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July 17, 1912] THE!
and our duty to carry the gospel to Roman Catholic
people. 1 take it for granted also that 1
address myself to men who believe that Roman
Catholics generally speaking need the gospel today,
as they did in the time of Luther and Calvin.
1 do not intend to prove it now; I only wish
my readers to note in passing the fact that the
Roman Catholic Church is today worse doctrinally
than it was in the days of Luther and Calvin,
because two new dogmas have been added,
namely, the Immaculate Conception and Papal
] ufallibility.
Hence every Protestant who denies that we
have a right and a duty to convert Catholics
must logically admit, if he be consistent with
himself, that both Luther and Calvin were two
wicked and rebellious revolutionists and that
Protestantism has no honest reason for existence.
It is today accepted by both Protestants and
Catholics at large that the best policv to Dur
sue in order to reach successfully every race
and people is to use native workers of their own
country. To convert India by Indians, China
by Chinamen, Africa by Africans is the universal
and constant claim of the Protestant Board, of
the Protestant missionaries and Protestant magazines.
Millions of dollars are spent in building
and conducting schools, academies, seminaries
and universities among the heathen and unconverted
with the main purpose of training
and equipping for the future work native
workers.
We have learned at least that no one is better
equipped to meet the needs of any people, to
deal with its problems, to dispel its doubts and
nreiiidiees and to eorreet its orrors than on#> who
has experienced the same needs, has labored under
the sam prejudices and lived under the infieunoe
of the same errors.
There was a time when 1 was considering my
past life not only to be repented of, but also
as one of a complete and useless failure. What
is the value to me (I used to say) of so many
yeans spent in the convent! What is the advantage
of so many penances! What will be the
result of so many unprofitable Roman Catholic
studies! What is the profit to have spoiled my
boyhood, youth and the greater part of manhood
through a vain and painful asceticism!
Now, oh now, I bless God and adore his all wise
and merciful Providence even in my own errors
and mistakes. Now I feel grateful, to him not
only because he has called me so wonderfully
from darkness to light, from bondage to the free
gospel and from the pursuit of salvation through
human works to a living and saving faith in my
personal Redeemer, Christ. But, also, I am
grateful, deeply grateful to him because in this
mysterious and adorable Providence, he let me
remain for so many years within, and pass
through the Roman Catholic system by so many
bitter personal experiences. Should not such
long and painful training make me in some way
more able and useful in guiding my former
wreunren xo xne iigntT Precisely because 1 was
before a Roman Catholic and I am now a Protestant;
precisely because I was before a friar
and a Roman theologian and I am now a
Christian according to the gospel and a
Presbyterian; precisely because I held before
mc auuie prejuuiues ana errors mat my iormer
brethren, the Roman Catholics, do, and because
I experienced myself so many trials and difficulties,
was thereby somewhat better trained by
the Providence of God to do now my work among
Catholics. I think I may say to my former
brethren, without* any conceit, v. hat you read
now, I have read before, what you teach now,
I have taught before, what you worship now, I
once worshipped, what you practice now, I once
practiced. Your faith was also mine, your hope
v
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE fl<
was my hope and your Church -was my Church.
You are an honest, faithful and thoroughly convinced
Catholic, and I was, too. "Will not such
candid confession give some new authority to
my words? And above all, my previous profession
of the Roman Catholic Church gives me
the best personal experience and knowledge
about the means to reach and convert Roman
Catholics.
I do not need to go far to know their prejudices
and errors. 1 can see them by looking at
myself in the past. I do not need to study much
to know their difficulties and objections. I can
see them by consulting with my own mind, study
uxivj. wuucpLiuuH oi me past. 1 do not need to
spend very long to know what means are useful
and what others are useless, what things are
helpful and what are holding back. I can recall
them outlining my own conversion.
Protestant missionaries are generally so unsuccessful
in reaching well to do and educated Catholics
because they can not ordinarily speaking
meet their objections and clear up their doubts.
To illustrate the point briefly: A person born oE
a Protestant family and reared a Protestant will
consider at once the existence of Purgatory and
the proclamation of the Virgin Mary as mediatress
such absurd errors that they will speak
lightly of them.
A native and w?ll trained Catholic even after
his conversion will remember that although such
errors have no ground for existence, they have
however deep root in the human heart and
strong, very strong support in human history.
If the Bible is closed I feel sure I can entangle
about these errors the well trained Protestatnt as
I have done more than once with some Protestant
doctors of divinity. One born a Protestant
is apt to wound the most cherished Roman Catholic
feelings when he speaks of worshipping
saints, of the confessional, and the mass. A
native well trained Catholic will be able to handle
such subjects carefully and successfully.
Following the same principles we may say that
as the Indian will understand how to reach the
Indian in a way that no one else can do, and
Spaniard the people of Spain, and the Chinese
the people of China, etc., so also, no one will be
so well equipped to teach and preach the gosT\nl
'
r-** vtttuuucs, as nun, mar and priest,
since the Roman Catholic people have for centuries
been nursed and taught and trained and
led by nulls, friars and priests.
In my next article this subject will receive
further consideration.
THE DOCTRINE OF REMNANTS.
BT REV. B. U BENN.
The remnant is that which remains after a
part has been destroyed or used up. It is the
unsold end of a piece of goods, the by-product,
the fragment, the residue. It is what man ordinarily
depreciates, but what God values. In
manufacturing, the remnant is made into many
useful articles of commerce and many decorative
articles for the home; and in the providence
of God the remnant plays an important
part in the unfolding and materializing of His
eternal purpose.
The errace of God is p.nrw>pntriito^ nnnn
w MWVVA U.|/VJU ltU\>
remnant. During the periods of moral upheaval
and political catastrophe the mind of the
Israelite was fixed upon the significance of the
remnant, and after careful thought, the conviction
was produced that the remnant was somehow
essential. It was the minority which saved
and delivered and recovered lost prestige.
Ten righteous men would have saved Sodom.
The remnant of Joseph kept alive the national
conscience. "Had it not been for a very small
remnant," declared a voice to Israel, "we had
been as Sodom and Gomorrah." And when the
f. i
9UTH (841) 3
exile had accomplished its purpose, the truth
dawned upon a lew prophetic souls that the
shattering of the Kingdom was, indeed, the beginning
of a larger destiny and that from the
remnant the religion would rise which should
conquer the world. Prayer was made for the
remnant; the word of the Lord was addressed
to the remnant; the Lord stirred up the Spirit
of the remnant.
All through history the evidence accumulates
that the "remnaut doctrine" is one of the laws
of life and the way of Divine procedure. Our
value is dropped for a greater value. The rude
block vanishes for symmetry, for efficiency, for
a certain elasticity. When the sculptor completes
his statue he has left only a fragment of
the block out of which it has been hewn. But
all along something has been added to balance
every particle which has been struck away.
The stroke which severed the marble replaced
it "with a sentiment, with an impress of artistry,
with the reflex of a soul's beauty," so
that the statue ended by being immeasurably
greater than the block. It is quite human to
stress size and numbers and circumstance. But
God cared nothing for these. With an army of
thirty-two thousand men, Gideon no doubt felt
assured of victory over the Midianites. But
three hundred were enough for God. In inaugurating
the New Dispensation, man would
have started with the learned and wealthy and
great. But twelve unlearned and unknown
Peasants were sufficient for the Son of God.
A little, stoop-shouldered, weak-eyed, stammering
Jew was all the instrument God needed to
preach the Gospel in Imperial Rome. An obscure
monk like Luther, and a frail, timid
scholar like Calvin answered God's purpose in
the great revival of the Sixteenth century.
But the present age is betwitched with size
and magnitude, mass meetings and numbers,
tumult and acclamation. Doubtless some good
is realized, but ultimately it depends on the
remnant, on a few individuals, who really
know and feel intensely and respond to the
Spirit of God. This does not mean that only a
few people will be saved; but it means that God
uses the few to achieve His purpose. It does
not mean the "survival of the fittest," but it
means that God does the "fitting" and qualifying,
as he girded Cyrus, King of Persia, to
"perform his pleasure," the consummation of
which was the coronation of Christ. Instead,
therefore, of being discouraged over the presence
of the Jew in the Lord's vineyard, the
Christian should hope in God. Instead of emphasizing
statistics and time-tables, the Chris
tian should put the emphasis on Spirit and motive,
where God puts it. Instead of relying on
numbers and ways and means the Christian
should rely upon the Spirit of God.
This doctrine involves the ideas of renunciation
and consecration. Death to one's own
merit is essential to sharing the merit of
Christ. Failure in one's self is the condition
of success in God. Crucifixion of the works of
the flesh is the condition of Christian growth
and fruitfulness. By mortification and crucdfilinn
nn 4-Vio ??3 1?
Vog uauu, ttiiu. uy appropriation
and assimilation on the other hand, the Christian
life becomes spiritually potent and rich
and fruitful in the performance of all the pleasure
of God. The poorer kind of life must die
that the richer kind might flourish. And in all
ages the joy and strength, the beauty and
fruitfulness of the Christian life have been the
priceless distinction of a remnant of Christians
who willingly mortified the flesh and assimilated
the truth.
So it requires courage to be and to live the
Christian life. Multitudes of people die be(Continued
on Page 4.)