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birth “ stands between” him and that “ touch" —throw it after Jonah. W e do not charge this writer with these heresies, but his creed as quoted is heretical, we suppose he has thoughtlessly fallen into the current gospel that truth is true if it “ saws wood.” A creed, which 75 years ago would have erased the lightning, if it could. First get your facts, then make your creed; and the more facts the longer your creed, and there fore the richer your faith. Formulate your creed with the-facts, and let your tastes take care of themselves. The press reports Mr. Reynold E. Blight, successor to B. Fay Mills in the Los An-, geles Fellowship, an ethical, not evangeli cal, organization, as discoursing on “ Why, When, and How I Pray.” He says, it is reported, “I do not believe in special provi dences.” -, . . “ I do not hope to change the mind of God by my prayer, I know that earnest aspiration changes my own thought, purifies my own desires, and enables^ me to perceive the direction of the divine pur pose,” etc. We remember a Mr. Milne, successor at Chicago to the eloquent Unitarian, Robt. Colyer. Mr. Milne, instead of leading his congregation in public prayer, said, “ I will now commune a few moments with my own soul,” and closed his eyes. It was too much for even a Unitarian congregation and Mr. Milne took to the stage. Such “ praying” is not a “laying hold on God” but on one’s boot-straps. As to God—He may be “ talk ing,” or “pursuing,” or “ in a journey,” or “peradventure” asleep, nor can we say “ He must be awaked” (1 Kings 18:27). Je hovah or Baal—rwhat matter? there will be neither fire nor water from either, 'nor would a Yerkes’ tube discover so much as a “ little cloud,” certainly none “like a man’s hand” outstretched with mercy. But the preacher to the “Fellowship” (Mr. Blight is not here criticized, in par ticular, but the school of popular pulpit oratory which he represents) is consistent, where in another reported address, he de-
David danced to the temple, and Ridley to the stake; an increasing number of.pas tors propose to dance the young folks to church; to use the fiddle to “pay the fid dler.” In his “ Thinking Black,” Crawford tells of a Congo woman, a tried convert, whom he found whirling off a jig in fine shape. Calling her to task she answered, in all sincerity, that, “ It was praise coming out of her toes!” Why not? It is pos sible that the dance might prove a means of grace spiritually as well as physically, but we have seen more devilment than praise, and more disgrace than grace “ com ing out o f the toes” in this country. Church tango is world-tangle, and the Church like the Government should avoid “ entangling alliances.” “ The Preacher” of old meant the exact opposite of the “modern” preach er when he said, “Keep thy feet when thou goest to the house of God.” No, Mr. Preacher, the Cross has more drawing power than the dance, and the two really have not much in common—now have they ? Emperor William has prohibited the new dances in the imperial theater, and ordered military officers of the German army not to dance them while in uniform. They aré manifestly a disgrace to the Christian uni form. A writer in the Pacific' Presbyterian says, “If a creed helps us nearer into the pres ence of God, It is good; if it stands as a barrier, it is not good. If a ceremony draws us closer within the Divine Presence, it is good; if it stands between us and our soul’s throbbing touch on God, it is not good. . We have no substitute for the direct, illuminat ing, warming Divine influence playing, with out mediary, upon pur souls.” Sounds pretty, does it not? Just gush, "throbbing,” "warming,” “ influence play ing," gish, “without mediary.” It is. dog matic enough for a creed, but “ not good," for it sets up no " throbbing" in our soul; it gets us not “ into the presence of God.” W e are old-fashioned and need a creed; a “ mediary," something t r u e , whether we would have invented it or not. As for our friend, perchance, the Blood does not help him—it is no good; the Jonah story does not appeal to him—no good; the Virgin
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