June 26, 1912] THB
Editorial 1
Phis week 'we publish an address by Dr.
Kiusscll Cecil on "The Making of a Minister."
ll was delivered in connection with the centennial
celebration of Princeton Theological Seminary.
This address is the property of the
Hi miliary and will be published with other dis.uoittohc
iirnt?n/1 Alt 4-Vi** ?- ? *
urnimo ai 11 ii/ii/ii uu i/iic uvuisiuii, uui we iiavu
nomired the consent of Dr. Warfield, of Princeton,
and of Dr. Cecil, the author, to publish it in
tlie.se columns. The a Mress hits received highest
praise from those who heard it and its excepjiohdl
Value will readily a| ocar to our readers.
It i4 engaging, strong nud unswers a call of the
titiiCS.
If one would know what the Romanist Church
really thinks and teaches concerning the popular
use of the Tloly Bible, ask the masses, the
common people. They will report that they are
taught to look upon personal Bible reading with
holy horror. Even the editions to which are attached
the annotations of the church fathers and
the explanations of the priests are not widely
rii< innicii ui cucuura^tu eAuepi 111 it very aca(lettiic
Way. The wide dissemination of the Holy
Scriptures is not good for the man-invented notions
of purgatory, the sldlessness of the mother
of Mary, image-worship, the power of the hierarchy,
the authority of the pope, the sacramental
grace, the semi-damnation of all unb&ptized
infants, and the like.
The rioting which has lately gone on in Belgium
is the outcome of the election which took
place a little while before. Through the use of
the plural system of voting, the Clerical Party,
thoroughly united and organized, overcame, by
a small majority of votes cast, the great majority
of the actual voters. The rioting has assumed
almost a revolutionary character. It is
Hp revolt or the masses of the people against the
rule of the Roman Catholic Church. It would
not surprise any one if Belgium should thro.w
off this Romanist yoke and take her place among
I lie free nations of Europe, as Italy, Portugal,
and others have done.
Over organization as a means of accomplishing
the ends set before the church is not con*'ioiisly
a repudiation of Gods ways or a rejeetion
of dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
Many who are wildest in the matter would most
vigvirously protest agninst any such thought as
this. They will not so easily disclaim the fact,
however, that it is largely a substitution of other
agencies for the one supreme demand of God for
complete perHonal consecration. Such eonaecrali<>n
wall put the worker more and more in immediate
contact with the divine power and will
Itnacn more and moro the dependence upon anything
elnc. More conaecration would make leaa
"ionization.
It looka aa if Congreaa ia going to hang up the
"o'aaure which ia dcaigned to take the government
out of partnership with the liquor interests. The
wvcral Statca cannot protect themaolvoa against
the government when it aaya that dealers may
s<,nd their poiaonoua gooda into thoac Statca
,,ven though the latter have outlawed the traftlf*
All oaII ltniiAi* in Qtotnu ur)iin.K linvn nrn.
? ttiiu m^u i njii'u in niii\/u ?" ?? J'* "
hfbited it are anarchist*. They make it their
'"wine** to defy the law. The government of
'he United States aid* and abet* them when it
taxes from them and issues licenses to
hem or permita the ahipment of goods to them.
'1 ia a aorry 'business and a wretohed partnership.
Decency and justice alike rail for prompt
Action. But the politicians have too much to
^ -
PRI8B7TESIAN OF THE 80
Votes and
do, in the effort to return themselves to office or
to keep their party in power, to allow them to
devote their attention to righteousness and the
real good of the people.
The gifts of the people to benevolent and distinctly
religious objects is a source of encouragement
to all who are looking and praying for the
enlargement of the kingdom of righteousness.
Completed estimates of such gifts in the past
year, according to the New York Observer
amounted to $252,000,000, in addition to many
unrecorded gifts. Including charities which
look to the churches for their support, something
like $100,000,000 was contributed for religious
purposes; $40,000,000 was given to Protestant
home missions, and $11,000,000 to Protestant
foreign missions. Educational enterprises received
$02,000,000, and gifts to other public purposes
amounted to $60,000,000. Including
moneys given to the support of their parochial
schools the total raised for all religious and
philanthropic purposes by Roman Catholics
amounted to only $13,000,000.
Last Sunday, June 23, the First Presbyterian
church of Richmond celebrated its one hundredth
anniversary. That is a long time for a church to
let its light shine in a single community and on
out through the regions beyond. But the Church
has a promise of stability which no other institution
can claim. For God's people, "as living
stones, are built up a spiritual house" upon the
"Living Stone, disallowed indeed of men, but
chosen of God and precious." Why should not
this strong, splendid organization accomplish in
another century, if the Lord will, a work proportionate
in value and extent, to that which
has been accomplished by the same organization
which began its work in 1812. The little tlock
may have started on its mission "in weakness,
and in fear, and in much trembling," yet with a
faith that did "not stand in the wisdom of men
but in the power of God." To such faith and to
its response the church now stands as a lasting
testimonial. I-iooking to the future we extend
this salutation and entreaty: "Wherefore, my
beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forusmuch
as ye know that your labor is not in vain
in tho Lord."
Attention is being called to tbe importance of
more intensive aud systematic development of
Homo Mission work all over the land. This
uocan i mean inaiirerenoe to the roreign lioltl.
But an Irish proverb says, "The far away fields
are always green," and we are liable to be
affected by the romance of missions rather than
dominated by its deeper and tmor spirit. Carefully
prepared figures show sections of our
country almost as large as a European kingdom
to be without adequate religious advantages. In
the state of Wyoming eighty-five per cent, of the
population are unsupplied. Children of America
outside of Sunday schools number 23,364,834,
more than two-thirds of the child population.
The Congregationalists are raising a special fund
of one million dollara to be devoted to city missions,
strengthening churches in college and university
communities, and in the endowment of
rural pastorates. Ten Christian denominations
and home mission agencies have agreed on cooperation
in fifteen western and northwofrtorn
states ?o that there shall he neither overlooking
nor overlapping in their work. Tt is time the
South were being organised for meeting the rising
tide of immigration and prosperity.
IUTH (**>) 9
Comments
Mr*. Margaret E. Sangster, the well known
Christian author and editor, vrho was recently
promoted to her heavenly rest, was a life-kvMC
member of the Datch Reformed Church. For
thirty years she edited Che Home Page of our
excellent exchange, The Christian Intelligencer.
Some years ago she paid a graceful tribute to the
paper on the occasion of its seventy-fifth anniversary.
In doing so she incidentally paid this additional
tribute to her Church: "The paper k
like the Church it represents, loyal to the Master,
conservative in expression, charitable in
judgment, sweet in temper, and devoted to the
traditions of the fathers. Fitly it stands for our
old Reformed Church, the Church of Holland,
and of the Heidelberg Catechism." That is the
kind of Church we like, for the Bible is the bulwark
behind which Che Church of Holland won
some of the world's greatest victories.
About two years ago representatives of the
Protestant Episcopal Church invited the various
organizations known as Christian Churches, to
appoint commissions who should consider and
promote holding a World's Conference on Faith
and Order. Eighteen denominations have responded
signifying sympathy with the purpose
of the proposed conference which is designed to
prepare the way, if possible, for massing all organizations
known as "Christian" into one visible
organic principality. The Northern Baptist
Convention appointed a commission a year ago
to recommend a course of action in response to
the invitation of the Protestant Episcopal
Church. That commission submitted to their
recent convention a report which concludes with
these words: "We therefore recommend the
annual appointment of a Commission from this
hodv Hlrtt maw .vr. 1:1?
w vv-u|nnaur niui uKe commissions
from other Churches and foster a sympathy
among us and the entire Church of God toward
that unity which we believe will ultimately be
realized among all who Iotc our Ix>rd in sincerity
and truth." "We are disposed to call attention
to this action because it is the response
of Phe representatives of a Church whose historic
position is that there can be no valid Church
with its ministry and sacraments without immersion.
to the representatives of a Church
whose historic position is that there can be no
valid Church with its ministry and sacraments
without Episcopal ordination.
ALL AT ONOE IN A HURRY.
New Orleans Protestants are laughing at the
k rr? i nurry mat pertain Romanist priests have
got into, in the way of occupying new fields. It
was announced that thh Presbyterians would organise
a church in the I^ake View section of the
city on May 12, in the afternoon. That same
morning automdhdles and street cars carried out
n company of devout Romanists with the proper
nrray of priests, and a servioe was conducted in
the hall or dining-room of a Lake Side resort.
Then it was announced that on June 16th the
Presbyterians would organ ire a church in the
Gent illy Terrace section, in the afternoon of
tint .lav T -V T*
....... iiuiuDuiaipiy me nomanists got busy
again, and early that morning a priest sallied
forth and conducted a mass in that locality. Now
it will he claimed that the Ohureh of Rome was
the first to occupy the two fields! The good
brethren who got into such a hurry all at once
did not seem to know that the Presbyterians had
been occupying both the fields for several months,
with regular religions services and Sunday
Schools, and that if primary occupancy was the
purpose of the masses that were performed, the
latter were six or seven months behind the time.