King's Business - 1924-03

T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S

143:

Whÿ We Cannot Keep Silent Dr. John Murdoch Maclnnis, Professor of Philosophy of the Christian Religion, Bible Institute of Los Angeles

RECENT number of The Forum contains an ar­ ticle by a young theologue showing why a certain class of perspective prophets, of which he is a representative, are silent in the war that now rages between “the older liberals and the fundamental­ ists.” It is difficult to make out just why he thinks they are silent but if the article is a true representation of their real state of mind it is quite obvious to the discerning mind that there are several very definite reasons why their sil­ ence should be religiously continued. The First Requisite of a True Prophet In the first place they are either inadequately informed or unduly prejudicial so that they are not able to state fairly the positions held by men with whom they evidently intensely disagree in thought. No man is ready for the public forum until he is capable of adequately and fairly stating his opponent’s position on, this question under dis­ cussion. The power to intelligently and sympathetically understand the other man’s point of view is one of the first requisites in a true prophet. The Immodesty of Immaturity In the second place they are evidently incapable of ap­ preciating that a man may widely differ from them in his conclusions concerning these great facts of life and still have genuine convictions. It is, to say the very least, some­ what immodest in a young man to speak of the convictions of his fellows who are consistently standing for what they honestly believe to be the truth as “what they convince themselves is conviction.” In other words, they assume that their opponents are either incapable of real thinking and a true judgment, or that they are dishonest and are merely trying to convince themselves that they have a con­ viction when as a matter of fact they have none. That at­ titude of mind makes impossible a prophetic utterance and is another reason why their silence should be continued. Confused and Afraid In the third place this is a frank confession of confusion and lack of conviction which is a most conclusive reason why their silence should not be broken. They are earnestly studying the problems of the world,—the situation in the Rhur, in Russia, in the oil fields and coal fields at home and bearing “the weary weights of this unintelligible world’s worries” and are bewildered by its sorrows. They have turned in their perplexity to Thorndyke, James, Wood- worth, Hobson, Angell, Russell and Holmes for an explana­ tion and solution of these world tragedies but they frankly say “we have not yet got those causes sewed up in our minds.” In other words, “we don’t know.” One of them has come to realize that there is “something that matters,” but he frankly says “I am afraid to speak about it.” Con­ fused and afraid! However they do know that the “older ministers are choked with the mere mechanics of pastoral work” and “utterly fail to face with insight the issue of in­ dustrial democracy” and that the virgin birth, blood atone­ ment and the verbal infallibility of the Scriptures are dead issues—“as dead as those battled over in the Civil War”— but if we can at all trust the public press, they are the livest “dead issues” we have ever known anything about. Many still hold a place on the front page in some of the leading newspapers in this country as well as other coun­ tries. The rehash of these great and new issues!?) with

which these budding preachers are perplexed puts us in mind of a remark made by the late Professor James Denny of Glasgow in a review of a new publication by a group of young Cambridge scholars. He said “This talk about new ideas and problems is very wearisome to a man who has been reading and studying about them for more than thirty years.” ' Mr. Hunter speaks sarcastically and unkindly about the Bible Institute, but some of us have been earnestly facing these problems for a good many years and are quite fa­ miliar with the different authors referred to by Mr. Hunter; and over against the confusion, the confessed lack of con­ viction which characterizes this group and are a most conclusive reason for protracted silence, we want to state in a word or two the reasons “Why we cannot be silent.” We are just as sympathetically and intimately conscious of the world’s great need and tragedy as are our young friends. We have long and most laboriously studied the great authorities ancient and modern regarding these prob­ lems of human life and thinking and we have come to a clear-cut conviction on certain things. The Cause First, We are positive that at the heart of every great problem—personal, social, national and international, is sin. Men, communities and nations have problems because they are wrong in their attitude towards God. We are wholly and most profoundly convinced that no personal, so­ cial or world problem that is before men at this time can be solved until men find God and are willing to go His way. That is a burning conviction with us which comes from a prolonged and practical study of these problems and we simply cannot keep silent about it. Men suffer because they are wrong with God and we must tell them about it. The Remedy Second, We have also carefully studied the different remedies offered for the world’s malady from Plato’s Re­ public to Prof. Elwood’s last book on “The Social Nature of the Gospel” and we are now most thoroughly convinced that there is only one thing that can heal the running sore of humanity—the life of God mediated through Christ who was born of a virgin and died on the Cross as a ran­ som for many and was raised on the third day for the jus­ tification of those who dare to believe on Him as God mani­ fest in the flesh. We are thoroughly convinced that the good news of this Christ is the power of God unto salva­ tion and that it would be a crime for us to keep silent con­ cerning it in the presence of the world’s challenging need. We are not simply trying to convince ourselves that this is conviction. We know it is conviction and we have no apology to offer any one for speaking forth the conviction wherever opportunity offers. Mr. Hunter may think that this is a delusion but we know that it is not.

“Let those refuse to speak Who never knew our Lord, But children of the heavenly King Must speak their joys abroad."

It seems to us that anything like a thorough and sympa­ thetic study of history and recent literature will bear out these conclusions. We could easily fill pages with illustra­ tions of this fact, however we will content ourselves with the testimony of one man which is very much to the point.

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