December 1927
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heathen mythology about incarnate deities, seems to give the critics a basis for seeking to discredit the Christian message concerning it. We are told that the Gospel story was the outgrowth of these heathen ideas. Let it be noted, however, that there is a great difference between the heathen notions of incarnation and the Christian teach ing of the love of God, which brought Him in human form to save men from sin, even going to the cross to pay the infinite dues of sin. Where do you find such teachings in any of the religions of the world? And what other religion has been proven ‘‘the power of God unto salva tion”? The power of Christ in the lives of men is proof suf ficient that Christianity is a proclamation from God and that Christ Himself was “God manifest in the flesh.” gfc? 8 ¡Sr The Clerical Roundup S OMEONE has been so kind as to send us a copy of The . Truth Seeker, organ of the Atheists, in which several columns are given to chronicling the misdeeds of ministers. These were taken from newspapers, and com prise all binds of offenses, from traffic violations to serious breaches of morals. It would be interesting to run down all these cases and discover the outcome and learn what influences were back of many of the charges. The Truth Seeker is kind enough to say that “to the authenticity of all these reports The Truth Seeker makes no claim,’’ji nevertheless the conclusion is reached that “statistics make the ministers only a close second among members of the educated classes, with the exception of teachers. The men and women who teach our schools and are instructors in colleges are of higher moral char acter than ministers, and not so many get in jail.” The editor even ventures the assertion that there are more scalawags among them than, for instance, among the doctors and lawyers. The Truth Seeker editor surely did not seek very dil igently for the truth when he wrote the following sen tence : “What might be the facts did not the clergy, be cause of the sacred nature of their calling, enjoy more immunity than others from prosecution, we cannot tell.” This will bring a smile to thousands of ministers who know from experience how their every, movement is scrutinized by the critical eyes of people who would take delight in magnifying their smallest inconsistencies and in publishing them far and wide. If a minister wishes to draw a front page article, with red headlines, in a news paper, he has but to drive his car one mile an hour in ex cess of the speed limit on the way to make an engagement, or overdraw his bank account fifty cents. A preacher can get ten times as much newspaper space,as anyone else, if he commits the least offense, and God knows they are all human, and if they know their Bibles, they make no claims to sinless perfection. That st> many ministers do go wrong in these days should be an occasion of heart searching all around. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” There is not a doubt but that the modern loose views con cerning the Bible teachings have had much to do with scandals involving ministers, although it is a sad fact that some who have upheld the Scriptures have been over taken, and if so, it must be explained by a letting down of the devotional life. However, if The Truth Seeker could print the names of 10,000 preachers who had gone wrong, it would not support their contention that there is no connection of religion with ethics and morals. Says The Truth Seeker:
Bible was translated into Greek, the common tongue, pro claiming to the world the coming of the Messiah. That is not all. There was a peculiar preparation of the hearts of men. The proud, cultured Greeks had be come a hopeless and effeminate race. Their mythology had become to them nothing more than a fairy tale. The Roman world, with its show of power, had become a sink of rottenness. The best of the Romans were sick of it all. The Jews, too, were a heartsick people. They had been burdened to the limit with traditions and ceremonies until most of them could find no approach to God. At that very time there was a tense expectation that the Messiah was about to come. They had talked it until many of the heathen also were on the tiptoe of expectation. Literature expressing this hope had been widely circulated. The actions of the wise men and shepherds were perfectly natural. It was the fulness of time—-there was no other time like it. And Christ came. Incarnation—God’s Answer to Man’s Cry F ROM the earliest times it was the cry of human hearts that God should manifest Himself in human form so that He could be known by men. The doctrine of^ the incarnation is by no means contrary to the intuitive conceptions of the human mind, Man instinctively feels that a gracious God must find some way to come in touch with His creatures. The birth of Jesus Christ into this world was God’s answer to the longing of human hearts, yet “He came unto His own and His own received Him not.” When Paul and Barnabas went into the regions of Lycaonia, the people, impressed by their miracles of heal ing, jumped to the conclusion that the gods had come down to them in the likeness of men (Acts 14:11-12). They would have taken Barnabas for Jupiter and Paul for Mercury, had not the two positively refused their worship. However, the incident was significant, showing the cry of men’s hearts that deity; should take human form. On the other hand, the fact that much is found in
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