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ESTABLISHED 1821. The Christian Index Publlihel Every Thursday By BELL & VAN ▲ddreea Cmbibtiah Ihdbx, Atlanta, Ga. orf*a es the Biptltt DenomiaatiOß ia Hwryii BußSCßirrioß Pbtob: O»» copy, one year.. Om copy, six months LOS About OUB Advbbtisbbb.—We propose hereafter to very carefully Investigate our advertisers. We shall exercise every care to allow only reliable parties to use our col amns. OaxTCABiBS.—One hundred words free of ahane. For each extra word, one cent per word, cash with copy. To Cok KBB pondbktb—Do not use abbrevi ations; be extra careful In writing proper names; write with ink, on one side of paper. Do not write copy Intended for the editor and business items on same sheet. Leave •S personalities, condense. Bubinbm.—Write all names, and post offices distinctly. In ordering a change give the old as well as the new address. The date of label indicates the time your subscription aspires. If you do not wish It continued, or der it stopped a week before. We consider Mob subscriber permanent until be orders Ms paper discontinued. When you order It stopped pay up to date. Rbmittawcbs by registered letter, money order, postal note For tbe lynx. Missionary Lesson, June 28, 1896. Matt. 28:16 20. BY S. G. HILLYER. “THE GREAT COMMISSION.” “Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Fath er, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.- teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commended you; and 10, I am with you alway.even unto the end of the world.” Jesus had met his disciples— the eleven—by special appoint ment, on a certain mountain in Galilee. We learn that when they saw him, they worshipped him; though there were some that still doubted. It is believed by our learned men that, on the occasion now before us, there were present,be sides the eleven Apostles, more than five hundred other disciples who had the opportunity of see ing and recognizing the risen Lord. This belief is founded upon Paul’s words in 1 Cor. 15:6. According to Paul,such a meeting did take place some where, and we know of no place more fit or convenient than on that mourn, TritfTn Geiilee wish Jesus and the eleven. This gives to the oc casion a very high degree of so lemnity and importance. It pre sents to us a fit occasion for the mighty words which Jesus was about to speak. Look, for a moment, at the setnb. It was in Galilee where he had performed most of his mighty works, delivered many of his soul searching discourses,and where he had made and caused to be baptized many disciples. They had heard of the crucifixion and death of their Master. At first, no doubt, they were despondent. But presently, they hear strange rumors floating on the air. They hear that Jesus has risen from the dead and appeared to some of the disciples about Jerusalem. Then, they hear of the appoint ment with the eleven to meet them in Galilee. Is it strange that five hundred of them should seek to be present at such an in terview? Look again; the crowd has as sembled upon the slopes of the mountain, made sacred by so au gust a presence. No wonder the disciples bowed in humble wor ship before the great conqueror of death and spoiler of the grave. Then Jesus spake unto them, saying: “All authority has been given unto me in Heaven and on earth.” We have in these words a fit preamble for the great commis sion. It affirms the absolute sovereignty of Jesus over the kingdom of God in both worlds. And upon the basis of that au thority he proceeds to issue his first general “orders” to the au dience before him. “Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, etc.” The word “therefore” refers to the authority which he has just assumed,and which imposes upon all who are subject to it, an obli gation commensurate with itself. But to whom is the order given? We must conclude that it was given to those that represent the grammatical antecedent of the pronoun “ye.” And this means that the command was intended to bind all the disciples who were then before him and, we are con strained to believe that Jesus intended that the great commis sion should bind the consciences of all his people, tothe end of time. However, we are not depen dent for the conclusion just drawn,upon the magnitude of the Savior’s audience. Admit,if you E lease, that Jesus had before im only the eleven Apostles. Shall we then confine the obliga tion imposed by the Savior’s words only to them? It is true, it was undoubtedly intended to THE CHRISTIAN INDEX. press with great force upon the Apostles; for it was substantially repeated to them, not long after wards, under most solemn and impressive circumstances. And they bravely accepted the com mission as the law of their sub sequent lives, and nobly did they fulfill the great requirement which it imposed upon them. But did the commission bind only the Apostles? Wo must answer this question in the light, (1) of subsequent events. We learn from the record that when persecution arose in Jerusalem against Christians they were compelled to fly from the city— all except the Apostles—but they “went everywhere preaching the gospel.” Here we’find the pri vate members of the church striving to make disciples of those among whom they took refuge. And they succeeded. We learn also from the record that when churches were estab lished it very soon became the custom among them to contribute of their means to support those who were laboring in distant cities. Were they not thus doing missionary work? Were they not virtually fulfilling the command of Christ? (2) But there is yet another fact thai throws its light upon this subject. It is found in the experience of every true Chris tian. While the great commis sion derives its authority from the sovereignty of our exalted King, tkere is, in the heart of every believer, a sentiment that spontaneously responds to it. That sentiment is a desire, more or less distinct, that others may be saved. This desire is devel oped in the first spiritual breath ings of every new-born soul. At first, it may not reach beyond one’s own domestic circle. No matter, it is the germ of the mis sionary spirit. If not stifled by gross perversions of divine truth, it will not be content to stay at home. It will cross the street and seek the salvation of some friendly neighbor. And the more it is indulged the wider will be its range. When the great com mission falls on such a soul, it evokes an echo that shall be heard around the world. In the light of the foregoing facts I think we may draw the fol lowing inferences: (1) The Savior must have intende<i that tjie great commission should bind the conscience and rule the life, ac cording to his means and oppor tunities, of every individual Christian. And (2) I think that we may infer that every church member who fails to comply with its requirement, either in person or by proxy, when he is able to do so, is living in willful disobe dience to the will of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let these thoughts,dear breth ren, awaken you to a full and clear perception of your obliga tions to fulfill the words of Christ to the oest of your ability. Per haps you sometimes pray: “Let thy kingdom come,” and you may wonder why the Lord delays so long to answer the prayer which he himself taught you to utter. The reason may be be cause, while you are praying for it, you make no sacrifice or effort yourself to hasten its coming. It is fearful to think what responsibil ties rest upon us all for the lost souls of our generation both at home and abroad. May the Lord help us to see our duty and to mend our ways. 563 S. Pryor st., Atlanta. A Meditation. The death of childhood is pecu liarly sad. The old die fitting ly; their death is but a fulfill ment. The middle-aged too, are more liable to death than chil dren, because they are in the thick of the fight. Then they have lived more, and either the •good they have done consoles us for their death, or the evil they have done makes death less a ca lamity. But in childhood the whole purpose of nature is to live; no allowance is made for death out of its rightful domain. The taking away of life here is the taking away of the very pos sibility of great things: to the bereaved it is the shattering of the ideal. Herein is the sadness. The old man has lived and must die; the middle-aged have enjoy ed the opportunity for greatness, and generally the result has pre pared us to give up the ideal we had found for them; but the child has not >entered upon its heritage; the sad discrepancy be tween the possible and the actual has not yet made our ideal for it unreal; so that at this time death is the passing away of a perfect ideal. In the nature of our hu inanity- hope is dearer than im perfect realization; and so the mother, who looks for her great nessin that of her children, feels most keenly the death of her child. We are prone to say the good die young; but it is not that they die young because they are good, f SUBSCRIPTION. ’*/jT«ab.— -SS.OO. I Ito ministers. i.00.> but that they are good because they die young. While we la ment the loss of possibilities of happiness and good, let us re member that it is the removal of S legibilities of suffering and evil. ore than this, let us also thank God that there has come into our lives a life against which we have to set down no fault; a life the remembrance of which can bring a joy that need not give way to a sigh of regret for mis deeds or failures. “Blessed be childhood, which brings down something of heaven into the midst of our rough earthliness. . . . Blessed be childhood for the good that it does, and for the good which it brings about, carelessly and unconsciously, by simply making us love it and let-, ting itself be loved.” And shall' we not bless it even when it has been taken away? The good for which webless it is not gone; it lives “in minds made better by its presence,” and it rests with us to make it immortal by letting its influence go on through all our lives: “So we inherit its sweet purity.” It is a perfect influence now; death has taken .away from it the possibility of blot or marring. In a certain sense, death has not destroyed the ideal but realized it. The right use of our privilege of making it actual in the world will leave us little space for sorrow — only so much weeping as will make our natures more tender— not more tears than glistened in the brightness of that young life. After all, in this imperfect hu manity, “our finest hope is finest memory”; and blessed is he who holds in his heart some perfect memory, untouched by sin and failure, to which he may go back and get new strength, new hope for human kind, new incentive to higher living. In this lit tle life, left perfect by its early passing from the sphere of the imperfect, those who knew it and now need most the strength which it still has power to give, have an unfailing source of hope and faith; and let these words, which were fulfilled in that life, be the prayer and fulfillment of our lives: ‘‘May 1 reach That purest heaven, be to other souls The cup of strength in some great Enkinme generous - ardor, feed pure love, Beget the smiles that have no cruelty— Be the sweet presence of a good diffus ed. And in diffusion ever more intense. So shall I join the choir invisible Whose music is the gladness of the world ” c. w. s. The First Ten Days of the Jeru salem Church. BY P. S. WHITMAN. No. 2. As for the time when the church system practically com menced, there is probably no more enlightened view than what is presented by those who deny its being in the lifetime of Christ. It is this, that it was simultane ous with the coming of the Holy Spirit which was promised when Christ said: “It is expedient for you that Igo away: for, if Igo not away the Comforter (Para clete) will not come to you: but if I go, I will send him to you.” Jno. 16:7. Nevertheless, they seem to us to deserve little credit here, for, we think the time fixed for the advent of that Spirit which was to come and abide during the personal absence of Christ, is far from being en lightened. It does not appear once to have entered their minds as being possible, for that Spirit to have been with Christ’s fol lowers a day or an hour before making those marvelous demon strations to the world as on the day of Pentecost. It never enters the minds of these men but that it was all right and seemly for those follower*, at the precise time when they most needed guide ar.d comfort, and indeed had been promised it, to be left with neither Christ nor the Para clete; orphans indeed. But there is the most incontestable evi dence that no such period of orphanage attended the exit of Christ. For, what is the history in this connection? “Men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven.” Does this look as if, immediately following the as cension, they were left with neither Christ nor the Spirit? “Then returned they to Jerusa lem from the mount called Oli vet;” and, in his other narrative, Luke adds, “with great joy.” There is no shadow of bereave ment overshadowing those first ten days which followed the Lord s ascension. Every sound mind must be free to admit that never before had there been any such ten days when the followers ATLANTA, GA., THURSDAY. JUNE 25, 1896. of Christ had such peace and joy in the Holy Spirit- We repeat, those were not ten days of be reavement, when neither Christ in person, nor the Paraclete which was promised to supply his absence, had their residence on earth. Other language in tne history of the case is equally decisive. “Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” The power here meant is to speak with other tongues. Now it does not say that at the identical time when they receive the Spirit this power will come. Was anything more consistent than that when he comes he should first meet the party that was relying upon him to come, and be with them a period of time before he gave them the miraculous power? What now is fact? After Christ, left them, forthwith they were together ten days in prayer before the power came upon them. Now we venture to say that the Holy Spirit never has been of any value to the church ex cept in the gift of prayer. Has it not ever been true that only as Zion travails has she brought forth? And what else were those ten days but the church's first travails? And what minis tf rof grace does not know that such travail is indispensable in the claim to church existence? When it was said of Saul, “Be hold he pray eth,” it meant that for a certainty he believed in Christ; and just so certainly we know that when that company, after Christ’s ascension, went immediately from Olivet to that upper room in Jerusalem, and continued there day after day— continued in prayer—we have in this very circumstance the first strong evidence that the Holy Spirit, as promise!, was already with them, and already they were a gospel church. It is, however, astonishing with what tenacity even pious scholarship, in. somfe instances, clings to the theory as if nothing else could be thought of, save that the Paraclete awaited the day of Pentecost to supply to those disciples the absence of their Lord. Blinded by this idea, even the sainted Gordon refers to the appointment of Matthias I in a manner merging on derision, as if it was premature and cer tainly no work of the Holy Spirit. It was simply man’s work, he says, and was wholly ignored by the Holy Spirit and set aside in the appointment of Paul. We think all this makes good the adage how one mistake leads to another. It is assumed that the Holy Spirit, before appearing to the disciples in the character in which he was to abide, (not miraculous) comes first of all at Pentecost in a most astonishing demonstration to the world. If this is true, then, as Dr. Gordon says, it declares the election of Matthias a sham. But this is not all: If the election of Matthias was a sham, then all the ten days praying was a sham. The elec tion of Matthias came by prayer. We do not wish to think it was a sham. And when Pentecost morning came and they were all together in one place, we do not want to admit that the Paraclete that was promised was not with them in this; or that he was not with them in all those first ten days after their Lord had ascend ed. We do not want to admit this and thus give up our belief that Holy Spirit work com menced in starting a church, the very hour after Christ ascended, with a ten days’ prayer-meeting. But the idea that Paul filled the place of Judas is very absurd, even though we admit that there was no Paraclete work before Pentecost. It ignores two very conspicuous facts—one that the party chosen to fill the place of Judas was to make good the number of twelve in the ministry to the circumcision. The second fact is, that Paul never filled any such ministry. We think the choosing of Matthias meant that there should be, first of all, twelve to stand up there at Pentecost, as if to say that in the gospel dispensation none of the tribes were to be left out from sharing in its benefits; that in the providence of God the gospel was to reach even the lost tribes. Thus the appointment of Matthi as was one thing, and God’s purpose to provide in his own time, and in his own way, an apostle expressly to'the Gentiles was altogether another. It must be admitted, we say, as matter of unqualified blindness for any student of the Bible to introduce the notion that God converted Paul to fill the place of Judas as if to make sure of full twelve apostles to Israel, and then leave the Gentiles without even one. If this was the plan, Paul cer tainly rebelled against it, for he never filled the place of Judas. He did fill his own place in the Here we may well give our at tention more closely to the elec tion of Matthias. The more we consider the sub ject, the more we regard with wonder the work of the Holy Spirit in the seclusion of those ten days before Pentecost. Vir tually the whole matter of order and polity was established before ever the public preaching of the gospel ccvnmenced on Pentecost (that was the distinguishing event of that day). And byway of introduction, it is well to state there was no more church or ganization on that day than there is in any remarkable revival in our time, in any one of our long established churches. If the company which had been con tinuously in prayer from the as cension of Christ was not a church, then preaching under the Holy Spirit commenced with out church organization, and we may say more—there never has been any divine organisation at all. We might here lay down our pen. If that resort to the upper room in praj ec was sham (and sham it was, as we have said, if the appointment of Mat thias was sham), then a gospel church is sham, yes, “ God’s building ” is a sham. But we maintain that the real basal quality of church organize tion is being together in prayer. This we see in that divine com pany as they marched together from the scene of their Lord’s ascension to th it upper room and there, men and women, con tinued day after day in prayer. Certainly no evidence could weigh like this in proof that the promised Helper, Comforter, was already with them. But there is clear proof of this also in immediate connec tion with the choice of Matthias; for that event we find is closely related to the great commission given on the mountain a short time previous. What indescrib able tenderness in the last words. He would leave them, but he could say “ Lo,” as if this were the wonderful part, “Lo, I am with you always.” Now, who can deny that the fulfillment of these words was i i the Paraclete that was to come ? But we have as nigh as possible the positive proof in the election of Matthias. When, in thatelection, the minds of the disciples seem to have been equally on two, what fol lowed ? They took the case right to Christ, just as if he were there in person. “ Lord, show which of these two thou hast chosen.” What more could Christ have been to them in per son ? And shall we say it was man’s work ? Nay, to say this seems like infidel speech. In his election, before the miracu lous Pentecost, there was real Holy Spirit wonder without re sort to positive miracle. It was Matthias chosen by Christ just as surely as Paul was -some time after. Consider this transaction further. Peter, quite lately, had been charged to feed the flocks and when he stood up as he did in the midst and told what ought to be done, it was true pastoral work—the first pastoral work we think ever done in a gospel church. Certainly in no period of its history has the church been so complete in pastoral care as it was when first born and that, before Pentecost. Notice. We do not know that any one would have been chosen to fill the place of Judas had not Peter or some one of the apos tles explained to the new com pany the necessity of such action. Hence, in speaking of what was done, we might say Peter did it. And yet, as it was left with the whole company to make the choice, it was emphat ically their affair, and certainly they did it, and, thirdly, 'so far as it was made the subject of prayer, the Holy Spirit did it. Thus that distinctive manner of church action which we all claim to be of Christ’s planning, was cer tainly inaugurated by the Holy Spirit before Pentecost. Yes, right there, first of all, in the appointment of Matthias, we dis cover the three elements that must blend in all legitimate church government. Thus the triune action which character terized the appointment of the seven [Acts 6:15] and regulated that first council in Jerusalem to which we so justly refer for pre cedent, had their precedent back in those ten days before Pente cost. The more the question is ex amined, the more evident it be comes that church polity was settled by the Holy Spirit before ever enduing the disciples with miraculous gifts, that the church was born on her knees, praying as in the upper room, not on her feet standing up before the world preaching as at Pentecost. Subscribe for the Christian jndex. The Burden. To every one on earth God gives a burden to be carried down The road that lies between the cross and crown ; No lot is wholly free; He glveth one to thee. Some carry it aloft, Open and vlelble to any eyei; And all may leelts form, and weight, and size; Home hide it in their breast, And deem it thus unguessed. Thy burden is God's gift, And it will make the bearer calm and strong; Yet, lest it press too heavily and long, He says. “Cast it on Me, And it shall easy be.” And those who heed his voice, And seek to give it back in trustful prayer, Have quiet hearts that never can despair; And hope lights up tbe way Upon the darkest day. Take tbou thy burden thus Into thy bands and lay it at his feet, And whether it be sorrow or defeat , Or pain, or sin, or care, Oh, Have it calmly there. It is the lonely load That cru' hesout the life and light of heaven; But, borne with him, the soul, restored, for given, Sings out through all the days Her Joy and God’s high praise. —Marianne Farningham. The Law the Starting point in the 'Message. The preacher must lay the foundation for the saving power of the Gospel by presenting the law, in all the length and breadth of its requirement, and in all the solemnity and awfulness of its sanctions; in fact, with the very definiteness and clearness and with the divine authority of the Word of God. The generation past, in this country, has heard but little of the law of God. “Come to Je sus”; “Come to Jesus”; “Go work”; “Go work”—this has too often been regarded and affirmed as making up the sum of all ne cessary and helpful theology. It is in fact mere shallow sentimen talism— totally inadequate, either to arouse any one to a sense of his need of salvation, or to de velop anything like Christian character. The result has been an almost universal reign of shallow evan gelism, and a rain of superficial evangelists, that have well nigh killed out the life of the Church. Hence, the conscious impotence of pastors and people, and the meager ingatherings into the Church in connection with the ordinary means of grace. Hence, the periodical sending for the traveling evangelist, the boy preacher, the student, or the talking layman, or the praying band; and the introduction of sentimental and mass-meeting methods, in order to enlarge the membership of the churches. Hence, from another side, the universal worldliness and the rage for amusements and fol lies, and the making of life a time of play, without any aim, lather than a period of earnest work for the accomplishment of a rational mission. Hence, from still another side, or by further evolution, the universal and aw ful moral corruption, individual, social, and political. As in Paul’s presentation of the way of salvation to the Ro mans, so now, in the preaching of Bible Christianity as a saving power, the law of God needs to be present d in various aspects and relations. It needs to be presented funda mentally as the Law of God, bind ing every moral being in duty to God and to God alone, and thus furnishing the only basis for sound morality. Any so-called morality that starts from .some other foundation is essentially vicious and worthless. There are two essential differ ent theories of morality, the pa gan and the Christian. Their basal difference lies in the fact that one is man-centered and the other God-centered. The essence of the pagan morality, whether taught in heathen or in Christian countries, is selfish ness, and its results are inevita bly demoralizing and destructive. Christian morality, on the other hand, is God-centered. In the Christian dispensation, God be comes Christ in his relation to man in redemption, and Christ is the sovereign or Lord in the Kingdom of Heaven. See Mat thew xxviii, 18. In the view of the Word of God, righteousness, or conformity to the will of God, or Christ, is the supreme thing to be sought in human conduct. The call of the law, from this point of view, is a call to duty and to obedience. The proper preaching of the law must have this fundamentally in view, and not benevolence, or philanthro py, or happiness. If this is left out of view, the preaching of the law is vitiated and perverted in its whole nature and effect. In the view of the Word of God —which is directly contrary to the popular view of the day—all duty and morality turn Godward and Christward, rather than manward Egoism and altruism, as usually understood, are the one immoral and the other non moral. Al duty is owed to God and to him only. It may be per formed, according to his direc tions— toward oneself, in which case it is selfial and moral; to ward=ene’s fellows, in which case VOL. 76-NO. 26 it is social and moral; or toward God, in which case it is theistic and moral. If not done as to God, selfial actions become selfish and immoral; social actions, altruis tic merely and non moral; and alt alike are directed to selfisl\ or merely humanitarian ends. From the general theistic point of view, that alone is morally good which is intentionally con formed to the will of God; from the specific Christian point of view, that alone is morally good which is conformed to the will of Christ the Lord. Failure to rec ognize and to emphasize this has been tbe perverting and fatal de fect of very much of the moral teaching from the pulpit and in the schools, since Hobbes and the days of the English Restora tion. In the last century, Paley crystallized the principles of self ishness for the Churcn, by mak ing “virtue” “consist in do ing the will of God for the sake of everlasting happiness.” Others have followed, who have taken out the hypocritical feature of the happiness theory, and, in thereby saving it from being im moral, have left it purely heath en. Sometimes “the dignity of human nature” has taken the place of the will of God, as the ground of moral obligation. Sometimes the principle has ap peared as “the greatest good of the greatest number”; sometimes as “the greatest good of the in dividual himself.” Recently it hks been exploited as “altruism,* or as judicious advice to man to avoid injuring other people lest they should injure him. And, so far as morality, so called, has been preached from the pulpit, for generations it has largely been this heathen so-called mor ality, which is in fact debasing immorality. The ethics taught in our schools has been largely pa ganism, and that not even bap tized. Man is made a law and end to himself; his own enjoy ment, or dignity, or culture, or blessedness, is kept uppermost, has been kept uppermost for these generations. And so the dogmatics has largely swung loose from the ethics; the creed from the practice. The legitimate outcome of this ethical system has been manifest in the exaltation of wealth and money-getting, as means to the happiness and culture that are set before men as the great ends; in the underestimate of manhood and character; in the increasing tendency to ignore God and think that “his laws will not work”; in the materiali zation and brutalization of hu manity and civilization. Hence, the greater problems of capital and labor; of caste and commun ism; of the church-going people and lapsed masses; of public and private corruption everywhere. It is impossible to overstate the fact, that a large portion of the so called moral teaching is total ly and distinctively pagan and immoral; and that, so long as it is continued, the schism in socie ty can only widen and the yawn ing chasm grow deeper. The new Dornerism, that hat come in from Germany, has in troduced into the theology cer tain erroneous ideas that have helped still further to befog the moral teachings and teachers cd this generation. It makes the essence of God, the supreme thing in the divine goodness, to be “love.” It analyzes “love” or goodness into three parts: the primary and fundamental, benevolence; the second, sympa thy; the third, righteousness. Now this is undoubtedly the nat ural order on the materialistic basis of sensation, which make* feeling the supreme thing and reduces all feeling to pleasure or pain. But it reverses the order set by God. That makes the fundamental element in God’s goodness his infinite desire for the righteousness and purity, or moral well-being, of his crea tures, and not for their happi ness merely. Unconsciously the preacher, under the guidance of this false theology, finds his way back into the ethical fog of heathenism. The supremegood ness of God becomes his su preme regard for the well being of his creatures; well-being be comes comfortable- being-, and God’s supreme goodness becomes his benevolence to his creatures, and is manifested in supreme regard tor their happiness. As an eth ical basis, this naturally prepares the way for and leads to post mortem probation, semi univer salism, and'universalism, in the ology. It deftly puts man in tbe place of God as the center, by making man’s comfort the su preme thing; and so, after having appeared to thrust pagan ethics out of the front door, in the name of Christ and righteousness, it brings them in at the back door, in the name of humanity and happiness.— Christ's Trump et call to the Ministry of To-day.— Gregory . ■