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February 12, 1/J13J THE i
ainncr lauglus about sin, jests about sin, lor
"Fools make a mock at sin." Prov. 14:9.
in the strict and absolute sense, "There is not
a just mail upon earth that Joctk good and siuneth
not." Feel. 7:20. The vital ditVcrcuce between
the saint and the sinner is, that one is a
sinner saved by grace; and the other is a lost
sinner out of grace.
While period holiness of heart and life is the
goal towards which we are to press, it would be
an exceedingly misleading and dangerous thing
lor any one of us to imagine that we had attained
to a state ot perfect sinlcssucss.
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves."
1 John 1 :S.
It is only at death that the souls of believers
shall be made perfect iu holiness as they pass
jiuo giory.
llntd that translation moment the humbhv
inimled child of Clod is to maintain a daily struggle
against "the world, the Hesli and the devil."
And in thus doing will lie have the comforting
hope and assurance that he "has not sinned
away his day of grace."
For: "lie that ondureth to the end shall be
saved." And Clod will keep His word.
MoJittromcrv \V. V;i
WHOSOEVER HATH NOT.
An apparent contradiction appears in the
proverbial expression, ' Whosoever liath not,
from him shall he taken away even that he
hath." This proverb is used by Jesus in connection
with the parables of the sower and ol'
the talents.
For illustration we might ask the question,
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xiu\> can a uunar ue lauen away irorn a person
who has not a dollar ?"
This saying refers to two things in caeh of
the parables which were spoken by Jesus. In
the parable of the sower there are the ground
and the seed, and we might apply the proverb
thus: Whosoever hath not (good ground), from
liim shall be iakcn away even (the seed) that
lie 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 lie hath."
Spiritually we may say: "Whosoever hath not
ta productive Heart;, from liim shall be taken
away even (the Word of God), that lie hath (at
his disposal), or "whosoever hath not (productiveness),
from him shall be taken away even
(the gospel opportunities) that he hath (at his
disposal).
Some verses of Scripture ar?e very puzzling in
themselves; but taken in their full connection
mm iiic cuuii'ai, mey appear 10 uc cioar.
All men, good and bad, have gv pel opportunities,
but not all men arc fruitful in the use of
these opportunities, and hence these opportunities
become lo9t to them and are given 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 hept 9tirring 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 eases the
fanners had corn at the beginning of the season;
but when the harvest came, only those had an
A| ~ ?1. - 1 * '1- ' *
ui'iuiumii cjmi crop who Kepi uic iau?.l pood.
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
wilh, because they fell short in corn.
Sharps, Va. T. D. W.
'KESBYlEHiAN OF THE S
Vf /VM y
A ? COl/^lC I fUlliOH < U/ll
by key. n
Uur theme has tu do witn liiat system oi cducatiou
whose dill'creutiating mark is indicated b\
the word Christian. \\ iierever tliut word ha.gone
it has brought about a complete rcvolutiot
111 educational systems, not so much 111 methods
as m the aim ami matter ot' instruction. We rent
oi ci\ilizations before tlie Christian eia. Whei
Abraham left Chaldea and entered Egypt, but!
countries had their libraries and wise men. Mos
es was educated at the University oi Thebes, liui
at ijinai this distinguished alumnus, who hat
risen to be the leader oi a nation ol people, had i
post-graduate course under another iustructoi
w ho impaited to him a wisdom not ol this world
Under tins instruction he wrote a text book u
be studied by nations yet unborn. This bool
taught, especially, history and philosophy. A:
history, it ua\e a reasonable account of tin m-itrii
w. - " -O*
oi' the eaith and of man, ol the diversity of lau
guage, of disease and death of a paradise lost
As philosophy, it dissipated the old mytliologi
eal ideas of the deity, and rising above the puer
lie anthropomorphic notions, declared (Jod to b<
a "Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, ie
his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, good
ness, and truth", it solved the problem of sin
distinguishing moral from physical evil; re
vealed the duality of man's nature; and told of ?
paradise to be,?1 was about to say?regained
but should say, gained; for it is more gloriou:
than the lirst and is permanent. Now after tin
unaided human intellect had made, perhaps, tin
greatest ellort of its history, only to learn thu
the world by searching cannot liud out (Jod, am
had recoiled upon itself in its iinpoteney, then
was a babe born in Bethlehem of J udea. Dr
11 reed points out very strikingly the world's de
.-pair at tiie time of the advent of the Savior
Though it was the age of the Casars, when th
spell of Rome's power was felt in three continent;
and was the "Golden Age" of Roman literature
yet it was an empire built upon force, and irrcv
crence and scepticism were the rule in matters re
ligious. This mighty empire hud gathered with
in its bosom all the religions and all the learniiij
^r K..? i?i t 1 !. *>< ' *
<ji lih: nunu, uui nau iuuuu ii an vanity CI vani
tics". So when l'aul stood in the midst of Mar'
Hill, his hearers seeined glad to hear this "set
tor forth of strange Gods", until he came to th
question of the resurrection, on which subjec
they had lost all taith.
CHARACTER MAKER.
Christian education, then, means educa
tion whose end is to make character, t<
sensitize the conscience, to give to men am
women a true philosophy of life, a proper con
ception of the chief end of man. Christian edu
cation teaches the facts of history, but so collate
those facts as to indicate a correct philosophy o
history which calls attention to the stately step
pings of the Almighty in the affairs of nations
and repudiates the theory that the Thcistic con
ceptions of the .lews and of the Christians wcr
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-lor
become stereotyped. Christian education re
r.::u. <1.. -c ? * ?
i:ci?i-o 111 gui>u iuuii nit: jucis Ul llll' .SCIPIHISI, L)ll
when lie enters the realm of theory and begins t
set forth the maudlin sentiment of the Deity a
a weakling, he is met with the facts of revelation
Christian education adopts the Bible as a tex
hook, cither for class-room use or for reference.
rntsnvTERiAKisxr.
So much for a definition of Christian educa
tion. Wc come next to the subject of Prcshj
terianism. When we make use of that term w
think of three things,?creed, polity, and wor
O I) T H (l'Z3) 3
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E. FULTON.
ship. There arc other evangelical bodies which
iiolii in common with Presbyterians what is
> Known as the Calvinistic Theology, but in point
i of church ijovcrnmcnt they ill her iroin the pre,
latieal form on the one hand, the rule of a few;
' ami the congregational form on the ether, which
1 is pure deniociacy; and hold 10 the Presbyterian
1 t'umi, rule by Presbyters 01 elders, representative
ur repubiieun government; according to this
i the people govern through representatives of their
I own choosing. In point of worship, real l'resbyteriauisin
is distinguished tor the absence of elaborate
ritual and gives most prominence to the in?truction
of the people in the knowledge of the
Hible.
Now we are of those who hold that the Apostolic
church was Presbyterian. The model wao
1 1... ? 1 41, m * 1 mi..
uic to* ua^ug uc laiiici inuu ilie* iciupiu. i nt;
former liud no priest, 110 altar; but a l?ody of
elders, rulers of the synagogue, the president or
chairman of whom was the "chief ruler." In the
New Testament we read of Tresl>yters or elders,
and of the 4"laying on of the hands of the Presbytery."
We are told by Pliny the Younger 111
Ins letters to the Emperor Trajan, that the wor'
ship of the early church was very simple. Put
when the example ami counsel of the apostles no
longer directed the policy of the church, she apos'
tatized more and more, except for a few isolated
s 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 mediacvalism. The individual was
ohspiirntl 110 u-na nnnrl?f 1/xrvLr 4-1?
wv. , ..v .. uu lUUj.ll I, %.KJ 1UUIV IV UiUUlt'l
?
church" to do his thinking lor 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 a Hairs of the church,
theirs only to obey. 2. The pope superior to a
B council, o. The pope's sole richt to internret the
Scriptures. Luther set himself to the demolition
s of these walls: and the work which he began was
carried on, systematized, and completed by Cale
vin. Luther translated the Bible into German:
t
Calvin wrote the "Institutes of Religion", in
which work the creed, the polity, and the worship
of the primitive church was reintroduced to Europe.
What was the result? Thrones tottered.
3 tyrants fell, democracy grew apace. The indi\
vidual .was emphasized again; "every man was
brought to examine at first hand the only rule
[. given to direct us how we may glorify and ens
joy God. Men learned the fact expressed by
f Andrew Melville, who said, "there are two kings
i- in Scotland, King James and King'Jesus". And
i James knew that Prcsbvterianism uind nhsnln
\
I- tism do not harmonize, for lie remarked that a
e Presbytery agreeth with monarchy as God with
e the devil.
e :?.ducat:on op the masses.
e Prcsbytcrianism stands for the education of
the masses. Wherever its ideals are carried out
t the people are enlightened. We recognize at least
? three educational factors?the pulpit, the press,
9 and the school. We have already indicated that
i- Presbyterianism's conception of the pulpit is that
t it exists for the instruction of the nennle Tn ilm
Middle Ages we hear the voice of Roger Bacon,
pronounced by some the greatest of the Schoolmen,
complaining that the preaching of his day
consisted of school-bov treatises on Aristotle ine
stead of teaching the Bible in the vernacular. An, ,
(Continued on page 11.)