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July 31, 1912] THE
m ^ 0 m
Editorial
This is a good time for an awakened interest
in the study of "the Shorter Catechism." Parents,
Sunday school teachers and church workers, can
neip soive some perplexing questions by bringing
this excellent "brief statement" to the front. We
are much pleased to note an unusually large demand
for Certificates and Diplomas for the perfect
recitations of the Catechisms. It is a pleasure
to respond to these demands and we invite
them 1
This week we sent both a Certificate and a Diploma
to English McGeachy of Lewisburg, W.
Va., a child of six years of age?as far as we
know this breaks the record! "Prom a child"
TV i.1 ' ' 1 "
i jmuiiiy was grounaea in tne scriptures,?lie
hardly had any advantage of English! We send
our congratulations.
When the hand of death removed Rev. James
Park, D. D., of Knoxville, Tenn., on Sunday, July
14, it took away from our church one of its most
stalwart men. When he died he was the oldest
graduate of Princeton Seminary and one of the
senior ministers of the entire Presbyterian
Church. He was in the ministry sixty-six
years, all of these but two in the single
Presbytery of Knoxville, and for forty years
the active pastor of the Knoxville First
Church. He was bold and brave. Many
are the stories told of his courage during the >ear
or two immediately following the war, when it was
often as rrmoh as a Snnthpm man's lifo woo wnrtk
to attempt to preach in certain neighborhoods.
Tn one of them it is related that he had a pistol
lying upon the desk by the side of the Bible.
ltev. James li. Miller, D. 1)., of Philadelphia,
died on July 2. He led a large life. Through
his pen he was known all over the church and especially
wherever Presbyterian literature reaches.
His devotional books and contributions to Sunday
School work and study have been among the
I jest of the past two decades. He was both editor
and pastor, his editorial duties being in connection
with the Lesson Helps and other literature
of the Philadelphia Board, and his pastoral duties
being in connection with a large church which
he built up in the same city. His dinner hour and
evenings were almost all given to his church work,
and his double duties were kept up faithfully until
very recently when declining health had so far
advanced that he had to stop.
Dr. C. M. Sheldon, author of "In His Steps"
is making a campaign in the middle West in behalf
of co-operation among the churches and other
Christian organizations. He is urging cooperation
rather than organic union and has already
seen valuable fruits of his efforts.
He proposes to devote several years to
aiding in harmonizinv and co-ordinating the
work of the Protestant churches in both
home and foreign fields. Such efforts,
j: j 3 -i. u- c _* i 1,1 -
? i-vi%y uireci?i, iiiii.m ue lruiiiiu ?u vHiimme results.
Dr. Sheldon's work is purely voluntary,
of course, which means that he is clothed with no
official authority, but "believes that co-operation
is the need of the time and has great possibilities."
The idea that every church should he a helper of
all others is sound and it is probable that the
churches in general will respond favorably to a
wisely formed plan of co-operation. It has far
more of Christian principle in it than does the
scheme of absorption of smaller denomination* by
larger ones.
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
Notes and
A great many real rude things have been said
about the system of doctrine that is called "Calvinism,"
but we must remember that rude things
were said about the teachings of One greater than
Calvin, or even Paul. Just now some of its nominal
friends are saying that Calvinism is archaic,
antiquated, obsolete. Well, it isn't obsolete
if we are. to judge from the leading preachers,
Bible teachers and other benefactors of the
world. And it isn't antiquated if we may judge
from its present as well as past fruitfulness in the
moral, social and civil affairs of the world. But
it is archaic, because it has been from the beginning.
President Patton described the situation
pretty well at the recent Centennial Celehmfion
of Princeton Seminary. The President's humor is
of the variety that instructs and clinches a point
at the same time that it refreshes. He spoke of
Princeton as "a Confessional seminary devoted to
the theology of the Reformation," and said further,
"I am sure that Princeton theology is not dead.
T don't believe it is going to die. But if it ever
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puouia me, anv tneological paleontologist who
should afterwards dig up its skeleton would be
constrained to say that at least it belonged to the
order of vertebrates." which was. of course, an
intimation that backbone is a generic characteristic
of the system.
The state of British political and religious life,
were it not for the transfusion of Scotch Presbyterian
blood from one generation to the next
would be hard to conjecture. A Scottish letter
to The Presbyterian Banner suggests something
of the strength that British statecraft and the
puipit nave derived from that viral minority that
we call Scotch Presbyterians. Dr. Andrew Fairhairn,
principal of Mansfield College, whose
death was recently annonnced, was a native of
Scotland and. though a Congregationalist, no
less than twelve of his relatives in the two preeeeding
generations were Presbyterian ministers.
Sir William Robertson Nicoll, editor of The
British Weekly, the famous organ of Nonconformity,
is not only a Scotchman, but was for
years a Presbyterian minister in the Free
Church. The Anglican Church is fairly garrisoned
in its remaining loyalty to evangelical
ideals by recruits from the ranks of those whose
fathers and grandsires gloried in the victories
of Presbytery over the united forces of Prelacy
and the Crown. As a sufficient indication, both
the Archbishop of York and the Archbishop
of Canterbury are SUntAmoTi ?
?vtvx?V/CllUOU XIUI11
Presbyterian divines. In the affairs of state like
conditions prevail. Mr. Gladstone was of Scotch
descent; so is Mr. Balfour, just retired as leader
of the Conservatives; so is Mr. Bonar I/aw his
successor, and Mr. Haldane, until recently minister
of War and now Lord Chancellor.
We are at times tempted to become fainthearted
over the conflict with covert skepticism
and animositv tnwnr/t tha -
- v.iv uiu iaii.il w 11.11 111 tilt!
Church; and it is to be confessed that concealed
foe* of inspired truth who pose as friends, are
in some ways the more dangerous because the
more treacherous. But they are also the more
cowardly and, as they reluctantly concede, their ,
own official rank depends on the tolerance and
the fidelity of those whom they oppose, yet by
whose service and testimony religious organization
and growth are maintained. "While alert to
the call to steadfastness and the peril of compromise
with prevailing skeptical criticism, we may
UTE (895) 9
V
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comments
be heartened by remembering that godliness in
life and faith has always had and will ever have
its enemies. The records of past conflicts against
unbelief are history's most luminous chapters of
the world's heroism and martyrdom. Read this,
for example, from the pen of the once eminent
Scotch Presbvterijm T>r W n.
^ ^ ... va, x/iamiC
"At five o'clock on a Monday morning, on
June 21, 1621, twenty-seven of the leading
Protestants of Bohemia were beheaded in succession.
The worthy men had spent the
night in prayer and mutual exhortation, and
from Psalm lxxxvi 17, had made it a special re,
i iU.i ^ 1 - - -
'iucai l iiitl vjrou wouia show them a token for
good?an evidence that they had not displeased
Him?and to their great joy, as the sun appeared
above the horiaon, a rare and beautiful
bow was seen surrounding his form. Some fell
on their knees, some clapped their hands, some
shouted for joy; one bade them think of Noah's
rainbow, another of the rainbow round the throne
in the Apocalypse, sure token of the royal character
of their Master, and the certainty of his
coming one day to judge the quick and the dead.
The hundred and sixty years from
1621 to 1781 was a dismal period in the Bo
hemian Church history. In Scotland we speak
of the time from 1660 to 1680 as 'the killing
time,' but the killing time in Bohemia was more
than five times as long."
NOTES IN PASSING.
BY BERT.
The story of the "Widow's
The Widow's Mite" is found in the closing porMite.
tion of the twelfth of Mark and
the opening verses of the twen+v_fim+
T rttbiA Ti ? a! _11? -
y-rnoi vi uixjo.'c. xl ia Kixuuuiiiuiuiy tne same
in the two places. We are informed that
Christ sat down over against the treasury
and took note of the people as they came
and deposited their offerings therein. His attitude
is suggestive. As he was interested in the
treasury then, so is he now. llis position is still
"over against the treasury", and he still looks
with deep concern upon the offerings and the offerers.
Christ's treasury holds more than money,
words of sympathy for the suffering spoken in
Christ's name are valuable deposits in the treasury;
so also are acts of kindness, the cup of cold
water, the helping-hand, the good example, the
refusal of temptation, the NO to Satan, the YES
iu? a?.1 n.a i
i?j Luc ojmiL 01 vjou in wnacever way it may happen
to be said, these and their like are real contributions
to the Lord's treasury and will not fail
of recognition. But the money offering is equally
important, and no less certainly demanded.
He saw many rich casting in
What He much, and he also saw a poor widSaw.
ow casting in two mites, or half-acent.
The \v?rd for "money" in
Mark mAATIS Virnoc nv (lABntJ T ?J
_ _ w*M*jn W4 uvppox J auu tilt? JLAJI'U
saw the rich casting in many copper pieces.
There was not much gold or silver finding
its way into the treasury that day,
and that interested the Lord; hut a good manv
copper pieces dropped into the contribution "trumpets".
This was a sign of the times. There had
l>een days when the people were so generous that
they had to be restrained from giving, but those
days were so far away it was hard to believe they
had ever been. Now the rich, and there were
many of them, were satisfied to cast copper pieces
into the treasury of the Lord.. He saw them come