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DWELLING ON HEAVENLIES.
It is a question whether, under the prosper
ity of the Church and the absence of persecu
tion, we dwell enough on the glory that shall
be revealed in us. It was not so with the
fathers. They were face to face with a world
111 which the Church at least was persecuted in
a more or less polite kind of way. They were
driven to find the source of their joy up in
the heavenlies. Earth had for many of them
a forbidding face, so they looked into the face
of the risen Christ.
This may account for two things; their rather
stern statement of the doctrines of grace as
pertaining to the earth-born sinner, and a mar
velous sweetness and exaltation as they con
sidered the estate of the redeemed saint in
heaven. ?
The story is told of a man who found no
very cordial expression of comradeship in his
Church, who exclaimed, what he wanted was
less recognition in heaven and more upon
earth.
Really the contemplation of the glories of
the heavenlies ought to draw us closer to each
other, and make the fellowship of the saints
sweeter.
John Bunvan caught the true picture as he
talked of the fellowship of Christian on his
heavenward journey. But withal it is good to
dwell more on the glories that pertain to the
child of God.
It is well to note that this was an element
in the sustaining grace that upheld the saints
cf the Bible. Not only was Abraham glad
when he saw the day of Jesus, but John and
Peter and James could affirm on the Mount of
Transfiguration, as they looked with sleepy
eyes into heaven, "It is good for us to be
here." Paul was caught up into the third
heavens and heard and saw things he could
not tell of. but he was, ever after, the glowing,
self-sacrificing missionary.
So, if the doctrines of grace pertain alone
to this present epoch, we are of all men most
miserable. If the hope of the saint goes only
to the edge of the grave and says, "We know
nothing beyond," it is a comparatively worth
less thing. So Seventh-Day Adventism, Rus
sellism and the other earthly cults are forever
unsatisfying.
What is there for us beyond T The glory of
1 he heavenlies is unalloyed. It has 110 perish
ing and cloying ingredients. No inhabitant of
that land shall even say, "I am sick," much
less die. Revelation 21 tells the story of stain
less glories of that better land.
"When I shall awake in Thy likeness, I
shall be satisfied," wrote the Psalmist. That
satisfaction will continue. Without that hea
venly abode are all things that offend in any
way.
The glory of the heavenly is not idleness
and inertia. The Sunday school used to sing,
"I want to be an angel, and with the angels
stand; a crown upon my forehead, a harp
within my hand." Nothing could be further
from the wish of an intelligently sanctified
child of God. He is higher than any angel.
He will not walk around with crowns of gold.
He will enter into the joy of His Lord, which
is service and sacrifice. God rests, but God is
never idle. His rest from creating is only a
heavenly care for the present creation.
Again, it is well to remember that the glory
will be that of our risen and victorious Lord.
We are glorified together. Not one honor to
Him that He will not share with us.
Is it any wonder that the sweet spirited
hainlA, like Rutherford and Jeremy Taylor,
could hardly find words to express their grati
tude and loveT
Then we must not forget that we must suf
fer with Him, if we are to be glorified together
with Him. The coming glory casts a reality
of peace and content upon the lives of suffer
ing and disappointment.
A. A. L.
Contributed
DR. JOWETT'S MANIFESTO.
By Professor Addison Hogue.
In the British Weekly for September 7, 1922,
Rev. Dr. J. II. Jowett published an appeal for
something to be done "in every Christian
church throughout the world, whether it be
Protestant, Roman or Greek."
What is this thing?
(1) "There are individual members of the
Church in every land, countless thousands of
them, who are wide awake in spirit, and who
are devoted servants of the Christian ideal.
But they are like the scattered units of a
broken army. They lack the strength of a
well-disciplined and organized host. ... I am
far from suggesting that she [the Church] is
to be a meddler and muddler in matters in
which she is entirely ignorant. It is not a
question of being able to handle the details
of problems. It is rather that of proclaiming
eternal laws and principles in which all prob
lems are to be solved. . . . She is to be the
primary channel through which the power of
GOD is to work upon social problems to their
appointed solution."
? ?????
(2) "On some appointed day let the believ
ers in JESUS CHRIST go to their churches
as they went in the early days of the war,
and in some simultaneous act of dedication
and audible declaration let them proclaim their
desire and purpose for a sacred peace, and
their belief in the common brotherhood of man
kind. Let us incorporate this saeramentum in
the usual ordinances of worship. . . . Let them
... in some simple form of words assert their
witness to the ethical ideals of their faith and
their determination to have peace on earth
and goodwill among men. Let this be done in
every Christian Church throughout the world,
Avhether it be Protestant, Roman or Greek."
I.
On these two paragraphs the following com
ments seem to be reasonable:
1. Granting that the Church of Christ is to
be "the primary channel through which the
power of GOD is to work upon social prob
lems to their appointed solution," it by no
means follows that the settlement of social
problems is the primary work of the Church.
I)r. Jowett, noble preacher of the gospel that
he is, never lowered his pulpit by making it a
platform for the discussion of social problem;
? certainly not so far as I have ever heard.
The business of Christ's heralds is to reiterate
and enforce His first command as recorded by
Mark: "Repent ve, and believe in the gos
pel."
By expanding this theme they will not fail
to proclaim the "eternal laws and principles
in which all problems are to be solved." Love
to God and love to man are enough to settle
all the problems that vex humanity. The
Church's business is to seek to regenerate men,
gathering out of the world God's elect, recog
nizing herself as only the humble instrument
of the Holy Spirit. The "countless thousands"
of those who are thus "devoted to the Chris
tian ideal" must then apply this ideal to so
cial problems according to the best light they
can get.
2. Dr. Jowett 's proposition in the second
paragraph is open to most serious objections.
Devoted and earnest Christians will seek and
pray for peace and good will among men, sac
ramentum or no sacramentum. The careless
and indifferent church members, who have not
taken seriously their vows to follow Christ,
may go through this "audible declaration" as
a matter of form, but that does not mean that
it will instill Christian motives into them, or
change their attitude towards any of the great
social problems.
And then, suppose all who went to the va
rious churches and took this Roman oath (sac
ramentum) acted it out loyally, how can they
carry out their "determination to have peace
on earth and good will among men"? Shall
they sit still and let the Turks massacre Chris
tians simply because they are Christians!
"Would that be a "sacred peace"? Or shall
they organize as a host and prevail upon their
governments to restrain the Turks? This at
cnee means war: and instead of "good will
among men," the entire Moslem world, al
ready restive and ripening for upheaval, will
be further embittered against the cross.
And how does Dr. Jowett expect Protestants
and Romanists to agree to carry out such a
scheme? Take Bohemia or any other country
striving to free itself from the galling yoke of
Rome. Is the Vatican going to look on with
peace and good will during the process? Hard
ly ? unless the leopard has changed its spots,
and unless the papacy has renounced its motto,
semper eadem ("always the same").
I have rarely heard of a more impracticable
suggestion than this one, emanating though it
does from the noble heart and great brain of
Dr. Jowett.
n.
In the first of Dr. Jowett's paragraphs as
given above, he says, "It is not a\guestion of
being able to handle the details of problems."
Very good, so far: but problems cannot be
settled unless the details are attended to, and
somebody must do that. Here is a specimen
when the pulpit steps aside from its propev
function. The Archbishop of Canterbury
preached a sermon before the League of Na
tions in Geneva, as to which Dr. Jowett says:
"I think I agree with every word of it. The
League of Nations is the depository of all our
international hopes and ideals. There is noth
ing else on the field. If the League has the
requisite power it can save the cause of civi
lization. But what is to give it the needful
dynamic? Has the Church of Christ any se
cret in her grasp which can endow the League
with commanding power and vitality? "What
i* our faith? Does the Church only take rank
with political systems and constitutions, or
does she hold a sacred precedence? Is she
Ihe ordained minister of spiritual forces which
can transform frailty into strength, and is it
within her divine prerogative to clothe the
League with requisite authority and power?
"I believe that the League is waiting for
the very sTipport which the Church can bring.
Is she awake to the call? With all my heart
I accept the closing words of the Archbishop's
sermon: 'Once let the Christian men and
women upon earth, East, West, North and
South, kneel to GOD side by side, stand shoul
der to shoulder before men to say what they
mean shall happen, or rather what shall not
happen in the round world again, and they
are irresistible.' I have only one sentence to
add to this ? let us begin and do it!"
There we have it. The Church of Christ is
to endorse th^ League of Nations and use it
as the means to enforce a "sacred peace."
The League of Nations! The political Issue
against which was registered the hugest major