Newspaper Page Text
July 17, 1912] THE,
Editorial 1
"Make the tree good and his fruit good."
That is a command that came direct from the
lips of the Son of God, the Incarnate "Wisdom,
the Divine Word. How can it be done? Here
is one instance of how it was done: "A poor
widow with a very limited income, who was left
with a large family of boys dependent on her,
one of whom became a United States Senator
and another an eminent judge, although unable
to feed them with any but the plainest food. tooV
a religions paper. She laid the foundation of
(heir remarkable successful lives by daily instruction
and reading from the Bible and the
religious paper." The most influential and
prosperous men and the most refined and lovable
women have been life-long readers of a family
paper.
Newspapers are congratulating the country
that this year only twenty persons were killed
and 048 injured and only $600,000 dollars worth
of property was destroyed in Fourth of July
celebrations. A great improvement has been
made over former years, when fatalities ran
into the thousands. But why should any lives be
sacrificed in patriotic demonstrations in times of
peace. The victims are often innocent bystanders
while the damage is done by reckless or drunken
irresponsibles. The most patriotic are usually
the least harmful at such times. Popular entertainments,
including patriotic songs and addresses,
varied with field sports and athletics,
such as they have in Canada on Orangemen's
Day, would be far more enjoyable and wholesome
than the hideous explosions of powder and
dynamite that have hitherto dishonored the anniversary
of American Independence.
It has seemed strange to many that so little
attention has been given by Protestant Churches
to the evangelization of our Indian tribes. After
the centuries of white civilization on this continent
there is a larger per cent, of heathen, that
is people unenlightened by the Gospel, among
the red race than among any other element of
American population. The Indians are not now
a decadent or vanishing race. There are more
than 300,000 in the United States, exclusive of
Alaska. They are now-being allotted land, are
giving up tribal relations and heathen customs
and adapting themselves to the requirements of
modern civilization. The Northern Presbyterian
Church is foremost in giving the Gospel to these
neglected people who have suffered so long from
spoliation by government officials and army officers.
That denomination has Indian missions in
nineteen states and among fifty distinct tribes;
one hundred and eight organized churches and
fifty-seven additional mission stations. These
stations are supplied by seventy-one ordained
ministers of whom more than half are Indians.
The total number of communicants is about seven
thousand. The Woman's Board maintains eleven
mission schools, with fifty-six instructors and
over six hundred pupils. The number of Presbyterian
adherents is estimated to be eighteen
thousand, with aCn additional two thousand in
Alaska. It is stated that there is probably not a
peonlp in tVia ?5 - ? * ?
i? " kuo nuiiu uiuic uevouL aim anenuvp
to the obligations of their faith than these Christian
Indians.
Would that the spirit of John Eliot, the first
missionary to the American Indians, had been
Perpetuated on this continent of opportunity,
tie continent occupied first, by the Puritan, the
'f'igenot and the Covenanter. Eliot was not
n!y the first missionary to the Indians, but
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
\otes and
was the first of the apostles of modern missions.
To "William Carey the distinction of the pioneer
of modern mission effort is usually accorded.
The place and its glory properly belong to Eliot.
A hundred and fifty years before the "consecrated
cobbler" pleaded, "Expect great things from
God and attempt great things for God," the nonconformist
Cambridge scholar had said, in reviewing
his work among the Indian tribes,
"Prayer and pains through faith in Christ
Jesus will do any thing." In 1661 Eliot published
the New Testament in the Indian language
and three years later, the whole Bible.
Of this Bible Cotton Mather wrote: "Behold, ye
Americans, the greatest honor that ever ye were
partakers of. And it is the only Bible that ever
was printed in all America from the foundation
of the world.'* When a copy of this Bible was
presented to King Charles II, Richard Baxter
said, "Such a work and fruit of a plantation was
never before presented unto a king." Modern
missions were inaugurated by John Eliot and
the American Indians were their first beneficiaries.
Some of the old arguments for retaining the
English Established Church are still taken seriously
by its friends and patrons. At a luncheon
given in London by the Liberation Society to
members of Parliament, the Chief Secretary for
Ireland, Mr. Birrell, was the principal speaker.
He is not a Dissenter, but dopsn't seem to be
impressed very profoundly with some of the
slerotyped arguments of Churchman. He quotes
them as pleading, "Are we not a Christian nation?
Do we not require a steady supply of
educated men on whose 'aitches' you can thorrill
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on the head of a king or queen, to read prayers
by the grave of illustrious persons, to invoke the
God of battles when we go out to war, to sing
paeans to the Prince of Peace when, kick and
sorry, we return home?" Continuing the
speaker asked, Who that watches the dramatic
strife between the Catholic and Protestant sections
of the Established Church can any longer
maintain the notion that the Church of England
represents the religious opinions of the great
bulk of the population. He described the nigh
Church party as "the dominant intellectual
nnrtv nnrl pnrtninlv t mnro V*ou-ovlrinr* nr?^1
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opposed to the Protestantism maintained by the
great bulk of the population."
The eighth volume of "The Fundamentals"
is before us. It contains nine fine articles, as
follows: "Old Testament Criticism and New
Testament Christianity," by Dr. Thomas, of
Toronto; "Evolution in the Pulpit," by "An
Occupant of the Pew;" "Decadence of Darwinism,"
by Rev. II. II. Beach, of Colorado; "Paul's
Testimony to the Doctrine of Sin," by Professor
Williams, of Fort Worth, Texas; "The Science
of Conversion," by Dr. Sydenstricker, of Mississippi;
"The Doctrinal Value of the First
Chapters of Genesis," by Rev. Dyson Hague, of
Toronto; "The Knowledge of God," by Dr. David
James Burrell, of New York; "Preach the
Word," by the late Howard Crosby; and "Mormonism;
Its Origin, Characteristics, and Doctrinp?
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The wide and free circulation of this valuable
publication continues. It is the universal testimony
of the beet thinkers of the churches that
its influence has been most marked and useful.
The two laymen who are giving it to the world
deserve the appreciative thanks of all who lov6
the truth and who believe that God's word is
trnth.
UTH v (847) 9
Comments
THE REPORT ON THE PAPAL MENACE.
It is to be regretted that there were found in
the Bristol Assembly, members who opposed the
adoption of the admirable and valuable paper
prepared by the Assembly's ad interim Committee
on Romanism. It appears that objection
was made on the plea that to adopt this paper
would involve the error of inter-meddling with
civil affairs which concern the commonwealth
and would amount to a political deliverance.
If such an act were a political deliverance, then
every nrofpst on/* i?
r uccittrauon tnat has ever
been made by the Presbyterian Church, or any
other, against collusion between Church and
state has been a political deliverance. There
is a difference as wide as space between intermeddling
with civil affairs and a protest against
such inter-meddling. The Committee's report
was the latter; it could not therefore have been
the former. The denunciation of a sin cannot
be construed, even <by the arts of legal casuistry,
to be a commission of that sin.
In recent years it has been widely observed
that the Papists were striving to control political
policies and administrative offices of the
State to promote the interest of Romanism ?nH
mvvart the interest of evangelical religion. It
is known that to an alarming extent they have
succeeded in this purpose by controlling the acts
of those high in authority and by having their
fellow conspirators placed in positions of political
power. It is well known that a basal teaching
of the Romish Church is that the Pope of
Rome is the rightful ruler of the United States
and that every loyal Catholic is pledged to secure,
as far as possible, papal control over the affairs
of the American Commonwealth. The Assembly's
paper simply recorded the protest of
the Church against the policies and practices
of the Romish hierarchy in these particulars and
pledged the Church to the use of scriptural
methods in exposing and defeating the Romish
conspiracy.
The Church can no longer be tru? to h\c,u
- ? -~ ?"&"
commission and yet shun to present an unbroken
and immovable front against the arch foe of
our civil institutions and our religious freedom.
The issue is now too clearly drawn. Papal
practice in every age and in every land where
it has had opportunity is one continuous, accumulative
declaration of its policy of subjugation
of State, and of religious tolerance. Papal
documents, the most venerated and imperious,
boldly proclaim the right of Popes and their
minions to coerce states and nations into abject
civil and spiritual servility. The vital breath
and life blood of popery is moral, intellectual,
civil and spiritual despotism.
Against this monstrous principle, which is
the foundation stone of the hideous though massive
papal structure, the heavy artillery of truth
was directed by the Assembly's paper.
If we may in brief interpret the committee's
report, it sarid in substance. The policy of popery
in all the past has been civil and spiritual
oppression. This policy may be read upon every
page of the voluminous library of its history.
This policy has been announced in papal bulls,
the decrees of councils and the oaths of the
clergy, from the lowest, most ignorant priest to
the ranking cardinal. It is regarded as an essential
part of the papal propaganda and
wherever it has had opportunity it has been enforced
even to the extreme of decimating communities,
provinces and nations by persecution
and slaughter. There are clear evidences, rapidly
accumulating, that this monster enemy of enlightenment
and righteousness has matured de