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BY EMMETT L. MOFFirT. ESTABLISHED 1844. Christian Sun. IN ESSENTIALS, UNITY; IN NON-ESSENTIALS, LIBERTY; IN ALL THINGS, CHARITY. $2-°° PER YEAR. SLOE COLLEGE, E. 0., THUB8DAY, AUGUST 11,1898. VOLUME LI: EUMBEE 3L T)^ Christian Sun The Organ of the General Convention the Christian Church (Sooth). CARDINAL PRINCIPLES. 1. The Lord Jean* ie the only Head of the ehnroh. S. The name Christian, to the exclusion ot all party and sectarian names. 8. The Holy Bible, or the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, sufficient rule of faith and practice. 4. Christian character, or vital piety, the only test of fellowship or membership. 8. The right of private Judgment, and the liberty of conscience, the privilege and duty of all. Reflections. If all the drunkards who die in one year in the U. S. were to die in one day and be buried the same day, the funeral process sion would reach from Colum bus, O., to San Francisco.—The American Issue. Local affairs in the District of Columbia are now administered by three commissioners, one of whom is a Republican, another a Democrat, t and the third an officer of the Engineer Corps of the army, each of whom receives $5,000 per year. The trio are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate ; and the civilians must have been resi dents of the District for at least three years. The sense of the community is not expressed in the selection. The President— very frequently a total stranger to the people whose rulers he is called upon to name—is com pelled to accept such advice as may be given him by those,hav ing sufficient influence to reach his ear. The number of these is necessarily very restricted; nor are his advisers always actu ated by the most disinterested motives. Petitions and letters pour into the White House, but are rarely even a factor in deter mining the Anal outcome ; and it is doubtful if one in a thousand secures the President’s personal attention. Sometimes mass meet ings are held ; but they have so little weight as to be more hu morous than effective. The word of a personal friend, upon whose judgment the President feels he ran rely, is more influential than a multitude of documents signed by persons whose names are un known to the Chief Executive and of whose standing or reputa tion in the city he is equally ig norant. Even under these ap parently untoward circum stances, however, it is only fair to say that the Presidents have been, almost without exception, singularly fortunate in their se lections, They have demon strated that the principle of arbi tary choice is advantageous. With one exception, their nomi nees have been confirmed by the Senate, after reference to the District Committee ; and in that one instance an adverse report was due not to the unfitness of the nominee, but to his having been unfortunate enough to speak disparagingly of the Com mittee. Unlike the ordinary municipal officers, the Commis sioners are in no wise directly responsible to the people. They Dave secured tneir appointment through the intercession ol per sonal friends with the President; and to these agencies they are naturally grateful. Their very freedom from the restrictions of popular favor or disapproval has its advantages, as it enables' them to enforce onerous, but proper, regulations unhampered by the anticipated verdict of the ballot-box. They are purely exe cutive officers, appointed for three years, although their pow ers in connection with framing police, building, and plumbing regulations are quite liberal. These regulations are the routine ordinances of other cities. All •other laws, from the authority to widen an alley to the assess ment of taxes, must be sought trom Congress, which thus be ocmes the common council of the District.—June Forum. I believe that there are two efficient causes, as one says in logic, for the low standing of the teacher’s calling. First, we have the type of education actually given in the schools. It is the general consensus of educators that the end or purpose of edu cation is to form character in the widest sense—intellectual, aesthe tic, and moral—and that the function of school education is to develop interest which shall gradually become spontaneous and permanent, so that school ing will no longer be neccessary. Now the education actually giv en in the schools is often of a character very different from this. It consists in the mere acquisi tion of knowledge; and the teacher’s work is the mere teach ing of many subjects. To raise the culture of the teacher and to change this type of education, would be the first step toward raising the teaching profession. The second cause of the low standing of the teacher’s calling is lack of extended professional training. Professions easily en tered are not usually highly re spected. The medical profession has been cited as an illustration. Not long ago, when one could be a physician without special training, the profession was not very highly esteemed. Now, wh,en extended training is de manded both by public opinion and by law, the profession is re spected as one of the highest. In like manner, the teaching pro fession would undoubtedly in crease in favor, were training of a high order demanded. In fact, we find the respect for the pro fession varying in different countries and in different grades of the school system, almost in direct ratio to the education and professional training required of candidates.—June Forum. Some idea of the enormous cost of war at the present day may be had by figuring on a fic titious regular engagement be tween two big battleships like the Oregon and the Pelayo. Out side the damage and total loss of valuable property, the cost of ammunition runs up amazingly fast. It is almost like burning money. Fancy paying $1,000 every time a shot is fired from a rapidfiring gun. There are a good number of warships in the United States navy that have nearly a dozen guns that swal low $1,000 worth of ammunition at a single gulp, not to speak of the numberless little fallows that eat up from $200 to $700 worth every shot. One broadside from th& battleship Oregon, with every gun belching" fire and shell, would cost at least $10,000 sim ply for ammunition and for the moment. Figure on the destruc tion df property made by such a broadside and the total runs up money more rapidly. A battle between these two giants of the sea would quickly destroy at least $5,000,000 worth of proper ty in one hour. Each ship cost the same. The destruction of either would mean a loss of $3 , 670,000. It is probable that the other would be damaged half its value, or $1,835,000. These two incidents of a naval battle would mean a to tal destruction of $5,505,000. In one hour each of the big guns would be discharged about 20 times. That is the average num ber. Jiach time the ib big rules of the Oregon were discharged it would cost the government $12,000. In the course of 60 minutes they would belch forth $240,000 worth of shot and shell. Four of her guns cost $600 each every time they are discharged, four of them $1,000 each, and eight of them $700 each. Besides these she carries two Gatling guns. Their capacity is 1,200 shots a minute. To operate each gun $300 worth of cartridges must be provided every miniiTe/ It is bot probable that they would lie fired for more than 15 minutes, but even that briet lime would mean an expense of $4, 500 for each gun or $9,000 for both. That would bring the to tal expense of an hour's engage ment up to $249,000, $4,150 a minute, or .a little more than $69 a second.—Phila. Record. Contributions THE CHURCH: ITS FOUNDERS; ITS MISSION. BV PROF. J. J., LINCOLN. What, then, is the true notion of the church? What is the ideal of its constitution? I answer: The church is a religious society, governed by divine revelation alone. This statement, in my judgment, embodies all that is essential to the constitution of the church. I will not say that there cannot be a church with out certain articles, offices or or dinances, Neither will I say that any association must be a church which has certain arti cles, officers, or ordinances. But I do say that no society can be a church unless it be a religious society, governed by divine rev elation, and by this alone. Nor can I hesitate a moment to add that when I speak of its being governed by divine revela tion alone, I mean by its own understanding of that revelatiofl, only requiring that it exercise its understanding with due rever ence to God and due respect for the whole Christian brotherhood in ardent, patient, studious, prac tical desire to be led into all truth by the spirit of the truth. ; All this, indeed, is logically and philosophically involved in the proposition itself. To me it is clear that the original intention was that the whole human race should constitute the one undi vided membership of the church. Church and state, if designed to be separately and differently or ganised, were always to exist in close union and perfect harmony. Their separation, however expe dient now, could not havfe' been demanded by the primitive con dition of things. This expedien cy is an effect of the introduction of evil. The multiplying generatioqs, with no tendency to error in themselves, with nothing to sug gest it in creation or providence, and with nothing to occasion it among their social instructors, would have continued forever to enlarge their estate with the blessings of obedience, every birth into the world would have been a birth into the church. The prattle of the child ot a year or two old would have been readily inspired with the wor shipful spirit of the patriarch of a thousand years, and the softest lisping of its all-believing love might have been more touching to the heart of God than the sub limest anthem of angels ever sung before his throne. The Spirituality of the Church. The church, whose mission is to testify to man’s spiritual nature, needs and re sources, falls into apostacy whenever she allows anything else to take the first place. A weak faith in spiritual facts and powers makes a weak ministry and a lean-souled laity. The vision of heavenly things fades out; zeal for diffusing spiritual good declines; the church drops toward the lower levels, merges itself in the world, and becomes a power for evil rather than good. The measure of a true church appears, therefore, in its power to promote spirituality: that is, the higher life of wisdom and goodness, the love of truth and of duty, which aie all one with the love of God and man. Ever since faith in the ascending Jesus gladdened the hearts of the believers with the vision of hu manity immortalized by divinity, the missionary zeal of the church has been kept alive by the persuasion that every human being is capable of rising unto God s likeness and blessedness through, obedience to spiritual truth, or ot sinking into infernal ism of character and condition through rejection and disobe dience. I suppose this persua sion, or something like it, reflects the serious wisdom and expe rience of mankind, and still con stitutes the reason for the exist-* ence of the church, and a large part of its working capital. All the kingdoms of trade, industry, literature, science, art, politics, must merge in this kingdom ol the spirit and in the services of a purified humanity. Thus alone shall we secure freedom, peace, and progress. Only io this supremacy of spiritual laws and this sunshine of spiritual love will be found a field for de ploying all human powers and a climate for the generous growths of civilization whose fruits shall not be poisonous. Beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that cometh in the name of the Lord with these tidings of good! Beautiful and glorious the church which can thus make itself felt as a power for bringing in everlasting [righteousness. I The Revival the Church Needs. The revival we need is not a temporary excitement, but a revival of true Christian living. We do not need a revival of that religion which consists simply of devout fervors of the prayer meet ing and camp ground, which sings sweet hymns and applauds sweet sermons, and then goes straight off to indulge in worldly and sinful indulgences. The church needs such a re vival of righteousness that the closest scrutiny will not reveal any crookedness in any of its members. She needs a revival of spiritual religion. Many in the church whose character for integrity is above suspicion, and yet they are cold and formal in religion. They needf to be “quick ened” into “newness of life”, to have that fresh inftpx of vitality and power which equips for the work, and fills, the soul with joy in doing it. The church needs a continuous revival. She has had enough “high tides” and “tidal waves”, enough of ebb and flow. Making the impression on mem berships that there are only spe cial times and seasons when they are expected to do personal work for souls, or can do it suc cessfully, works injury to the church. It is fraught with unspeakable peril to the unCofiVerted by en couraging the habit of deferring repentance to “a more conve nient season”. They wait for a revival. And many die waiting. What we need, therefore, is a re vival that shall last all the year and years. Nor is this impossi ble or impracticable. There can be no doubt that God would have the church in a state of revival all the time, and what God wants the church to do, it certainly can do. Souls are in peril all the time. The divine power is avail able all the time. Some one has said : The church should always be up to the conversion point. A glorious church. There are spots which are visible to the outside world, and which make the church the scoff and scorn of the ungodly ; there are spots which the church herself beholds with tearful eyes ; but what must be the aspect of the church in the sight of Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire, who reads every thought, and who searches the hearts and tries the reins? A church that is glorious in her own eyes maybe vile in the eyes of the alLseeing Lord. Such was the church of Laodicea, rich, prosperous, and contented, but in the sight of the Lord loathe some and defiled. But Christ is to present unto himself a glo rious church. He will at laSt be satisfied with his redeemed peo ple. The last spot removed, the last stain purged, the church re deemed, purified, glorified, to stand faultless in the presence of her King, robed in his own right eousness, crowned with his own glory, without fault, before the throne cf God. Brethren, are we included in that spotless church ? I wish to speak of the peculiar doctrine of the Christian church. The Oneness of Christian ity. I cannot but hope that a fairer vision than ever yet has charmed the eyes of men has been reserved in the wisdom and goodness of God to illustrate our beloved union. Union! That is the watchword ! Thank God (or its meaning, its music, and its power. Union ! civil and relig ious ; the oneness of humanity and the onenss of Christianity ! A religion worthy of our liberty as laid down in the principles of our church. God bless our union to-day—Blue and Gray ; Gens. Lee and Shafter. If Canadians, Mexicans and South Americans ; if Irishmen, Englishmen, Welsh men and Scotchmen ; it Swedes, Danes and Norwegians; if Por tugese, Spaniards and French men ; if even Turks, and Arabs, and Persians, and Hindoos, and Siamese, and Chinese if, in a word, all the varieties of human ity, may here be assembled, and made, to all intents and purposes civilly one, then, I ask, may not even Greek Catholics, if they should come among us, and Ro man Catholics and Protestants of all classes; in a word, may not all the varieties of Christian ity be made ecclesiastically one? If all the obstructions of dis tance, clanger, poverty, language, habit, manners and social cus toms have been overcome in the civil union. May not the single obstruction of tradition be over come tor the accomplishment of ecclesiastical union—a simple Christian union—a Holy Bible union ? I believe it can be upon the principles upon which we stand. Here we are, by the good providence ol God, our mighty brotherhood, gathered from all nations, Here we are, with the grandest seas of the globe toss ing all their billows between our happy shores and the tyrannies of the Old World. Here we are, as citizens, already one. Why not also be one as Christians? Have we not already thrown off a thousand political traditions? And are we not equally at liber -ty to throw off all sectarian tra ditions? Then let us use our liberty. Away with this eccle siastical opposition to the Bible! The Bible belongs to all! The Bible is acknowledged by all. Let the Bible be obeyed, and it will re-unite all. Let all who can come make haste to come. Let the union be consummated. The tidings will electrify the world. Popery, like Lucifer, having ascended to the highest heaven in all the pride of the Son of the Morning, shall sud denly drop into the deepest depth of mockery and scorn. In fidelity, like Satan, having cov ered itself with a cloud and slow ly exalted its front against the throne of God, shall fall again like lightning to the marsh from which it rose. Paganism, wor shipping it knows not what, shall be startled by the quicken ing voice of truth, and clasping her brow at the thrill of return ing reason, shall stand before the Highest, illumined, enrap tured, and restored; Judaism, weeping by the temple wall, shall hear strange news from the land where her children have never found cause to weep, and con fess that Jesus is the Christ! Ah, yes, brethren, a second and more national flag shall attend the first in all its flights from pole to pole —a flag flashing with the stars of prophets and apostles, and glowing with the stripes of the Saviour’s painful but blessed and beckoning atonement, and the United States of America and the united churches of Amer ica magnifying the Bible and the God of the Bible, and mag nified in turn by the benediction of both, shall become and remain “the joy and the praise of the whole earth”. Are we in posses sion of these facts?. Are they lost to our view? Unless these things are constantly held up to our view we lose sight of the great good that has come to us. [Concluded in Next Issue. 1 VICTUIIY UVKK 1>EAXH. FROM THE CANADIAN CHURCH MAN. Death was born at our birth, and ever moves by our side with his shadow rising upon us. He is ever penciling wrinkles on the brow, and blanching the bloom of the cheek, sowing rottenness in the bones, scattering gray hairs upon the crown, hampering activity and enjoyment, mocking at wisdom and strength and beauty, and, finally, as the pen alty of sin, extinguishing, with accumulations of misery, our earthly existence. Such is the dark background against which the life and immortality of the Gospel shines out so brightly. Sin, the sting of death, has been extracted; believers in Christ are freed from death as the pen alty of sin ; 'so that Jesus Him self could say, “Whosoever liv eth and believeth in me shall never die” (John n: 26;. In His death He has abolished ours, and hence has delivered us, not only Irom the dominion and sting ot death, but even from the fear of death (Heb. u: 15). This is the deepest note of the Gospel. It reveals the lost har mony of our human existence ; it offers the only medicine that sweetens the Mara of bereave ment, and descends with healing to the deepest springs of our nature. JUDAH, THE FOURTH SON OF JACOB AND LEAH. | BY HERBERT SCHOLZ, A.M. On account ot Reuben’s wick edness, Judah succeeded in part to Reuben’s place by inheritance. Joseph became heir to the re maining part. Little is known of Judah’s early life. He was with his father in the journey from Haran to Mamre. He went through all the vicissitudes of lite which his father passed through, and seems to have been a dutiful, obedient boy. He was married to a Canaanitish wom an, by whom he had three sons. He also became the father of two illegitimate sons by the wid ow of his first-born, Er. This circumstance was wrought in in iquity, but was turned into good by him who over-rules the af fairs of men. Judah was with his brethren when they sold their young brother Joseph to the Ish maelites, and was the one who suggested the idea of the sale. Mad passion and blind prejudice were the inspirers of this wicked deed, and show to what unrea sonable lengths men will go when jealousy gets control of them. Later on, Judah had cause to repent of this deed, when he fell into the hands of his brother Joseph, and had to beg for the release of Benjamin. The story is as follows: There was a great famine in the world. Egypt was the only place where an abundance ot food could be ob tained. Joseph had arisen from a slave to the chief place of com mand under Pharaoh. Jacob sent his sons down to Egypt to buy corn. All went except Ben jamin, the youngest. When they reached the end of their journey, they applied for food. They did not, however, know that it was Joseph to whom they were ap plying. But Joseph knew them. Here was a chance for revenge. Let us see how he took it. fie did not make himself known at first, but inquired very minutely concerning all their affairs and the affairs of their father. He made them tell that they had a younger brother at home. He declared to them that they would have to bring their younger brother with them the next time they came, if they expected to get any further help from him. He also kept one of their num ber as a guarantee that they would bring Benjamin to him. They went home and came again, Benjamin with them. They had their sacks filled with corn, and started back home, but they had travelled only a f^w miles ere they were overtaken by an officer who arrested them on the charge that they had sto len his master’s silver cup. Dis mayed and afraid they went back, and were examined, when, behold, the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. Joseph then proposed that he should keep Benjamin and let the rest depart. But Judah had become surety to his father for the safe return of Benjamin, and it was then that Judah humiliated himself by prosiraiiug nimseu uciuicjusc^u and begging in a most piteous appeal that he would release his brother Benjamin tor the sake of the old afflicted father at home. Then it was that Joseph made himself known to his brethren, and then it was that Judah per ceived how dangerous was the position in which he was placed. It was the same old story of ret ribution for sin, but the retribu tion was very mild in Judah’s case. When Israel moved into Egypt, Judah and his family went also. His interests were involved with the interests of his father and brothers, and he stayed with them. When his lather had near , ly run his race on earth, and had gathered his children around him for a final blessing, when Judah’s turn came, his father placed his hand upon Judah’s head and pronounced the follow ing words: Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise, thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies ; thy father’s chil dren shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp ; from the prey, my son, thou art gone up ; he stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as an old lion ; who shall rouse him up? ihe sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shi loh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and the ass’s colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. The first words of the blessing recognize Judah as the one es pecially fitted to receive his fa ther’s mantle. His brethren are to look up to him as the authori tative head of the nation to be. He should be a power against his enemies, and history proves that he was a power against them, usually taking the lead both in the wanderings toward the promised land and also in the military expeditions against the enemies of God’s chosen peo ple. In the enumeration in the wilderness the descendants of Judah who were twenty years old and upward numbered sev enty-six thousand, five hundred. That is, more than any other one tribe. Judah was strong in fighting qualities. His father represents him as a lion. The lion is the king of beasts, as was Judah to be the king of the tribes of Israel. The sceptre is not to depart from Judah until Shiloh comes. The sceptre is the sym bol of kingly power. Only kings and queens use sceptres. The sceptre w'as to be with Judah un til a new dispensation was estab lished on earth, until Shiloh, the Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Prince of Peace should come clothed in the garb of lowliness, make his first ap pearance in a manger, and re ceive the adoration of the wise men and the shepherds. Subse quent history shows that this prophecy on the part of Israel came true to the letter, and that in Bethlehem, the burial place ot Rachel, in Judea, the home of Judah’s descendants, was born the one who came to save his people from their sins. Judah should bind his foal to the vine, and his colt to the choice vine. The land of Ca naan was a land peculiarly adapted to vineyards. And there after the conquest of ene mies was over, Judah’s descend ants were to settle down in peace ful rest, and spend their days in the cultivation of the soil. And so abundant were to be the vines that they were to afford tying places for the beasts of burden common to that day. And no longer having the need to pollute their garments in the blood of human beings, they were to make them red by working in the grape juice of the vine. There" in the land allotted to the tribe of Judah was to be established the throne ot David, the temple of Solomon, and other marks of divine favor and recognition. And when the other tribes of Israel forgot God, and were car ried into captivity, the kingdom of Judah lived on under varying fortunes until the coming of Shi loh, the Christ, when on account of their refusal to receive him, the Jews were scattered to the (our corners of the earth and their name became a by-word and a reproach. Some men will accept your favors day after day and year after year without the slightest signs of appreciation. They never offer to reciprocate, and it you presume to ask them for a favor “it is utterly impossible for them to grant it”, or the grant ing is a grudging one. These are the swine before which pearls are often cast. You will find that when you are in a good spiritual condition it will not be hard to perform spiritual duties.
The Christian Sun (Elon College, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Aug. 11, 1898, edition 1
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