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10 (824) T M is
that the brethren of Texas are quarreling among
themselves rather than warring against the
world, the flesh and the devil. We would have
supposed that Texas was big enough and afforded
work enough for them all. They would better
6tudy Churoh comity and Christian charity, before
they dispute about doctrine.
The Methodist seems to have been the better
man in the conflict. If the Presbyterian had
been as well-informed on the "Methodist Articles
of Religion" as the Methodist was upon the
"Confession of Faith," he would have been able
to maintain his position with more grace and
vigor. But then, the young Southern Presbyterian
acknowledges his own ignorance of the Con
fession, and in this he reveals the true reason
why his Methodist brother prevailed. If ignorance
is the only reason that the Southern
Church has for making a Brief Statement, then
she had better give her time and strength to
educating her ministry, and let the Brief Statement
pass, for with such ignorance, even the
Brief Statement will avail but little. "We are
inclined to believe that this whole speech misrepresents
our Southern brethren, and that they
had some far better reason for undertaking the
Brief Statement. But we prophesy that advantage
gained will be more apparent than real.
The Southern Church has a right to prepare
such a Brief Statement, and it may possibly be
of some service. But we very much hesitate
to believe tbat tneir reason ior matting it is to
form an instrument for whipping the Methodists
down in Texas."
It is apparent that the friends of sound doctrine,
from the viewpoint of the Westminster
standards, are not impressed with the urgent
need of a doctrinal statement as a means of rendering
our standards either more intelligible or
more popular. The Westminster Standards
have loomed clear and distinct before the critical
^igaze of the world for more than two and a half
centuries and their influence in the making of
nations, in the development of wholesome literature
and promotion of higher education, in the
organization and extension of the visible Church,
in sending the Gospel to tribes and nations that
knew it not, and in furnishing the Church at
large with a high type of Christian character at
the present day, does not indicate a system of
doctrine that is either archaic in statement or antiquated
in substance. Such is the sentiment
nf +-Tio fnllowiniy from nnr valued oontemnorarv.
the (hilf States Presbyterian:
"The Presbyterians who led the American
hosts in the past were very positive and uncompromising
Pre&bvterians. They wanted no modified
creed, nor "Brief Popular Statement." to
apologize to the men of their times for their
witness. They were not studying all the time
the ways and methods of other denominations,
and trying to modify their Presbyterian ism to
the standards of other Churches who have outstripped
them in the number of adherents. "We
shall win back our place of leadership in this
eountry when we put on the strength of our
crreat creed, learn to initiate more things Presbyterian,
and pour our consecrated Presbyterian
money into the cause of Presbyterian Home Missions."
ENEMIES OF THE FAITH.
Says a writer of the last century: "The half
believer skillfully undermines Christianity with
protfnse praise; he buries it in flowers. He
comes to the tomb of the Saviour not to weep and
worship like the women of the Gospel, but to
stifle with spices and perfumes the lingering
spark of life in the religion of Christ. He does
not deal a blow with a sharp sword; no he embalms
with encomiums. But the result is the worse
though he* had made a violent attack." This
seems to describe a very common type of half believers
or merely Professing Christians in these
rftiTl later days. It is never the avowed atheist
or skeptic who strikes the more effective blow,
but the half accepting or selfish professing. It
is the nominal preacher, the plausible professor
in the univeirrity, or the silver-tongued orator
that corrupts faith.?Ex.
rUESBYTEKlAN O Jr THE S <J
THE CHURCH'S PROPER SPHERE.
It is not often that one encounters a stronger
statement of the real nature and purpose of the
church, and the true aim of Christianity than
that which a secular paper, the New York Sun,
gave a few months ago, under the caption,
"Christianity as a 'Social Uplift.' " The point
is well made, to begin with that while any work
for the betterment of the conditions in the community
is in line with Christianity, those who repudiate
the Christian faith, as deists, agnostics,
atheists even, may share in any labor or plan for
"social uplift," where Ihe special hope and uplift
that Christianity brings to the toiling man
ana Orooping woman is that of an immortal life,
a justice, a happiness, a recompense hereafter.
The article then asks the pertinent question, "Is
the church, are the churches, to sacrifice or make
secondary that hope and belief, to make questions
of wages and "tenement" conditions, sanitation
and "social uplift," the essential problem of
Christianity? To visit the sick and the prisoner,
to help the widow and the orphan and the poor,
all that is part of the duty of a Christian, but
only a part. Are works to suplant faith, is
humanitarianism to take the place of creed, the
the churches to be judged merely or mainly by
their philanthropic activities?"
But the hope of the future, an immortal life,
justice, happiness, recompense hereafter, is but
a small part of the work of Christianity. Its
business is to give a foretaste of these here in
this life. This it is to do, however, not by handling
tenement and labor and wages and health
questions, but by inculcating and striving to
build up in the hearts of men and women the
great principles of the kingdom of Christ, in
meekness, temperance, purity, charity, service,
out of which there will come, as incidents to the
main end, such amelioration of conditions as
Christianity has always unconsciously produced.
The cultivation of movements for "social uplift"
as the means of realizing the kingdom of
Christ is like working on the circumference instead
of from the center. Christianity's great
feature is its effect upon the heart, the inner life,
the hidden principles, of manhood. And every
student of human conditions knows that the
Bible is true when it declares that it is out of
the heart, that the issues of life come, and that
what a man thinketh in his heart, that is he. It
is not the outside of the life but the inner conditions
that determine the character. As to the
church's concern, the Christian Intelligencer,
commenting on these same subjects, well puts it
thus, " Should her main business be to clean and
beautify the outside of the cup and platter, or
is her true mission to the world a far more
urgent and important one?to renovate the inside
of these receptacles, that whatsoever is put
into them may remain clean and wholesome?
Was Jesus ignorant of human conditions when
he exhorted the religious leaders of his day to
'cleanse first that which is within the cup and
platter;' or Paul unacquainted with the real
needs of his fellow men when he declared 'the
kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but
righteousness and peaee and joy in the Holy
Ghost?' "
TEACH THE ELEMENTS.
Many pastors assume that Christian people are
familiar with the simple elements of personal
salvation, and that an attempt to instruct them
in the first principles of the doctrine of Christ is
like teaching capable readers their alphabet.
But in this they greatly err. Most of those who
come ont of sin into the life of God have no
definite conception, either of its character or the
process by which it was done.?Northwestern
Advocate.
1 U T H [July 10, 1912
FOR A LIVE CHURCH.
We would like to impress upon thousands of
Presbyterian families who do not welcome the
weekly visits of a sound, vigorous religious I
publication, the value and compelling importance
of the church paper. Not having access to
these improvident families, beloved though inadvertent,
we turn to our readers, more fortunate
and more wise, and ask that for the sake I
of the Church at large, the growth and health of
the local church, the encouragement and greater
efficiency of their pastors, they address themselves
to the righteous enterprise of creating an I
inspirational atmosphere in behalf of sound, invigorating
and enthusing religious intelligence.
When people read a church paper, heartily devoted
to the welfare of the Church in all the
departments of its activity, they catch the impulse
and fall in line with its onward march. Some
time ago a distinguished layman, John H.
1. Because such a paper, rightly conducted, is
a public institution of great value, exerting a
happy influence over all the varied important
interests of society; and-I am bound to do my
part in sustaining such an institution.
2. Because my own religious growth as a
Christian is materially promoted by such a
paper. My religion waxes or wanes in life and
power in proportion to the clear or dim views I
have of the great things of the kingdom of God.
Next to my Bible, my paper increases the clearness
and extent of my spiritual vision, flrivim*
light and expelling darkness, by its never-ceasing
supply of facts, and appeals which are sunshine
and shower to the spiritual verdure of my soul.
3. Because I want a good commentary on the
Bible. My religious paper furnishes it, often by
direct expositions, by items of religious biography,
strikingly illustrative of Bible truth; by
constantly recurring events of divine Providence
equadly illustrative; by narratives of revivals,
conversions, progress of missions at home and
abroad?all showing the power of the Gospel
and explanatory of God's Word. v
4. Because I want to be a strong man armed
for defending truth and destroying error. Political
partisans about be are familiar with all the
facts and arguments which sustain their distinctive
views, and are ever ready to assail or defend.
I want a similar kind of ability and facility
in sustaining the truth and in advancing
the cause of my Master. My religious paper
furnishes me with a power of defense which is
invaluable. It is as if a new arsenal of spiritual
weapons were opened and offered to me every
week.
5. My family need to have just such a fountain
of religious instruction and influence as is
opened to them every week by such a fountain of
religious instruction and influence as is opened
to them every week by such a periodical. The
variety found there meets the cases of old and
young, male and female, ministering to the welfare
of the entire circle.
6. My neighbor needs my paper. He will
not take one for himself, as he should. But he
shall not escape. He shall have a look at mine.
For when it has walked into my dwelling and
stayed long enough to scatter blessings on all
sides, it walks up street or down street, or over
the way, to scatter them further, or take wings by
the mail, and does good a thousand miles away.
mi i? "* r vi -i?, ? A
i nereiore, juessrs. i^miors, 11 you una a p?p?i
of mine returned with the word *' Stop'' upon it,
you may infer that I have gone to the county
infirmary or to the narrow house appointed for
all living.
A pastor is usually awake to the value of the
paper as a lieutenant in his division of the great
army of defence and invasion. If any remain
in doubt they may gather suggestions from these
words of an experienced pastor, Rev. Dt. MeGuire.
in a letter to the Christian Advocate
"Let me add that should I ever be in charge or
a congregation again, I should feel it a solemn
duty and blessed privilege to get much religion8
literature as practicable into the homes and hands
of my people. Every time I induced a friend to
subscribe for a religious paper I could feel that
I had been instrumental in starting a branch
rmlpi't that would go on for one year preaching
the Gospel in various ways, never failing because
of the weather. Xn that way I could colonizp m>
ministry, while the home work went on without