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10 (710) THE]
the purpose of the proposed doctrinal statement
is te make it a part of the standards of the
Ohurch and that its effect will be to change the
basis of eur Confessional belief.
ENDURING LIVES.
"He that endureth unto the end, the same shall
be saved." "We count them happy which endure.'
' So spoke the Master, and so wrote
James. What is it to endure, and how are enduring
lives to be produced and maintained? To
endure is something very simple in definition.
Even those who cannot express it know what it
means. To endure is to last. It is to have the
quality of permanence, of stability. The bedrock
endures. The sand gives way. That which
creates or produces endurance, however, is not so
simple.
raitn is tne channel through which power to
endure comes. "He that hath the Son hath life;
that ye may know that ye have eternal life." In
proportion as the channel is made free and open,
will the supplies of endurance flow in. With
little faith there will be little endurance; with
great faith there will be great power. "Who
are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time."
The foundation of a structure has much to do
with its stability. If it is broad, solid, well
cemented, deeply laid, it will hold up an
enormous weight and resist enormous pressure.
The Christian is built upon such a foundation.
Christ is the "rock of ages." "Other foundation
can no man lay." "To whom coming ye
also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual
house. He that believeth on him shall not be
confounded." The faith of all who endure will
have written by it, "for it was founded upon a
rock." ?en
Changing the figure, the food one eats has
much to do with the continuance of vigor. Good
food, regularly taken, properly digested, gives
strength to the 'body and prolongs its life and
activity. "Without it one's strength quickly disappears.
Jesus said, "I am the bread of life;
he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he
that believeth on me shall never thirst." Christ
is the food of the soul, milk to baibes, bread to
the growing, strong meat to the mature.
The exercise one takes determines also to a large
degree one's quality of endurance. The trained
athlete became such and continues such by a
more rigid regimen of exercises as well as of
food. This exercise must be steady, constant,
vigorous, unabated, regular, wise. Neglected,
he becomes Icsr and less inured to the tasks to
which he must bend. As compared with bodily
exercise, spiritual exercise is infinitely higher
and better. The pattern of it is fonnd in Christ.
He was ever putting into practice the profoundest
principles he taught. His followers should
be like him. Every grace the believer professes
should show itself in his daily living. Then
men will "take knowledge of them, that they
have Ween with Christ."
The very struggles and difficulties throucrh
which the believer must pass contribute to his
strength and to his preparation and ability to
endure yet harder trials. "Think it not strange
concerning the very trial which is to try you, as
though some strange thing happened unto you;
but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of
Christ's sufferings, that, when his glory shall be
revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding
joy." Paul's golden chain with its links of
tribulation, patience, experience, hope, love, belongs
to every true child of God. And yet, after
all, the important faet of it is that its end is
linked into God. It is his power and his constancy
which both make our endurance and make
it mean so much to us.
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SC
IN TOUCH WITH HOME.
Large numbers of young people are away
from home in the pursuit of business or to secure
educational advantages. In a totally new
environment they are strongly tempted to relax
interest in the long cherished associations of
home and to abandon some of the high ideals of
life which they there revered. The customs of
the masses have become the rule of life. The
sacred precepts and example of solicitious parents
have lost much of their power and are no
longer supreme. The Atmosphere of the home
church and of long established social usage is
absent and the young adventurer feels the
strong impact of a social current that presses
downward and away. Happy is the young man
or woman who, breasting that current, holds a
course steadily upward toward the old high
levels, the tried and hallowed traditions of the
Christian home.
There are strong bonds between those that
tarry in the home and the son or daughter who
is away. That absent one is the subject of much
serious thought, of pleasant conversation when
incidents and adventures of the past are vividly
recalled, often of bright hopes and sometimes of
depressing fears. The prayers that ascend
from the family altar, or from the secret
communings of the individual heart are fervent
and importunate. The love that is nurtured and
matured in the family life is of the most unselfish
and enduring kind and cannot but invoke
for its object the protection of a stronger
fVinn Vinm?T> owm
..u.wiui uiiu auu me ^uiuaiivc ui wiser luan
human counsel. If only the absent one loves
hack as loyally and devotedly, a happy issue
may be well assured.
A means to the end so much to he desired is
frequent and whole-hearted communication.
Those that are left at home will he faithful to
this privilege; the one who as away will find it
to he an anchor of steadfastness and well spring
of contentment. The letter home should not he
hurried and unthought, hut when memory,
meditation and social instinct are at their best;
not written amidst the press of business or of
hooks, hut when reflection and feeling have been
arrayed in select apparel; when the better self
has reasserted and reconfirmed its native rights.
Then it is that the postman's visit brings back
the manly son or the womanly daughter to the
fellowship of the family circle.
As illnstrdti'ncr flio woItio a? flliol AJaI;*? J
~ v.^p, rtMuv vi uiiai nucuty, nmI
of loss by its neglect, a story is being recalled of
Br. Norman McLeod, the noted Presbyterian
divine, on this centenary of bis birth. When,
many years ago. T)r. McLeod was about starting
on a visit to India an old lady of bis congregation
said to him: "When yon pro to India you HI
be seeing my Donal', that went away to sail to
Tndia ten years ago and never wrote a scrape of
bis pen to bis mother since." "But, Katie. In*
dia is. a very big place, and bow can I expect
to find Donald?" "0, but you HI shust be asking
for Donal', what for no?" So the Doctor
s i - "
promised. At various ports en ronte he made
enquiries among British shins without resultAs
his steamer went up the Hoogli an outward
hound ship passed close by, and Dr. McLeod,
who was standing at the bow. seeing a sailor
leaning over the bulwarks of the other vessel,
shouted ont, "Are you Donald Mactavi8ht,, To
bis surprise the man replied that he was and the
Doctor had only time to shout, "You're to write
to your mother," when the vessels draw apart.
The old woman was in due time rewarded by receiving
a penitent letter from her neglectful
son.
No pleasnre is permitted to a Christian
which may prove an injury to himself or to
others.
.
> U T H [July 3, 1912 I
OUR FELLOWSHIP. I
"We be brethren!" One of the most substan- I
tiai proofs that we have passed from death unto
life is declared to be "because we love the
brethren." "He that loveth not his brother I
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom
he hath not seen ?'' Brotherliness produces comradeship.
We like to be with those whom we I
love. We are not ashamed to be seen with them.
Our love gives us a community of interest And
unlike mere agreement of outward interests, it 1
makes our association something deeper than
mere affiliation. It is unity rather than union.
There is much high flown talk about "the Fath- I
erhood of God" and the Motherhood of man." I
All such talk is utterly empty, meaningless and
vain except as that Father is made such to us I
through our acceptance of his Son, and that I
brother is made such to us through our being
knit together in the relations that reach tn iha
depths of our natures, the very roots of our
spiritual being.
The Saviour prayed that (his people might be
one. By this he did not mean one in outward
bonds and name, but in that deeper, spiritual
way in which he himself and the Father were
one. Any attempt to bring together into outward
relations those who are separate in heart
and principle is bound to be futile and tend to
make the rent greater. Merely outward ties
break down and then that which they hold together
artificially, falls apart. A barrel made
of many staves is not one excopt as the hoops
of metal bnld it tncretVio* ? ? *
.wBv?uv?. m ucu Liiesc ruHi ana
break, it falls to pieces. A vessel cast in one
piece of metal is one. It stands together to the
very end. Nevertheless, Christian unity is to
be longed for, prayed for, and earnestly sought.
From its very nature it lays upon us the obligation
to seek it. And from its very nature, too,
it will be seen upon what lines it must come.
It must spring from the love of Christ and service
of him. Any other motive, such as bigness
of numbers, outward display, personal gratification,
ambition, will retard rather than quicken
or produce it, and by the sure disintegration or
unhappiness which will follow artificial or forced
union will do greater harm than good.
Unitv in thf? PhnrA om/vr?r. ^
?- UU, uuivsug UUU O JJCVpiG,
is thoroughly practicable without violating individuality
or encroaching upon conscientious belief.
It will be found chiefly, however, by our
seeking to magnify our agreements rather than
our differences. All evangelical Christians agree
in far more principles than the number as to
which they disagree, and the points of agreement
are far more vital than the pointB of disagreement.
How unnatural, then, to lay stress
upon the latter any more than is actually needful.
"Like a mighty army moves the Church of Ood;
Brothers, we are treading where the saints hove
trod;
We are not divided, all one body we,
One in hope and doctrine, one in charity."
But, sweetest of all, Christian fellowship here
tells us of happy Christian fellowship hereafter.
Those who have gone before love us still, minister
to us as heirs of salvation, watch our struggle
for the prize of life, and await our coming to
make them complete. Every glimpse of the
other aide that is given in God's word reveals
ii# iin 1.11 me mcih. we snan sit down witn adi-?ham
and Isaac and Jacob. "We shall know each
other there. The angels, who may be the spirits
of bnr own loved ones, are sent forth as ministering
spirits to minister to them that are heirs
of salvation. The very saints in glory, even those
who suffered here for their farith, are not without
us made perfect.
Every evil to which we do not. succumb is 11
benefactor. W4 gain the strength of the temptation
we resist.