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September 11, 1912 ] T H E I
tians were attracted to the Mount Morris church
and many desired to unite with it, but they
had been baptized by some other mode and felt
that a second baptism was not proper, hence they
were not able to unite with the church of their
choice. An "associate membership" roll was
suggeis*ed, such as is not now uncommon, but
a committee which was appointed to consider
the whole subject brought in a clear-cut report
making the following recommendations, which
were adopted with practical unanimity:
"1. The acceptance into full membership of
Christians in good standing, presenting letters
oi dismissal and recommendation from Christian
churches of other denominations, provided that
such letters are not over six months old.
"2. That any person who has at any time
been a member of another Christian church, but
who in consequence of any special circumstances
has no regular letter of dismissal and recommendation,
may be received into membership of the
church by appearing before the church and giving
satisfactory evidence of regeneration and
Christian conduct.
The Christian Advocate has apparently made
extended observation of sentiment and practice
in thih department of Church progress, and says:
"So far as the administration of the Lord's
Supper is concerned, the majority of Baptist
ministers in the large towns and cities of the
country have long ceased to make exceptions of
persons who have not been immersed in their
invitation to partake of the Holy Communion.
They have lost nothing by that, one would conjecture."
j
The indications are that gradually the traditional
exclusiveness Of immersionists will be
largely abandoned, and that fellowship will be
cordially extended to other Christians who are
quite as honest and intelligent in their convictions
and are quite as zealous and self-sacrificing
in service as their honored and beloved brethren
of immersionist Churches. It is timo tViot
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barriers of form and ceremony, whether in papal,
or prelatical, or immersionist Churches, should
vanish. It is believed that in all the communions
it is the clerical elements rather than the
communicants who perpetuate traditional exclusiiveness.
THE LITTLE THINGS.
There is nothing little. There is potency in
everything. The smallest incident may become
a link in a chain of causation leading to the
mightiest results. A suspension bridge may be
thrown down by the measured step of a procession,
or by the playing of a band, or even by
the pulsations of a violin. It is the vibration
of a wire that communicates itself through the
uuKnown ether or other medium to another timed
like it, but hundreds of miles away, that gives
the message of a Titanic sinking, or, returning,
tells that relief will come. In Switzerland an
avalanche is often started by some single noise,
as a shout or gunhsot, a mere sound unloosing
a mountain side of ice and snow. The little
foxes spoil the vines when the tender grapes are
upon them and ruin the whole harvest of fruit.
The soul that is indifferent to the minute
things is in danger. A little yielding here, a
little toleration there, often becomes the beginning
of a world of trouble or defection. It was
a wise proverb of the Romans, "Obsta principiis,"
"Set yourself firmly against the beginnings
of things." It is not narrow-mindfidnP?s
to pay attention to little things if they be evil.
It is not over-carefulness that puts one on guard
against them, but wisdom. Because they are
little does.not make them less evil nor insure
safety against their danger. The weightier matters
are to be considered no less, but the insidiousness
of the small leads on to tho great.
A little muskrat, or a still more insignificant
crawfish, often bores the hole that starts a mile
long crevasse, and makes the overflow which
>BESBYTEBIAN OF THE SO
destroys millions of property and sacrifices valuable
lives.
So, aUu, in the realm of the good, almost
insignificant things prepare the way for loftier
good. * * l or who hatn despised the day of small
tilings J" was the prophetic comfort and advice
given to Zerubabel, as he undertook the stupendous
task of rebuilding the temple, llis very
weakness in the face of tue work, the insufficiency
of the means at hand, and the overwhelming
odds against him making his own weakness ail
the more apparent drove him to a higher source
of power and proved the beginning of his
strength as it made him cast his care on God.
Thus, before his resolute faith, almost the only
thing he had, the great mountain of difficulty
melted into a plain. Th widow's two mites,
the invalid woman's trembling, finger-tip touch,
the faith as a grain of mustard seed, illustrate
the same fact. A mere touch of a button, or
turning of a switch, turns on a mighty current
that lights a city or moves the wheels of a great
manufacturing plant.
THE KIND OF MEN.
BY REV. CHARL.ES E. JEFFERSON, D. D.
Everything depends on the kind, it is not
the number of them, nor the names of them,
nor the professions of them, nor the programs
of them, that counts, but of what sort tfaov are.
in the realm of the spiritual, texture is more
than bulk, and quality more than quantity.
Gideon knew this a long time ago. Men learned
early that one can chase a thousand, and
two can put ten thousand to llight. Christ began
the saving of the world with twelve men,
but they were picked men. He cared little for
numbers, if only two agree in prayer, the
heavens open. There is no waiting for a multitude.
if only two or three assemble in the
right spirit, the King of Heaven is in their
midst. He is not insistent upon a crowd.
When a few men began to cast out demons,
Jesus saw the whole empire of 2Satan crumbling,
it is a great day for a church when the right
kind of a man comes into it.
Who? io +1.^ * l.:?i o mu ? L..
.. uui, 10 i,u& njjut miiui i acre is iiu ueiter
adjective to describe him than "faithful." To
be faithful is to be steadfast and true. The
trusty man is the one man indispensable. The
man who can be relied on every hour of the
day, who can be depended on seven days of the
week, who can be counted on twelve months of
the year, who can be built on for time and
eternity?he is the Lord's anointed. The man
who makes a promise and keeps it, starts to do
a work and does it, says a thing and stands by
it, declares his allegiance and never wavers,
shoulders a burden and carries it through sun
and thunder, he is the man whom the New Tes
louieui, crowns, ana ail tne generations rise up
to call him blessed.
Jesus was always rapping the unreliable and
inconstant. The man who says he will go, and
goes not, the man who puts his hand to the
plow and looks back, the man who takes a
talent and does not use it, the man who starts
to build and does not finish, the man who allows
the sun to wilt him or a few thorns to
choke him; this is the stripe of man whom Jesus
is constantly cudgeling, declaring that he is
not fit for the Kingdom of God.
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me man wno made the heart of Jesus sing
was the man who could stand against the tide,
get under a burden and stay there, start on
a work and carry it through. "Well done, good
and faithful servant!" this was the highest
commendation which he could conceive of coming
from the mouth of God. The thought which
claimed and braced him within sight of the
cross was that he had been faithful. There is
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the rapture of a heart at peace in his declaration
to his father?"1 have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do."
Jesus was always looking for men who could
stand fast. He never mentioned the church until
he found a man who dared to set his own
conviction against the opinion of the crowd.
lie gave that man a name?"Rock"?and this
is the name which must be written on the
hearts of all who follow Jesus. It is of this
kind of stuff?he says?that the institution is
to be built against which the gates of destruction
shall not prevail. Unswerving loyalty, unfailing
fidelity, granitic constancy, this is what
the church must have. Without this, all else
is nothing.
The situation today is what it was in the
beginning. We can do nothing without men of
rock. The man whom Jesus called "Rock" always
thought of all Christians as living stones.
Stone seems a hard and heartless word by which
to characterize a glowing, loving follower of
Jesus, but the word stone suggests a set of
qualities which must never be left out of the
composition of a Christian man. Stone does
not crumble when it raina 01- molt ~
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sun is hot. Stone does not bend to the wind
and is indifferent to the variations of atmospheric
pressure. Stone does not slip down and
glide away from the wall into which the mason
builds it. It stays where it is put, sharing with
other stones the responsibility of keeping the
structure whole. The men now needed must
be living stones, capable of retaining their
edges and the fine sculpturing of the Master's
hand, docile enough to support one another in
framing the massive wall, humble enougn and
strong enough to accept and sustain enormous
weights.
Every pastor comes, as he grows older, to
care less and less for the qualities which arc
showy, and to value more and more the qualities
which make men useful. It is the faithFill
man nnl KiUlK?-i. 11
uvt we uiuutuii, muii, nor me glib
man, nor the prominent man, nor even the
generous man, who keeps the church from falling.
The man who is in his place when it rains,
who does his duty no matter what the thermometer
says, who makes other things stand
aside in order that he may fulfill his obligations
to the church, what can be done without him?
We have today flocks of flying Christians, quite
too much in the air. We have also racing
Christians, a breed who run with fury and
raise a deal of dust, and disappear.' The Christian
man most needed is the man who will
quietly walk through the years, day by day
loyally doing his task, loving the church with a
passion which does not sputter or die down,
and serving the church with a fidelity which
knows no shadow of turning. He is the man
who is a pillar in the temple of our God, and
he shall go no more out forever.?The Congregationalism
That hosts of people are either willing to be
fooled, or are unable to protect themselves from
it, or that the keen desire for wealth blinds them,
is clearly shown by a recent statement of the
Postmaster General. He states that during the
past year 1,063 persons were charged with using
the mails to defraud, and that before the government
got these people in hand they had already
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sruureu cue nuge sum or $1I2U,UUU,UUU from their
victims! And the mails do not handle all the
"get-rich-quick" 'business, by any means.
The goal of human history is the redemption
of the world. If the field of Christ and the field
of the church is the world, so the field of every
man with the love of God in his heart is the
world.?J. Campbell "White.