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January 1, 1913 ] T H E P
often draw our lit'e-plan upon such a narrow
scale; it includes only self and this world. Let
us project our lives on larger, grander lines.
Let Christ be the centre; let the plan include
not only this world but heaven also, overarching
eternity itself. Lot our sympathies go out to
all niankiud, like that mysterious throb of the
ocean when. ucted on by heavenly influences,
strangely moved and drawn upward, its great
1. *- 1 i - ? ...
ncttiL Kiiiieu ana u seuus out its boundless tides
to break upon every laud.
"Build thee more stately mansions, 0 my soul,
As the swift seasons roll.
Leave thy low-vaulted past;
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,?
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting
sea."
Perhaps the sun has never looked upon a moi"e
maguiticent spectacle than, an ancient Roman
triumph. The inhabitants of the eternal city,
robed iu white, thronged the hills and lined the
river; in eveiy temple altars flamed and clouds
01 incense tilled the air. In a chariot ot' ivory
and gold the conqueror was borne beneath
triumphal arehes along the Via Sacra to the
Temple ot' Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill; a
crown of olive was taken irom the hand of the
great statue of Victory, placed upon his brow.
And thus in the presence of Victory, the conqueror
stood crowned. What was a Roman
triumph to the entrance of God s kings and
priests in heaven? On earth they shouted:
"Onrilllli'rnrl" In lioaupn t-linu eitirr. "AIam
1 ""V ?'"6
than conqueror!" In this world many a brow
has worn only a crown of thorns. In that world
there remaineth a crown of righteousness that
fadeth not away. Shall such a triumph be for
us?even you and me? Yes, if we accept the
olive leaf pluckt off God tenders through his
Spirit. May it overarch our lives, span the
threshold of the opening new year, the threshold
of our homes, the opening gates of heaven and
the blue eternities beyond the revolution of the
earthly years.
M/// / Turr ru
rr aujki A A A Am* A J
Our Lord's words, '"Likewise also as it was
in the days of Lot . . . even thus shall it
be in the day when the Son oi' Man is revealed,"
seem in this day to fall upon deal' ears.
iSo far have we, the professing church, gone in
alliance with the world to carry on its schemes
lor betterment and uplift apart from God, that
we are found hand in hand with it in all sorts
of movements, and censuses and the like.
..o ? ^ : J? T 1
ajci. uo ]y?uoc a iiiuiuciit ciiiu. cuiioiucr jjui uilu
his days. It was a time of abounding wickedness
in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha. Lot,
having the choice of where to go, with business
sagacity had gone down into the well-watered
plain, pitching his tent, sign that he was still as
a stranger in the land, toward Sodom. Soon we
find him no longer following Abraham's example
and living as a pilgrim and a stranger in
the land, but settled in Sodom. From 2 Peter
2 :S we learn that he was vexed with the un
godliness he saw around him, which fact no
doubt caused him to accept the office of judge
(Gen. 19:1), having a godly desire to improve
the existing conditions. The result of his
efforts, so far as the record goes, was not in the
least to the salvation of the city?not even that
of a single soul?but most disastrous to his
family and himself, and the inference seems
fair that, but for the prayers of Abraham, who
*
RESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
REVIVAL OF AN
BY BKV. B. C. O
The Church is surfeited with "new movements,"
and is sulleriug from a great dearth oi
tclf-denying liberality and peruonM eil'ori.
-Most congregations oi any considerable size axe
burdened with a lot oi "dead wood;" with people
who do nothing and give little. Such churches
are last becoming hospitals and morgues
rather than armies in the held with hosts oi
men and women on the 4"tiring line." if this
judgment seem too harsh, then let us say that
such churches are societies organized to furnish
pleasant entertainment and enjoyment to people
who have inadequate, if not erroneous, conceptions
of the Christian salvation and life.
-Meanwhile every great Christian Cause,
Home Missions, Foreign Missions, Education,
Ministerial and other relief, sutlers for lack of
money and personal etlort, notwithstanding the
constant and eloquent appeals which come from
pulpits, platforms and press setting fortli the
stern alternatives of more money or the curtailment
of the work.
There is no lack of money or of people. Our
Church has grown in numbers and wealth. Millions
of dollars are spent unnually by our people
on luxuries; costly and needless adornments
and amusements. The careful observer, mindful
of our Lord's words, is constantly amazed at the
u'*.*1 Aer\?'rt,i?"l rtvf 1 -
iwuMj/k6#vi CAiiatil^UllCC UI LU1X1 i'/'Ilg,
personal, domestic and social.
Every expedient, but one, has been tried on
extensive scales to meet successfully this (lisr
creditable situation. That one is the plain, forceful,
constant inculcation of the great body of
Christian fact and doctrine in the homes, pulpits
and schools ot' the Church. True, much has
been said and is now being said respecting
Christian liberality. But apparently we have
fi-rgotten that Christian liae*. ana doctrine lie a?
lilt* l?.*.s.is nnH i? :ln> ni'miinlni- ,.P I "liniction
. - J ?...% / J.* L \J 1 \/UI louail lll'U I alil.v
and of all heroic Christum ofl'nrt. W* arc
I.curing a great deal about Christian feeling and
action. We hear an I read little about the great
Chnalian truths which promote both: God and
his attributes: his decrees and sovereign grace;
tURCH HEED?
kept away from Sodom, even Lot would have
perished in its overthrow. Abrahnui was on
the hills communing with God and keeping
aloof from the busy world and its ways, while
Lot was in the thick of it all, and no doubt
trying his best to remedy what proved to be
irremediable.
Just so, our Lord warns us against doing as
Lot did, and yet who is heeding the warning?
The church's ambition seems so often to be the
leader in all sorts of schemes for bettering this
world, instead of being content, by godly living
in communion with her Lord and separation
from the world and its plans as did Abraham,
to be a faithful witness for God. She appears
so often to be led on by the world's plaudits,
i.1 1 * T -H ' ' "
j iiinci- Limu uy ner uora s exnortauons ana.
warnings, and to be more and more often found
planning and working in union with unbelievers
of all sorts, even with those who revile tho
name of Christian.
Her ambition in this direction is going to be
satisfied, for does not our Lord say as much:
"Because thou sayest I am rich, and increased
with goods, and have need of nothing" (Rev.
3:17). and yet to whnt purpose, except to be
cast aside as a nauseous thing!
Tn the letters to the Seven Churches in Rev.
2 and 3, in every one is found the solemn warn
UTH (1417) 3
OLD MOVEMENT
OBDON, D. D.
man, his guilt, depravity, helplessness and
doom; salvation, its nature and scope, born of
Clod's sovereign grace, secured by the agony
and bloody sweat of his eternal and well-beloved
Son, applied by the invincible might of his Holy
Spirit; the iniper.it.vi .need of faith in Christ
und of a renunciation of sins of every sort in
order to a lioiy life j the stupendous issues of a
certain and endless future life to be spent by
all of us either in a glorious heaven or a dreadful
hell. These Christian verities are set aside
to give place to discussions respecting the improvement
of our present, Jleeting, earthly life;
the development ot science, literature and art;
of domestic, social and political economics. It
seems to be forgotten, or remembered only as a
"tale twice told vexins the drowsv ear." that
there can be 110 real, permanent improvement of
our present earthly life, unless men are saved
from their sins by the grace of God through a
process no less arduous than regeneration, repentance
and faith in Christ, which secure a
holy life; all to come through knowledge and belief
of the facts and doctrines of the gospel of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
In view of the whole situation it is now submitted
with utmost earnestness that we need a
revival of gospel preaching; the iteration and
constant re-iteration of the old gospel truths by
parents, preaciiers, teacners and press: flail's
guilt uuder God's law, he> depravity aud helplessness,
his entire dependence upon God's sovereign
grace as mediated to him through Jesus
Christ and his Lloly Spirit; the supreme necessity
of a faith which relies on Christ alone for
salvation, and a repentance which hone>tly proposes
to give up every known sin, and to devote
oneself wholly to Christ and his cause.
'JLhis is tiie Old way and the omy successful
way of securing Christian exiort and money tor
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and the coming oi ilia kingdom ot giory. 'ihe
new movements leave our people ignorant oi
goupel fact and doctrine. Let us put the old
way to a new aud most vigorous trial, looking in
faith and prayer to our Lord that he will bring
his word to his harvest.
St. Louis, Mo.
ing, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit saith uuto the churches."
In the last four letters distinct reference is
uiuue 10 our uoru 8 coming again, which would
indicate that the conditions represented in theui
would exist at his second coming. Thus we
have a four-sided picture of conditions that will
be then existing?a toleration of evil teaching
(Rev. 2:20); a reputation for being a live
church, while in reality a dead one (3:1); a
weak body of believers who have kept the
word of their Lord's patience, and await the
fulfillment of his promise to return soon ( Rev.
3:9, 10: Heb. 10:23, 36, 37); and lastly, a church
that has succeeded in all its plans, and is well
satisfied with itself, and will not see in what an
evil plight such success will place it. (Rev. 3:
17).
^ SllTolv tho T iArrl n Arl nri 11 A a V?A- 1
j v. w^i mix 1.1 <J liu tiling, UUl IIC
revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets"
(Amos 3:7), and as, from those things
written for our admonition (1 Cor. 10:11), we
find Israel would not heed the warnings given,
so now we find the church clinging to her own
vision flf U'lint alio liniloo /> ^ ~~~ ? ?12-I- J
V*. .? a>MW O..IV IIV/ptfl IU aCUUIiipilSH) UI1C1
h'edloss of the secrets her Lord has revealed in
l.uke 17j26-H0. and many other places. It is
(Continued on page 5.)