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Gleanings 'From the Tabernacle ‘Bible Conference
All 'Records broken m Crolvds and Spiritual Polver.
LL records were broken in the attend
ance on the Tabernacle Bible Confer
ence this year. About fifteen hundred
out-of-town people, with seven hundred
preachers, is the estimate of attend
ance —while Atlanta furnished enough
of those who hungered after truth to
make the crowds day and night nothing
less than astounding.
A
Anything like a report of such a gathering is of
course impossible, but we give this week a few
gleams from the platform utterances of some of the
speakers that our thousands of readers who could
not attend will be glad to preserve:
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN,
“The Christ in Symbols and Story.’’
The keynote of this conference has been the su
premacy of Christ. If one verse of scripture might
be selected to tell it best I think it would be
this: “That in all things He might have the pre
eminence. ’ ’
It is a wholesome attitude of mind to approach
the Bible in a state of imaginary ignorance concern
ing the Book. Then the mind and heart are ready
for the Bible to make its natural —its best —impres-
sion.
No man can get a full idea of the Christ by read
ing only the book Matthew. It takes the four sto
ries—not the four gospels, but the four stories of
the gospel—to give the full vision.
The word “straightway,” which occurs oftener
in Maik than in any other book, is not the language
of the leisured classes, but the working masses.
Never mind just now about harmonizing the four
stories from a chronological viewpoint. Your own
Dr. Noah K. Davis, now living in Atlanta, comes
nearer doing that than any other writer I have
seen.
“As a matter of fact,” said Dr. Morgan with a
smile that provoked many more smiles, “the only
satisfactory book I have ever seen on 1 the harmony
of the gospels’ is one I wrote myself.” Each man
stamped his story with his own humanity, writing
the story as he saw it, and he wist not, I believe,
that he was inspired to give a natural and neces
sary vision of the Redeemer’s earthly life.
Matthew, Hebrew servant of Rome, thought on
imperial things.
Mark, the friend of fishermen, thought and wrote
in the language of the practical, working man.
Luke, the cultured Greek, thought and wrote of
Christ as the fulfillment of Grecian ideals —for
Greek philosophy and civilization exalted man and
his character.
John was the devoted dreamer, who saw in his
Master the fulfillment of Old Testament symbols.
The four beasts would be better translated the
Extended Until April First
We do not wish to part company with a single old-time friend. But our Government says we must. And be
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send to us immediately. If you are already ahead and wish to take advantage of this offer send $1.50 and we
will advance your figures one year ahead of your present date. We do not wish to lose you, but the law must be
obeyed. Wri e today.
THE GOLDEN AGE, Atlanta, Ga.
The Golden Age for March 19, 1908.
“four living ones” —the lion for kingly power,
the ox for service and sacrifice, the man for human
ity and the eagle for the symbol of Deity.
They present the fourfold picture of Jesus
Christ: Matthew and the king; Mark and the ser
vant; Luke and the man; John and the incarnate
God.
A. C. DIXON,
On “The Victory of Faith.”
In Chicago I met a young woman reared in the
lap of godless worldliness. Her father had killed
a man and then committed suicide. This bright,
sorrowing girl came to the Great Northern Theatre
in Chicago where I have the privilege of preaching
every Monday at noon. She came under the influ
ence of the gospel. She confessed to me that for the
first time in her life she felt a sense of sin before
God. I pointed her to the Lamb of God and she
rolled her burden of sin and sorrow upon the
blessed Redeemer, who rejoices to bear the sin
and sorrow of every soul who trusts Him. Ana she
arose a new creature in Christ. Her mother wrote
her an awful letter and cast her out, but she bears
it sweetly and bravely and keeps on trusting and
working for Jesus.
I have a friend in Baltimore who, on a small
salary, was trying to support a family of eight chil
dren. And I’ll tell you a man in a big city with
a big family needs money mighty bad. He was of
fered $50,000 to lend himself to a certain financial
scheme. He examined it carefully. The money was
there. But he returned it to the schemer, saying:
“There is only one wrong thing about that —it is
not honest.” And he determined to suffer on with
a small salary, rather than provide comforts for
his family on money that was not honest.
Egyptian Pleasures.
The reason I don’t dance is because it, upon the
whole, is an institution of evil. It is an Egyptian
institution. The square dance, per se, may not be
wrong, but the round dance per se is wrong. The
music does not relieve the wrong of the posture.
Let the music stop and the posture continue—and
there’ll be a fight. The round dance is indecent,
unspeakable harm comes from it, and countless lives
have been wrecked by it.
The theater is an Egyptian institution. Dr. J.
M. Buckley examined two hundred plays that had
been popular in New York during a period of sev
eral years, and found only five which he would be
willing to read in his parlor in the presence of his
wife and daughters.
The reason I don't play cards is because it would
be going to Egypt for pleasure—and dangerous
pleasure at that. Many men who are in prison to
day and other gamblers who ought to be there de
clare that they learned to play cards at home with
their mothers and sisters.
Moses would not give himself over to Egyptian
pleasures. And I am afraid of them today. Faith
in Christ and work for Christ will fill the heart and
life with better things.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN.
“The Cross and the Saint.”
2. Gal, v. 20: “I have been crucified will;
Christ.”
3 Phil., v. 7: “What things were gain to me
those I counted lost for Christ.”
The only cure for carnality is the cross. Paul
therefore said to a carnal city: “I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified.”
Resurrection life is won out of death—never with
out it.
The crucifixion of the saint is the inevitable fore
runner of his resurrection.
What Christ wrought in loneliness made it possi
ble for me to come into the Light.
Some have wondered if, during this conference,
we have put enough emphasis on practical life. I
believe, my brethren, that the living truths we have
studied, reigning in our hearts, will make li p e
practical and beautiful.
The taunt of His enemies has become the tri
umph of the King. “He saved others, himself He
cannot save.”
A man can never climb to the throne until he
stoops to the cress.
There is no evidence that Christ granted an in
terview to the Greeks who said: “Sir, we would
see Jesus.” This request was evidently the request
of the tourist, and not the wish of spiritual enquir
ers. Christ talked to Philip and Andrew, and then
hid himself. And Christ never hid himself from
honest spiritual enquirers.
Whatever you may think of any man, remember
Christ thought and felt that he was worth dying
for. Kind in your community the most fallen, sunk
en, objectionable man you know, look into his
marred, sinful face and love him because yon remem
ber Christ loved him well enough to die for him.
That is identity with the cross.
If you are crucified with Christ you will never
talk of any man as being a hopeless, worthless case.
For God’s sake, quit singing songs of blood and
death unless you have suffered to save others.
In that mcment when Paul wrote, “I would wish
myself accursed from Christ for the sake of my
kinsmen after the flesh,” he was so overpowered
by the Spirit he was speaking the language of the
Spirit. He meant just what he said.
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