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The Presbyterian of the South
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Vol. 97. No. 46. RICHMOND, VA. NOVEMBER 15, 1922
SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS ought to
be very careful about the help they use in
the study of their lesson, and especially in the
way they let these helps influence their teach
ing. It is hard to find anything in these days
that is not published by a thoroughly orthodox
church into which error of some form does not
creep. TarbelPs Guide is one of the most pop
ular commentaries on the Sunday School les
sons, and ordinarily it is very practical and
very helpful, but every now and then it will let
serious error creep in. This is the case in its
treatment of the lesson for the 26th of this
month, in which is the story of the man of Ga
dara out of whom Jesus cast the legion of dev
ils. It is strange how some writers try so hard
to get rid of the miraculous in the life of Christ.
In this case the existence of the devils in the
man is denied, and what is really a ridiculous
effort is made to account for what is said in
the story. According to Dr. Tarbell, the man
was only a lunatic, and disregarding the order
of the events as given, she says, that when the
lunatic ran out to meet* J esus, he cried out with
such a frightful v<^ce and made such violent
gestures, that he frightened the hogs, so that
they ran into the seqf It must have been an
unusual voice indeed and wonderful gestures
that would so frighten 2,000 hogs that they
would run into the sea so violently that they
were all drowned. Tt takes a great deal more
faith on the part of any candid mind to accept
such an explanation than it does to accept the
plain simple statement of God's Spirit as given
in His word.
Philadelphia presbytery has
adopted an overture to its General Assem
bly asking that it "take such action as will re
quire the preaching and teaching in the First
Presbyterian Church of New York City to con
form to the system of doctrine taught in the
Confession of Faith." This action was taken
because of conditions existing in that church at
present. The Session of the church, without
the authority of the Presbytery, we understand,
has for the past two years employed as preacher
for that church, though he has not been installed
a? pastor, Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, a
Raptistminister. Tn his preaching, especially in
a sermon, which he preached a short time ago,
and of which thousands of copies have been vir
enlated all over this country, he has denied eome
of the most fundamental doctrines of the Pres
byterian Church. Among the accepted doc
trines of this Church, which Dr. Fosdick rejects
in his preaching, are the inerrancy of the origi
nal Scriptures, which makes them the supreme
and only guide in spiritual matters; the virgin
birth of .Tesus, which is equivalent to denying
His divinity; the do<*. trine of the substitution
ary atonement of Christ wrought by His death
on the cross, without which man must save him
self, which is impossible; the resurrection oi
the body of Christ, which means that He did
not rise at all ; and the second coming of Christ
which is very clearly taught in the Scriptures.
Were Christians to follow Dr. Fosdick's teach
ing, they would be of all men most miserable.
Their religion would be as a nut shell from
which the kernel had been destroyed by a worm.
The Philadelphia Presbytery is doing exactly
right ill appealing to the Assembly to right this
great wrong against the Church. By its quiet
acquiescence in the action of the Session of the
First Church New York Presbytery has prac
tically endorsed the teaching of Dr. Fosdick,
and so it becomes necessary to appeal to the Gen
eral Assembly to protect the faith of the Church,
which was delivered to the saints.
STRANGE indeed are the ways in which
some people try to solve some of the prob
lems connected with the human race. In
France before the late war the number of bifths
had fallen so low thatsthe population of the
country was at a stand still. Since the war
births are said to have fallen off even more, so
that there is a decrease of population. The
proposition, it is said, is being seriously con
sidered of legalizing polygamy, in order that
there may be more births. One of the chief
causes of the war was the fact that the nations
had failed so signally to keep God 's law. Any
nation that attempts to overcome one of the
effects of the war by a deliberate violation of
one of God's laws, can expect only God's curse
to rest upon it.
LOGICAL REASONING is not always recog
nized by those who argue on theological
questions, or who make statements of their
views on the subject. There are men who to
day deny the virgin birth of Jesus and yet sa\
that He is divine. "Why such men object to ac
cepting the doctrine of the virgin birth it is
hard to see. They are not willing to give up
religion entirely, nnd religion without a di
vine head is inconceivable, so they hold on to
the divinity of Christ. We know of His di
vinity from the teaching of the Bible. But the
Bible does not teach His divinity a ny mors
clearly than it teaches His virgin birth. If
the Bible cannot be trusted in one ca3e, how
can it be trusted in the other? The Bible is
either true or false. If it is false in one part,
what right have we to claim that it is true in
another? Satan could not want to gain a
greater control over man's thoughts than to
make him believe that Jesus is not divine. But
there are not many even nominal Christians
who would go that far. If he can destroy the
faith in the origin and fatherhood of Jesus, he
will at least put Him upon a lower plain than
that which the Bible puts Him upon, and when
ever He is brought down from that high posi
tion His divinity will soon be denied.
CONGRESSMEN have some queer privi
leges. Among them, and one of the most
dangerous is that which allows thein "to ex
tend their remarks in the Congressional Re
cord." The Record is a daily publication which
reports everything done by Congress, including
everything said by Congressmen on the floor
of the Senate or the House. As some members
of these bodies wanted to make long speeches,
which they did not expect anybody to listen
tot but which they wanted distributed among
their constituents at public expense, it became
customary, if a man had not finished his speech,
when the time which he could claim had ex
pired, to allow him by formal vote "to con
tinue his remarks in the Record." In this way
he would write out anything that he chose and
have it added to the stenographic report of the
part of the speech he had delivered. This
would then go into the Record as a part of his
speech. On September 22d a memebr of the
House had published in the Record a speech
which had not been delivered, and which filled
twelve pages of the Record. The whole of that
speech was takn up in a vitriolic attack upon
and abuse of a Protestant paper published in
Washington. We doubt whether he would
have been allowed to deliver such a speech in
Congress, but it goes out to the world as though
it had been. When men abuse privileges they
ought to be deprived of them.
VAST SUMS of money were raised just be
fore the close of the great war in the
United drive arranged for by our Government,
when the Young Men's Christian Association
was required to unite with the Catholic Knights
of Columbus and the Jewish Welfare Organiza
tion in the raising and the division of this
fund. The Y. M. C. A. was doing a work that
covered every part of the military forces of
this country at home and abroad. The Asso
ciation accounted for every dollar that it re
ceived in accordance with the demand of the
Government. The Knights of Columbus, who
had a very small force of workers and worked
at comparatively few places, received $40,000,
000 from this joint fund. We are told that to
this good day they have never made any re
port to the Government of what disposition
was made of that money. It is said that they
could not have spent it during the short time
that the work was continued in the work which
they were doing for the soldiers and sailors.
The Government undertook to control the rais
ing and the distribution of the money, with the
promise that it would supervise its expendi
ture. This was done so far as the Y. M. C. A.
was concerned. Will some one please inform
us why the Knights of Columbus have never
been required to make a report. Columbia, the
official organ of the Kinghts, reports that that
organization has recently lost $1,423,000 by
investing in German marks and French francs.
The question has been raised by some as to
whether or not that was a part of the war
fund.
SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS is a sum be
yond the grasp of- the human mind, and
vet that is said to be the amount that the peo
ple of this country spend in one year in the
purchase, upkeep and operating of automo
biles. A nation that can spend for this one
purpose, and that largely for pleasure, $70 for
r*ach man, woman and child, surely cannot be
considered poor. Tt would not be a great
stretch of the imagination to say that the 3<?o
ple of this country can give for religious and
benevolent work as much as they give for au
tomobiles. But suppose that they gave only
half as much, there would be no need to make
anv further call for money for the Lord's
work, and His work would be carried on glo
riously.