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be observed. Namely, I cannot have a private
new year. If I enter* into a new life, I take
someone into a new life too.
THE OPENING OF THE PANAMA CANAL
IN RELATION TO GOD'S KINGDOM.
It may seem to some that this event will have
no bearing on the progress of God's Kingdom
in the earth.
Will it really hasten the time of the second
coming and our reigning with Christ forever!
Or will it retard the Kingdom t Will it make
more diflicult, the task of the Church of God?
It will certainly make great changes in the
social, commercial and economic map of the
world. These changes are likely to be for the
betterment of the races. The uplift of the backward
nations. Peoples that have been isolated
during the centuries past will now be at front
doors of civilization.
We have seen this in our own country. A
community by reason of inacessibility has been
steeped in ignorance, and from ignorance,
crime. A railroad is run through. Slowly,
but inevitably, the gospel has permeated that
section; higher ideals have been set up. Thus
indirectly, even a railroad becomes an evangelist.
This will happen with many parts of our
earth. The steamship will touch their borders.
The light of civilization will stream in. The
advanced forces of evangelism will soon follow.
This marvellous work has demonstrated the
fact that man can live and labor anywhere on
the face of the earth.
The wonderful work of Dr. Gorgas and Col.
Goetlials has made the Canal Zone more healthful
than the choicest part of America.
One of the greatest foes of the gospel has h&en
unhealthy conditions that have cursed so maffy
parts of this earth.
Missionaries have fallen before diseases,
easily preventable, like the enemy before the
quick-firing Gatling guns.
Whole peoples have dwindled and died under
the inertia of malaria. The will power has been
undermined by the fevers on which th?y have
fed.
The sanitation officers can go with the missionary.
The expert on various diseases can
prepare the way for the gospel.
It is, humanly speaking, easier to convert the
healthy, than the diseased.
Some of the yellow-fever cursed cities of
South America, aroused by what has been done
at Panama, are calling loudly for some of the
destroyers of disease.
Sickness and disease are surely the works of
the devil, however, God may overrule them for
our good and his glory.
Then when you lift up a people in the matter
of health you are to that extent preparing the
way for that Kingdom, in which no inhabitant
will ever say, "l am sick."
The opening of this Canal will transfer the
commercial center of the world to the United
States of America.
This may not come at once, but it will come
in time. When it comes, both opportunity and
means will be in the hands of a Christian
nation.
Some wise seers think that God has saved
this nation for the greatest display of his power,
in evangelizing the whole world.
Tf this he true, then the day of opportunity
is surely dawning.
The United States of America, with a record
of increasing foreign trade that is startling,
now holds the future of the world in her hand.
Commerce dominates war. It may be that
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SC
the voice of this people spoken from her capital
will say to warring nations, "Stop!" and wars
will cease in the earth.
It may be, the cry of ignorance heard in so
many parts of our lan-d will have a response as
generous as the cry of the Philippines for
teachers.
It may be that the open sores of the world's
sickness will find an answered call among the
tons of thousands of trained nurses and physicians
of our land.
Surely the sin and need of the gospel among
these nations that will look to America as the
"Big Brother," will find a Christian people
ready to send missionaries in great numbers, so
that a nation may be born in a day.
Are we getting ready?
We read of faraw^r cities spending millions
to be in readiness for the wortd trade that will
pour through this Canal.
Are the Christian people ready to send the
gospel as well as their merchandise?
How impottant that we should hold the Christian
life of this nation high. Tf we are on a low
plane of living, we can never raise the others
hicher than we are.
Yes, every rail that is laid, every steamship
that is launched, every telegraph wire strung,
every wireless station erected, every Canal
dnj? if bringing that glorious day nearer when
the kinsrdom shall he ready for the King.
God help us to speed the day. A. A. L.
THE ADVENT.
Some two or three years ago religious writers
and readers had their attention called to the
inquiry, "If Jesus had not come?" The ready
answer was, But Jesus did come and all that is
worth cherishing in human hopes, preserving in
human affairs or living for in the life of the
soul is the fruit of his coming.
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had promised that he would come; the Psalmist
had sung sweetly and wonderfully of his advent.
The great lawgiver, Moses, had written
of one who would be the interpretation and the
fulfillment of law. God's chosen people rested
their hopes upon these testimonies, believing
that in them they had eternal life. They expected
one whose name should be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. If Jesus
had not been born the hope and consolation of
Israel would have proved a delusion, and their
cherished expectation, a baseless dream.
How incongruous then would have been the
unfolding of the succession of human events.
For centuries the progress of history converged
toward the realization of a predetermined purpose.
That purpose was the gathering together
of all in One in whom all the nations of the
earth should be hleased whr?oe frincrdrmi olinnM
be an everlasting kingdom, and of whose dominion
there should be no end. If he had not
come human history could never be interpreted
as the development of our race under the intelligent
control of a sovereign Ruler. History
would have proved to be but the inarticulate,
disordered product of universal chance.
If he had not come, what solace would have
been found for sin smitten souls? The chosen people
whose were the covenants and promises, relied,
not on works of righteousness, hut on
marcy through atonement; not through offerings
in type and shadow, but through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. Their intelligent
hope was centered in him who should offer one
sacrifice for sins forever. If he had not come
the world's guilt would have forever sealed the
world's doom.
There could have been no balm for aching
) U T H [ December 25, 1912
hearts, nothing to illumine the dark places of
life, no rational security against changeless
gloom and final despair. But the Light of the
world did come, and came with messages of
peace and gladness and assurances of victory
through his cross. He came that the Comforter
might also come and that sorrow and sighing
might flee away. He came with a divine magic
that transmutes the tears of sorrow to jewels of
his grace. He has come and put a new song
into our mouth, even praises unto our God. He
has come into the midst of the conflict of life
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who giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ!
His coming meant glory to our God, Through
redemption a new song shall forever sound
through the heavens and a new kingdom was
founded. By the advent of the Redeemer peace
was proclaimed to the nations of the earth.
The incarnation of the Son of God meant and
demonstrated good will to men. Today our
enlightened vision may behold prophecy and
promise as fulfillment. Tn the light of his coming
and his ministry we behold the fullness of
the Godhead and the eye of faith anticipates
the new heavens and the new earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness.
WORSHIP IN THE HOME.
The importance of familv reliction in Am.
phasized by the Family Altar League which
publishes a monthly magazine containing Bible
readings, model prayers and other helps to
Christian devotion in the home. Here is one
of the cardinal departments of spiritual life
and one of the crucial tests of genuine faith.
An elemental and radical inquiry is, Does godliness
pervade the home life? If it is characteristic
of the homes of the Christians of this land
those homes are a bulwark of security for the
nation, against which the gates of hell cannot
prevail, for they unitedly constitute the Church
of Christ in its daily testimony and effiaiency.
Shall the young people of the Church be held
to a position of unflinching loyalty to Christian
principle and cheerful devotion to the Master's
service? This is a question that thoughtful
leaders are considering with gravest concern
The drift of many young people away from
the.faith of their fathers and their fathers'
fathers, has elicited lament and alarm. If comparisons
may be made, it is more important to
hold the rising generation of children in Christian
homes than to evangelize the non-Christian
elements of America. There need be no
such alternative, however. The two great departments
of growth are mutually contributive
and supplemental. It yet remains true that the
home is the initial abiding place of vital godliness
Aa a means of encouraging the erection and
maintenance of the family altar, numerous excellent
helps, consisting of prayers and Scripture
readings, have been prepared. Among
these is one authorized by our General Assembly
and prepared by a commfittee of which Dr.
James P. Smith was chairman. The work is
done with admirable taste and skill and is pervaded
wjth the spirit of true devotion. There are
heads of families who feel that they cannot
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should provide themselves with approved man
uala of prayer. Any churcli may render a most
valuable contribution to her own prosperity,
the growth in grace of a large class of her
membership, by having prepared by several of
her most competent men, a manual with selections
from the Scriptures, appropriate prayers,
and possibly choice hyras, suited to family devotion.
. Let family religion be restored to the
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