THE BIBLE FAMILY MAGAZINES T or E ver ,0 L ord ,T hy W ord is S e t t l ed in H ea v en - P sa lm II9:89
VOL. 16
JULY 1925
NO. 7
I n t JU Y o A r TH t JOURNEYS END wThc Path of the Just is as the Shining Light,that Shineth More and More Unto the Perfect Day"-PRov.4: l8
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Volume XVI
July, 1925
Number 7
Table of Contents
BOARD O F DIRECTORS BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES
Editorials
Page
J. M. IRVINE, P resident GEO. F. GUY,
God’s Heroes in His Hall of Fame............. .................................... The Serpent’s Sting..................................... The Urgent Urge of the Gospel................................... ...... ........ Tact in the Use of Tracts................................................... The Dictator’s Dictation............................................................. Contributed Articles The Crisis in the Church—Martin Luther Thomas........................... 295 "They Have Taken Away My Lord”—Wm. J. Bryan.......................... .297 Satan’s Triangle— Prof. S. J. Bole............................................. Seventh Annual Convention World’s Fundamentals Association.........299 The Scriptures are Divine in their Enshrinement— Dr. F. E. Marsh....300 Laymen’s Work: Past and Present—Albert Copley..............................302 Can a Christian Do Without the Church?— Rev. Keith L. Brooks...... 303 Salvaged—Wade C. Smith............................................................. 304 An Echo from the Presbyterian General Assembly — Rev. Stewart P. MacLennan........ ................................................ 294 The Fishermen Club................................................................................ 294 Statement of Doctrine, B. I. O. L. A ....... ................................... 305 Fine Gold (A Serial Story)— Josephine Hope Westervelt..............................306 Straws and Symptoms.................................... 307 Our Bible Institute in Hunan Province (China)................................................. 308 Evangelistic Department (Interesting Soul Winning Stories from Real Experience)......................................................................... 309 Pointers for Preachers and Teachers (Homileticai Helps)....... .................... 31 1 The Family Circle (For Fellowship and Intercession).....................................312 Practical Methods of Personal Work (For Defenders of the Faith)............. 313 Outline Studies in the Book of Jude—T. C. Horton....................................... 314 The Children’s Garden (The King’s Business Junior)............................. ..... 315 Christian Endeavor Top ics.................................................. 31 7 Best Books .....* ...L 4 :-, f .. v ^...... v ................. 318 The Chosen People, the Land, and the Book..................................................... 327 291 291 292 292
V ice-President J. P. W ELLES, S ecretary A. ADDISON MAXWELL, T reasu rer DR. A. T. COVERT H . B. EVANS HOWARD FROST C. A. LUX NATHAN NEWBY J. M. RUST MRS. L. M. STEWART FACULTY DR. JOHN M. MAC INN1S, D ean DR. RA LPH ATKINSON, A ssociate Dean REV. JOHN H. HUNTER, Sec. of Faculty REV. W ILLIAM H. PIKE, Sec. E vening School REV. K EITH L. BROOKS, Sec. Cor. School DR. ERNEST G. RAITT, Supt. Ext. Dept. CHRISTIAN M. BOOKS PROF. ARTHUR A.' BUTLER MISS MARIE CARTER DR. JOHN MARVIN DEAN REV. JOHN A. HUBBARD PRO F. H . W . KELLOGG MISS W ILMA KRAG MRS. BESSE D. McANLIS . PRO F. H. G. TOVEY PRO F. J. B. TROWBRIDGE W . R. HALE. A ss’t S uperintendent
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A STREET SCENE IN JERUSALEM Momentous' changes are occurring in the City of David and in all Palestine. Many prophetic stu dents. see in the present return o£ thousands of Jews to their ancient, heritage a fulfilment of the Scripture forecast. May it not be a "budding of the fig tree” which should ■encourage Christians to anticipate as imminent that coming of Christ which is our sustaining hope, and the setting up of whose throne in the Holy City will inaugurate that reign of righteousness and peace for which tho world so earnestly yearns.
COPYRIGHT INTERNATIONAL
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E D I T T O R I A 1
GOD’S HEROES IN HIS HALL OF FAME The Word of God when read and believed is always effective in changing our view of things. Meditating upon the life and character of some of God’s men whom we have had the privilege of knowing and whom we have learned to love, we were contem plating the difference among them. How varied was the outward expression of their lives for-Christ,—no two alike ¡ ¿And then we remembered that God had never made two men just alike, and turning to the Eleventh of . Hebrews we looked at the pictures of fifteen of His great men as the Holy Spirit has named them. How they stand out before us,^-big in faith and works, noble in the manner of life they lived and in the deeds they wrought! Then there comes the record of the unnumbered men and women—too many to name—whose deeds of v a l o r and suffering for their f a i t h f u l n e s s is described in words delin eating sorrow, suffering and death of whom “ the world was not worthy” ! God’s “ Hall of Fame” ! How different from man’s! What a great host who, through the eternal ages, stood in the conflict true to Him who died for them, carrying t h e i r c ro s s e s ,____________________ wielding the weapons of faith, never faltering,, never fearing, never retreating, counting not their lives dear Unto themselves, count ing Him as worthy of their life-blood, borne along by the power of the Holy Spirit, through thick and thin, good report and,evil report! What a host of them! And we shall see them, with their new, glorified bodies, perhaps bearing the marks of their suffering and sacrifice, “ the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Then came the thought,-^‘how small we will feel! How little we have done, compared with these splendid soldiers whose faith failed not; whose eyes were fixed upon Him; whose lives were woven into the life of Him they lovedJ|who counted it a joyful privilege to do, to dare, to die for the One whose body will carry the marks of suffering through eternity.” The days are different now. This is the “ soft” age. “ Self-denial” and “ self-sacrifice” are not in the church vocabulary now. There are no lion’s mouths to stop. There are liar’s mouths that should be stopped, but it is not respectable to do this! In some fields the privilege of suffering for Him is yet afforded His followers. In the regions beyond some of His chosen ones are laboring, in perils by night and by day, whose names will be added to His “ Hall of Fame,” and who will “ in that day” be giving all glory to the all glorious One.
But is there nothing left in this land of ours that is hard to do? Well, there are some things that could be done. We could go—as did Christ and the-apostles —and preach upon the streets and in the by-ways. We could go with tears in our eyes and love in our hearts from house to house. We could find “ new ways” or “ old ways” to tell out the story of Jesus and His love. But—we don’t! Alas, how.sad to have to confess that we could save something out of the wreck, but our ears are closed and our eyes are blinded to the need, and we fail Him who never failed us. THE SERPENT’S STING What is the world problem? It is told in one word
of three letters—“ .S-I-N ” ! Just one little word,—the fruit of one little seed sown in the G a r d e n of Eden, by Adam and -Eve, but which has resulted in a harvest of sorrow, suffer ing and death, world-wide and age-abiding. There is no other expla nation of the sobbing heart of humanity. For six thou sand years, through all the stages, of progress a n d decline among the nations of the earth, sin has been rampant and death has stalked unchecked. The Twentieth Century
Armnrei) for Action!
■T3READ riot the din and smoke, A * , The stifling poison of the fiery air; rJj?Courage! It is the battle of thy God!
Go! And for Him learn how to do and dare!
Look to thine armor well! Thine the one panoply no'blow that fears;/' Ours is the day of rusted swords and shields, Of loosened helmets and of broken spears. Heed riot the throng of foes! Ho fight ’gainstjiosts is still the Church’s lot. Side thou with God, and thou must win the day; Woe to the man ’gainst whom hell fighteth not! —Selected.
has brought no relief. The culture of the schools, the discoveries of science, have solved none of the moral problems of young or old. The chasm between rich and poor is as wide as ever. Pride sits in its castle and poverty, dwells, in its cell. The haughty looks of the one are met by the hatred of the other. The occasional scattering of the coins of the rich brings no definitely permanent results to the commonwealth. We rejoice in every effort of every kind that soothes a pain, or softens the sorrows of humanity’s heart, but in spite of them all there still remains the little word “ s-i-n” with its unceasing, unchanging power to bring death. There is no rest for the wicked. If your vision is good, you can visualize the slimy serpent working its way down the centuries: Its hiss is heard. Death and destruction is in its wake. It cannot be stayed in its course. It cannot be killed. The Word of God gives us a world picture. Israel is in the wilderness rebelling against God’s provision for them by giving manna from heaven, dissatisfied, distrustful. In punishment, God sent the serpents whose bite was death; but God also provided a remedy for the sting of the serpent, and a look upon the brazen ser pent meant life. Adam and Eve distrusted God, believed a lie, and the history of our world tells the story of the result.
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again, and may never have another opportunity to make a public confession of their acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. What is the urgent urge of the Gospel? “Now is the accepted time! Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” What thou doest, do quickly! “ The night cometh!” “ Ye must be born again!” Why did the woman at the well—a young convert whose past history had just been photographed for her, and the depths of her sinful life portrayed to her by Jesus—leave her pitcher and hasten to the city with the call, “ Come, see a man—-!” And why did the Lord say to the disciples when He found that this saved sin ner had told the people of the town the story of her conversion, “ The fields are white to the harvest.*** He that reapeth reeeiveth wages” ? Notice, He did not say “ He that preacheth” but “ He that reapeth.” Are the fields not white now? Are there not hun dreds of thousands of hungry-hearted, heavy-hearted, restless-hearted people, young and old,, needing this “ urgent urge” .? Why did Jesus say to Zaccheus, “ Come down. **** Today I must abide at thy house” ? Was it not because that was the last opportunity for Zaccheus? Why did our Lord use; the parable of the Great Supper, and make the master- of the house say, “ Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and say, Come, for all things are now ready” ? What is the meaning of the message in Mark 13: 35-37? “Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning; “Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. “And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch!” Is not our love for the Lord manifested in our love for the lost ? How can we sing, ‘‘Oh, how I love Jesus ’’ if we do not exhibit that love in an unselfish effort to win others to Him? What is the meaning of the message of the Lord to the church at Laodicea? “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I w ill spue thee out of ray mouth.*** I would thou wert either cold or hot.” What is the urgent urge of the Gospel? Look at the picture of our Lord in Luke 19 :41, 42: • “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, “Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” Is there not a call to all of us who have been bought at the great price of His shed blood to sympathize with His great heart, awake from the sleep of indifference, and plead with Him that we may have a passion for souls? TACT IN THE USE OF TRACTS It is impossible to estimate the value of one tract, for many times one tract has won a soul, and the value of a soul is inestimable. God has always owned and blessed this service, but—as in other matters—there is need of wisdom in their choice and in their use. Because tracts are easy to obtain at small expense, thousands are distributed. They may properly he clas: sified as bad, indifferent, good, and best. The bad tracts are those which are not true to the Scriptures,
The venom of sin rankles in every heart and disturbs and distresses every life. “ The sting of death is sin!?/ and “ sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.” There is no human remedy for the disease of sin. God Himself cannot change the sinful nature. He never has. . God has a remedy, hut men by nature hate His remedy. They try to deny the fact of their sinful natures. They deny the need of any help from God. They are ready to try any one of the hundreds of remedies which are offered, none of which have ever worked or ever will work. The natural heart is filled with pride and the knee will not bend or how to God, and so—Satan-possessed—they go on their restless, weary, hopeless way to the chamber of death. What is God’s remedy? What is that simple,, prac tical recipe which produces such satisfactory results in the lives of some people? The problem of the little word of three letters is solved by another little word of four letters, “ M-U-S-T,’’£-“‘Ye m u s t be born again,” i.e.>, “ horn anew,” “ horn from above.” The message of our Lord was given to an exemplary Jew, trained in the religion of his fathers; but restless at heart. God works according to definite laws, and so in this most serious of all problems confronting the children of men, He reveals the solutionS-the introduc tion of a new law, “ Ye must be born again.” He leaves no room for argument. “ Ye must.” But He gives an illustration to His Jewish visitor: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness (the brazen serpent, with no sting in i t ) , so must the Son of man be lifted up (the Son of man w ith no sting in Him; the sinless Son of God lifted up on the cross, bearing the sin of the world, paying the penalty— death), that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” There it is. God takes the sting of death, pays the price, heralds the tidings through the church to the world,—“‘Come, ye poor, weary, sin-sick world; come ye heavy laden, sorrowing ones; come! Look and live S Is there not some other way? None ¡ “‘There is none other name under heaven *** whereby ye must he saved.” This is the law of a new life. It meets the law of sin and death and gives victory over the sting of the serpent. Tell the story—simple and profound, yet it works— that there is hope and happiness for all who will come into touch with the law of the new life. Hallelujah! THE URGENT URGE OF THE GOSPEL Many Christian ‘ leaders seem unconscious of the demand for definite dealing with those to whom they speak. If they preach an evangelistic sermon, they quietly tell the audience that if any one wants to make a confession of Christ they would be glad to see them at the close of the service. The effect of this upon any one under conviction is negative. If salvation is the most important thing in the world, why not recognize its importance in dealing with people? Do business men work along these lines, or do they seek to ‘‘strike while the iron is hot ?’’ Does a fisher-, man use the same tactics, or does he endeavor to land the fish while he has him on the line? You never hear a real enthusiastic fisherman say,“ Well, if the trout , is hungry, he will come hack some other day. If he wants to get away now I ’ll not try to detain him!” Do we forget that the devil is on the job every day? Do evangelists and preachers believe the Bible doc trines they teach? If they do, then they know that many in the audience may never hear a Gospel message
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and their influence is hurtful instead of helpful. When people accept a tract and find it has no real message, they become prejudiced, naturally, against accepting any kind of tracts. The indifferent tracts are those which, while true to the Bible, have no strong, convincing message, and thus are harmful not only because they are not definite and strong, but because, like the bad tracts, they hurt the work of those who are passing out the right kind. Again, a tract may be essentially good, having a defi nite lesson to impart, but be poorly printed upon cheap paper and not attractive in its make up. A good tract thus becomes the foe, of the best. The best tracts are
THE DICTATOR’S DICTATION— “Thou Shalt Not be a Premillennialist!” Zion’s Herald, the Boston Methodist Journal, last f a ir published the following statement from Bishop Adna Leonard, of the Pacific Coast; “In response to your request for an outline of our plan in the San Francisco area to counteract the pernicious effect of the premillennial movement, I would say that for several years I have encouraged the conferences, through their boards of examiners, to ascertain definitely if the candidates for our ministry, coming before them for admis sion into conference, were premillennial in their views. I have urged this so constantly and have been supported so splendidly by. the District Superintendents, that is is now PRACTICAliliY IMPOSSIBLE FOR A YOUNG MAN STAND
ING FOR THE PRE MILLENNIAL THEORY TO BE A D M I T T E D INTO ANY CONFER ENCE IN THE SAN FRANCISCO AREA.” What a wonderful progressive is t h i s good bishop! Now if he had said that no one who denies the authority of the inf.; spired Word of God, the Virgin Birth of J e s u s Christ, H is physical resurrection, ascension and personal return,; could be ad mitted into their con ference, we could have said a hearty “ Amen” ' to the edict. But when he selects a doctrine so definitely held by- John W e s 1ey,v the founder of the Meth odist Ch u r c h , and held by many of Wes ley ’s . followers, we, wonder “ Why?” W h a t is w r o n g about the doctrine? Is it not Biblical? Is it not held by the loyal
t h o s e w h i c h are attractively printed on a good quality of paper, w i t h a title which will catch the eye and arouse inter est in the contents. An appropriate pic ture, also, will often attract attention and awaken a desire to know what it is all about. “ S o b b y , ” senti mental tracts are of , no value. A Scripture message, rightly pre sented, is of the great est possible value, b e c a u s e it has the sword point of the Wo r d , and He has promised t h a t H is Word shall n e v e r “ return u n t o Him void.” One of the best tracts we have ever known was prepared by Mr. Lyman Stew art, a busy business man, and President of the Bible Institute of
"No;Mr.Wesley,you cannot preach inmy pulpit. Youaré & premillennialist/*
Los Angeles from the time of its organization until his death. This little tract contains nothing but Scrip ture. Hundreds of thousands have been distributed in English and Spanish, and at the Easter service held at the “ Hollywood Bowl” this spring, which was attended by immense throngs of people, 40,000 were accepted and read before the program began, many requests being made for additional copies. The wisdom of God is needed in the distribution of tracts. The best possible preparation for the work is prayer. The manner of approach is most important. The attitude must not be that of a supercilious saint, but that of an ambassador from Heaven’s court, with a message which should be courteously, kindly but faithfully delivered. If rebuffed, accept it in the spirit of Christ, ask pardon for intruding, and prove yourself a real Christian. Follow your effort with prayer and leave the resplts to the Lord. He will do His part.
legions of all denominations? Here is what a good Methodist leader said in the Central Christian Advo cate of August 17, 1921: “The question as to the belief entertained by John Wesley concerning the second coming of our Lord would scarcely be raised by those familiar with his works. He certainly was a premillennialist.**** The Moravians, who led Mr. Wesley into the deeper Christian life, and with whom he worked, were all premillennialists. In his notes on the Book of Revelation, he states that ‘guilt is incurred by every one who hinders the church from constantly watch ing for the coming of the Lord.’ Mr. Wesley had strong faith in the restoration of the Jews to their own land, and in their subsequent acceptance of Christ, after the great tribulation of the last days.” Poor John Wesley! Were be alive today what would he say to this episcopal edict? Would he bow and scrape and acquiesce, or would he rise up in his wrath and say what be did to Tom Paine and the higher critics of his day? We are sure that the latter would
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to be the standard bearer for the denominations that gather around the blood-stained banner of the Cross. The report of the Judicial Commission, which was received by an overwhelming majority (some believe that at least 950 of the 1000 delegates voted for it)., heralded to the world the fact that the Presbyterian Church stands where it has stood throughout all the years of her magnificent his tory with regard to the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God. The report was very thorough, dealing with the great issues involved in a most definite and concise manner. Two of the great constitutional questions which must be answered in the affirmative by every man who would occupy a Presbyterian pulpit were clearly defined and inter preted: (1) When a Presbyterian minister is asked, “Do you continue to receive the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa ment as the only infallible rule of faith and practice?” his affirmative answer indicates that he affirms his belief in the first chapter of Matthew and the second chapter of Luke, which give the record of the fact of the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ. (2) Each Presbyterian minister must answer in the affirmative the question: “Do you continue to receive and adopt the Presbyterian confession of faith as containing the system of doctrine as set forth in the Holy Scriptures?” which affirmation means that he accepts that part of the confession of faith which deals with the Incarnation and Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ. Hence, no man can occupy a Presbyterian pulpit who does not affirm his belief in the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ. It is to be hoped that now the Presbyterian Church has so clearly defined its position on this question of the necessity of its ministers affirming their belief in the Virgin Birth-H which seems to be the dominant and vital question of the present hour— and has thus purged itself of error, peace will be possible.
be true and thaU—if he and his brother were alive today—they would together sing some of those inspir ing premillennial hymns written by Charles. Such, for instance, as “O, King of saints, come down In dazzling majesty;
Thy suffering witnesses to crown Who share Thy cross with Thee; Thou promisesC to give The crown at that glad day To all who lovingly believe And for thy coming stay.” “Depending on their faithful lo r d To come again and fetch His bride; Millions have lived upon this Word And for this heavenly promise died.”
Or
Let whoever reads these words say “ Amen! Halle lujah! Even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly !”
AN ECHO PROM THE PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL, ASSEMBLY Rev. Stewart P. MacLennan, Pastor First Presbyterian Church, Hollywood, Calif. The One Hundred and Thirty-Seventh General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church which closed its sessions in Columbus, Ohio, on May 6th, 1925, ended in a great tri umph for New Testament Christianity and clearly demon strated to the world that the Presbyterian Church— the mighty, witnessing church of the ages—-will still continue
The photograph shown herewith, recently sent us by a friend, is espe cially suggestive at this time, in view of an application which has been re ceived for the organization of a Fish ermen Club in Palestine, in response to the recent decision to form an inter national organization of the Fisher men Club for service in this and other lands. How the heart thrills at the prospect of a modern Fishermen Club gathering at the very spot where our Lord gave His commission and com
is the outgrowth of the Fishermen Club. Realizing the need, the Fishermen Club, which for eighteen years has steadfastly refused to grant to any other organization the right to use either its name or emblem (the organ ization being incorporated arid the pin copyrighted) has now decided to sur render its incorporation to a commit tee which will have authority to grant charters to other groups of young men upon their complying with the necessary conditions as specified.
formerly carried on such definite Chris tian work for men, has now aban doned its fundamental principles and is largely occupied with secular and social activities, it is necessary that some pro vision should be made to gather young men around a fundamental statement of doctrine and wherever possible, or ganize them into clubs for definite soul saving service. The Bible Institute of Los Angeles, which has trained hun dreds of young men and women for Christian work in this and other lands,
These branch clubs will be designated as “Fishermen C l u b N u m b e r T w o,” “Number T h r e e,” etc., in the order of their formation, the parent organization at Los Angeles, of course, being known as “Fishermen Club Number One.” A little leaflet is being prepared, giv ing full information and instructions for the formation of a branch Fishermen Club, which will be sent to any one in terested upon appli cation to T. C. Hor ton, Editor-in-Chief of T h e K i n g ’ s Business, and foun der and teacher of The Fishermen Club.
mand to the three men— Peter, James a n d J o h n-—who composed the first Fishermen C l u b , “Follow Me, and I will make you fish ers of men!” The need of the church today, more than ever before, is for young men with red blood in their veins, the Word of God in their hearts and in their hands, who will surrender t h e i r lives a n d pledge anew their loyalty to J e s u s C h r is t , following Him, if necessary, e v e n u n t o the d ea th ,. seeking to save the lost. Inasmuch as the “Y. M. C. A.” which
A M odern “F o rd ” of the Jo rd an
July 1925 295 E5a5ibi!itiüdbdbdb[!i[!iïi2525E525E5252525E525ï5E525E5EE5B5252525HS5E5E525B5E525B5E5B5E52525aid!i!5îS25?SP'525E525E5?5?Ii?S?S?SF‘?ltIlri,sq?ôi?q?S?S?S?q?iti5B52i252fa S 1 9 aE5ÏE5252H5HE5E5c C o n t r i b u t e d A r t i c l e s ■52525H5H5H5H5H5E525H525H5H5H5E5E5H5H5H5H5HSa5H5H5E5H5H5H5H525253H5a525252525P5P5Pq?q?q?q?qp>7?^?q?‘^q?qp‘SJWISHSESHSHSHSHSESESHSESESZsl TKe Cr isis in the Church Martin Luther Thomas It gives us great pleasure to introduce to “Our Family” a former”student of the Bible Institute castor of the First Presbyterian Church at San Pedro, California» who gave the following address meeting of the Southern California Premillennial Association, in the Institute auditorium. It is a sage and was delivered in a masterful manner which awakened an intense interest audience which heard it. May the Lord multiply his kind. of Los Angeles, now at the April a man’s mes- in the large THE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
|HERE have been four great crises in the history of the church since Jesus Christ ascended from this earth. The first came under what is known as Gnosticism. Marcion, who was born in 135- at Synopia in Asia Minor, was a rich man. He joined the Roman congregation and gave to them the equivalent of $10,000. Immediately he introduced into that early apos tolic church the old mythical Gnosticism which denied the reality of matter, the reality of sin, and the reality of that which is material. What does that sound like? Christian Science! Surely, there is nothing new under the sun! . Montanism For almost two hundred years Gnosticism lived to plague the church and then came the second crisis under Montanus, who was born in the year 156. He accepted the Gospel of John but denied such books as The Acts, Romans, and Reve lation. When he came to that wonderful prophecy where Jesus said that the Holy Spirit of God will convict the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, Montanus said, “I am the. fulfillment of that prophecy." With two of his prophets he went to Phrygia and said, “The end of the world is at hand, and we are ready to establish the New Jerusalem in Phrygia.” And now came turmoil, and perse cution for the Christians. Edicts went forth that all Bible^ and everything bearing the name of Christian should be exterminated. Christians were cast into dungeons and fed to the lions, and funeral pyres were kept burning from Northern Africa to Northern Gaul. Finally in 312 occurred one of the great decisive battles of history. Constantine vowed that if the God of the Christians would give him victory he would become a Christian, and Christianity should be the religion of the Roman Empire. On his stan dard he placed the cross with these words, “In this sign conquer.” Constantine did win that battle, and immedi ately all types and kinds of heathen rites and customs came to pollute the purity of the early Christian Church. Arianism In the year 320 came the third great crisis under a man known as Arius, the father of Biblical criticism. For three hundred years his doctrines held sway, dividing empires, dividing the church, dividing thrones, dividing families, and have come down to us in the guise of modern Unitarianism! And now followed the long years known as the Dark Ages. Learning was obliterated; the sciences did not exist; the Bible was chained to the church under the bishopric of the Roman ruler. The sixteenth century dawned in Europe with tli.e peasants held fast in the grip of a political machine. Rome flaunted her banner in the face of an ignorant, troubled world, and prejudice, pride and oppression ruled the people with a heavy hand.
The Reformation On November 10, 1483, there was born in Eisleben, of German parents, a baby boy. He was a studious lad, and the year 1501 found him in the University, preparing for the law. In the University library he found one day a Bible. In it he discovered a living, saving, personal Christ and reli gious liberty, and in 1517 Martin Luther nailed his famous Ninety-Nine Theses upon the doors of the Castle of Witten berg. And so began the Reformation, because one man saw' and thought straight, and was not afraid to speak his convictions. The Fourth Crisis About the year 1860 two books were brought out. One was the “Origin of Species,” and the other the “Descent of Man.” About the same time there arose in Germany a phil osopher by the name of Ernest Haeckel. One of the students under Haeckel was the well known Karl Marx, who based his philosophy of life upon the interesting theory that man has not come from an omnipotent and holy God, but that he has come out of the gutter. Karl Marx is the author of the famous book, “Das Kapital,” in which he states these three positions— (1 ) the evolutionary hypothesis of history; (2 )’ the law of concentration of capital, and (3) the eternal struggle between the man who has and the man who has not. Karl Marx went to Russia, and Russia today is the answer to “Das Kapital,” And now there began in our own country in the year 1703, an awakening and hundreds of thousands of men and women were gathered into the evangelical church—Method ists, Congregationalists, Baptists and Presbyterians— and began to establish schools and colleges. And so it was that Yale and Harvard, Andover and Princeton and Brown came into being. But it was not long until the forces of reaction set in, and today our colleges and universities are reeking with the unbelief of false philosophy and the evolutionary theory. The situation in our theological seminaries is little better, for here, where the Bible should be lifted up and held supreme, it is in many instances made to take a secondary place, and is held up before all eyes, not as the world’s great Book, the charter of the world’s destiny, but rather as a book to be subjected to criticism— higher criticism, textual criticism, destructive criticism, any and all kinds of criticism. Little wonder that in such an atmosphere all the glow and warmth and comfort of evangelical Christianity languishes and dies, and that out of our universities and theological seminaries today are coming the youth of our land, trained in intellect, but with a weak and shattered faith, with unstable opinions, and with scorn and mocking criticism in their hearts.
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We are face to face today with the greatest crisis— I say it advisedly— in the history of the world. Why? Because in the controversies of the past, men and women have appealed to the Scriptures as their basis of settlement. But today our Bible is being wrested from us and we are left with no foun dation upon which to base our argument. Not the least of the many contributing causes of the growing critical and skeptical attitude toward the Bible and the Christian reli gion is evolution. Probably no philosophy has ever had such an influence over the thinking world as evolution. Haeckel, that great German evolutionist said, “With a sin gle stroke Darwin has annihilated the dogma of creation.” And he termed Darwin’s Origin of Species “Anti-Genesis.” Yet Genesis stands unshaken, while evolution is, even yet, an empty theory and an unproved assumption. In spite of this fact, however, evolution is openly taught in many of our schools, and has gained an alarming hold upon both teacher and student. The time has come when Christian people should rise and put an end to the array of insidious teaching, which is being handed out to our children, and such teachers should be prevented from masquerading around under the guise of pretended scholarship and the cloak of religion, for every Modernist, every Liberalist in America today is a sympathizer either secretly or openly with Communism. Listen to this from Robert Blatchford, the prominent English socialist: “No Adam, no Fall;.- No Fall, No Atonement; no Atonement, no Saviour. Accepting evolution, how can we believe in a Fall? When did man fall? Was it before he ceased to be a monkey, or after? Was it when he was a tree man, or later? Was it in the stone age, or the bronze age, or in the age of iron? And if there never was a Fall, why should there be any Atone ment?” Modernism Leads to Communism The name that stands at the beginning of Anarchism, occupying a position similar to. that of Karl Marx, is Michel Bakunin, a Russian. Bakunin nursed a fierce volcanic wrath within his heart against the two great evils— as he termed it— “the belief in God,” and the idea that the State was the regulator of society. “The beginning of the lies,” he declared, “that have ground down this poor old world in slavery , is God. Tear out .of your hearts the belief in the existence of. God. Until this is done you will never know what freedom is. The first lie is God. The second is the idea of right. And when you have freed your minds from the fear of God and from the childish respect for right, then all the remaining chains that bind you— called civiliza tion, property, marriage, morality, justice— will snap asun der like threads.” And Bakunin has his followers even down to this day. Who is to blame? Where shall we go to run down this evil thing? We should go to the source,— to that place where these God-denying, soul-destroying theories are brought into being and where the youth of our land are fed and nourished—the universities and colleges and seminaries where these damnable doctrines' are taught. Listen again to Mr. Bouck White, well known radical writer and agitator, in an interview to the New York Sun:— “I am a graduate of Union Theological Seminary, and I wish to speak a word for that institution. Some of my comrades of the revolution look coldly on the seminary up there. They regard the men engaged in modern Biblical scholar ship as a set of academic owls, quite blind to and uncon cerned with the economic upheaval of our time, but they are vastly in error. The professors at Union and whosoever teaches the ‘higher criticism’ are doing more than perhaps any other one group to advance the Social Revolution.
“Christendom reposes upon a book, the Bible. So long as that Bible was supposed to teach peace and quietness, Christendom had peace and quietness. But now comes Bibligal scholarship, and shows by cool, masterly science that the Bible is one long cry for human and popular rights, against the arrogance of the monied mighty. Pro fessors A, B, C, and D at Union, yes and President Z him self, are deserving of a place alongside of Karl Marx, for in their discoveries as to the real, the social meanings of the Biblical writings, they are planting mines of social dynamite underneath this civilization of massive property rights, to blow up the whole apparatus. "And where got I these dynamic results? From Union seminary, and from the superb scholars of her faculty. They are men who deserve no longer to be despised and boy cotted by the proletarian workers. Rather they merit high place in our ranks. Let it be known to every forward looker: The schools and pulpits where the ‘higher criti cism’ of the Scriptures is taught, are seminaries of social revolution.” O.ut of this school, my friends, came Harry Emerson Fos- dick, the late pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of New York City. And Dr. Fosdick is by no means the only one. Out of these schools come graduates who go out into the world, not knowing either what they believe or what they shall preach. Educated doubters! What a tragedy that young men who enter our seminaries with the avowed intention of becoming useful ministers of Jesus Christ, should lose during their seminary course that glowing love and passion that is born of the Spirit of God! The Remedy And now what shall we do about it? What is the remedy? There are a lot of things we can do, and the first one is-—- We can withdraw our money from these institutions. If contributing to these institutions puts them upon such a financial basis that they are able to employ teachers and continue in their unscriptural teaching, leading astray young men and women for whom Christ died, then so long as the world standeth I will withdraw my support from such institutions as teach evolution or any other theory contrary to the Word of God. One of the most pressing needs of the hour is Christian teachers. We need Christian biologists and Christian geolo gists. We need Christian teachers in every grade and department of our school life, so that our boys and girls may come up through the years acquainted with God, famil iar with the old-fashioned Bible religion of primitive Chris tianity, and when study is over and work begins, they shall be prepared to give to their country all that is best and purest out of the God-given combination of Christianity, education and civilization. And now what can I dor—what is my share? I’ll tell you what I can do. I can preach the Gospel. What is there in all the theories that besmirch the pages of our books today that can offer the consolation found in the old Gospel— that Gospel whose dynamic power alike governs the universe and saves the individual? The Gospel of God—His Atonement, His burial, His resurrection, His Ascension, His intercession, His coming again,— all these things are as a red flag in the face of the Modernist, and he would if he could, snatch from us every foundation stone of our faith. But let us never forget that God rules. Cults and isms, theories and philosophies will come and go, but God’s power is from everlasting to everlasting, and He who was once the Babe of the Manger, the Carpenter of Nazareth, the Despised and Crucified One, shall one day rule as King of kings and Lord of lords.
July 1925
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uTh ey Have Taken A*wa}) Lord’’ Abstract of address delivered by William Jennings Bryan at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, March 17, 1925. Mr. Bryan is the outstanding layman of the United States as a defender of the faith once for all delivered. Every loyal layman in this land ought to write Mr. Bryan commending his position and assuring him of their fellowship and cooperation in the fight which he is making for the faith of our fathers.
I pause for a moment to say that I use the word “mod ernist” in the only sense in which it can properly be used, namely, as describing those who, having denied that the Bible is the Word of God, so divinely inspired as to be free from error and an infallible.authority as to what God said and did, consider their own judgment as more reliable than the writers of the Bible in determining the truth or falsity of every fact set forth in the Book of Books. We cannot single out any one modernist or group of modernists as representatives of all because modernists differ widely, each one being a law unto himself. Measured by their belief and their unbelief, they are scattered along the entire path that leads from so-called liberal conservatism to avowed atheism as represented by Neitzsche. Whether moving slowly or
T e x t * “ T h e y h a ve ta k e n aw ay m y X o r d , an d I kn ow no t w h er e th ey h a ve laid h im . ” (Jo hn 2 0 : 1 3 ) .
may seem like “carrying coals to Newcastle” to |om e to Philadelphia to defend orthodox Chris tianity. The spirit of that great Christian, Hon. John Wanamaker, still broods over Bethany, and your pastor, Dr. MacLennan, is one of the most able and courageous of the champions of “the faith once for all delivered unto the saints.” , This is also the home of Dr. Clarence Edward Macartney, our revered Moderator, who was the first head of our church in a generation to be elected on a distinct issue a s .the representative of con servative Presbyterianism. But communion together is the more enjoyable because we are in agreement on the fun
rapidly, they are all headed in the same direction, with no logical stopping place between the “hallowed faith” w h i c h Romanes held in youth and “the lonely mystery of exis tence” as he found it when he wrote his book “practically negativing t h e existence of God." A Virgin Born Christ Let us now consider the Christ whom the modernists have taken away. First, He is (for He has not changed) the only begotten Son of God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Heavenly Father so loved
damentals, and I can be happy with you even if you do not need to h a v e y o u r faith strengthened. If it were proper for a lay man to take a text, I would choose the 13th verse of the 20th chapter of John; I will build my address upon it. Mary Magdalene, going to the tomb early on the first day of the week, found it empty. She notified the disciples, two of whom hastened to the tomb on hearing her startling story of the resurrection. . After they had gone away to their own homes, Mary remained, weep ing. When the two angels s p e a k i n g from the tomb,
“One of the tests of sanity is to put the patient in a tank into which a stream of water is running; he is then instructed to dip all the water out. If he does not have sense enough to shut off the inflow, he is adjudged insane. What shall we say of Christians who complain of the ravages of atheism and agnosticism among adults, and yet continue to allow our colleges— and even our high schools—to he made nurseries of agnosticism and atheism by modernist teachers who, by endorsing unproven guesses, undermine confidence in the Bible as a Divine authority?”
the world that He sent His Son to the earth, God-incarnate, that He might suffer in man’s stead and by His blood redeem man from sin. It is not strange that such a one should be conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of a virgin. If God can create life and bring man into the world daily, as He does, could He not bring Jesus into the world by a different, but not more mysterious, method? The modernists reject the virgin birth because they reject the supernatural Christ. They do not argue that Christ was just a man because they believe Him to have been the son of a human father; they insist that He must have been the son of a human father because they believe him to have been merely a man. If they will take Christ out of the man class and put Him in the God class, they will have' no dif ficulty in believing all that the Bible says of Him. Atonement Through the Blood Second: The Modernists reject the theory of the Atone ment— some of them denounce it as a “bloody gospel,” while others simply say, as one of the leading modernists did, “The blood upon the cross is too old to be of any aid to me.” Here too, their attitude is logical. They deny the fall of man— “How then,” they ask, “can man need a Sav iour to restore Him?” (Continued on page 324)
inquired the cause of her grief, she answered, “They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid Him.” That is the indictment that we bring today against the modernists— “They have taken away our Lord,” and we are as disconsolate as was Mary, and no such glad surprise awaits us as awaited her. She found to her joy that her Lord had risen; He reappeared, glorified and triumphant over the grave, and honored her affection and loyalty by speaking to her His first recorded words after He had broken the bonds of the tomb. Mary’s Christ made of death a narrow star-lit strip between the companionship of yesterday and the reunion of tomorrow; but the modernists have stricken out the stars and deepened the gloom that enshrouds the grave. They have robbed our Saviour of the glory of a virgin birth, of the majesty of His deity,_ and of the triumph of His resurrection. We charge that they have taken away the supernatural Christ— the ONLY Christ of whom the Bible tells— and are attempting to put in His place a spur ious personage, unknown to the Scriptures, and as impotent to satisfy the affections of Christians as a painted doll would be to assuage the sorrow of a mother mourning for her firstborn.
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Satan’sTriangle: Evolution, Philosophy,^Criticism S. J. Bole, Professor of Biology, Wheaton College, Illinois
The third of a series of articles under this caption by one who speaks with authority, having, after graduating at Ann Arbor, earned credits in several dozen graduate courses in the Universities of Illinois and Wisconsin; later teaching science and plant breeding in the University of Illinois, and now for six years Professor of Biology at Wheaton College. He was converted from a belief in the evolutionary theory to absolute faith in the
inerrant Word of God while teaching in the University, though he had- been a church member and teacher of a Bible class for many years. He writes especially to help, if possible, save from the shipwreck of their faith, the thousands of young men and women in our High Schools and Colleges.
Needham argued that this prolonged boiling by Spallan zani had not only killed the microscopic life in the flasks but that the “vegetative force” from which the life comes had been destroyed. Spallanzani easily overcame Needham’s objection by exposing to the air the contents of some of these same flasks. Within a few days the contents of these flasks were swarming with low forms of life. These results of Spallan zani were published in 1775 and the question of the spon taneous generation of life seemed to be settled for all time. At about this time, however, Joseph Priestly discovered oxygen and the question came up again for debate when it was learned that oxygen is necessary for all forms of life, the opposition claiming that the heating process had robbed the oxygen of its life-giving qualities. In 1836 two German scientists, Franz Schultze and Theo dore Schwann, repeated Spallanzani’s experiment and found that life did not appear in the liquid cultures after being sterilized and pure outside air being afterwards forced into the bottles. They concluded that there is something in the air that produces life. In 1843 Helmholtz showed that this contaminating substance is a solid, because it does not pass through a moist animal membrane. This question which had been settled a second time was unexpectedly opened again in 1859 by a Frenchman named Pouchet. His evolutionary philosophy made it impossible for him to believe the results of Schultze, Schwann, and Helm holtz. In repeating these experiments he secured low forms of life in his cultures. Pouchet had filled his bottles with sterilized water and inverted them in a mercury bath. Into these he had substituted by displacement small bits of sterilized hay and lastly a certain amount of oxygen generated at white heat. In a few days this hay infusion was seen to be swarming with microscopic life, which Pouchet declared to be of spontaneous origin. Finally the French Academy of Science appointed a com mittee to decide upon the question. In 1864 before a large audience at the Sorbonne, Pasteur the originator of the germ theory of diseases, pointed out the source of error made by Pouchet and his predecessors. An intensely illum inated beam of light was thrown upon the apparatus in a darkened room by means of which the audience could- see the surface of the mercury in the trough to be covered with dust particles. As the hay was inserted in the mercury it was seen to be covered with the dust particles from its surface. He further demonstrated that living germs could be removed from the ajr by straining the air through a layer of gun cotton and then dissolving the cotton in ether. He also showed that many of these micro-organisms can live in the oxygen generated by the chemical reaction which they produce in their development in the culture. One of the sixty original flasks prepared by Pasteur and holding a small quantity o i veal broth is the prized pos- (Continued on page 329)
Chapter Three THE ORIGIN OF LIFE H HEN, where and how did life begin on the earth? Children and grownups alike are asking them selves these questions, and because the origin of life is so important in the discussion of evolution, we shall discuss it a little more in detail in this chapter. The old Egyptians believed that the earth was the mother of life. They believed that insects came from the dew; that frogs, toads, rats and mice came from the ponds and rivers. This is one of the earliest records that we have, of “spon taneous generation.” Centuries later the materialistic Greek philosophers thought much on the subject. They either copied from the Egyptians, or came to the same conclusion in their own thinking, that certain lower forms of life at least were spon taneously generated. Their arguments, however, were clouded and mystical. In the latter half of the seventeenth century and before the invention of the compound microscope, Francesco Redi, an Italian physician, sought to test this age-old theory of spontaneous generation by the new laboratory method. We must keep in mind that microscopic organisms were as yet unknown. His experiment was simple. He exposed meat in wide-mouthed flasks; some of which were covered; some left uncovered; and the remainder covered with fine veil ing. The meat in all the flasks soon spoiled, maggots appearing on the meat in the uncovered flask and on the veiling of the third group. Redi did not understand why the meat spoiled but he did conclude that the maggots of flies hatch from eggs. Soon after this Yan Leewenhock, a Holland sheriff, became interested in the newly invented compound micro scope. His discovery of the minute infusoria and bacteria led to the transference of the question of spontaneous generation from the larger to the more minute forms of life. Seventy years later, Needham, an English Catholic priest, repeated the experiment of Redi. He filled several vials with the extracted juices of meat, carefully sealed them, and then heated the sealed bottles before setting them away. After a- time the fluids became infected with microscopic life and Needham wrongly concluded that these living forms had been produced by spontaneous origin. Not satisfied with this, Spallanzani, an Italian professor at the University of Bologna, repeated Needham’s experi ment, using glass flasks with slender necks instead of vials. These flasks were hermetically sealed after the fluids had been introduced, and then boiled in water for upwards of an hour to destroy all life within the flasks. No life appearing, Spallanzani concluded that Needham’s conclusions were faulty and that low forms of life are not spontaneously generated.
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