THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S impulse' eventually to give up all of these.”—Dr. Briggs, Edinburgh. V ital to Us All The Virgin B irth is not, as some would have it, a mere question as to whether I, as a scientific man, may ac cept such a doctrine, because no sim ilar phenomenon has come w ithin the ex perience of the human race in any authenticated instance. Indeed, if in rare occasional instances a virgin birth could be shown to have occurred, then th e Scripture claim, as to Christ’s di vine descent w o u ld 'a t once lose all value, v Back of th is much discussed subject, inseparably connected w ith it,
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lies th e fundam ental question whether God, having made man, and seeing no other way of saving him, could become his Redeemer by tak ing m an’s natu re upon Himself, in order as the champion and new head of our race to meet and overcome" m an’s g reat adversary. It is in brief, afte r all the question w hether God is in th e m atter a t all or not. He who denies the V irgin B irth Of our Lord offhand commits the gross logical erro r of begging th e question, for he assumes a t th e outset as impos sible th a t which is to be proved.— Howard A. Kelly, M. D., LL. D., P ro fessor a t John Hopkins’ University, U. S. A.
Modern Gospel Songs A Thoughtful Discussion of the Situation Regarding Gospel Music and Song Publishing By HERBERT G. TOVEY these days of new
in th is case was p art of a camp meet ing. P rom the inside of the te n t came the singing of a popular Gospel song, while on the outside of th e same tent, and only a few yards away, I saw a num ber of young people having the tim e of th eir lives dancing a waltz to th e time and tun e of th e singing of th a t song.” He named th e song, and after reciting the words, sang the melody. I t was a perfect example of divorcement be tween words and music. The words of the stanza were of the most sombre and sad kind, picturing woe and failure, such as would call for a m inor melody, or of repeated notes on the same pitch; instead, however, th e music was simply a light jig in waltz time appealing g reat ly to the senses. This song is much in demand, especially among young people. Why? A Gospel song comes to my mind th a t
Lt in religion, much is said in defense of the le Gospel, b u t com
paratively very little in defense of pure Gospel song. It cannot be denied th a t there is a class of Gospel songs in com mon use today the influence of which does not tend to th e defense of the Gos pel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, or to the sincere consecration of th e individual to God. Not only are these songs musically ligh t and doctrin- ally Weak, bu t they do not exhibit any unity between the words and music. Recently a prom inent man in one of th e leading denom inations said to a gathering of people who were studying fo r Christian service, “ It is my privilege and duty to visit many young people’s meetings. Only a few days ago I ap proached one of these gatherings, which
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