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The Presbyterian of the South 0 n?^/A w 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.