Pseudo-Churches of the Day. 197 ing it with audacious travesties of His ordinances and teachings. "Churches," of Mormon, of 'Christian Science,' of 'the Science of Being,' of any variety of Deism, and no one man knows how many other vagaries of a bewildered imagination. hurled off into void space from the only possible source of Divine knowledge; are swiftly multiplied, and eagerly filled by vagabond fugitives from the presence of the Lord.' Not only are these mock 'Houses of the Lord' multiplied, but many that were once organized in His name are now profaning His symbols while casting out His word, and this is not the worst: the blasphemy is acquiesced in where it is not repeated, throughout every denomination, with recreant submission for the sake of 'peace'-whose peace? "Speaking of submission," says a letter to the Editor of Kingdom Tidings, "what do you think of having to submit to this? Our pastor gives sneezing songs and whistling entertainments in the church for the amusement of the young people, and to raise money for the church. His sermons are a mixture of higher criticism and socialism. The children receive stick-pins, rings, bracelets, etc., for coming to Sunday school; they are given punch-cards to collect money for the missionary work, and another card which is punched every time they come to the Sunday morning or evening services. Our church is considered one of the most spiritual in the town, as the others are all worse than ours." WHAT IS PRESBYTERIANISM? We noted, a while ago, from daily press reports, that in the Presbytery of Brooklyn such questions as the inerrancy of Scripture were passed over as immaterial or 'divisive,' in the examination of candidates for the official ministry of the Word. Just now, the like reports inform us that the Presbytery of Elizabeth, New Jersey, has unanimously commissioned Mr. Harrison J. Wright, late of Union Theological Seminary, to declare the doctrine of the Presbyterian Church, on the basis of a belief that the Book of Genesis though written, he thought, by an inspired man (such as Shakespeare?) is not historical, nor were Adam and Eve historical persons. In other words, that the author was 'inspired' to write a tissue of fables with all the gravity of a historian, to be implicitly and literally believed by the Church of God for 5,000 years, before any prophet could arise (after Jesus Christ himself had failed) to discover and reveal that there was nothing in them of 198 Pseudo-Churches of the Day. fact. What inspiration must that have been? Not that of the God of truth, surely. The doctrine was perhaps not altogether savory to all the members of Presbytery, but so great is the dearth of fresh (?) young men for the ministry that they were glad to let him sneak in, on a promise that he would not take his views of the Bible into the pulpit, (playing the hypocrite), but reserving the right privately to teach them if found necessary in order "to save a man for Christ!" Faith was once thought necessary for salvation. Now, the sure thing is unbelief. If such things were not common enough to be presumably actual anywhere in the Church of today, we would not repeat them, much less comment on them, on the report of the irreligious press. THE NEW CHRISTENDOM IN HEATHENDOM. The standard of Christian consecration and self-sacrifice in the Churches brought forth from heathenism and savagery is so far above that of American Churches, that we are often prompted to wonder if the Christendom of the future is not soon to be in the lands we call heathen. The late missionary news on the subject at the present moment of writing is in line with many previous advices, some of which have been repeated in "SALVATION." For instance, the lately cannibal Fiji Islanders (Wesleyan) gave $25,000 last year for missionary work, besides supporting their own churches, pastors, and homework. In the Polynesian island of Niné (Savage Island) where there are less than 5,000 inhabitants, of all sorts, the native churches have paid their native pastors $1,589, and have given for missions $1,612.50; a total of $3,201.50. These people hardly know money by using, and make all their contributions in kind, from the little products of their own industry and frugality. How "their deep poverty abounds into the riches of their liberality” may be imagined from the following description of life in India among the poor who receive the Gospel. "Life is the narrowest and hardest conceivable, with no earthly prospect of improvement. To a western man, it never ceases to be a wonder how human life can be kept running on the scanty supply afforded. For a family of, say, six persons, the average income will not exceed fifty cents per head per month, and will more frequently be found to be very little over one half of that. Even the luxury of a bit of soap, some clean water and a towel are, on the cheapest possible scale, far beyond their means. The New Christendom in Heathendom. 199 The leper Christians in the institution at Purulia in Bengal, shame our comfortable self-indulgence by sacrificing for Christ what would seem insufficient to make life tolerable in the best of health. These 'miserables' receive an allowance of about four cents a day for the purchase of food and clothing. Out of this they saved between fifteen and twenty dollars toward the cost of rooms which they needed for prayer; but even this they gave up when they heard of the famine, and begged to be allowed to send their money to the starving. Later, when a kind visitor left them about five dollars to procure some little comforts, they appropriated it to the prayer rooms instead. Instances of this kind are so frequent as to become almost characteristic of the 'New Christendom.' Critical Study of the Bible. HISTORICAL OUTLINES. SECOND QUARTER OF THE BI-MILLENNIUM OF ABRAHAM. CONTINUED FROM JEPHTHAH TO SAMUEL. The general condition of the Hebrew people in the theocratic period is all that was intended to be noticed in this secondary outline of sacred history: the first having been devoted (in the first volume of "SALVATION," according to an announced principle of historical study) to a broad survey of the historical field as to its major divisions, semi-millennial, millennial, and bi-millennial; and the present survey being confined to interior lines from peak to peak of the great personal factors in each epoch. Some divergences from such broad generalization, into particulars, have been necessary for better illustration, and some have been taken, like the latest on Jephthah, out of respect to a somewhat importunate special interest. The bird's-eye view, however, of wholes without. details, will still be usually taken until we come, if ever, to the massing of particulars under each historical head. Accordingly, we here barely enumerate the rest of the "judges;" 200 Period of Theocracy, or "Judges." passing over some extremely interesting studies among them, in order to concentrate attention and memory on the chief essentials of the history. Following Jephthah, after he had "judged Israel" only six years, came three other general rulers, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, covering a period of twenty-five years, during which there seems to have been nothing worthy to note of them more than the exuberant number and semi-royal state of their sons and daughters. One thing, however, is implied in the statement following (ch. XIII.): "the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of JAHVEH:"-that is, an uncommonly swift degeneration, and perhaps a natural sequence from a regime of selfish rulers-"and JAHVEH delivered them into the hands of the Philistines," their formerly-conquered co-inhabitants, for forty years. Then follows the beautiful story of Manoah, his wife, and the angelic annunciation of their marvellous child, the Nazarite Samson. A grand homiletic text is this history, on which we shall not dwell here, farther than to note that faith in God and obedience to direct personal commands or duties, are wonderfully employed in the service of God, notwithstanding such gross imperfections and irregularities as have too often disfigured the lives of heroes of faith commemorated together with Samson, in the record of Judges and the roll of honor in Hebrews XI. The episode of Micah and his household idols blended with the worship of JAHVEH and a Levitical priesthood (xvII:13) may have been introduced to serve as a specimen of occasional departures that multiplied and led to those gross and general apostasies that so often brought down upon the Chosen People the faithful severities of a Father's discipline, which gradually prepared them for a somewhat more steadfast attitude of faith and obedience. The still more painful sequel in the next chapter to the story of Micah; followed by the horrible episode of lust and lawlessness in Benjamin that resulted in the extermination of nearly all the tribe, together with a fresh revival of primitive righteousness, and that under tremendous penance, in the people at large; these episodes end the book with an exhibition of the state of Israel which Samuel and David were next sent to redeem in some measure, for a time. The book of Ruth and the genealogy of David fall into the interval; after which, the pious devotion of another "mother in Israel" gave to the nation, by the grace of God, one of the holiest and mightiest of their prophets and rulers-SAMUEL-one of those controlling personal factors in sacred history, whom it is our present object to present in some relief. Critical Study of the Bible. BIBLE REVISION REVISED. MATTHEW XXI:33. 201 33. "There was a man that was a householder" (R.V.) is more literal than A.V. But the word 'householder' for oikodespotes has already been objected to in its modern sense as the mere occupant of a house. Master of a house, or house lord, or landlord, gives the literal sense, and accords with the scope of the parable. "Went into a far country" (A.V.) is properly amended (R.V.) "another country:" apedēmēsen, more exactly, left the country, went abroad. 34. The amendments of the Revision, though not essential, are according to the text. "Fruits of it" (A.V.) assumes an antecedent for autou which is not in the sentence. "His fruits" (R.V.) is therefore justified. 37. "Last of all" (A.V.) seems preferable to "afterward" (R.V.), but the latter alone is correct grammatically, and has proved to be so historically. The Son was by no means the "last of all" sent and slain. 38. "Seize on" his inheritance (A.V.) is changed to "take" in the R.V. But schōmen is have or hold, in a tense looking back so as to imply continuance: therefore, "let us keep his inheritance," already occupied under lease. There is a nice historical fitness in this distinction, also. 39. "Took" him, and cast him "forth" out of the vineyard (R.V.) are literal. 40. There is a verbal parallelism between the bad men (kakous) and their kind of destruction (kakōs) which the Revisers have sought to preserve by making the former "miserable" instead of "wicked;" which will hardly do for them. If we would show the parallelism completely, we must go around a little: e.g. bring those bad men to a bad end; unless the literal translation, "badly destroy those bad men," be preferable. 42. This was from the Lord (para kurios) in the (R.V.) has the advantage of literality. 44. "Scatter him as dust" (R.V.) is slightly nearer the original than "grind him to powder." Scatter him as chaff, would be still nearer. It is likmesei, "it will winnow:" a figure often used in this way; as in Daniel 11:35; to which allusion seems particularly made. In view of the undisputed occurrence of the same words in the same connection in Luke xx:18, the reason is not obvious for noting their disappearance in some ancient MSS, as an occasion for doubt. 46. Multitudes, for "multitude," is a correction, though small, that means more with relation to the popular Jewish acceptance of Jesus. |