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too much organization nor too much giving, but these will not be sustained without the vitality and power that comes from the recog nition of the obligation that rests upon every individual Christian to have a part in bringing the lost to the Saviour. A strategic point has been gained in the or ganization of our Christian business men into evangelistic clubs. With these business men stepping forward to take their rightful place of leadership in personal evangelism may we not hope and pray that the time is at hand when every organization of the Church, what ever other activities may engage its time and attention, may recognize its supreme obliga tion and its highest privilege in having a part in bringing others into the Kingdom through personal touch and effort. Tuscaloosa, Ala. % IS THE BIBLE A PRE -MILLENNIAL BOOK? By Rev. I). P. Wilkinson. Rev. C. O'N. Martindale in a recent article in the Presbyterian of the South claims it is. Not only so, but he says, "No theological schol ar of repute in the world today denies that the Bible is preinillennial. All the higher critics openly admit it." We wonder if he expects any one to take that statement seriously. Has he become so obsessed with his Millennial the ory that he really believes it? If so, it only shows how far afield hobby-riding will take any one. Pre-Millennialists are noted as great claim ers. They keep at hand a long list of impres sive looking names of noted men who were, and are pre-Millennialists. These names are consid ered as an unanswerable argument in favor of the theory. Our brother saves space and time by just claiming all scholars of all schools of thought. By this he qualifies as a true blue Pre. The report of the Prophetic Conference held in Chicago in 1914 has in it a list of 453 names of men more or less famous, and all claimed to be Pre-Millennialists. An examination of the list will show some interesting facts: (a) Some of the men are not Pres. at all. (b) Only nine are professional Bible teachers, (c) Less than a dozen are noted scholars, (d) The confer ence addresses are utterly lacking in signs of scholarship. Where were their noted "theolo gical scholars?" Dr. Snowden, Professor of Theology in West em Theological Seminary, says he made an in vestigation in twenty-seven leading institutions in eight denominations, and out of 236 mem bers of faculties of these Theological Semina ries only eight are Pre-Millennialists. Now these Seminaries are just the places for "theo logical scholars." They ought to be there. They are there. The churches have picked their most scholarly men for these places. Here we have 228 scholars out of 236 who deny that the Bible is a Pre-Millennial Book. But facts like these can make no impression on a true Pre. He will shut his eyes and go on making sweeping claims. Mr. Martindale charges me with ignorance, and unfair misrepresentations, and several other unnice things in my criticism of his pam phlet. He reminds us of what some one said of Dr. West, a noted Pre. of by-gone days: "He uses strong language, and it is always dangerous to differ from him. In fact, for friend or foe to differ from him, is to incur instant sentence of exegetical death." His spirit still lives. Perhaps I did not present every shade of the brother's theological belief. All Pres. do not believe and teach the same things. They range from the mild type, as Dr. Erdman of Princeton and his followers, to the extreme type, as Drs. Scofield, Blackstone and their followers. The mild school does not seriously depart from our Presbyterian Standards; but when a Presbyterian allies himself with the ex treme type, he seriously "departs from his raising." Let us suppose Mr. Martindale had a large elass of young people. They are prospective teachers, officers, preachers and missionaries. They are studying our Presbyterian Standards. Now what will happen if the teacher stands by his Pre. doctrines? When they take up the Confession of Faith things will go nicely till they get to Chap. Y, Sec. VII, which says: "As the providence of God doth, in general, reach to all creatures, so, after a most special manner, it taketh care of His Church and dis poseth all things to the good thereof." I imagine I can hear the teacher say, "Now, class, I can't accept that. It is not true. The parables of the mustard seed and leaven most clearly teach that 'Christianity, embodied in the Church, while beginning as the smallest of seeds, has now grown so big that it is be come the hold of every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird; in the lump of the Church a leaven-like mystery of iniquity is all-pervasively at work, to close only with the return of the Lord Jesus.' " (See his pam phlet, page 8.) When Chap. XIX, Sec. Ill, is reached more trouble begins. It teaches here that God's people, Israel, was a church. The teacher will enter his protest. He will tell his class the Confession is wrong. He will tell the elass that there was no church in the old dispensa tion. The church is a "Mystery not revealed until the days of the Apostles." (See pam phlet page 10.) The class reaches Chap. XXV, Sec. II. It says the visible church is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, we apprehend, the teacher will use sharp language in denial of that statement. This doctrine is especially distasteful to his school of interpreters. They stoutly claim the church is not a kingdom, but a mys tery. That there is no kingdom yet, and will not be till Christ returns and sets it up at Je rusalem. Chap. XXXII, Sec. II. "At the last clay, such as are found alive shall not die, but be changed : And all the dead shall be raised up with the self-same bodies, and none other ? * ." The teacher will take much time here, no doubt, showing the class how full of errors this sec tion is. lie will tell them that the saints will be raised at least a thosuand years before the last day. That there will be at least two res urrections, if not more. And all the dead will not be raised on the same day. Chap. XXXIII, Sec. I, will be sharply criti cised. He will deny this statement of the Con fession : "In which day, not only the apostate angels shall be judged, but likewise all persons that have lived upon the earth, shall appear, before the tribunal of Christ to give an ac count of their thoughts, words and deeds." He will try to convince the class that there will be several judgment days and some of them separated by a period of a thousand years. So the class will be called upon about thirty times to note errors and mistakes in the Stand ards before they get through. "What sort of Presbyterians will they make? How much love will they have for our Standards? To avoid the embarrassment our Pre. brethren can avoid teaching the Standards. But what sort of Presbyterians will that mean? Our Brother Martindale ^ook some mighty ?solemn vows at his ordiriltion. In these vows he said he believed and adopted the Confession of Faith and Catechisms of the Church and promised to exercise his ministry accordingly. As he has moved from Presbytery to Presby tery he has declared the same faith and made the same promises. I move we organize a Presbyterian Ministers' class for the careful study of our Presbyte rian Standards. THE VIRGIN BIRTH. By Rev. C. E Paxson. Many would rob us of our Divine Lord by denying this truth so plainly taught in the Word, it may be well to re-examine the evi dences we have therein: The first statement we find in Gen. 3:15 where God says to Satan: her seed shall bruise thy head. This prophecy from the mouth of Jehovah Himself undoubtedly refers to Christ the Lord who overcame him that had the power of death in His resurrection from the dead. Over a hundred times we have this word "seed" but in every other case it is used of a man, not a woman. The Two Great Songs. In the first chapter of Luke we have the two great inspired songs of the church, the Magnifi cat and the Benedictus they are called. The former begins with verse 46, and is spoken by Mary while the latter is uttered by Zacharias. As I)r. A. T. Schofield well says: "If we had the song of Zacharias and the song of Joseph we could understand it, for we know how in the East the father sings with joy when a man child is born into the world, but it is always the father who sings, never the mother. But Zacharias does all the singing at the birth ol the Baptist, and Mary all the singing at the birth of Christ. Joseph is absolutely dumb; he does not sing a note." "The father in the Holy Land is never dumb, for children are welcomed there; he is perhaps dumb with us, where children are not always wanted ; but it is not so in the East, especially among God's chosen people. This fact is suf ficient itself to establish the Virgin Birth. Otherwise the songs are absolutely inexpli cable. There is no way of accounting for them except that Joseph was not the father of our Lord, while Zacharias was the father of the Baptist." <4It is to my mind the strongest proof of an indirect nature. What need have we of farther witness?" Anselm remarks: "God cart form man in four ways: From a man and women, as constant custom shows; from neither man nor woman, as Adam ; from a man without a woman, as Eve; or from a woman without a man, as the Son of God." St. Louis, Mo. GOD WITHIN AND ABOUT US. Spurgcon once said that a bird when it is sitting on its eggs, or when the little ones are newly hatched has about it a mother spirit, so that it devotes all of its life to the feeding of its little ones; other birds may be taking their pleasures on the wing, but this bird sits still, the livelong day and night, or its only flights are to provide for gaping mouths which seem to be never filled. A passion has taken possession of the bird ; and something like it comes over the true soul-winner. He would gladly die to win souls ; he pines, he pleads, he plods to bless those on whom his heart is set. If these could be saved, he would pawn half his heaven for it; aye, and sometimes, in moments of enthusiasm, he is ready to barter heaven altogether to win souls. Give us a passion like that in this Church, so that we all jfeel that all our work connected with the Church, Sunday and week day, fails of its supreme purpose unless it is redeeming the lost; unless it is winning back men and women who are in danger of eternal defeat, and noth ing can stand in the way of our spiritual con quest. ? Banks.