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October 28, 1914.
THE COVENANTER CHURCH: ITS PLACE
AND PURPOSE.
By Professor William M. Sloane.
[On this occasion
of our Thirtieth Anniversary,
we are
greatly indebted to
Prof. William IW.
Sloane,. of Columbia
University, for
his contri b u t i o n.
Professor Sloane is
the son of Dr. J. R.
W. Sloane, formerly
pastor of the Third
Church, on 23rd
street, this city, and
then professor of
Theology at Allegheny from 18G8 till his decease.
His son was a professor in Princeton
University, and prepared not only a Life of his
father, but also one of Dr. James McCosh, the
Princeton President. He then entered the faculty
of Columbia, his Alma Mater. His degrees
are: S.A.B., Columbia,. 1868; Ph.D., Leipzig, 187G;
L.H.D., Columbia, 1887; A.M., Princeton, 189G;
LL.D., Rutgers, 1898, Princeton, 1903. He was
Secretary to George Bancroft, the historian, in
Berlin, 1873-75; professor in Princeton, 1870-
1896; Seth Low Professor of History in Columbia
since 1896. He was editor of the Princeton Review
from 1886 to 1889; Chevalier of the Legion
of Honor. ex-President of the National Institute
of Arts and Letters; member of the American
Academy of Arts and Letters, President of the
American Historical Association. Some of his
books are: "The French War and the Revolution,''
(1893), "Napoleon Bonaparte, a History" (4 vols.),.
"French Revolution and Religious Reform," 1901.
This estimate of the Covenanter Church comes
well from the son of one who knew so well the
principles she maintains, and who so boldly proclaimed
them.—Editor.]
Respect for yourself and your ancestry is what
in our age we mean by honor, and the combination
of conscience with honor is the control of
the will. As we believe so we behave: if we
misbehave we have either a feeble will or a defective
training or both. Tried by this test the
Covenanter Church is a remarkable body, alike
in its organization and in its tenets. That it
survives in vigor and identity, in this day and
country, is a fact of real significance. Having
been born into the home of one of its devoted
ministers, and having enjoyed the training of
his precepts,, in particular too of his example,
the writer is glad to acknowledge that whatever
he has himself accomplished and whatever leading
he has himself had in a fairly long and active
life is traceable to Covenanter training in
church and family. That he found himself without
the pale of the denomination has never indicated
any disrespect for the standard which it
bears; quite the contrary. He hopes that its
aims and mission have been better defined
through his agency for many who would otherwise
have misapprehended them both.
The thirtieth birthday of The Christian Nation
is a noteworthy anniversary. Its tone is never
uncertain and its sincerity carries conviction.
The work it does is valuable and even those
who dissent most widely from its positions must
wish well to so doughty an antagonist, for it is
both chivalric and courteous, even when most
indignant. The aims it presents for consideration
seem beyond a doubt to be Covenanter aims
and its columns unquestionably clarify the mind
as to how the mission of that Church is best to
be accomplished. Mindful of the fact that preliminary
discussion as to the launching of the
enterprise took place in the home of the writer's
,father, he gladly contributes his congratulations
and expresses his best wishes for continued success.
ly all present, which It Christian that in well, nations that season »M there all may and yet times be should out pr^ctige ostensibly and of be season particularly th§ a ancl denomination
mreminds m professed­
horrid us the
A FAMILY PAPER.
cruelties. Unbelief and paganism declaim about
the collapse of Christian civilization: we need
to be emphatically reminded how imperfect and
lamentably deficient as regards its real Christianity
is the system we have dubbed by that name,
[Dr. Josiah Strong
alike as to the organism and its component individuals.
In this age of cruel and gigantic warfare
there is need for a body of clear minded
men who hold themselves remote in protest;
and iterate, reiterate, and repeat that the morality
of nations should approach closely to that of tho
Christian man and remove itself as far as possible
from the pagan standard of pure selfishness.
This is what the National Reform of the Covenanters
has meant to me. it is extremely doubtful
how far the analogy between the individual
and the state can be carried. A nation cannot
love a nation; one nation may not despise another
nation; there is no social "self" for which
a nation may or has the right to make sacrifices. Churches.
But if the overwhelming majority of its people
are just, let us say: a nation through its magistrates
will act justly. And so on through tho
list of personal virtues. To raise the Christian
standard, to rally about it. and to define
how far the state, like the man, has a conscience
to direct and a soul to be saved: this is a great
mission for those who feel themselves called to
bear witness Government may go a long way
on the rqad to self-denial, how far and in what
name
We were taught that there is a Lord ol Hosts
as there is. a God of Peace and that in a just
cause,, or one which we believe to be just, the
final appeal when all else fails is to arms. The
divine purpose was not to be questioned: for the
great v/heels of providence v/ere beyond the
grasp of a finite mind, even the purest and most
intelligent. If there be one lesson of the Pauline
epistles clearer than another, it is that man is
in duty bound to plan and propose and do his
stern and awful duty as he sees it: but that
the resultant disposal is in the hands of a higher
power. Never more than now "was the task
of asserting this more definite or imperative;
and I can think of no organization more likely
than the Covenanters to perform its share. To
behave also with cheerful resignation, to accept
the decision, to exercise charity for those we do
not know intimately or clearly understand, to
take courage and go lorward, in short to set a
good example of faith and trust,, the high profession
of the Covenanter seems to mean just this
when put into practice.
THE MAN WHO BROUGHT CHRIST TO THE
INDIANS.
We sometimes can measure the value of anything
that has served us by figuring how we
would get along without it—what difference
would it make if it were dropped out ol our lives,
or il its aid were withdrawn from the work we
are trying to do. It the Covenanter Church were
to measure the "Christian Nation" by this rule
we would soon realize its value to us as a Church.
As we remember its weekly visits into the hundreds
of homes and the wholesome truths and
the high standard ol doctrines that it has maintained
and what this teaching has mean to peo
pie that are now middle aged, and to all the youth,
we are led to congratulate the paper that can meet
the close ol its thirtieth year in such vigorous
health When we think ol the number of papers
that within that time have started out with what
seemed to be a mission and abundant resource
and yet have failed, we appreciate more fully the
ability of the one who has guided the paper
through all these years. . .„ ^ -
As intimation comes that it will soon stana
alone in our denomination, not only as a purveyor
of news but also in the public maintenance
of the testimony of the Church in journalistic
form we can with all heartiness wish it great
m-osneritv in the years to come. And so on
this Wrthday I wish it well, and it and its Editor
many happy returns, ^^^^^^, C4R{THRRS,
DISCIPLING THE NATIONS.
By Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D.
was Secretary of
the Evangelical Alliance
for tiie United
States fum 1886
to 1898. During
these twelve years
he was probably the
greatest single force
in America for the
promotion of evangelical
religion,
and under his leadership
observance
of the Week of
Prayer became a fixed custom in all Protestant
Since 1898 he has been President of
the American Institute of Social Service, and in
1904 he was called to England to aid in organizing
the British Institute of Social Service. He is
distinguished as "one who loves his fellow man,"
and his life is a life of great service. He is preeminently
a Christian patriot, and an author ot
books teaching the very highest standard of civic
righteousness, as "Our Country," "The New Era,"
"The Twentieth Century City," "Religious Movements
for Social Betterment," "The Next Great
Awakening." Most of these have had an enormous
sale. Previous to his coming into national and
international prominence. Dr. Strong was a successful
pastor and home mission worker. His
gifts of oratory keep him in constant demand,,
and his remarkable knowledge and skill in handling
social problems make the pages of his monthly
magazine, "The Gospel of the Kingdom," indispensable
to all who would help lift the world
out of the darkness and utter misery of sin.—
Editor.]
The story is told of General Mahone, who
was a very small man, that when on one occasion
he was asked how much he weighed, he replied:
"I weigh 100 pounds, but 95 of it is backbone."
I think that is about the relative proportion
of spinal column in the anatomy of Tho
Christian Nation. The fact that it has remained
unchanged in name and purpose, and even in
form,, price, location and management, for a
period of thirty years illustrates a tenacity ot
grip which is as admirable as it is rare.
To the man who says "This one thing I do,"
and who does it for thirty years,. I take off my
hat, even if his aim is commonplace. It is really
a great thing to organize a life and concentrate
its entire force on a single objective for a generation,
regardless of the numberless distractions
of our times. And when that purpose is
disinterested and noble, such persistent struggle,
triumphant over enormous obstacles, commands
my reverence. That is the kind of thing that
God admires.
The aim of The Christian Nation has been the
highest. No nation can be called Christian
whose supreme object is itself. National selfishness
is as ungodly,, as anti-Christian, as is individual
selfishness. The kingdom of heaven cannot
come in the earth until the nations become
co-laborers together with God for that end, subordinating
national policies to world welfare. Dr.
Roswell D. Hitchcock once said that the great
need of the times was the Christianizing of
Christendom. But Christendom can never be
Christianized until its constituent nations have
been Christianized. Por many centuries the only
international law was that of might—
"* * * The good old rule
Sufficeth them—the simple plan
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can."
Some progress is shown by the fact that the
nations engaged in the present unspeakable war
recognize that it is blameworthy, and seek to
shift the responsibility for it. A growing respect
for nations of mor'" the respect United opinion are anxious for States; of American mankind to but secure so is opinion long the encouraging. moral as th.ag they support for have The pi-