Newspaper Page Text
January 8, 1913] T H S
Editorial 1
First hand information ia always desirable.
All our people will be interested in the article
found on page 17 by Dr. Hall, of Galveston,
on the Federal Council, recently assembled in
Chicago. "We hope to proffer some remarks on
the Council in our next number.
"t+ ancior> to fppl st.rnncrlv tVian to Ko
strong. Yet our strong, deep feelings are well
worth while?if we put them to work. We
need to remember that emotion is power when
it is caught in the cylinder and does not escape
in the whistle.' If a sermon sends worthy
emotions charging through us, it is easier to
commend ourselves for this feeling than to
let our whole life be permanently lifted; but we
are worse off, if we do nothing about it, than
if we had never heard the sermon. Every stirring
of our right emotion is God's call to us
to become empowered for service."
An esteemed correspondent writes: "It is almost
beyond belief that our Church will permit
the continued dragging on of this debt," and
suggests as a simple and practicable plan that,
with pastors and sessions co-operating, the mem
bersliip of the entire Church be urged to contribute
one dollar each to the elimination of the
Foreign Mission debt. This plan may be easily
worked in connection with the one adopted by
the committee. The Sessions of almost all our
churches can recommend this method and carry
it to success without interfering with any other
plan. Bear in mind that the campaign is now
well under way and there is no time to lose.
The meetine of the Federal Council reeent.lv
lieid in Chicago was occupied chiefly with addresses
by speakers selected from the several
denominations represented. Of the various acts
of the Council the following concern the people
in general: A stand in favor of religious instruction
of school children. Declared that the
Council is the proper organisation for co-operative
home mission activity. Resolved to ask
that the United States government to recognize
the republic of China. Determined to make an
'fTort to close the Panama-Pacific exposition on
ounaay. indorsed a universal Saturday halfholiday.
Called for full financial annual statement
from temperance bodies seeking support
Trom constituent churches.
Philologists tell us that the word "bigot" is of
uncertain origin, so we are left guessing as to
its etymological genealogy. For the sake of
convenience and to point a moral we will venture
the guess that it is an offshoot from the old
''eltic word "big." A bigot might then be de'inrv
J ?- % " * *
I *i*rcu as one who glories in bigness and is intolerant
of any thing that has a tendency to
place a limit on bulk. Quality doesn't count if
it interferes with dimensions! Wood, hay and
stubble?most anything will do if it promises to
increase visible magnitudes. With the bigot,
"Tiet both grow together until the harvest" Is a
favorite text, but "An enemy hath done this"
is out of date. Talk about destinctive principles
is like a blast from Alaskan irlaeiers- he will
nemo of it. The Church grows mo*t and best
that gets its fence around the greatest number
of rational beings. But the ideal of the bigot is
to get all the Churches in one inclosure and not
a word about sound doctrine. The variety of
bigots ranges from the one, here described, on
Mown to tlio advocate of omnibus nnion on the
hasis. of the "historic episcopate,"
PR1IBYT1KI1N OF THI 8(
Votes and
THE MIRACLE.
The claims of modern miracle workers have
(tone much to discredit the whole matter of the
miracle. The absurdity of these claims has
caused men to look askance at those which have
a real warrant. It will be helpful to thoughtful
men to go over the purpose for which the Bible
miracles were presented, and to see their reasonableness.
The miracles of the Bible have sometimes been
called "parables in action." Is it right to hold
to this interpretation of them? That they have
a didactic bearing in many cases is undoubtedly
true. That the Saviour himself used them someaa
nKiont-loKuino (mm WV.n* |V>!? V./....
uvjvuvhajw/uo 10 n uv. x iint in i^j iivn*
over, was their primary end, or that they may
justly be called "parables" in any sense, is a
different thing. A parable, as shown clearly in
every case in which one was used, was the teaching
of a truth in a higher sphere by the analogy
drawn from the actual or possible in a lower
sphere. This definition distinguishes the parable
from the allegory, which teaches a spiritual or
moral truth by an illustration drawn from investing
the abstract with the qualities of the
concrete and by personalizing of ideas. Tt distinguishes
it also from the fable, which teaches
higher truth by fictitious relations, such as the
investing of a lower order of life with the qualities
and a+tribntes of a higher. Tt also exclude?
the miracles as designed for parabolic purposes.
Incidentally, and onlv incidentally, the miracles
am ifn Ka vnflrar/)n/1 oa ^noifrnnrl f/\ i-ne4min
?** kv ?*v lUfSd'i UO u\ OIS.UVU IV/ liiij'ni i lunti littion.
They had a narrower and in some sense a
higher purpose.
The miracles, again, were not intended, primarily,
to relieve distress and bring comfort
and relief. This, too, came with them, but only
incidentally. In almost every case they brought
comfort, they had a beneficiary or beneficiaries,
and they attracted other sufferers to the miracleworker.
Some interpreters have further developed
this idea and maintained that the miracles
were a species of advertisement, by means of
which the Lord drew to himself a mass of hearers
to whom he then preached the gospel of the
kingdom.
Their chief end, as the careful student will
find, and in many cases their only end, was
evidential. They were designed to attest and
confirm. They were "signs." As a man's signature
makes good or warrants that to which it
is attached, so these miracles were the divine
signature, the hand-writing of God himself
which none could imitate or reproduce, attached
to the claim of Christ to be the Messiah and
Mediator. They were the credentials of his amU
J L * i_t_ i. ? a.1 a _ ...L 1
uasHuuurNinp, cue warrant lor uujse 10 wiiuni ne
came to accept and believe on him. If men mayimitate
the divine handwriting, then there can
he no certainty of the attestation! Hence the
logical need that miracles wrought by men today
be repudiated. The usual term for the miracles
in the New Testament writings was "signs," a
term which our Lord himself almost invariably
used. "It is a pity that the word "miracle" has
been used to translate the Greek "semeion," or
sign.
"When a document or a claim in properly verified,
by the needful and adequate signature,
duly accredited, the occasion for renewed signing
of it has passed. Repeated signings are no
longer felt, to be needful. The repetition of them
does not confirm any more. Hence, after the
authentication of Christ's claim and the proof
of his message, the Holy Scriptures, this method
of proof passed away Miracles, in the biblical
sense, came to an end. Hei.ce, again, the claim
)UTH . ~ 9
Comment
of miracle-working in later ages lacks the sub
stantial warrant of the normal purpose of the
miracle. The pretended miracles of modern
times are at best nothing more than "wondrous"
deeds. Christ himself never wrought a single
miracle for the purpose of exeiting wonder or
admiration or of gratifying the curiosity of
men. So far from this, he positively declined to
perform any wondrous work when these were
the motives that actuated the applicant.
GREETING THE STRANGERS.
The opportunity has been given us somewhat
frequently of late to observe a change which has
occurred. A few years ago it was the rule in
many churches for the minister to make a dash
for the front door, at the end of each service, to
speak to the strangers before the latter passed
out of the church. It was sometimes a ludicrous
sight. Strangers as a class are not as much bent
upon being spoken to as the pastor is bent upon
speaking to them. The result was often a race,
the minister and the stranger seeing who could
reach the door first, the one to intercept, the
other to escape.
The change which has become noticeable is
that new methods of welcoming the stranger have
been introduced. As a rule they are now quietly
approached by some of the members and are
either invited by the latter to remain until the
pastor has time to speak to them, or are held in
pleasant greetings and conversation until
lie can come, or are taken forward to
the pulpit end of the church and presented
to the pastor. These methods are very
much more dignified than the former way, and
are far more effective. And the beauty of them
is that they are entirely practicable. In every
church there may be a "welcoming committee."
m?mW nf ? ? V- -3
?- \ji 1,111.1 vuiumibicc uinj' ue xiuiue responsible
for a certain number or block of pews.
All those who are habitually present or that are
members ??l the church or congregation, anil to
some dxcc.it those related to them who sometimes
come to the church, who occupy a given
block should b?, well known to the committeeman
looking after that block. Newcomers and
strangers can then be easily recognized and
pleasantly approached. They can be introduced
to others immediately around them. The block
should be small enough to enable its supervisor
to know its usual occupants thoroughly and to
be able instantly to see a newcomer. Some one
from the rear of the block itself, or who will be
willing to take a rear seat in it should ho in
charge. Tie should see that each stranger who
is there is properly greeted and that he is introduced
quietly a little later to the pastor. The
advantage of this method is two-fold. It will
both accomplish, and effectively, the end of the
pastor's effort to meet the stranger, and it will
give many people in the church something
tangible to do.
The church is not a social club, yet it has its
social duties. It is its business to make a home
for the stranger or newcomer. Most of this class
are sensitive and backward. The conditions
which forced their change of home are in many
cases unhappy, increasing their disinclination
to do anything that will appear to be forcing of
themselves upon others. Because they are not
tactfully met and greeted, many are unfortunntely
lost to the church. A wise mothod will
win them and attach them .strongly to the church
where they have received the kind welcome and
introduction.
The most beautiful of all lives is the life of
Christian service.