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10 (22G) TBE I
the Roman Hierarchy is taken more into consideration
than the preaching of the whole truth.
You will hear (I myself have been witness hundreds
of times), "What you have to say is true,
but you cannot say it here. Oh, in my congregation
there are so many intermarried with
m. ..... ? _c u?
vaiiiuii^. vsii, 11 ran j ui Ult* uit'lUUVlT) UI lll%>
church have Catholic customers or Catholic
partners, and they will resent the issue and you
will get me in trouble." Oh, it is pitiful to
have to say it, but it is true: In many Protestant
American pulpits, Luther could not preach today
because he was too plain-spoken about the
abuses of Romanism: Calvin would be excluded
from many Presbyterian pulpits because he was
too radical; Knox would be shocking because
he was too bitter against relics and Purgatory
even Paul would be warned by many of our
easy-going sessions and pastors to soften liis
language and his teaching.
r? a. i x
r>reiiiren. 1 am a man wno is ratuer inclined
to optimism than pessimism. I am a man who
rejoices with all his heart in being a Protestant;
who expects to live and die in the Protestant
faith; who has faith in the future of Protestantism
: but the more I study the problem, the more
do I fear that the organized American Churches
(if they do not follow soon the policy of true
reformers) are bound to be swept away by Ro
manism. It is said, and it is true, that every
people gets in the long run the government it
deserves; and what a silent Protestantism deserves,
a Protestantism which does not protest,
is to be crushed and laughed to scorn by Romanism."
M.
OUR CHURCH'S DOCTRINE.
There are several points of doctrine which
should have a place in any new statement that
the Chnreh may put forth.. The claim that more
emphasis should he laid upon the subject of the
Spirit's work seems hardly justified. Our present
standards may not devote many paragraphs
to it, but they lay the most decided emphasis
upon various phases of the doctrine of the Holy
Spirit. notablv in their treatment /%f Chriut'*
conception, the prophetic office of Christ, effectual
calling, the reading and preaching of the
word, and other topics. The love of God, too,
which many think is not sufficiently emphasized.
5b there, running through every topic, almost.
Possibly a specific statement of that aspect of
it which refers to the offer of salvation to all
men might be a good addition. The nature and
duty of the Church might have a little more full
expression. The credal statements at present do
not unfold the matter at length, it being left
to the Book of Chnreh Order to do this. The
gr^at missionary duty of the Church, its evan
gelistie work and end, might he brought out
into fuller light, to make our statement agree
with our belief and aetivity. No other theme
which should be fully unfolded is the relation
of the believer to Christian service and activity,
the principles underlying the good works of
those who have faith.
Practically all these matters are involved in
our present crcdal statements. They are not
brought out, however, with that emphasis which
is given to them in the advancing of the church
militant towards her triumphant state. And especially
just now there might be added, as is
already found in the Book of Chnrch Order,
some fuller though brief statements of the rela^
tion of the evangelical denominations to each
other in the one true and catholic chnrch. The
attitude of our own body to others in this respect
is most happv and is a source of strength
to US It. will dr? orr>rut if\ hrin?? i* nnt in ftlnoMr
terms.
It is a question with some whether in any
further statements of our Church's faith we
should {five, in as brief form as possible. (1) the
whole round of tfujolopieal truth, or (2) only
so much as may l?e common to the sisterhood
of evangelical Churches, or (3) so much as moy
he purely our distinctive doctrines. If it is the
Church's desire to teach and maintain the pro
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
the end be purely irenic and to find common
ground on which to stand with all other true
believers, the second should be sought. If the
purpose be to set ourselves right in the minds
of gainsay ers ami critics, and before those who
iho latter would mislead or prejudice against
us. then the third course should be honored.
Tt is our hope that the first may be followed,
to the ond that the points named above as needing
added emphasis my find plaee, and for the
further reason that it ean be made to embrace
the irer.ic and explanatory purpose of the other
plans.
JUST OVER THE LINE.
TTow many Christians are satisfied to be "just
over the line." Nh doubt they are really Chris
tians. They have a conception of Christ, a desire
to he saved, some glimmerings of faith.
It will not do to say they are unconverted.
Hut they are satisfied to pitch their tents toward
Sodom, and live in sight of the world of evil.
Men are satisfied to be weak Christians; to
live on low plains of spirituality .: to eat the
crumbs that fall instead of sitting at the table.
Instead of a militant stride forward, they are
content to "mark time." Instead of buoyant,
robust health, they are pleased to he in the hospital
of the army of the Lord.
Instead of the robe and shoos and ring and
fatted calf, and forgiveness and renewed service,
they are pleased to look in the windows. How
many thousands in our churches are entirely
satisfied to he "nominal Christians."
It is the place of danger.
The border line of Texas and Mexico is the
danger zone just now. The powers of the Mexican
government and of the United States do
not sweep out to their borders.
T _ a r.n at., i j. _ e rii. _j i i -i
ljoi it-ii uiw? tut* ii?iihijs im \^n?*ueri?icjmer. wiuie
Abram up on the height was safe enough
The po?int where fever leaves us, -when we are
just over the line of disease, is the danger point
Then the fatal eedlapse may come. The low
places are the places where the disease germs
sink?whc-e life is in most danger.
The Christian who is whole-souled, and pressing
forward, may he lonely enough, but he will
escape many temptations "lie that walkeih
uprightly walketh safely." The safe margin
is the margin of safety.
Tt is the place of weakness.
No man gets strong bv standing still. Exer
eise 5s as necessary as food. The more. we do
the fnrther we are carried away from the danger
line. The laws of spiritual strength are
just the same as the laws of physical.
Food, good food, enough and not too much.
Exercise in pure ntmosphore and the weakened
body will grow strong. Not by sitting down
in the neighborhood of the same deadly germs.
Not by breathing the same polluted atmosphere.
Vnf T>xr -fVin oomo ??i/1nlr?a?ao *?% ?%aUamm
? WV ./T VI?'. muuv Iiiviiu^cin^ ill 11UI II 111 jn'iauuo,
"Get away from the deleterious conditions," is
1he wise adviee of the physician.
The guilt of sin. the penalty of sin may be
removed in a moment. Even the power of sin
may be broken; but the consequences and habits
may remain, or at least the tendency may recur.
We ought to get entirely away from sin. If
God is willing to put them as far away as the
east is from the west, we ought to put ourselves
at least that far away from them.
Stavine in fhoir vif?initv monno omaVn&aa
Tt is the plaee of unhnppiness.
The Christian just over the line neither enjoys
the pleasures of sin for a aeason, nor the
joys of grace forever.
Onr enjoyment of anything depends upon
how much we ean "turn ourselves loose" in it.
11W far distracting things come into it We
have seen people who could enjoy nothing be
I U T H [Marah 12, 1913
enivse they could not forget something entiroly
opposed to it.
The Christian on the border land has enough
conscience to inject serious qualms into his
worldliness and too little conscience to make
him appreciate the delights of Zion's hill. He
is too much of a Christian to revel in the world's
sins, and not enough to glory in the joys of the
Chirstian life.
Ho is afraid to career across the pasture of
Satan and has shut himself out of the sweet
fields and still waters of God's pasture; so he
must content himself with a nibble on the road
fide. We never knew a half-way Chrstian to
be happy. Ha ran was not near so bleseed a
place as the hills of Canaan, nor was Terah the
splendid character that Abraham became.
It Is the place of uselessness.
Tie that is not with me is against me. The
borderland Christian is of precious little value
to the kingdom of God. The semi-neutral is
of little more value than the neutral.
The religion of Jesus Christ, if it is worth
anything is worth everything. The man who
tells, is the man who does not need to he told.
A thorough-going Christian gains the respect
of the worldling, and having that, he has a direct
approach to the man's heart.
It pays in useful service to be what men call
"narrow."
The out and out Christian who invests his
whole life in it is the nvan who lights the world
up. What the Church needs is more intensity,
before it secures the extensity. A. A. L.
SOMETHING NEW.
* The average of religious books "just from the
press" are occupied with ingenious phrase-making
and other novelties rather than with coherent
logical, authentic statements of truth. The authoritative,
learned and devout presentation of
vital principles such as were regarded not very
long ago as bulwarks of faith and enduring civilization
would scarcely be regarded favorably by
present-day publishers, simply because "they
would not sell." Our books must be snappy,
sententious, and more than all, novelty of some
kind is a prime requisite. Novelty of diction,
or thought, or theory, or faith or interpretation,
or all combined is a crowning virtue. So our
writers are in the race for the newest of the new
things under the sun. and truth mnot mUif ?.
_ IUMW uviUUUV IA/
the steam roller if it stands athwart the pathway
of invention, or more properly, of fabrication.
One instance has just come to our notice in
glancing at a volume entitled, "What Does Chrelianity
Mean," by W. II. P. Fause, D. D., president
of Brown University, in which we read,
"The virtue of veracity is a late arrival in
human history. It was not a prominent virtue
in ancient Israel, as witness the deception pracKv
A k??oU?? 3 1 ** %
x.j <>i/iau(uii nmi ?y jacoD. Tne tlutv of
truth-telh}ng is not included in the Hebrew
Decalogue, save in judicial cases, where falsehood
becomes 'false witness'."
Now this statement may not be entirely novel,
for Tom Paine or Renan may have borrowed
it from the ancients, and given it out as a novelty
in his day, but it has the merit of being
startling also, which goes a long way toward
making a book marketable, and helps a writer
materially in getting it printed. The world is
agog in pursuit of sensation. ,
The use of the word "witness," both as a
verb and as a noun, is by no means limited to
"judicial caseR." It is said
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"came for a witness that he might be a witness
of the light, that all might believe through him.'*
And our Lord said of his Father, "It is another
that beareth witness of me and I know that the
witness which he witnesseth of me is true." The
heaven-given commission to Paul was, "Thou