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February 12, lifltf J THE P
dinner laughs about sin, jests about sin, lor
" Pools make a mock at sin." Prov. 14:9. i
in the strict and absolute sense, u There is not
a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinueth
not." Ecel. 7 :20. The vital difference be
tween the saint atnl the sinner is, that one is a (
sinner saved by grace; and the other is a lost .
sinner out of grace. i
While perfect lioliness of heart and life is the
goal towards which we are to press, it would be ,
an exceedingly misleading and dangerous thing ,
for any one of us to imagine that we had attained
to a state of perfect sinlessncss. ,
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive our- (
selves." 1 John 1:8. j
It is only at death that the souls of believers
shall be made perfect in holiness as they pass
into glory.
Uutii that translation moment the humbleminded
child of (Jod is to maintain a daily struggle
against "the world, the flesh nnd the devil."
And ill thus doing will he have the comforting
Jiopc and assurance that he "has not sinned
away his day of grace."
For: "lie that endureth to the end shall be
saved." And God will keep Ilis worcL
Montgomery, VV. Va.
WHOSOEVER HATH NOT.
An apparent contradiction appears in the
proverbial expression, " Whosoever hath not,
from him shall be tuken away even that he
hath." This proverb is used by Jesus in connection
with the parables of the sower and of
the talents.
For illustration wo might ask the question,
?< IT - J ~ 11 I-_ x _ I ' a
xauw can u uunar ue ias.cn a way xrom a person
who has not a dollar?"
This saying rei'ers to two things in each of
the x>arablcs which were spoken by Jesus. In
the parable of the sower there are the ground
und the seed, and we might apply the proverb
thus: Whosoever hath not (good ground), from
him shall be taken away even (the seed) that
he hath;" and in the parable of the talents we
might make the following explanation: "Whosoever
hath not (a market), from him shall be
taken away even (the talents) that he hath."
Spiritually we may say: "Whosoever hath not
(a productive heart), from him shall be taken
away even (the Word of (Jod), that he hath (at
his disposal), or "whosoever hath not (productiveness),
from him shall be taken away even
(the gospel opportunities) that he hath (at Ins
disposal).
Some verses of Scripture ar? very puzzling in
themselves; but taken in their full connection
with the contest, they appear to be clear.
All men, good and bad, have gjfcpcl opportunities,
but not all men arc fruitful in the use of
these opportunities, and hence these opportunities
become lost to them and are iriven to others
who will make good use of them. Over a year
ago, the farmers planted corn in the State of
Kansas, but a severe drouth visited the State
during the summer. Some of the farmers became
discouraged and allowed their corn to dry up in
the fields, while other farmers kept stirring up
the soil with their cultivators and thus kept the
moisture in the ground. The discouraged farmers
lost their crop while the busy tillers of the
soil reaped an abundant harvest and received
good prices for their corn. In both cases the
farmers had corn at the beginning of the season;
but when the harvest came, only those had an
_ i i a a a * ?a a a a
aouuaam corn crop wno Kept inc tana pooa.
Those who had a productive soil, to them was
given corn, and they had more abundance; but
those who had not a productive soil, from them
was taken away even that which they had started
with, because they fell short in corn.
Sharps, Va. T. D. W.
&EBBYTE&1AN OF THE 8 C
Presbyterianism and
BY REV. B.
Mnr liao rl rv wr if U Aknf ?? *wl?%
VU1 buvuiv uuo bU UU Willi UJUl OJOkCUi U1 L'U u~
nation whose differentiating mark is indicated by
the word Christian. Wherever that word has
gone it has brought about a complete revolution
in educational systems, not so much in methods,
as in the aim and matter of instruction. We read
of civilizations before the Christian era. When
Abraham left Clialdea and entered Egypt, both
countries had their libraries and wise men. Moses
was educated at the University of Thebes. But
at ISinai this distinguished alumnus, who had
risen to be the leader of a nation of people, had a
post-graduate course under another instructor
who imparted to him a wisdom not of this world.
Under this instruction he wrote a text hook to
be studied by nations jet uuburu. This bouk
taught, especially, history and philosophy. As
history, it gave a reasonable account of the origin
of the eaith and of man, of the diversity of language,
of disease and death, of a paradise lost
As philosophy, it dissipated the old mythological
ideas of the deity, and rising above the puerile
anthropomorphic notions, declared God to be
a "Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in
his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness,
and truth". It solved the problem of sin,
distinguishing moral from physical evil; revealed
the duality of man's nature; and told of a
paradise to be,?I was about to say?regained,
but should say, gained; for it is more glorious
than the first and is permanent Now after the
unaided human intellect had made, perhaps, the
greatest effort of its history, only to learn that
the world by searching cannot find out God, and
had recoiled upon itself in its impotcncy, there
was a babe born in Bethlehem of Judea. Dr.
Breed points out very strikingly the world's despair
at the time of the advent of the Savior.
Though it was the age of the Caesars, when the
spell of Rome's power was felt in three continents
and was the "Golden Age" of Roman literature;
yet it was an empire built upon force, and irreverence
and scepticism were the rule in matters religious.
This mighty empire had gathered within
its bosom all the religions and all the learning
of the world, but had found it all "vanity of vanities".
So when Paul stood in the midst of Mar's
Hill, his hearers seemed glad to hear this "setter
forth of strange Gods", until he came to the
question of the resurrection, on which subject
they liad lost all taith.
CHARACTER MAKER.
Christian education, then, means education
whose end is to make character, to
sensitize the conscience, to give to men and
women a true philosophy of life, a proper conception
of the chief end of man. Christian education
teaches the facts of history, but so collates
those facts as to indicate a correct philosophy oi
history which calls attention to the stately stoppings
of the Almighty in the affairs of nations
ana repuuiaies me cneory mac cne Tiieisuc conceptions
of the Jews and of the Christians wen
merely the result of the evolution of ideas of th<
peoples of history, and that the facts of the Bibl<
which involve the supernatural are only folk-Ion
become stereotyped. Christian education receives
in good faith the facts of the scientist, but
when he enters the realm of theory and begins t<
set forth the maudlin sentiment of the Deity ai
a weakliner. he is met with the facts of revelation
Christian education adopts the Bible as a tex
book, either for class-room use or for reference.
' ntESriYTERIANISM.
So much for a definition of Christian educa
tion. We come next to the subject of Presby
terianism. When we make use of that term w<
think of three things,?creed, polity, and wor
) U IB (123) 3
' Christian Education
.? 1
E. FULTON.
ship. There are other evaugelical bodies which
hold in common with Presbyterians what is
Known as the Calvinistic Theology, but in point
of church government they dilfer from the pre
latical form 011 the one hand, the rule of a few;
and the congregational form on the other, which
is pure democracy; and hold to the Presbyterian
form, rule by Presbyters or elders, representative
or republican government; according to this
the people govern through representatives of their
own choosing. In point of worship, real Presbyterianism
is distinguished for the absence of elaborate
ritual and gives most prominence to the instruction
of the people in the knowledge of the
Bible.
Now we are of those who hold that the Apostolic
church was Presbyterian. The model was
the Synagogue rather than the temple. The
former had no priest, no altar; but a body of
elders, rulers of the synagogue, the president or
chairman of whom was the "chief ruler." In the
New Testament we read of Presbyters or elders,
and of the "laying on of the hands of the Presbytery."
We are told by Pliny the Younger in
his letters to the Emperor Trajan, that the worship
of the early church was very simple. But
when the example and counsel of the apostles no
longer directed the policy of the church, she apostatized
more and more, except for a few isolated
sects here and there, from her primitive purity.
A hierarchy was evolved which presently became
an ecclesiastical tyranny. The papacy of today
is a relic of inediaevalism. The individual was
obscured; he was taught to look to "mother
church" to do his thinking for him and to trust
his case implicitly to her. It was an age of ignorance
and moral darkness. But in the fifteenth
century a miner's son began battering away at
the walls behind which the apostate institution
was intrenched. And we should note what those
walls were as indicated by Luther. 1. The clergy
a separate class: that is, the exclusion of the laity
from all participation in the affairs of the church,
theirs only to obey. 2. The pope superior to a
council. 2. The pope's sole right to interpret the
Scriptures. Luther set himself to the demolition
of these walls; and the work which he began was
carried on, systematized, and completed by Calvin.
Luther translated the Bible into German;
Calvin wrote the "Institutes of Religion", in
which work the creed, the polity, and the worship
of the primitive church was reintroduced to Eu- '
WV.-4- 4.1 1. ml 1 " ?
! uat nan me ICSUHf A III"OnCS lOTiereO,
tyrants fell, democracy grew apace. The individual
iwas emphasized again; "every man was
brought to examine at first hand the only rule
given to direct us how we may glorify and en
j joy God. Men learned the fact expressed by
I Andrew Melville, who said, "there are two kings
in Scotland, King James and Kingi Jesus". And
t James knew that Presbyterianisin \and absolu.
tism do not harmonize, for he remarked that a
> rresoytery agreeth with monarchy aa GoJ with
? the devil.
5 EDUCATION OF THE MASSES.
i , Prcsbytorianism stands for the education of
the masses. Wherever its ideals arc carried out
?
' the people arc enlightened. We recognize at least
> three educational factors?tho pulpit, the press,
' and the school. We have already indicated that
TV U..A???- * -
- - i icbujici iam?iii 8 conception ot the pulpit is that
t it exists for the instruction of the people. In the
Middle Ages we hear the voice of Roger Bacon,
pronounced by some the greatest of the School.
men, complaining that the preaching of his day
consisted of school-boy treatises on Aristotle in;
stead of teaching the Bible in the vernacular. An,. ,
(Continued on page 11.)