Newspaper Page Text
September 18, 1912] THE 1
Editorial 1
Editorial circles suffered last week in the
sadden death, at his home in Philadelphia, of
Rev. Dr. Richard S. Holmes, of the editorial
staff of the Continent, and for eight or ten years
past connected with the religious press. He
_ 1 it. - - - -
was aisu rae autnor ot three fascinating books
of fiction, "The Maid of Honor," "The Victor,"
and "The Outcome." He passed away
in his seventy-first year. Our sincere sympathy
is extended to the Continent and all connected
with that valuable paper.
Satan has taken possession of certain highsounding
expressions and is using them for his
own purposes. For instance, he persuades men
-to assert and claim "broad-mindedness" merely
as his way of undermining the truth, and creeping
into the church tempts men to believe in and
proclaim "the larger hope" merely as a means
of avoiding present responsibility.
To be " broad-minded" has come to be understood
as being indifferent to such important
principles as the inspiration and integrity of
God's word, the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the sacrificial
nature of the death of Christ, the certainty of
a final state of awards, the need for present acceptance
of the offer of redemption. Such being
the case, earnest believers cannot afford to use
the word "bread." It has got into bad company.
Not long ago the National Pure Pood Board
prohibited the importation and inter-state commerce
of absinthe, on the ground, among others,
of lffi PAnfoiniurt J r
.?? wuvumiiig ^uiouiiuuo lii^njuienus ana ucing
dangerous to the health of its users. That
was pood. But why not take the next step and
say the same thing of whiskey and the liquor
traffic generally, prohibition of which is just
as justifiable and on precisely the same grounds!
"The "Million and a Half Campaign" will
soon be in full swing. The presbyterial visitors
will, we suspect, find a cordial welcome awaiting
them from all the Presbyteries. And the conferences
planned will arouse the whole Church
to hearty and xmited action. With such awakened
interest, who can doubt the result? Tn
this connection we want to ask the committee
in charge of the general Dro?rram -wbpfb^r onv
special mention has been made of the General
Assembly's purpose to raise $10,000 for the
Bible Cause. There was no mention made of
this cause in the statement of Dr. Sweet's as
published recently: It ought not to be overlooked.
We are pleased to notice in Leslie's a thorough-going
commendation of the aetiou of the
Postmaster-General in genuinely enforcing the
laws which provide for limiting the activities
of the Postofflce Department on the Lord's
day. The editor well says: "Sunday should be
1. * ?- ~
n uay ot rest. The postal clerks are entitled to
their Sunday rest and we hope they will have it.
Too often they have worked on Sundays without
additional pay, which is also wrong1. We commend
the Postmaster-General for his effort to
secure Sunday observance in the Postoffioe Department.
If the public suffers a little inconvenience.
it ought willingly to do so. We welcome
any evidence of returning respect for the
Sabbath Day in this period of unrest, disquiet,
upheaval and distrust of man and God."
When a state convention of one of the great,
political parties finds itself willing and moyed
P K ? 8 B V T ? K 1 A M O f THE SO
Votes and
-o *1 i '-. . > ?K - ( v? %
to declare itself on the liquor question, as recently
in Oklahoma, one may be sure that there
is something that demands it mightily. The
Oklahoma Democratic Convention, which adjourned
August 29th made a platform which,
among other things, scored the national government
for issuing licenses for the sale of
liquor in prohibition states. The national government
deserves it. It is in partnership with
the liquor traffic in the latter s effort to force itself
into territory which has made it unlawful to
carry on the traffic, and it is through this partnership
that the unlawful traffic is made possible.
Congress has not yet had the decency to
amend its lawns which thus defy or set aside the
state's provision.
It is a pleasure to extend congratulations to
Dr. R. H. Pitt on entering the twenty-fifth year
of service in religious journalism, as editor of
the Religions Herald. The Herald is the popular
exponent of the life, faith and activities of the
Baptists of Virginia, a numerous and noble fraternity
who have a history wrought prominently
into the annals of American Christianity and the
liberties of our nation. In reviewing the past
and greeting the future, Dr. Pitt says in his
graceful way: "I enter upon this last year of
the quarter of a century buoyant and hopeful.
Grateful for the goodness of God, rich in the
constancy and helpfulness of my friends, happy
beyond expression in my home and family, I
salute my brethren and pray God's blessing on
them one and all. I have little to do with the
past save to regret its errors, to remember its
mercies, to profit by its experiences. The throbbing
present and the opening future have my
heart." "With congratulations we extend best
wishes to Dr. Pitt and The Herald for increasing
prosperity through the on-coming years.
ft is the time of year for telling professors
how they ought to fill their chairs. Plenty of
us are ready to give advice about theological
training and our advice is generally good. A
preacher prepared along the lines of a consensus
of public taste would be an interesting product,
assuming, of course, that such a product is
really possible. For ourselves we are content
to emphasize just two things and leave subdivision
to the superior wisdom and skill of constituted
authorities. One of these is the cultivation
of persistent godliness that reaches forth
unto the things that are before. The other is
training in thorough knowledge of revealed
truth and uncompromising loyalty to conviction.
The Presbyterian Examiner stresses the power
of expressing and imparting that which is acnnired.
Tt says: "Our theological seminaries
have been charged with aiming at the development
of the acquisitive rather than the expressive
gifts of the students. Tt is all well enough
to he acquainted with the languages of Scripture.
with theology and church history, and the
entire curriculum of the Reminary course, but
often those who know the most are' unable to
express themselves lucidly and forcibly. If
there is one thing business men demand in the
pulpit to-dav it is clear and lucid statements.
arrmmpnts that prove something. and a forceful
prespntation ryf the theme of thie sermon. Minicfors
srhorild he trained to express themselves so
to elicit attention iand convince the intellect
and move the heart.. Training shonld develon
pach man's snecial flrifts. The hnsiness of a
rtipolocrieal ?eminarv is to produce thinkers and
orpnehers Thev often torn ont scholars and
lectnrers. hot not preachers."
UTE (1063) 9
Comment
Mr. Eugene Chafin, Prohibition candidate for
President, is not only a Prohibitionist but is a
statesman, a philosopher, an orator and, above
all, a Christian. He recently delivered a great
address on "flip C!hin*?Vi ?1 >>
_ _ ? __ ? wm?m vu u li * a LltV VJVJ iiVAJ A J
which should be read by everyone and from
which we would like to quote at length. Our
present purpose, however, is to quote a brief
tribute to Calvinism and the Presbyterian
Church. Belonging to another denomination,
his words have all the more interest. He said:
"All the civil liberty we have in the world today
worth speaking of, has been given to us
by Calvinism and not statesmanship." Again:
"Our various subdivisions of town government,
county government, state government and national
government were all planned after the
four-fold governing bodies of the Presbyterian
Church. The Presbyterian Church gave us our
form of government. I can say that with good
grace because I am not a Presbyterian. I am
a Methodist. But if you are a Preshvtprinn von
have my consent to stretch up a little taller than
the rest of us. Your church gave us our form
of government."
We are well aware of the value of organization.
System and efficiency; economy of workers,
time and means; conservation of resources
?all are to be regarded in Christian service, as
well as in promoting industrial enterprise. But
over-emphasis on organization . may become a
source of weakness. Robert E. Speer, Secretary
of the Board of Missions in the Northern Presbyterian
Church says: "Our great peril today is
that we will lose ourselves among manipulations
and schemes for organization while we neerlent thr
forces which create the material to be manipulated
and the life to be organized." The danger
point of over-organization is in dependence on
the machine. The people expect the machine by
some kind of magical process to grind out results
while the managers of the machine presume
on the people's providing the raw material
out of which to construct the finished
product. Meanwhile neither class is praying and
toiling and testifying in the spirit which the
Master indicated when he said, "Strive to enter
in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you,
will seek to enter in and shall not be able."
HURRY.
The Lord commanded his disciples, when they
were sent out on a special mission, to "salute no
man by the way." The purpose of this direction
was that they might not be unduly delayed in
reaching their specific work or consume their
time with the formalities of the day. The salutations
of that time were very ceremonial and
prolonged. Should the disciples observe them
rigidly, much valuable time, which could better
be used in their direct work, would be taken
up and their mission would suffer.
Were the Master living today and amongst us
in this country, we think he would give the opposite
advice. As formerly men spent too much
time in some aspects of their social life and work,
so nowadays they spend too little time in these
things. They are all in too great a hurry. Thev
set too little store by certain formalities which,
while not of the essence of duty and life, help
both, chiefly by preserving the amenities, dignifying
the various relations in which men stand
towards one another, and elevating and refining
them in social ways. The end. in view is too much
the dominant thought in the mind, and too little
attention is paid to the effect around us, as we
move along, from the processes we pse. Men go