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August 11, 1915] THE
(iiul out about them. They speak for themselves
even across the continent. If they want
a line appearance, a pleasant tone of voice, a
magnetic manner, they must see and hear the
man for themselves.
Then the church can learn much ahnnt. a
nian from other men. No man .jan hide his
liirlit under a bushel. The wortd will know
wliat sort of light he has. Friends, and even
em-mies, may be induced to tell tbe truth about
;t man, and the truth is all that a church wants.
A minister can find out much about a church.
lis i-iHiracierisufs and opporiunuies arc an
open book to the other ministers in the Presbytery.
Then, after all has been done, if the church
is unwilling to commit itself to an emphatic
riilI, the committee might give the minister a
tentative call subject to a mutual liking of
each other.
The minister might come without the baiter
ivin of being a candidate choking him all the
w liile.
The church might not have to be comparing
this man with that man, weighing qualities,
which, after all. mav be onlv snnerfioinl nml
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doing tlmt which so many people do not want
to do, namely, making up their mind.
And so a mutual understanding might be entered
into.
However, if churches were not so hard to
please, and ministers so hard to suit, perhaps
we would have less difficulty.
A. A. L.
AT DAMASCUS GATE.
From the story of the conversion of Said of
Tarsus there are several interesting thoughts
that are worth a little consideration. The wartare
Christ wages against the powers of evil
is unique in several particulars.
First, it is always aggressive. In the great
battlefields of Europe, armies are changing
continually. One day one is on the offensive,
the next, on the defensive, and so it goes
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There was a time when it looked like Christ was
on the defensive; that awful night of trial,
win 11 he was led from Gethsemane to the Sauliedrin,
then to Pilate, then to Ilerod, and to
Pilate again. The record of the various trials
is not very extensive, but brief as it is, no one
ran read it carefully without being forced to
die conclusion that in reality the prisoner was
die .Judge, and the judges were on trial.
Christians have been forced to play the role
of defendants often in earthly courts. But with
diem as with their Master, their persecutors
felt in their own hearts that they were at the
disadvantage. It is of the genius of Christianity
to he aggressive. It must go out into
hostile, or indifferent territory and compel a
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0, iuicu a n uusxurmaiioii. IVieil Will
not come to it. They will flee from it. They
will persecute it. They will defame it. But
it must keep right on until it breaks all opposition
down and becomes master of the heart
ami life.
Then, Christ's army is composed entirely
?f captives taken from the ranks of the enemy.
' here are thousands of prisoners held by all
t'm nations now at war. But these nations
Would not dare place their prisoners in the
hat tie line to fight against their old comrades
"i arms, and their old commanders. Yet this
ls precisely what Christ does. He began his
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m??<--?t ui me wona witn twelve men, whom
called out of the old life, and he sent them
i?!'th to disciple, that is, to capture all nations.
' heir successors in the work of world evan?('lization,
do the same thing. No general in
"" the history of mankind ever undertook such
a ,ask. It is one thing to break down the power
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE S(
of opposition and scatter its forces; it is a very
different tiling to dissipate the enemy by winning
him.
Then again, and more remarkable still, these
prisoners are not forced to light their old com
rades against their will. They willingly, even
joyfully, throw themselves into the very heart
of the conflict. They can be trusted not to go
over to the enemy. Christ's conquest is a complete
one; the intellect, the affections, and the
will are all brought under subjection. The new
recruit delivers himself over body, soul and
spirit. lie is not his own, and he rejoices that
he is not. It is his happiness to glorify God
in liis body and his spirit which are God's.
And still again, the weapon is peculiar. In
the story of Saul's conversion we are told that
suddenly there shone round about him a great
light from heaven, and he fell to the ground.
The weapon Jesus Christ used to subdue the
heart of Saul of Tarsus was Light, lie might
have sent a legion of angels and have compelled
him to turn from his awful mission,
lie might have terrified him by an earthquake,
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these would have accomplished the purpose
of causing Saul to desist. But none of them
would have accomplished all that was needed
in the circumstances.
Light is the weapon God still uses. The Chief
Captain says 01 himself, "I am the light of
the world." The prayer of his servant is,
"Send out thy light and thy truth." The
psalmist says, "Thy word is a lamp unto my
ieet, aim a HgHt unto my path." Paul says,
"Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God," and Peter says, "We are born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever." The word of God is the
weapon of world conquest, and it is light and
truth. No other weapon can conquer sinful
hearts.
All the evil in the world to-day is here because
men's hearts are darkened. "Men love
darkness rather than light, because their deeds
are evil." There are many forces at work
to-day in the world, and they are producing
wonderful changes in the status of men. Commerce
is a mighty agent in the production of
a hunger after better things. Education is
setting minds free and enriching the world
with new ideas. Travel is rendering some service
in the same general direction. These and
other agencies may go a long way in softening
the hardness of pagan hearts; in clothing their
bodies, and developing their minds. But the
only thing that can make disciples of Christ
out of them is the light of truth. And unless
they are transformed into disciples nothing else
matters much.
He who said, "I am the light of the world."
said also, "Ye are the light of the world."
Light begets light. The light must be carried
into the darkness that the darkness may be
driven out. That is our task. May God help
us discharge it. Bert.
Contributed
THE PASTOR AS TEACHER.
Every institution depends for its continued
efficiency upon its faith in principle and practice
to its peculiar character. The Church,
being spiritual, owes its efficiency and continued
existence to its truth, to its spiritual character
and mission. This, too, is the measure
of her success?faith to her character. Moreover,
in the relation of her life and creed may *
be found the strength and weakness of the
) U T H. (541) 3
Presbyterian Church to-day. The only sure
apology for our creed is a living church, firm
in the assurance of salvation, convicted at once
of her high and holy calling, and of the depth
irom winch she is privileged to call men. We
glory in our interpretation of God's revealed
will and word as the most rational, but there
is also a corrollary of that fact which is as indisputable
as the fact. We cannot hope to sustain
Calvinism in part. If one point is conceded
or neglected, the syllogism collapses
and the message is incomplete. And further,
it admits of adverse, sophist deductions to
which the only complete answer is a living,
powerful Church, based upon that creed.
Whatever may be true of other systems of
doctrine, Calvinism as a creed and Presbyterianism
as a polity can only persevere, if it
endures as an unmodified entity in the lives
of a constituency committed thoroughly and
entirely to its propositions. Shortly and directly,
the Presbyterian Church, to endure,
must be "Presbyterian" in the full sense of
the word, as to polity, ereed and constitu
cncy.
To prove this from existing conditions is
too lamentably easy. It may safely be said
that the greatest proportion of the problems
confronting our ministry to-day are symptoms
of the "unpresbyterianism" of the Church.
Data lies on every hand. Ministers who hesitate
io offer the undiluted teaching of the
Church are not rare. In many of our protracted
meetings methods, the origin of which
is found in the borrowed tradition of other
churches rather than in apostolic precedent,
continue to multiply. Many of our members,
not to say officers, yes, elders, neglect the sealilior
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point a perusal of the statistical resume of our
Church since the year 1870, recently published
in our periodicals, will prove enlightening.
In the Department of Religious Instruction,
also, the sessional duty of careful
oversight is too often a mere formality. The
result is that in our Sabbath schools, from a
scriptural and ecclesiastical standpoint, the
blind permit the blind to lead the blind.
Happily, however, the symptoms would seem
to speak. When pastors find their young men
haps, we may, rather arbitrarily, divide the
danger spots into "old and young zones," so
to speak. When pastors find their young men
and women members, except for a few favored
uuca, ciuuci^ jguuruiii 01 xne principles ot our
Church, and, therefore, unable and uninclined
to defend them, and as uninformed as to the
sacred mysteries of the life of the way, then,
patently, we have failed somewhere. Likewise
is it not true that our adult constituency
in many localities is wofully uninformed in
the principles of our faith and walk? Facts
are uncomioriaoie tilings, and easier to avoid
than to face. The facts, to mention only a few
of the most outstanding ones, are: That Presbyterian
homes are not what they once were;
that "old-fashioned Presbyterians" are precious
to pastors for obvious reasons; that thorough
instruction in Symbolics, before or after
admission to communion is the exception
rather than the rule; that catechetical preaching
is eschewed; in short, that we are not what
we were and still claim to be. If this appears
too pessimistic a view to subscribe to, the experience
of our schools of the prophets may
add a bit of corroborative evidence. Do not
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w,.i ..nnuctuiD iinu i luit eacu succeeding class
of Samuels is just a little less familiar with
the Scriptures and less grounded in the Calvinistic
Faith?
Another illuminating fact is the scarcely
mentionable increase in infant baptism since
the founding of our Church, although in mem