Christian Nation Vol. 18 1893 - Rparchives.org

Mar. ], 1893.A FAMILY PAPEE.TheWeek.—Mrs. H. S. Pritchard has been appointed StateSuperintendent of theDepartment of Purity in Literatureand Art in conneotion with the W. C. T. U. forthe State of New Tork. She has started her work inthis Department by a movement on behalf of Purity inthe exhibits of art at the World's Fair.—News has come to us that Dr. Metheny has purchasedfrom the American Board Missionaries at Adaua,Tarsus, a building for Mission purposes. The buildingis 100x40 feet and costs only $3100. He appealsto the church to sustain him in this movement of missionextension. It is the Lord's work.—On Wednesday, Washington's Birthday anniversary,the President of the United States hoisted thestars and stripes on the S, S, City of New Tork, onher becoming a Tankee ship. She is the firstof theocean liners to flythe American flag. She is to runwith her sister the Oity of Paris as an Americanmailer from New Tork to Southampton.—A New Tork chemist before the whiskey trust investigationat Washington, testified that he had examinedsome of the essences and essential oils used incompounding spirits. Some of them were poisonousand would cause death if a tablespoonful of them weretaken. All were hurtful to health.—In consequence of the destruction of crops byfrost last summer famine and disease are now preva.lent throughout Finland. More than 200,000 are dependentupon charity. They have eaten most of theirdraught animals and pets. Typhus fever is carryingoff hundreds daily,—Lady Henry Somerset, President of the W, C.T. U,, desiies to enlarge the activity of the organization,and to this end "jas secured the appointment of alarge executive oommittee. She is star,ting a papercalled The Woman's Herald which will be an exponentof the broader policy of the world's W, 0. T. U,—The Populist administration is preparing for acomplete overhauling of the state militia. The Eepublicanoflicers are to be discharged and the organizationof the army oonfiued to Populists. This portendsevil times,—This week has seen the worst storm that hascome for years. Great damage has been done by windand snow in several states, and the railroad lines havebeen broken up, rendering travel almost impossible.Many dwelling houses are in ruins. The ocean hasnot been exempt, incoming steamers reporting theexcessive severity of weather. Europe has been sweptby a severe storm of wind and rain. Australia inseveral places is flooded.—Wazen in Morocco has been attacked by a bandof rebels. The citizens permitted them to enter thecity, closed the gates and attacked the rebel forces.The streets were scenes of dreadful carnage for severalhours.—General Beauregard died at his home in NewOrleans on Feb. 20th. He figuredas a brigadier inthe Confederate army during the Civil War. He ledthe Confederates in the bombardment of Fort Sumterand at Bull Eun, After the death of General Johnsonhe assumed chief command.—The pealing of the church bells at Eome an-,nounced the celebration of the Pope's Episcopal jubilee.Thousands of pilgrims have thronged St.Peter's, led by the cardinalate from different countriesto pay homage to Leo XIII. Ihe display in the palaceand the gorgeous ceremonials in the cathedral, arem marked contrast with the unpretending humilityof the Ohrist, whom the Pope claims to represent onearth.^ —Dr. Sanday, of Oxford, England, has puolished aBfrmon preached before the University of Cambridgein which he discusses what he calls the " Social move-[inent,'' Dr. Sanday is well known to the ohurch asone of the ablest living theologians. He does notthink that the Christian teacher is, as such, compelledto enforce rights. If anv class of our social order oppresses another elass, then if the case be clear, theChristian teacher may go to the oppressor and remonstratewith him. He may urge the claims of dutyupon the offending class; but he is not concerned as aChristian to go to the class aggrieved, emphasize theirgrievance and help them to prosecute it. Christianitvprefers, Dr. Sanday says, to speak thus to the injured individuals—"Blessed are ye that hunger now, for yeshall ba filled.Blessed are ye that weep now, for yeshall laugh," " Far better," he goes on, "to be defraudedthan to defraud; far bettor to be oppressedthan to oppress; far better to suffer wrong than to dowrong," This doctrine is to be commended to thosewho are rapidly transforming the idea of the church ;conceiving (he church to be rather a social institutionthan a spiritual society, the home of God's people, andthe centre of priestly service. It is time to return tothe standpoints of the New Testament and the subapostolicage. The cry is raised, back to the Catholicfold—churches are everywhere conforming to the ritualof what is called the historic episcopate, but suchmen are frequently most unoatholio in thought andspeech. We hope that Presbyterianism will go backto the New Testament, avoiding the vagaries andunoatholio tendencies of High churchism and the individualistictemper of church socialism,REVIEW OF THE WEEK,In the Chrisiian at Work for Feb, 23, the followingappears: "With reference to the subject of instructingtheologioal students to preach without theuse of the manuscript treated recently in our editorialcolumns, the Eev. F. M. Foster, pastor of the thirdE, P. churoh this oity writes aa follows :Editor Christian at Work : It is with satisfactionI have read your editorials on "The Sermon Paperand the Seminary," They are strong arguments andon right lines. May your voice be lifted until everyminister in the land has read your words. I am gladto say that there is now one Seminary where " Homileticsis taught to the exclusion of tha Sermon Paper,''viz: the Eeformed Presbyteriau, Allegheny, Pa.The students in attendance on Seminary are taughtto preach without using the Manuscript, We werepleased to read the vigorous defence of preaching ashanded down from the apostles of Ohrist, Bt-centlya great many periodicals, on the other side of the Atlanticas well as on this side, have been taking up theapologetic on behalf of read sermons. The puerilearguments used to establish such a sophistical conclusionreminded us of the sarcasm of a little stcry,A minister happened to drop in unawares upon an oldman who was sitting reading at his Bible, The parsoninnocently asked the aged man, " What are youpleads with the members of the coming Assembly todrop the heresy trials. Its argument is that furtherargumention is undesirable, b.cause the questions atissue are in regard to the recent light thrown uponthe fieldof theology by scholarship and criticism ; andto forbid such fresh discoveries in the fieldof Divinityis to impair the efficiency of ths pulpit and the seminary—infact it is to chase out of the church the foremostthinkers of the age, who have gone farthest intheir critical investigations. It seems to ns that sucha plea, coming as it professes from the friends of truth,is self contradictory. We dispute the premises andthe conclusion. We are willing to acknowledge in itsfullest extent the progressive oharacter of divine revelationand the increasing light thrown upon everydepartment of thought by the lapse of ages, but wehave not yet learned that any science has given fullplay to faucy, or haa permitted human hypothesis totake tbe place of ascertained facts and truths ; norhave we been able to learn that any branch of knowledgedeserving the name has long survived when itset up human reason as the infallible idol of its adoration.We do not eveu grant that the bast and mostprofound intellects of the age have joined the ranksof the higher criticism. Some bold and daring spiritshave gone where even angels fear to tread and theyhave pointed the pathway to others; but the mostcultured minds as well as the most sympathetic heartshave been led on by the inspiring genius of the Spiritof Ohrist to decipher inscriptions, to rake among theruins of antiquity aud to read the story of geography,history, ethnology and geology, only to return to thesolid plane to feel that when they stand on the graniterook of fche Holy Scripture they find an impregnablefoundation. This is an age of unrest. But wehave no fearforthe Bible and its holy truths. Ifc oamethrough the firesof persecution, rose above the hydraheadederrorism of early apostacy, preserved itselffrom the decay and obliteration that destroyed everyhuman institution, and it will outlive the attacks of afierce hypocritical and secularizing spirit that is takingpossession of the leaders in the vd,n of modernthought.* **Thomas Carlyle wrote these solemn words that maybe reckoned as a true judgment regarding the men oftoday: " The duty assigned to GoJ by the prtsentgeneration is merely to keep the whtels of the physicaluniverse going sweetly. Moral supervision on thepart of Deity is deemed a superfluous intrusion."Our ears tingle from day to day as we hear professedlyChristian men talking of secular and civil affairsas if man alone had any right to be consulted in suchmatters. We cannot conceive of any situation in life,of any organization among men, or of any duty eitherdoing today?" "I'm prophesying,' was the curt owed or performed, that onght not to sustain somereply, "Why, what do you mean," said the pastor. definite relationt.,) God in Heaven, and His representativein human affairs, Jesus Christ. " Duty has noThe quaint reply wfls, "Gin readin' a sermon ispreachin', readin' a prophecy will b» prophesyin', " meaning and no sanction except as implying responsibilityto a powtr above and beyond humanity." ItThe reply needs no comment. It seems to the writerthat there are only two excuses for the distasteful is a mystery to us how a man can initiate himstlf intohabit of reading sermons, either pure and simple care­lessness and neglect of preparation, or else a timidity I hood ; how a Christian oan sell his freedom of con-a secret order that takes away tbe liberty of his manthatis afraid to trust to the promise of God's Holy I science to get a place in a corrupt political party, orSpirit. Iu the former case, negligence becomes a 1 J3in a municipal ring that has as ? obief end of existsinon the part of a servant of Jesus Christ ; in the I ence tbe completion of acts of jobbery.latter case want of trustfulness is a barrier to the effl­cient performance of the highest and noblest work I *,f,* At a meeting of the Northern Presbytery of the—among men. A man who has the Holy Spirit in theI E. i'. ohurch, Ireland, Feb. 14th, the Eev. Jamesi L'ttlejohn, father of Eev. Wm. and J. M. Littlejohnwriting of a sermon, will likewise receive the Spiriti resigned his charge of the congregation of Garvagh.in the delivery of it, if he but lay claim to the ascensiongift of the risen Lord. " The gift of tongues": Presbytery expressed its admiration of his services toj thechurch. fle has preached iu Ireland for seventeenis the perpetual promised miracle of the ministry of1 years. Prior to his settlement in Ireland he praachedChrist, and itis surely worth the asking and the usingI for sixteen years in 8o(3tla!id, and is the only livingwhen gifted so mercifully.• minister of the church who t > k part in the famous*disruption of 1863. ^^^^__Two HUNDRED and thirty fiveministers of the Presbyterianohurch have presented a plea for peace. It Milk train in coll'sion; no milkman turns np ; disap­SERIOUS RAILWAY ACCIDENT,pointed housekeepers ; coffee without cream A pettyannoyance resulting from a neglect to keep the GailBordin Eagle Brand Condensed Milk in the house.Order now for future exigencies fiom Grocer orDruggist,