Newspaper Page Text
September 4, 1912] THE 1
Editorial 1
Longfellow has said that "we judge others by
what we feel capable of doing, while others
judge us by what we have already done." The
Saviour expressed the matter more wisely when
he said, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured to you again."
it is u msv statement that "the space between
a man's ideal and the man himself is his opportunity."
However wide the gap,the true soul will
try to bridge it. And in the effort, the believing
soul has the help of divine power and should
know that he will succeed.
'' When 1 am weak then am I strong.'' The reverse
of these words of the apostle are just as
true. "When I am strong, then am I weak."
There is no time in his life when the man who
ought to do right relies upon himself for power
to do it. He has cut himself loose from the
source of power. He is alone. 'He is betrayed
by his self-confidence.
There are many indications that the denial of
the Deity of Christ is more common to-day than
it was a decade or two decades ago. It is due
to the teachings, on which the natural man gladly
lays hold, of the destructive school of criticism
that cuts out of the Bible everything of a supernatural
nature. It has taken away our Lord and
can tell no man where it has laid hdm.
Stalwart lives, like the martyr spirit, come
only of intense convictions. Where one's belief
is vague and shadowy, one will not 'be willing to
suffer for it or to work for it. Where it is vigorous
and pronounced, one will find it incorporated
in life, becoming a vital part of that life. For
this reason it is important that the convictions
be not only strong, but intelligent. If unholy
or based upon false conceptions of truth they become
sources of evil in the life. "As a man
thinketh in his heart, so is he."
Dr. Rogers, of Drew Seminary, the big Methodist
theological school, has discovered that it is
easy to get notoriety by cheap skeptical utterances,
so he informs his disciples and the rest of
mankind that he doesn't believe in the flood.
Commenting on this statement of the Drew Doctor,
the New York Sun observes: "A lot of wise
boys told Noah the same thing one time, and now
wfoere are they?" The Presbyterian remarks,
"Dr. Rogers has been teaching in one of the
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-ivic ouiiouis ui x>ew iorK and men contributing
for the support of this school have considered it
evangelical. Generous men will be obliged to inquire
more carefully into the nature of the work
they support."
It is stated that the British government has
succeeded in forcing the new Chinese Republic
to re-open its opium shops for the sale of British
opium, and this in direct violation of the existing
treaty which gives to China fuill control of the
retail opium trade. Under this treaty right the
Chinese government closed the retail opium shops
but the British consul with British warships bej
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""u mm uemanuea mat tney should be opened,
entirely evading all consideration of treaty
rights. The opium trade costs China hundreds
of thousands of lives every year and untold
poverty and disease. King Edward and King
George have both been royally entertained by
the "opium kings," who are Jews. During
Queen Victoria's reign 284,582 tons of the dead
+
'RESBYYER1AJEI OF THE SO
Votes and
ly drug were shipped from India to China. It
has cost China four billions of dollars. British
opium cost China last year over one hundred
million dollars, and the deadly traffic foes steaddlv
nn
Tidings from Columbia Seminary sources indicate
that the outlook for the approaching session
of this school of the prophets is gratifying.
The splendid inaugural address of President
"Whaling, which appeared in the last Seminary
bulletin, presents a high ideal for the Seminary
of the future. The blending of sound scholarship,
consecrated character, and practical training
so as to yield the maximum of efficiency is
the ideal. To this end the President and his
colleagues will steadily address their efforts.
The theological schools of the Church amply
provide for giving our ministerial candidates the
best training that can be secured in either America
or Europe. The spirit of loyalty and the desire
for meritorious attainment should determine
all our boys to secure the sound, substantial,
thorough training which our institutions afford.
The day is already at hand when a diploma from
one of these institutions is a certificate of learning,
sound doctrine, and general ministerial
equipment which is scarcely equalled by testimonials
from any other source.
"By their fruits ye shall know them" is a principle
that every reverent Bible reader will accept,
and observation of the ordinary affairs of
life will confirm. Submitted to this test what
must be the world's verdict on the merits of the
doctrinal system that we call Calvinism. If any
are in doubt and are sufficiently interested to
listen to the voice of history let them read
sketches of the Hugenots of France and their
descendants, the heroic Dutch, who under William
the Silent, broke the awful tyranny of papal
Spain, the English Puritans and the Pilgrim
Fathers, the Scottish Covenanters and the succeeding
generations who have inherited their
faith and transmitted it as a benediction to the
nations of the earth. Let them read and then
let them answer this question, "Do men gather
grapes of thorns or figs of thistles!"
We are at times liable to really believe that
our difficulties are more formidable than the
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uuu w jLU7bixji iiiaii-uearLeu etiorx xor mat
reason. We may often renew our courage by
taking counsel from the example of others. A
unique instance of over-ooming difficulties is
found in the case of the blind deaf-mute, Helen
Keller. She has not only learned to read and become
familiar with standard litrature, but has
become a musician, learned to speak with distinct
articulation and choice diction and has delivered
public addresses. She is a resident of Schnectady,
New York, and can even pronounce the
name of ber home town without becoming tonguetied.
She has been appointed a member of the
local welfare board, not for the sake of novelty
or compliment, but utility and the rare genius of
Miss Keller promises to respond generously to
the call of her fellow citizens.
An exchange mentions the rather remarkable
fact that the old brown gunpowder, of which
the navy had large quantities on hand, not to be
used hereafter, has been found excellent as a
fertilizer and has been put to that.use. It adds
that it is a new illustration of the prophecy which
sayB, "Men shall beat their swords into plowshares."
U TH (1015) 9
Comment
AN ANNOUNCEMENT.
With this issue we begin with our new and
correct volume number; the reasons, therefore,
were given in our last issue.
We are also much pleased to announce that
from this date, Doctor Archibald Alexander Little,
pastor of the Westminster church, Atlanta,
will be a member of our editorial staff.
Atlanta and the Synods of the Southeast will
thus come back into their own
'1 hese Synods started the paper, and for many
years fostered it and now when it is stronger than
it ever was, it comes back into intimate relation
with thenx prepared to lay itself out in their
service. ,. *
For Dr. Little's special work will be, through
this medium, to push forward every department
of the Church's great work, educational, evangelistic,
practical and doctrinal, as he sees and
knows it in the Southeast.
The Presbyterian op the South congratuI
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A
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lates itself and its large circle of readers on this
acquisition to its working force; and is especially
pleased that in the city with the largest Presbyterian
membership in the South, it is to be represented
by so strong, so versatile, and so watchful
a writer as Dr. Little.
We present a likeness of Dr. Little and accompany
it with this brief statement: He was
born in Richmond, Va.; graduated at HampdenSidney
College in 1880; attended Union and
Austin Theological Seminaries; held pastorates
in Virginia and was for three years an evange
list of the Synod of Virginia; pastor of Steele
4.v- i ?* * -
vicm, me largest country cnurch in the Assembly;
for seven years the pastor of First
church in Selma, Ala.; and then his present
charge, which has been one of great success; he
has received into the church 400 persons, expended
over $12,000 in improving and enlarging the
equipment and reorganized the church into one
of the best working forces in the city.