DECEMBER, 1916
No. 12
VOL. VII
The King’s Business
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“ Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.“ — Rev. 1:5
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Published once a month by the BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.
O N E D O L L A R A Y E A R
aTIr?¡¡¡¡Ilf litfitnrss MOTTO: " l the Lord do keep It, I will water it every moment lest any hurt it, Twill keep it night and day.“—Isa, 27:3. R. A . TORREY, D .D „ Editor T. C HORTON. J. H. HUNTER, W ILLIAM EVANS, D .D ., Associate Editors A. M . ROW, Managing Editor Published by the BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES, Inc. Los Angeles, California, U. S. A. Entered as Second*Class Matter November 17, 1910» at the postoffice at Los Angeles» Cal.» under the Act of March 3, 1879. Copyright by R. A. Torrey. D. D.» and Bible Institute of Los Angeles, tor the year 1916.
DIRECTORS
Lyman Stewart, president. William Thorn, secretary. T. C. Horton, superintendent.
R. A . Torrey, vice-president Leon V. Shaw, treasurer.
William Evans.
H. A. Getz.
J. M. Irvine.
Nathan Newby
DOCTRINAL STATEMENT We hold to the Historic Faith of the Church as expressed in the Common Creed of Evangelical Christendom and including: The Trinity of the Godhead. The Deity of the Christ.
The Maintenance of Good Works. The Second Coming of Christ. The Immortality of the Spirit. The Resurrection of the Body. The Life Everlasting of Believers. The Endless Punishment of the Im penitent. The Reality and Personality of Satan. (7 ) Bible Women. House-fo-house visitation and neighborhood classes. (8) Oil Fields. A mission to men on the oil fields. (9 ) Books and Tracts. Sale and dis tribution of selected books and tracts. (10) Harbor Work. For seamen at Los Angeles harbor. (I I) Yokefellows’ Hall. Thoroughly manned. Our Mission for men with Street Meetings, and Bootblacks and Newsboys Sunday School. (12) Print Shop. For printing Testa ments, books, tracts, etc. A complete establishment, profits going to free dis tribution of religious literature.
The Personality of the Holy Ghost. The Supernatural and Plenary au thority of the Holy Scriptures. The Unity in Diversity of the Church, 1 the Body and Bride of Christ. The Substitutionary Atonement. The Necessity of the New Birth. P i/iw ic/j • The Institute trains, free rllrpube . cost, accredited men and womens in the knowledge and use of the Bible, n ; , | ( I ) The Institute Departments: classes held daily except on Saturdays and Sundays. (2) Extension work. Classes and conferences held in neighboring ¿ities and towns. (3) Evangelistic. Meetings conducted by our evangelists. (4) Spanish Mission. Meetings every night. (5) Shop Work. Regular services in shops and factories. (6) Jewish Evangelism. Personal work among the Hebrews.
SCOPE OF THE WORK
THE KING’S BUSINESS Vol. VII. DECEMBER, 1916 No. 12 TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial: Cause and Effect— A Divorce Sunday— Christmas Number— Trained Workers Needed— Christmas and War— Country Evangelism— Plans for the Next Year— Where Have You Failed?— An Authorized Version— Helpless Dependence Upon Evangelists ..........................................,............................. 1059 Ours in the F ie ld ......................................................................... 1064 Is There a G od? By Rev. Thomas Whitelaw, M. A ., D. D. 1065 Seattle Auxiliary Institute................... ................ ...................... 1072 Protestant American Evangelistic League. By Mark A. Matthews, D. D ................................................... ........... ... 1073 Tenting by the Cross. By Rev. Campbell Coyle.................. 1076 Home and Abroad............................_......................................... 1077 Message o f the Bells. (P oem )................................................ 1080 Jesus the Wonderful. By Dr. R. A. Torrey............................ 1081 The Institute Family..................................._...................|..... ..... J086 Shansi Bible Institute. Mrs. F. C. H. Dreyer......................... 1090 Puzzling Passages and Problems............................................... 1092 Through the Bible with Dr. Evans............................................ 1093 Evangelistic Department. By Bible Institute Workers......... 1099 Homiletical Helps. By William Evans................................... 1107 International Sunday School Lessons. By R. A. Torrey and T. C. H orton .......................... ................. ......................... 1111 Daily Devotional Studies in the New Testament for Indi vidual Meditation and Family Worship. By R. A. Torrey .................................... ........................ ..................... 1128
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE United States and its Possessions, Mexico, Canada and point! itral American Postal Union, $ I per year. In all other fore countries, $1.24 (5s. 2d.). Single copies, 10 cents. Receipts sent on request. See date on address tag. “Sept. 16” means Expires Sept. 1916, etc. PUBLISHED BY THE BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES 536-558 SOUTH HOPE STREET LOS ANGELES, CAL.
A CHRISTMAS GIFT SUBSCRIBE FOR The King’s Business FOR YOUR BEST FRIEND
CENTER— DR. R. A. TORREY, EDITOR IN CHIEF ASSOCIATE EDITORS. DR. W ILLIAM EVANS (TOP. LEF t ) J. H. HUNTER (TOP, RIGHT) T. C. HORTON (LOWER, LEFT) MANAGING EDITOR, A. M. ROW IT WILL PROVE A DELIGHT THROUGHOUT THE YEAR $1.00 a year. Foreign $1.24 THE BIBLE INSTITUTE
LOS ANGELES. CAL-
SIXTH AND HOPE STREETS
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DECEMBER, 1916.
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E D I T O R I A L
Cause and Effect.
For twenty centuries, the world over, the Christmas season has been observed. Christmas is an effect—-
, what is its cause? Answer: The birth of the Christ- child—-Immanuel, in Bethlehem of Judea. Twenty centuries of incontrovert ible evidence to the great Christian fact—the Incarnation! ,
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We have Sundays set apart for various purposes, e. g., Temperance Day, Mother’s Day, Children’s Day, Go- to-Church-Sunday. Why not set apart a Sunday on
A Divorce Sunday.
. which every preacher will speak on the subject of divorce. The sacredness of the American home is being undermined by this great American sin. It is America’s crying and burning shame. Shall we not have such a Sunday?
Because of the policy of this magazine in publishing each number a month ahead of the date it bears, in order that our many subscribers in Japan, China, New
Christmas Number.
. Zealand, Australia and other distant lands may receive the magazine by the first day of the month, this issue will reach many of our subscribers early in November. Nevertheless, it is the Christmas Number. O f course we have no good historical reasons for supposing that our Lord Jesus was born on the twenty-fifth of December. But as the great mass of Christians celebrate His birth at that time, our thought will go out, and ought to go out, to His nativity at this time. If we are to celebrate His birth at all, we ought to celebrate.it in a Christian way. It is certain that the average Chris tian (so called) does not celebrate our Lord’s Birth in a Christian way. To many it is a time for the magnifying of an imaginary Santa Claus, rather than tor the glorification of a real Christ Jesus. Far more is heard of Santa'Claus than o f Jesus on this day in the average home. Then it is a day of prodigal waste of our money, which is not really ours but His. We bestow all manner of useless toys and gifts on children and grown-up people, who already have more than is good for them. On the other hand there is little thought of, or ministering to, or sacrificing for, either the children or grown-up people who are perishing for lack of knowledge of Him whose birth we claim to be cele brating. Then, too, the day is given up by many to all manner of forms of gluttony and violence to our bodies, which are temples of the Holy Spirit. Oh for a Christian Christmas! We wish all our readers a holy, and therefore a truly joyous, Christmas.
THE KING’ S BUSINESS The demand'of the foreign field is for men and women of splendid equipment—mental, moral, physical, spirit- ual. Epoch-making, nation-building men and women are needed. Do not Africa, China, India, and the
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Trained Workers
Needed.
other great fields exclaim :
“ Give me men to match my mountains, Give me men to match my plains, Men with empires in their purpose And new eras in their brains ?”
How strangely contradictory and grotesque do these words sound! Christmas —with its bells that chime out peace and goodwill on earth' among the sons of men, with its spirit of giving and good cheer, with its open
Christmas and Waif.
hand and heart of blessing! War —with its clash and clamor of sword and can non, with its clanking of arms and musketry, with its garments dyed in blood, its devastated fields and dwellings, its widows, orphans, and millions of dead and wounded! Could two things be farther apart ? How little impress the Christ spirit has apparently made upon the warring nations of the earth! The chosen nation of Israel failed to bless the world. Then God took the reins of world-influence from the Jew and put them into the hands of the Gentiles, who, likewise, as we see in the present war condition, have failed in their world-mission. There is nothing left now, apparently, but for the Princd of Peace Himself to come and assume the reins of government and rule in right eousness. This is what is foretold in Scripture, what has been looked for dur ing the centuries, and what will soon happen in this hour of “ distress among the nations.” “ Even so, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.” employ them, though certain sections of our large cities, where the poor herd and the foreign element predominate, are sadly neglected. But very little is being done along distinctively evangelistic lines. One of the most distressing things in our modern American life is the way in which so. many of our farmers and their families are growing up without God. In many places the village churches contiguous to the farming communities do not seem to be at all anx ious to get hold of the farmers and their families. Everything in the church life is conducted with a view to the convenience and tastes of the townspeople. But the rural field proves a fertile one for evangelism when it is wisely and faithfully worked. It was our privilege in September to have a. little part in an evangelistic movement among farmers, among the mountains of north eastern Pennsylvania. The country was three or four miles from a borough of 2000 inhabitants, with four thriving Protestant churches. But the churches are ministering for the most part to the people who live in the borough or very close to'it. The campaign was conducted by R. M. Honeyman, who devotes nine months of every year to this kind of work. The meetings were held in a schoolhouse, surrounded by very high hills on every hand. Last winter the There is no dearth of evangelism in our large cities and larger towns and villages. There are plenty of evangelists who are willing to go to these places, and the ministers for the most part seem disposed to Country Evangelism.
THE KING’S BUSINESS 1061 the snow lay five feet deep on a level on these hills, and drifts werd sometimes high as the houses. The houses are very much scattered, but the people are an intelligent and well educated class, largely of New England descent. There were perhaps fifty families that one might hope to reach by the meetings. Mr, Honeyman did not depend entirely upon the meetings in the schoolhouse for results. That was simply the center from which he worked. A thorough house-to-house canvass was made of the district before the meetings began. This canvass was conducted along very clearly defined and wise lines. Mr. Honeyman himself visited in every home, and dealt with individuals there. In many o f his visits he was accompanied by the Presbyterian pastor from the neighboring borough. The schoolhouse was packed with eager hearers. There were I think over forty definite decisions for Christ. These included a number of the leading men of the community. In fact pretty much the whole com munity was won for Christ. A Sunday school was organized, arrangements made for the Presbyterian minister from the borough to conduct a service every Sunday afternoon, and for the converts to join the various churches in the borough, according to their various denominational preferences. The meet ings lasted two weeks. The people gave a free-will offering (and it was really a free-will offering) to Mr. Honeyman of over $50. If this sort of work could be done generally throughout the rural communities of our country it would mean far more for the highest welfare of our land than all these conferences where men are meeting to theorize over the rural problem. Yes, and it would mean more for the cause of Christ than many of these highly-lauded great evangelistic campaigns. As we draw toward the close of 1916, every wise pas- Plans for the tor, and Sunday school superintendent and teacher, Next Year. and other Christian workers will begin to form plans for the coming year. We will learn wisdom from the mistakes and failures of the year that is closing, and plan thoughtfully and carefully not to repeat them during the year that is before us. Two things we must plan for, more and better Bible study, and more and more effective prayer. To these we ought to add, more personal work, and more effective personal work. We ought to plan for these, not only in our own lives, but in the church .as a whole. We should give much thought to organizing our churches for these three things. There is much resolving along these lines in these days, but we need more than mere resolutions—we need planning and organizing, to which we give our most careful and prayerful thought.
There was a day when many Christians were too much given to introspection and self-examination. But that day has passed. O f course one meets now and then some one who, because of ill health or some other
Where Have You Failed?
cause, is morbid; but this is decidedly exceptional. Most of us go hurrying on, never looking back to see and profit by the mistakes of the past. In fact a good many of us don’t think that we have made any mistakes, whatever we did was just the right thing to do. The fact that we did it, proves it. But every one of us has failed at some point during the past year. Let us look very care fully back and see where it was, in order that we may not fail at the same point again. What childish folly it is to go on year after year failing at the
1062 THE KING’S BUSINESS same point. But that is inevitable, unless we take time to stop and look back over the path we have walked, and scrutinize it very closely to see where we have gone astray. We ought to do this at the close of each day, but surely we ought to do it at the close of each year.
Logically, there is no effect without an adequate cause. For many years after the publication of the English and American Revised Version not much demand was made for either. The people seemed satisfied with the King James (Authorized) Version. Conditions are
An Authorized
Version.
changing. A bigger demand is being made for the Revised Versión. More Revised editions are in evidence in the pews of the churches, the class-rooms o f Bible schools and seminaries, and in the homes of the people than ever before, and the number is rapidly increasing. It .is well nigh impossible to expect any longer to have the Scriptures “ read in concert.” Part of the audi ence or class will read from the Authorized and part from the Revised Version. This is confusing and will soon result in the abolition of congregations reading the Bible “ in unison.” Has not the time come when the Protestant Church as a whole should, by selected representative Christian scholars, decide upon a version that shall be an “ authorized” version indeed? We should like to hear from our readers touching this matter. Translations and paraphrases by individuals like Moffat and Weymouth we have in abundance. But we need a Version that is not the work of one individual, but that is the result of the concensus of Christian scholarship of the whole Protestant Church; Shall we have it ? replied, “ I would send for a professional evangelist.” Doubtless that is the way many pastors feel. They are helpless in themselves, and feel that if any thing is to be accomplished in the way of definite soul-saving, an evangelist mush be called in. Now we believe in evangelists, not in all who call themselves evangelists, but in true evangelists, the men whom God has called into that blessed work. What would the church of Christ have done without the Wes- ieys and Moodys, and Finneys, and Nettletons, and many other men? They have gone about from church to church, and from one community to another, preaching the Gospel in an especially direct, pointed and effective way, and have been used of God in marvellously reviving His church, and in the definite conversion of many thousands of the unsaved. But for pastors to be utterly and helplessly dependent upon these men, is unspeakably sad. Every pastor ought to be able to so preach the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit that men would be saved, and every pastor ought to be able to conduct an evange listic campaign in his own church, if the right sort of an evangelist is not avail able. It may be that they have not been taught to do these things in the semi nary. Then let them learn how in some other way. This dependence of pas- The story was told some years ago of a theological Helpless Dependence student who, finding the question on one of his exam- Upon Evangelists. ination papers* “ What would you do, if there should arise among your people a special religious interest?”
THE KING’ S BUSINESS 1063 tors upon evangelists seems to be growing, and it is' time that some one called a ‘halt. Ought pastors with an especial evangelistic gift to leave the pastorate and take up the work of an evangelist ? We receive many letters from men in the pastorate whom God has especially used along evangelistic lines, expressing a more or less definite conviction that they should leave the pastorate and take up general evangelistic work. That some pastors should do this, there can be little doubt, for there is great need of men in evangelistic work who have had experience in the pastorate, and who can therefore better appreciate the pas tor s problems than the men who. are utterly lacking in such experience, and who, therefore, know nothing of the pastor’s problems, though oftentimes they fancy they know all about them better than the man who has been there. But, on the other hand, there is the greatest need of men in the pastorate who have the evangelistic gift. Furthermore the supply of evangelists at the present time seems to be greatly in excess o f the demand. In some parts of the country, evangelists are tumbling over one another in their ravenous desire to get the best fields. Some of them employ advance agents like a theatrical company. The chiefi business of this advance agent seems to be to book the evangelist who employs him in as many fat fields as possible. It really is becoming a scandal. One prominent evangelist thinks of other evangelists as competitors, and speaks of them as “my rivals.” Some evangelists, or their advance agents, have gone so far as to try to get into a field that is already negotiating with another 'evan gelist, by offering especial inducements in their “ financial plan”’ or something else. We heard this summer, and heard very directly, of one evangelist who asked another evangelist what his future engagements were, and having found out, wrote to all those places offering his own services. We read last winter an evangelistic advertisement, sent to us by the evangelist Himself, with no apparent sense of shame, in which he plainly said that his company had never visited a place where any other evangelist had been before him, where his results did not exceed those of any one who had gone before. We happen to know that this statement was a falsehood. We were not surprised to learn later of two cities where this evangelistic troupe began a campaign, where they were requested to close and leave before the intended time of their stay had expired. With this surplus of evangelists and dearth of evangelistic pastors, any man should think long before leaving the pastorite for evanegelistic work. Furthermore, many evangelists who are doing good work in the field to which God has. called them could never succeed at all as pastors. . They have a large enough supply of sermons;: to keep them going, and keep them going well, for three or four, or even six weeks, but then they are all in. As pastors they would be utter failures, as evangelists they are undoubted successes. A pastor should certainly hesitate about giving up a work which he can do and do well, when there are so many doing well the work which he is contemplating, but who could not do his work at all. It takes far greater and more varied gifts to be a successful pastor than to be a successful evangelist.
W --------------------------------------------------------— --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------T * OURS IN THE FIELD ï H UNDREDS o f readers o f T he K ing ’ s B usiness will be pleased to see the accompanying picture, made o f our group o f missionaries at Kijabe, British East A frica, in April o f the present year—the only time all of them have been together. friends in Los Angeles, who expect him here soon, he will be fully restored. The persons in the picture, reading from left to right, are: Front row—Mrs. Tom Han- nay, Mrs. C. T. Youngken, Mrs. Dr. Allen, Mrs. A. Anderson. Second row—Miss
Mr. Hurlburt tand his daughter are now here on furlough, and Mr. and Mrs. C. T. Youngken are visiting Mrs. Youngken’s parents in Lincoln, Neb. Mr. Youngken has been in failing health, but it is hoped that after a protracted visit with his
Flora Pierson, Miss Alta Hurlburt, Miss Betty Pierson, Miss Pauline Fraas. f Back row—J. P. Soderberg, C. T. Youngken, H. Herdman, Charles E. Hurlburt (direc tor), A. Anderson, Dr. Kenneth A. Allen.
ISTHERE ° = A GOD? By
Rev. Thos. Whitelaw, M. A., D. D. Kilmarnock, Scotland
HETHER or not there is a ■supreme personal intelligence, infinite and eternal, omnipo tent, omniscient and omni present, the Creator, upholder
hardly do to pass by this bold and confix dent negation by simply saying that the theoretical atheist is an altogether excep tional specimen o f humanity, aijd that his audacious utterance is as much the out come o f ignorance as o f impiety. When one meets in the “ Hibbert Journal” from the pen o f its editor such a statement as this: “ Society abounds with earnest and educated persons who have lost faith in a living personal God, and see their fellows and foresee themselves passing out o f life entirely without hope,” and when Blatch- ford in the English “ Clarion” writes: “There is no Heavenly Father watching tenderly over us, His creatures, He is the baseless shadow o f a wistful dream,” it becomes apparent that theoretical atheism is not extinct, even in cultured circles, and that some observations with .regard to it may still be needful. Let these observa tions be the following: 1. Belief that there is no God does not amount to a demonstration that no God is. Neither, it is true, does belief that God is prove the truth o f the proposition except to the individual in whose heart that belief has been awakened by the Divine Spirit. T o another than him it is destitute o f weight as an argument in support o f the theistic position. At the same time it is o f importance, while conceding this, to
and ruler o f the universe, immanent in and yet transcending all things, gracious and merciful, the Father and Redeemer o f mankind, is surely the profoundest pro blem that pan agitate the human mind. Lying as it does at the foundation o f all man’s religious' beliefs—as to responsi bility and duty, sin and salvation, immor tality and future blessedness, as to the possibility o f a revelation, o f an incarna tion, of a resurrection, as to the value of prayer, the credibility o f miracle, the real ity o f providence—with the reply given to it are bound up not alone the temporal and eternal happiness o f the individual, but also the Welfare and progress o f the race. Nevertheless, to it have been returned the most varied responses. The Atheist, for example, asserts that there is no God. The" Agnostic professes that he cannot tell whether there is a God or not. The Materialist boasts that he does not need a God, that he can run the universe without one. The (Bible) Fool wishes there was no God. The Christian answers that he cannot do without a God. I. The Answer of the Atheist "There is no God."—In these days it will
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emphasize the fact that disbelief in the existence o f a Divine Being is not equiv alent to a demonstration that there is ncy God. 2. Such a demonstration is from the nature o f the case impossible. Here again it may be true as Kant contends that rea son cannot demonstrate (that is, by logic) the existence o f God; but it is equally true, as the same philosopher admits, that rea son can just as little disprove the existence o f God. It was well observed by thp late Prof. Calderwood o f Edinburgh University that “the divine existence is a truth so plain that it needs no proof, as it is a truth so high that it admits o f none.” But the situation is altered when it comes to a positive denial o f that existence. The idea Of God once formed in the mind, whether as an intuition or as a deduction, cannot be laid aside without convincing evidence that it is delusive and unreal. And such evidence canhqt be produced. As Dr. Chalmers long ago observed, before one can positively assert that there is no God, he must arrogate to himself the wisdom and ubiquity o f God. He must explore the entire circuit o f the universe to be sure that no God is there. He must have inter rogated all the generations o f mankind and all the hierarchies o f heaven to be cer tain they had never heard o f a God. In short, as Chalmers puts it, “ For màn not to know .God, he has only to sink beneath thè level o f our common nature. But to deny God he must be God himself.” 3. Denial of the divine existence is,not warranted by inability to discern traces of God’s presence in the universe. Prof. Huxley, who once described himself in a letter to Charles Kingsley as “ exactly what the Christian world called, and, so far as he could judge, was justified in call ing him, an atheist and infidel,” appeared to think it was. “I cannot see,” he wrote, “ one shadow or tittle o f evidence that the Great Unknown underlying the phenomena o f the universe stands to us in the relation o f a Father, loves us- and cares for us as Christianity asserts.” Blatchford also with
equal emphasis affirms: “I cannot believe that God is a personal God who interferes in human affairs. I cannot see in science, or in experience, or in history, any signs o f such a God or o f such intervention.” Neither o f these writers, however, it may be presumed, would on reflection advance their incapacity to perceive the footprints or hear the voices o f the Creator as proof that no Creator existed,, any more than a blind man would maintain there was no sun because he could not see it, or a deaf man would contend there was no sound because he never heard it. The incapacity o f Huxley and Blatchford to either see or hear God may, and no doubt does, serve as an explanation o f their atheistical’ creed, but assuredly it is no justification o f the same, since a profounder reasoner than either has said: “ The invisible things of God since the creation o f the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity; so that they [who believe not] are without excuse.” 4. The majority of mankind, not in Christian countries only, but also in hea then lands, from the beginning o f the world onward, have believed in the exist ence o f a Supreme Being. They may fre quently, as Paul says, have “changed the glory o f the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creep ing things;” but deeply seated in their natures, debased though these were by sin, lay the conception o f a Superhuman Power to whom they owed allegience and whose favor was indispensable to their happiness. It was a saying o f Plutarch that in his day a man might travel the world over with out finding a city without temples and Gods; in our day isolated cases have been cited o f tribes-—the Andaman Islanders by Sir John Lubbock, and the Fuegians, by Fitzroy—who have exhibited no signs that they possessed a knowledge either o f God or o f religion. But it is at least open to question , whether the investigators 'on whose testimony such instances are ad-
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vanced did not fail to discover traces o f what they sought either through want o f famil iarity with the language o f the natives, or through -starting with the presupposition that the religious conceptions o f the natives must be equally exalted with their own. In any case, on the principle that excep tions prove the rule, it may be set down as incontrovertible that the vast majority o f mankind have possessed some idea o f a Supreme Being; so that if the truth or falsehood o f the proposition, “ There is no Gbd,” is to be determined by the count ing o f votes, the question is settled in the negative, that is, against the atheist's creed. 11. The Confession of the Agnostic “I cannot tell whether there is a God or not.” —Without dogmatically affirming that there is no God, the Agnostic practically insinuates'that whether there is a God or not, nobody can tell and it does not much matter—that man with his loftiest powers o f thought and reason and with his best appliances o f research, cannot come to speech with God or obtain reliable infor mation concerning Him, can only build up an imaginary picture, like an exaggerated or overgrown man, and call that God—in other words, can only make a God after his own image and in his own likeness without being sure whether any corre sponding reality stands behind it, or even if there’is, whether that reality can be said to come up to the measure o f a Divine Being or be entitled to be designated God. The agnostic does not deny that behind the phenomena o f the universe there may be a Power, but whether there, is or not, and if there is, whether that Power is a Force or a . Person, are among the things unknown and unknowable, so that prac tically, God being outside, and beyond the sphere o f man’s knowledge, it can never be o f consequence whether there be a God or not—it can never be more than a subject o f curious speculation, whether there be inhabitants in the planet Mars or not. As thus expounded, the creed o f the agnostic is open to serious objections. 1. It entirely ignores the spiritual factor
in man’s nature,— either denying the soul’s existence altogether, or viewing it as merely a function o f the body;; or, if regarding it as a separate entity distinct from the body, hnd using its faculties to apprehend and reason about objects, yet denying its ability to discern spiritual real ities. On either alternative, it is contra dicted by both Scripture and experience. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible pro ceeds upon the assumption that man is more than “six feet o f clay,’’ “curiously carved and wondrously articulated,” that “ there is a spirit in man,” and that this spirit has power not only to apprehend things unseen but to come into touch with God and to be touched by Him, or, in Scripture phrase, to see and know God and to be seen and known by Him. Nor can it be denied that man is conscious o f being more than animated matter, and o f having power to apprehend more than comes within the range o f his senses, for he can and does entertain ideas and cherish feel ings that have at least no direct connection with the senses, and can originate thoughts, emotions and volitions that have not been excited by external objects. And as to knowing God, Christian experience attests the truth o f Scripture when it says that this knowledge is no figure o f speech or illusion o f the mind, but a sober, reality. It is as certain as language can make it that Abraham and Jacob, Mqses and Joshua, Samuel and David, Isaiah and Jere miah, had no doubt whatever that they knew God and were known o f H im ; and multi tudes o f Christians exist'today whom it would not be easy to convince that they could not and did not know Godr although not through the medium o f the senses or even o f the pure reason. 2. It takes fo r grunted that things can not be adequately known unless they are fully known. This proposition, however, cannot be sustained in either Science or Philosophy, in ordinary life or in religious experience«- Science knows there is such things as life (vegetable and animal), and force (electricity and magnetism for exam ple), but confesses its ignorance o f what
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1068 life and force are as to their essence^-all that is understood about them being their properties and effects. Philosophy can expound the laws o f thought, but is baffled to unriddle thè secret o f thought itself, how it is excited in the soul by nerve- movements caused by impressions from without, and how it can express itself by originating counter movements in the body. In ordinary life human beings know each other adequately for all practical purposes while aware that in each are depths which the other cannot fathom, each being shut off from the other by what Prof. Dods calls “the limitations o f personality.” Nor is the case different in religious experience. The Christian, like Paul, may have no diffi culty in saying, “ Christ liveth in me,” but he cannot explain to himself or others, how. Hence the inference must be rejected that because the finite mind cannot fully comprehend the infinite, therefore it can not know the infinite at all, and must remain forever uncertain whether there is a God or not. Scripture, it should be noted, does not say that any finite mind can fully find out God; but it does say that men may know God from the things which He has made, and more especially from the Image o f Himself which has been fur nished in Jesus Christ, so that if they fail to know Him, they are without excuse. 3. It virtually undermines the founda tions of morality. For if one cannot tell whether there is a God or not, how can one be sure that there is any such thing as morality? The distinctions between right and wrong which one makes in the regu lation o f his conduct may be altogether baseless. It is true a struggle may be made to keep them up out o f a prudential regard for future safety, out o f a desire to be on the winning side in case there should be a God. But it is doubtful if the imperative “ ought” would long resound within one’s soul, were the conclusion once reached that no one could tell whether behind the phenomena o f nature or o f consciousness there was a God or not. Morality no more than religion can rest on uncertainties.
III. The Boast of the Materialist "I do not need a God, I can run the universe without one ."—Only grant him to begin with an ocean o f atoms and a force to set them in motion and he will forth with explain the mystery o f creation. If we have what he calls a scientific imagina tion, he will let us see the whole process— the molecules or atoms circling and whirl ing, dancing and skipping, combining and dividing, advancing and retiring, selecting partners and forming groups, closing in their ranks and opening them out .again, building up space-filling masses, growing hotter and hotter as they wheel through space, whirling swifter and swifter, till through sheer velocity they swell and burst, after which they break up into fragments and cool down into a complete planetary system. Inviting us to light upon this globe, the materialist will show us how through long centuries, mounting up to millions o f years, the various rocks which form the earth’s crust were deposited. Nay, if we will dive with him to the bottom o f the ocean he will point out the first speck o f dead mat ter that sprang into life, protoplasm, though he cannot tell when or how. Hav ing startled us with this, he will lead us up the Great Staircase o f Nature with its 26 or 27 steps, and tell us how on this step the vegetable grew into an animal, and how after many more steps the animal became a man, and thus the whole evolutionary drama will be unrolled. Concerning this theory o f the universe, however, it is pertinent to make these remarks: 1. Taken at its full value, with unques-l tioning admission o f the alleged scientific facts on which it is based, it is at best only an inference or working hypothesis, which may or may not be true and which certainly cannot claim to be beyond dispute. 2. So far from securing universal acceptance, it has been repudiated by scientists of the highest repute. “ The Kant-Laplace theory o f the origin o f the
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molecules, formerly supposed to be ulti- mates and indivisible, have now been proved by science to be manufactured and capable o f being analyzed into myriads o f electrons; and* it is hardly supposable that they manufactured themselves. Moreover, one would like to know how these atoms or electrons came to attract and repel one another and form combinations, if there was no original cause behind them and no aim before them? I f even matter be con strued as a form o f energy, or force, the difficulty is not removed, since force in its last analysis is the output o f will and will implies intelligence or conscious person ality. From this conclusion escape is impossi ble, except by assuming that matter and force existed from eternity; in which case they must have contained in themselves the germs o f life and intelligence—in. other w ordi must themselves have been God—- in posse, if not in esse, in potentiality if not in reality. 'But against this pantheisti cal assumption must ever lie the difficulty o f explaining how or why the God that was latent in matter or force was so long in arriving at consciousness in man, and how before man appeared, the latent God being unconscious could have direcfed the evolutionary process which fashioned the cosmos. Till these inquiries are satisfac torily answered, it will not be possible to accept the materialistic solution o f the universe. IV. The Desire of the (Bible) Fool “I wish there was no God.”- —Only a few words, need be given to this rejoinder, as the fool does not say in his intellect, but only in his heart, there is no God. In his case the wish is father to the thought. Secretly persuaded in his mind that there is a God, he would much rather there had been none. It would suit him better. But the fact that he cannot advance to a cate gorical denial o f the Divine Existence is an indirect witness to the innate conviction which the human heart possesses, that there is a .God in whom man lives and moves and has his being.
solar system by the whirling masses o f nebulous matter, till rings flew off and became the worlds we see,” says a German writer, “can no more be defended by any scientist (Neue Kirchliche Zeitschrift, 1905, p. 957). The attempt to explain in this way the origin o f the universe, says Merz, can be described as “belonging to the romance o f science” (European Thought in the 19th Cent., p. 285). Indeed Laplace himself put it forward “with great reserve, and only as a likely suggestion” (ibid., p>285). As regards the derivation o f man >from the lower animals, it is enough' to remember that' the late Prof. Virchow maintained that “we cannot des ignate it as a revelation o f science, that man descends from the ape, or from any other animal” (Nature, Dec. 8, 1877) ; that Prof. Paulsen, speaking o f Haeckel, says “ he belongs already to a dead generation,” and calls his theory o f materialistic evolu tion “an example of incredible frivolity in the treatment o f serious problems” (see Princeton Review, Oct., 1906, p. 446) ; that Prof. Von E. Pfenningsdorf declares “the materialistic explanation o f the world to be untenable” (see Theologische Rund schau, 1905, p. 85) ; that Fleischman in his book, “ Die Desendenz Theorie,” denies evolution altogether; that Dr. Rudolph Otto admits that “popular Darwinism (Darwinisms Vulgaris),” by which he means “that man is really descended from monkeys,” is “theoretically worthless” (Naturalism and Religion, p. 94) ; and that Prof. Pettigrew o f St. Andrew’s Univer sity writes: “There is, it appears to me, no proof that man is directly descended from the ape, and indirectly from the mollusc or monad” (Design in Nature, Vol. Ill, p. 1324). , 3. Conceding all that evolutionists de mand, that from matter and force' the present cosmos has been developed, the question remains, whether this excludes or renders unnecessary the intervention of God as the prime mover in the process. I f it does, one would like to know whence matter and force came. For the atoms or
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V . The Declaration of the Christian “I cannot do without a God, without a God I can neither account for the universe around me, nor explain Jesus Christ above me, nor understand the spiritual exper iences within me." 1. Without a God the material universe around the Christian is and remains a per plexing enigma. When he surveys that portion o f the universe which lies open to his gaze, he sees marks o f wisdom, power and goodness that irresistibly suggest the idea o f a God. When he looks upon the stellar firmament with its innumerable orbs, and considers their disposition and order, their balancing and circling, he instinctively argues that these shining suns and systems must have been created, arranged and upheld by a Divine Mind. When, restricting his attention to the earth on which he stands, he notes the indica tions o f design or o f adaptation o f means to end which are everywhere visible,- as witnessed, for example, in the constancy o f nature’s laws and forces, in the end less variety o f nature’s forms, inanimate and animate, as well as in their wonderful gradation not only in their kinds but also in the times o f their appearing, and in the marvelous adjustment o f organs to envi ronment, he feels constrained to reason that these things are not the result o f chance which is blind or the spontaneous output o f matter, which in itself, so far as known to him, is powerless, lifeless and unintel ligent, but can only be the handiwork o f a Creative Mind. When further he reflects that in the whole found o f human exper ience, effects have never been known to -be produced without causes; that designs have never been known to be conceived or worked out without designers and arti ficers ; that dead matter has never been known to spring into life either spontane ously or by the application o f means; that one kind o f life has never been known to transmute itself spontaneously or to be transmuted artificially into another, neither a vegetable into an animal, nor an animal into a man; and when lastly, accepting the
guidance o f science, he perceives that in the upward ascent or evolution o f nature dead matter was, after an interval, per haps o f millions o f years, followed by vegetable life, and this again by animal existence, and this by man precisely as Scripture asserts, he once more feels him self shut up to the conclusion that the whole cosmos must be the production of mind, even o f a Supreme Intelligence infinitely powerful, wise and good. Like the Hebrew psalmist he feels impelled to say, “ O Lord! how manifold are Thy works: in wisdom hast Thou made them all r Should the philosopher interject, that this argument does not necessarily require an Infinite Intelligence but only an artificer capable o f Constructing such a universe as the present, the answer is that if such an artificer,existed he himself would require to be accounted for, since beings that are finite must have begun to be, and there fore must have been caused. Accordingly this artificer must have been preceded by another greater than himself, and that by another still greater, and so on travelling backwards forever. Hence it was argued by Kant that pure reason could not demonstrate the exist ence o f God, but only o f a competent demiurge or world-builder. But this rea soning is fallacious. The human mind can not rest in an endless succession o f effects without a First Cause, like a chain depend ing from nothing. Kant himself seemed to recognize the unsatisfactory character of his logic, since, after casting out God from the universe as Creator, he sought to bring Him in again as Supreme Moral Governor. But if man’s moral nature cannot be explained without a Supreme Moral Law giver, on what principle can it be rea soned that man’s intellectual nature demands less than a Supreme Intelligence? 2. Without a God the Christian cannot explain to himself the Person o f Jesus. Leaving out o f view what the Gospels report about His virgin birth (though we do not regard the narratives as unhistorical or the fact recorded as incredible), and fixing
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earth, then naturally His W ord should carry more weight than that o f any other, and He taught emphatically, not only that there was a personal God whose Son He was, but that men should pray: “ Our Father which art in Heaven.” 3. Without a God the Christian cannot understand the facts of his own conscious ness.- Take first the idea o f God o f which he finds himself possessed on arriving at the age o f intelligence and responsibility. How it comes to pass that this great idea should arise within him if n o such being as God exists, is something he cannot understand. To say that he has simply inherited it from his parents or absorbed it from his contemporaries is not to solve the problem, but only to put it back from generation to generation. The question remains, How did this idea first originate in the soul? To answer that it gradually gréw up out o f totemism and animism as practiced „ by the low-grade races who, impelled by superstitious fears, conceived material objects to be inhabited by ghosts or spirits, ris equally an evasion o f the problem. Because again the question arises, How did these low-grade races arrive at the conception o f spirits as dis tinguished from bodies or material objects in general? Should it be responded that veneration for deceased ancestors begat the conception o f a God, one must further demand by what process o f reasoning they were conducted from the conception o f as many gods as there were deceased ances tors to that o f one Supreme Deity or Lord o f all. Thé only satisfactory explanation o f the latent consciousness o f God which man in all ages and lands has shown him self to be possessed o f is, that it is one of the soul’s intuitions, a part o f the intel lectual and moral furniture with which it comes into the world; that at first this idea or intuition lies within the soul as a seed corn whiqh gradually opens out as the soul rises into full possession o f its powers and is appealed to by external nat ure ; that had sin not entered into the world this idea or intuition would have
attention solely on the four records, the Christian discerns a personality that can not be accounted for on ordinary princi ples. It is not merely that Jesus per formed works such as none other man did, and spoke words such as never fell from mortal lips; it is that in addition His life was one o f incomparable goodness—of unwearied philanthropy, self-sacrificing love, lowly humility, patient meekness and spotless purity—such as never before had been witnessed on earth, and never since has been exhibited by any o f H is . fol lowers. It is that Jesus, being such a per sonality as described by those who beheld His glory to be that o f an only-begotten from a Father, full o f grace and truth, put. forth such pretensions and claims as were wholly unfitting in the lips o f a mere man, and much more o f a sinful man, declaring Himself to be the Light o f the World and the Bread o f L ife: giving out that He had power to forgive sins and to raise the dead; that He had pre-existed before He came to earth and would return to that pre-existent state when His work was done, which work was to die for men’s sins; that He would rise from the dead and ascend up into heaven, both o f which He actually did; and asserting that He was the Son o f God, the -equal o f ihe Father and the future Judge o f mankind. The Christian .studying this picture perceives that, while to it belong the lineaments o f a man, it also wears the likeness of. a God, and he reasons that if that picture was drawn from the life (and how otherwise could it have been drawn?) then a God must once have walked this earth in the person of Jesus. For the Christian no, other conclusion is possible. Certainly not that o f the New Theology, which makes of Jesus a . sinful man, distinguishing Him from Christ, the so-called ideal figure of the creeds, and calling Him divine only in the sense that other men are divine though in a lesser degree than He. But even the New Theology cannot escape from the implication o f its own creed. For if Jesus was the divinest man that ever lived pn
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.everywhere expanded into full bloom, fill ing the soul with a clear and radiant con ception o f the Divine Being, in whose image' it has been made; but that now in Consequence o f the blighting influence o f sin this idea or intuition has been every where more or less dimmed and weakened and in heathen nations corrupted and debased. Then rising to the distinctly religious experience o f conversion, the Christian encounters, a whole series or group of phenomena which to him are inexplicable, if there is no God. Conscious o f a change partly intellectual but mainly moral and spiritual, a change so complete as to amount to an inward revolution, what Scripture 'calls a new birth or a new crea tion, he cannot trace it to education or to environment, to philosophical reflection or to prudential considerations. The only reasonable account he can furnish o f it is that he has been laid hold o f by an unseen U NDER the energetic leadership o f Dr. Mark A. Mat'thewS, in co-operation with our representative, George W . Hunter, superintendent o f extension jvork, a Bible Institute has been organized in the First Presbyterian Church o f Seattle, Wash., auxiliary to the Bible Institute o f Los Angeles. Nine teachers are engaged in the work, Dr. Matthews taking upon himself three periods during each week. Mr. Hunter is teaching a daily class for gram mar and high-school pupils, ^nd an even ing class on “ Bible Construction.” The scope o f the work at the auxiliary insti tute will be seen from the following pro gramme : From 3 :30 to 4 :30 p. m. every day classes will be taught to be composed o f the pub lic school children o f the city, by Rev. R. W . MacCullough and George W . Hunter.
but Superhuman Power, so that he feels constrained to say like Paul: “ By the grace o f God I am what I am.” And not only so, but as the result o f this inward change upon his nature, he realizes that he stands in a new relation to that Supreme Power which has quickened and renewed him, that he can and does enter into per sonal communion with Him through Jesus Christ, addressing to Him prayers and receiving from Him benefits and blessings in answer to those prayers. These experiences o f which the Christian is conscious may be characterized by the non-Christian as illusions, but to the Chris tian they are realities; and being realities they make it simply impossible for him to believe, there, is no God. Rather they inspire him with confidence that God is, and is the Rewarder o f them. that diligently seek Him, and that o f Him and through Him and to Him are all things; to whom be glory, for ever. Amen. Mondays—Missions, Mrs. L. B. Moffett; Training ¿ i Personal Workers, Rev. M. A. Matthews; Doctrinal Subjects, Rev. M. A. Matthews. Tuesdays—Evangelism, Rev. F. L. Forbes; Social Service, Rev. E. L. Miles; Bible Construction, Mr. Geo. W . Hunter. Wednesdays—Persons o f the Godhead” Rev. R. W ._MacCullough; Subject Matter o f the Bible, Rev. F. L. Forbes. Thursdays—Prophetic Study, Mrs. S.'L . Bowman; Expository Work, Rev. M. A. Matthews. Fridays—The Life o f Christ, Mrs. E. W . Martin; Social Message o f the Prophets and Gospels, Rev. E. W . Miles; Church Organization and Methods, Rev. John A. Rodgers.
-------------- O --------------- RECRUITING BIBLE STUDENTS Seattle Organizes an Auxiliary of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles to Prepare Students to Enter Upon Definite Preparation for Christian Work.
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