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August 28, 1912] T H E 1
Editorial 1
It is not the size or importance of the mark
that betokens the importance of the decisive
act, but it is the fact that it is the mark itself.
A narrow little path is the "dead line" in the
military prison. To cross it is to die. The
Rubicon was a most insignificant stream, but
it divided between Cisalpine Gaul and Italy,
and passing it meant war. The dividing line in
life is very narrow sometimes, and the signifioancy
of some little act is not understood, when
in reality it determines one's destiny.
The church is not the place for the discussion
of the social unrest of the day, but for the worship
of God and the offer and seeking for that
spiritual attitude towards God which the Prince
of Peace alone can give and which will by its own
nature solve the hard problems. Take these
questions into the church, and it will not be long
until the church will be held responsible in truth,
as she is already in the unwarranted thinking of
some, for the evil conditions which prevail.
The last report of the government Bureau of
Education, that there were in the United States
9,583 theological students, 18,000 law students,
and 22,787 medical students, in the regular
schools. Forty per cent, of the theological
students were college graduates, twenty per cent,
of the law students, and less than ten per cent,
of the medical students. It is a fact that a very
much larger percentage of lawyers and physicians
turn aside from their profession into business
or other vocations than of the ministers.
The Comparative Summary of the Northern
Presbyterian Church has been issued. It shows
the total membership to be 1,380,058, or 25,605
more than last year. The additions on profession
of faith during the year were 79,432, and by
certificate 55,849. The adult baptisms were 30,011
and of infant baptisms 31,504, in both cases
being more than in the preceding year. The
total contributions, amounting to $25,798,615,
were $110,721 less than in the preceding year.
It should be remembered, however, that in the
preceding year the large bequest of Mr. J. S.
Kennedy to Foreign Missions was included.
The Swedes are an industrous, frugal and virtuous
people. It goes without saying that they
are Protestants?probably the most thoroughly
Protestant of all the nations. Some years ago
temperance reform secured a place among subjects
of prominent public interest and has steadily
grown in influence and importance. It is
now said that the liquor traffic is doomed in
Sweden. Fifty-six per cent of the Swedish
I r> :j?
v/imc \*i \juiiiiuuii^ art* itwuiiiieu witii tue prohibition
movement and many of them activo
temperance promoters. In 1890 there were only
eighteen total abstainers in the House. In 1900
the number had increased to thirty, and this
year there are 128. Sweden has learned what
all the nations will finally learn?that the arrest
of national deterioriation requires the suppression
of the liquor traffic.
The death of Qeneral Booth, Comander of the
salvation Army, marks the close of one of the
most interesting careers of modern times. He
died at his home a few miles from London on
August 20, at-the age of eighty-three. The great
evangelist began his ministry as a "soap-box
Preacher" at the age of fifteen in the slums of
Nottingham, England. The Salvation Army
which he organized and of which he has been
f,?mmander-in-chieif from the beginning, is
, * A
'RESBYTERIAN OF THE 80
Votes and
established in fifty-six countries. The great work
is being conducted under the direction of more
than twenty-two thousand officers and employes.
Its charities of many kinds and charitable institutions
are steadily increasing and the Army
gives promise of continuing to be a mighty evangelistic
force through the coming years. The
value of the great organization has been questioned
by many of the most enlightened and zeal
ous friends of pure and undefiled religion, and
many of the methods of the Army have been
generally disapproved. On the other hand its
ministry to the needy, the distressed, the friendless
and forsaken have probably come nearer to
the example found in the ministry of our Lord,
than has the ministry on this behalf of regularly
organized churches. "While frankly recognizing
the erratic and extreme methods approved
and employed by General Booth and his army, the
verdict of history will probably be that the origin
and growth of the Salvation Army was one of
the most fruitful movements of the last century
for the social, moral and religious betterment of
the world.
The ministry is pre-eminently a spiritual vocation.
It deals with spiritual truths and forces;
it proposes spiritual results; it requires spiritual
equipment and is dependent on a mighty spiritual
energy communicated from an infinite source
of spiritual power. It was this conviction that
constrained the Southern Methodist bishops last
year to deliver a Pastoral Address which contains
the following extract: "We recognize our.
ministry as a call from God, the one purpose of
which is to save men. The man who pnters nnon
it is, by his acceptance of it, pledged to lay aside
all selfish considerations. The temptations which
approach our ministry from the intellectual and
social sides of life lead some to magnify secular
forces beyond their true value and power, and
to forget the exclusively spiritual agents and
aims which should occupy the first place in their
plans and lives. Scholarship and social ambitions
take the place of due appreciation of the
power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit. The
bold, aggressive assaults upon the "Word of God,
and even upon the fundamentals of Christian
life, have led some to put into their preaching
a note of uncertainty and even doubt, and not
infrequently the message of the gospel is given
in a tone of such indifference and apathy as that
the people fail to realize that it has any authoritative
bearing upon their characters and
destinies. To make full proof of our ministry
we need a deeper sense of personal relation to
God, more absolute conviction of the things not
seen, and a more fervent spirit in the proclamation
of the gospel for the salvation of men."
We have ever believed that it would be found
hard to harmoniously blend the theology and
practice of the Cumberland and the soundly Calvinistic
elements which are now organically merged
in the great Northern Church. It was noted
at the time of the union that the Cumberland
forces came into the Presbyterian camp with
their old Cumberland Hag still dung to the
breezes. When confronted in civil courts and
elsewhere with the reminder that they had abandoned
their semi-Arminianism and subscribed to
Calvinisrtic symbols, they have replied that the
U. S. A. Confession had been purged of historic
Calvinism before they had ever accepted its
articles of faith. Rut the case is not yet past the
experimental stage as indicated by recent articles
in the Presbyterian Advance, which represents
the ex-Cumberland element. The Advance some
lUTH (991) 9
Comment
weeks ago attacked the pastoral letter of our last
Assembly relative to the Graded Lesson System,
a system whose fallacies and dangers have been
exposed by most competent conservative investigators.
Later The Advance paid its respects to
an editorial on the Graded Lessons which appear
ed in The Presbyterian, of Philadelphia. In
PAnrmonfmn AL- *1 *" *
? ivuiui? uie spine ana met nod and results
of The Advance's criticism The Presbyterian
has this to say: "In the outset it moves
with the ferocity of the tiger, and one might imagine
that the editorial was to be devoured, body
and soul. But when it gets to work, it is perfectly
harmless. It simply repeats some quotations,
expresses displeasure that the quotations
were taken chiefly from the pupils' hand-book,
rather than from that of the teacher, and then
attempts to show antiquity and narrowness, by
dragging in a reference to philosophical ideas
and the Augustinian theology. This is done in
such a manner as to awaken doubt whether the
writer would recognize the Augustinian theology
if he saw it. But worse than all, it descends to
making petty charges of unfamiliarity with the
text, of misrepresentation, of misquotation, and "
of being unfraternally unfair. There are
journals which habitually resort to this method
of making charges against those who differ with
them. We are ever ready to respect and answer
fair argument, but abuse is not argument, and
we are sorry our colleague has thus descended.
We must refuse to follow on that level."
SEEING THE INVISIBLE.
The Apostle Paul had a special fondness for
the paradox. He delighted in contrasting ideas,
and by making statements which appeared
practically contradictory he gave striking emphasis
to many important truths. In this he
followed the example of his Master, who often
used the same method of speech and argument,
and always with great effect. In Paul's words,
"When I am weak, then am I strong," was a
statement which gave vividness to the fact that
we find God's strength most readily when we
realize our own weakness. So when he said,
"While we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen," it was a
peculiar statement, and intended to be a most
impressive one. How can one see things that are
not seeable? How can one look on things that
are invisible?
Paul meant more than to give a peculiar meaning
here, such as we have a special regard for,
examine, consider, make a study of, things invisible
rather than of things visible. He meant
to tell us two things: first, that there is * crrenf
and real world beyond the range of the eyes of
the flesh; secondly, that the soul has eyes as it
were with which it can contemplate that other
great world. Immediately after speaking of
looking "at the things which are not seen," he
went on to tell us something of the nature of
that other world as well as of its reality. It is
not temporal but eternal. And if eternal, enduring,
changeless, then it must be supremely
important. If eternal, then it must be to those
who enter it aright a happy compensation for
the severest ills of this visible world TCvorv
condition and suggestion of the human mind
leads to this same view of that other world.
Immortality is writ in every thought of the
mind and every throb of the emotions and every
volition of the will. The Christian religion in
teaching eternity simply echoes what is within
man and accords with what instinct and reason
tell him,. He is not a creature of the day. His
little life here is not great enough for the ex