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BY EMMETT L. MOFFITT. IN ESSENTIALS, UNITY; IN NON-ESSENTIALS, LIBERTY; IN ALL THINGS, CHARITY. $2.00 PER YEAR. ESTABLISHED 1844. ELON COLLEGE, N. 0., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1898. VOLUME LI: HUMBER 36. —— SUrt PUBLISHED WEEKLY. The Organ of the General Convention the Christian Ohurch (South). CARDINAL PRINCIPLES. 1. TheLord Jesus la the only Head of the ehuroh, S. The name Christian, to the exclusion of all party and sectarian names. 8. The Holy pible, 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. '■ 5. The right of private judgment, and the liberty of conscience, the privilege and duty of all. nwmMmtummwuutmttMMMU Reflections. The North Carolina State Fair will be held in Raleigh Oc tober 24-29. Miss Winnie Davis, “Daughter of the Confederacy”, now lies critically ill at Narragansett, R. I. The republicans and populists have fused again this year in North Carolina, a few populists, however, dissenting. After the evacuation ot Cuba by the Spanish forces President McKinley proposes that the peo ple of the island shall hold an election and vote upon the ques tion of government. Spain’s debt is now about $1, 825,000,000, the interest on which is about $t 10,000,000. To meet this and pay current expenses she has a reliable rev enue ofjonly about $150,000,000. Suffering and death are still rife in Cuba; and the Red Cross Society is calling for help in re lieving the unfortunates. The war is oyer, but its effects will not be overcome for quite awhile yet. The island is almost wholly devastated. It is now believed that, in ac cordance with England’s de mands, Li Hung Chang, one of the most noted men of this cen tury, will be removed from his high office which he has so long held. * England demanded his removal because of his partiality toward Russia. Great men sometimes make great mistakes, and fall much more rapidly than they rise. A.t the Cambridge Congress of Zoology recently a distinguished scientist, Prof. Haeckel, declared that it is now an absolute certain ty that man has descended through various stages of evolu tion from the lowest form of an imal life, during a period estimat ed at a thousand million years. It may be so, but it will take some of us about another thous and million years to believe it. Amid the hubbub of war near ly every one has forgotten about the Klondike and the gold and the distress out there. The con dition, however, remains about the Same as when we heard about it every day. The “very few” have made rich finds, while the “very many” have lost all they had, and are now undergo ing the severest privations. It is the old story ot the dog and the piece of meat. The insolent Blanco seems to be desirous of sqstaining his rep utation up to the very last mo ment. Miss Clara Barton of the Red Cross Society went to Ha vana with supplies for relieving the suffering ones there; and the beast, Blanco, refused her admit tance. He ought to be hung up by the heels in the middle of some desert or in the jungles of some forest—miserable wretch, to thus snatch the food out of the mouths of starving thousands. His pomposity and bragadocia have about run to seed, but he comes in for a final display be fore he can leave satisfied. Such men as Blanco and Weyler are an absolute disgrace to any na tion. Of the 3,400 inmates of the Ohio Penitentiary, 1,623 have testified that their downfall was due to King Alcohol.—Ex. I"he five Peace Commissioners who are to represent the United States in the conference with the Spanish Commissioners are: Secretary Day, Senator Davis, Senator Frye, Mr. Whitelaw Reid, and Justice White. Gen eral Merritt will go from Manil la to Paris for the purpose of giving information concerning the Philippines to the commis sion. They will meet in Paris the last of this month. a At Candia, Island of Crete, a few day8 ago a riot started that has resulted in the loss of about three hundred Christians, killed by the Mussulmeu. It is claim ed that a British soldier was, without provocation, stabbed in the back, whereupon he dropped Jii8 gun, which was discharged by the fall and shot a mussul man. Thus the row began, and it has required a good many sol diers to quell the.trouble. It was an effort on the part of the Mus sulmen to kill out all the Chris tians they could find. The war with Spain is over, but just now it seems that we are to have a war over the honors, among the chief army army and navy officers of the country. A good many hot words are pass ing, especially between Secreta ry Alger and General Miles as to who is entitled to the Santia go honors—Miles or Shafter. Honors that have to be contend ed for, after already won, do not amount to much. It looks most too much like a kind of selfish “grab game”. Our chief officers ought to know where the honors belong and ought tdjje_states men enough to let the laurels rest npon the brow of him who justly wins them. It is a right sorry spectacle that some of them are making of themselves. What an object lesson has just come to us from France. It de velops that an officer occupying a high position in the French ar my forged a letter upon which Dreyfus, another French officer, was convicted of treason and sentenced to imprisonment tor lite. The officer who committed the forgery confessed it a day or two ago, and since committed suicide. It was in defense of Dreyfus that the celebrated French author, Zola, created so much excitement throughout French army circles recently, and for which, he himself was sentenced to imprisonment. Thus Truth will prevail. Dreyfus has been in prison several years, suffering an ignominious punish ment, the result of a forged letter by one of his brother officers. This latter, whose conscience was quickened on account of the great injustice done a fellow be ing and a brother officer, of which no one knew but his God and himself, as if fleeing from the wrath of an outraged Father, confesses his guilt, and then ends his earthly existence? Envy, malice, uncharitableness, slan der, may succeed, apparently, fpr a while, but as sure as there is a God in heaven, he who is guilty will receive his just re ward, and justice be done. We sometimes think he who is af flicted with such wicked propen sities is to be pitied rather than punished by His fellow men. God inflicts the punishment, not only io the life to rome, but in the torture of the mind, which he must, and does, endure in his sleeping as well as waking mo ments. No mind, not totally dethroned, can contemplate the victim of such unholy passion without such feelings of remorse as destroys peace of soul and body. It may not always be ac knqwledged, as in the present case of the French officer, but the Lord will not prevent such suffering on the part of the guil ty, for it is his justice to punish such ; the devil will not because he cannot, and it is but serving his purpose. Heaven help the man whose living must be the tortures of the damned, the result of his injustice to his brother. Truth will prevail.—The Post. BEV. D. E. MILLARD. The Pulpit. LIVING TO GOD IN THE SPIRIT. BY REV. D. E. MILLARD. “But lWe according to God in the Spirit.” —1 Peter 4: 6. The religion of Christ, as he taught and exemplified it, is something more than form. It is life and spirit. Or, as the text suggests, it is living to God in the Spirit. It differed widely from Judaism, which was em phatically a religion of forms and ceremonies. Hence it was diffi cult to make its true character understood, either by those who worshipped in Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim. Jesus said to the woman ot Samaria: “God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must wor ship him in Spirit and in truth.” That he should have made known this great truth of his kingdom to a Samaritan woman was an occasion of surprise, both to his disciples and to oth ers. Says one, referring to this conversation, “The Saviour must have discovered in her a spirit of earnest inquiry, or he would not have committed to her the sub lime truths of spiritual worship.” And surely as we read carefully the account given, we shall see that the woman was every way sincere in her inquiries. The searching disclosure of Christ had convinced her of sin, and, with faith in the Teacher before her, she called his attention to the real religion which separat ed the Samaritan and Jewish nations. Pointing to Mount Ger izim, she said : “Our fathers wor shipped oh this mount, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place to worship.” The reply of Jesus prepared the way for the truth, that God is a spirit and is pleased only with spiritual and truthful worship. That in place of cere monies and forms there must be spiritual lite, or a “luring accord ing to God in the Spirit.” This is true life, and pertaios not only to the future, but also to the life that now is. The subject to which I would call your attention at this time is the spiritual nature of God,re quiring a spiritual worship and a spiritual life in man. In treating of God’s spiritual being, I will do so first with ref erence to the Judaism with which it is in part connected. I say in part, for Christ expressly declared that salvation was of the Jews. To them had been committed the oracles of God, while the Samaritans recognized only the five books of Moses. The Jewish nation received and guarded the long line of sacred writings which testify ol Christ. Putting himself as one of the children ol Abraham, Jesus said, “We know what we worship; and the whole providential train ing of Israel had been for the purpose of teaching that knowl edge. The eventful history which is the background of the Old Testament was God’s school for the chosen people to lilt them from idolatrous worship into true conceptions of himself, All the natural attributes which belong to a true spiritual conception cf God have tound in the Old Tes tament their grandest and fullest expression. Christ, as one of the descend ants of David, was free to say, “We know what we worship." But we are told that notwith standing the high character of their Scripture teaching, the Jews worshiped not a spiritual but a material deity. “His right hand is on them that hate ; his feet are upon the darkness, and the breath of his nostrils upturn the foundations of the world.” The Old Testament is crowded with such representations, and does not the human mind need these metaphors and illustrations to give evidences of its concep tion of the divine personality? Personality is not necessarily opposed to spirituality. We do not get the right view of the Most High by relieving our minds of all we know of human individu als. God is a person, and we do not spiritualize our concep tion of him by thinking of him as a being diffused through the universe, without any form or dwelling place. Wherever God is he is present fully in spirit, though unseen. He is here in the majesty of his power, for his power, and wisdom, and care are here pledged to my salvation ; and, if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utter most parts of the sea, even then he shall lead me and his right hand shall hold me— ‘'Wherever earth is fair. Or brighter worlds extend, Almighty Sovereign, thou art there, Creation’s Laird and Friend. ■’And where the stars are not, Nor sun hath ever 9hone, Beyond the flight of human thought There thou art God alone.” What, then, was the error of Judaism? It was the mistake of confining what God meant to be world-wide. To the Jew the worship of the Father of us all was localized and restricted. Je hovah had been localized on Mount Sinai when the law was given, on the pillar of cloud and on the pillar of fire, in the taber nacle and temple. But the hour had come for a new revelation, and Jesus came to send it forth, to make it known that back of all this localization —all these visible ipanifestations —was the Infinite Oue, whom the heaven of heavens could not contain, whose children were to be the spiritual following of that Abraham who believed God and was accepted of him when Ca naan was no more sacred than the wilds of America. To this great truth Israel was blind. Hating the Cross, he clung to the temple, and “poured his heart’s blood on the sacred pavements when the Roman le gions burned his Holy of Ho lies.” To the loyal Jew Jerusa lem, even in her ruins, is the place where men ought to wor ship. To the Christian the proph ecy at Jacob’s Well was the emancipation of worship. Secondly, we are brought to ask, What are the relations of the truth that God is Spirit, and demands spiritual worship and spiritual life towards him who so boldly taught it? It is per fectly consistent with his own claims to divinity, and with the worship and service which he accepted. The disciples, who went everywhere, preaching the Word, went in the power of love, trusting in one who said, “Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Their inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, and if they preached Christ and Him crucified it was that the hearts of men might be quickened with love for the Re deemer, and that they might be encouraged and animated to ‘ live according to God in the Spirit.” It was not the body of Jesus, but the divine power with which he was inspired, that filled the hearts of his disciples with faith, and moved Thomas to ex claim, “My Lord and my God !” It is highly proper that we should love the house and place of prayer. And the true disci ple, with spiritual longings, can say with the psalmist: “One thing have I desired ot the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. But the place is loved and sought not because of any peculiar sacred ness attaching to it, other than the convenience and custom of worshipping there. It is that we may “wait on the Lord” and “in quire in his Jemple; that our courage may be increased and our hearts strengthened. Thirdly. In considering the sub ject of spiritual worship and the duties pertaining to the spiritual life, we inquire, What are the relations of the spiritual nature of God, as revealed by Christ, to the nature of man? If man can offer acceptable—that is, spirit ual—worship, there must be in the human constitution that which is fitted to this exalted service. God’s nature as spirit ual is the explanation of man’s nature as spiritual. But where with shall I come before the Lord ? What is there in me that may approach unto the Most High? I see him not, nor can my hands find him. Where is my true self—my real personali ty? I am not the arm that moves at my bidding, nor the eyes which “wander over the starlit vault ot midnight.” I am not the bodily functions which min ister pain and pleasure to myself. The language I use indicates that back of the visible and per ishable is an unseen reality, or power, which is a master of all. The essence of man is the soul that thinks, and loves, and wills, and that soul is known only to itself. Says an able divine: “Science may strip away the body in search of the naked hu man spirit, but the stealthiest ap proach is eluded, and her wisest analysis baffled. The soul works" through the hand, looks through the eye ; but hand or eye togeth er cannot find the soul. The mind of John Milton was the camping-ground of the angels of God, but who, by searching Mil ton’s brain, could discover the ‘Paradise Lost’?” “There is a spirit in man ; and the inspira tion ot the Almighty giveth them understanding.” Though he sees not God, yet he may discern and interpret him. God is love, God is righteousness, God is wisdom, God is spirit. It is only by the activity ot those faculties which take hold of the Almighty by the individual appropriation ot the truth through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, that the soul of man is purified and thus fitted for true worship and the true spiritual life. How the moral nature grows, w hen we come in to a pure spiritual presence ! We breathe a holier air. By a sure, though unconscious, influence, we receive a new vitality. And so, when the Spirit of God is thus brought into contact with the spirit of man, his whole na ture will feel the redeeming pres ence. We need these living manifestations. And therefore the Word became flesh to speak to humanity and to fill the lowly heart with heavenly influences and divinest truth. Man is not left to work out the truth ot God’s love from the often con flicting appearances of nature. He beholds the cross—the cross on which Jesus hung—and while he looks, his whole being is tak en captive in one sentiment of devotion and he becomes a “new man” in Christ. From this discussion we are led to see, first, the error of mere ritual worship. By which I mean making religion^equiva lent to the performance of cer tain acts at certain times and in certain places. Alas ! how many ease their consciences by a me chanical worship at appointed times. But it is a serious error to suppose that God will be sat isfied with such formal service, when he requires consecrated hearts and the life and worship of the Spirit. It follows, secondly, that God’s true temple is in the hearts of men. Therefore we should seek him not merely at appointed times and in temples of praise— though these cannot be neglect ed without harm to the spiritual life—but worship should not be thus restricted. God may come to us in silent hours, even in the night-watches, with a brightness of love we have never known before. May the Lord deliver us from every form of sense-worship and place-worship, and may we feel that the only true and accepta ble worship flows lrom a heart and life consecrated to God—a life of love and duty : that God is everywhere and that, to the true heart, He is near to bless at any altar. That we may be so consecrat ed, soul, mind and body, to Him who is “above us all and in us all” that we shall “live according to God in the Spirit”, let us look up to Jesus, the great expression of the truth and life of God, for guidance. Then shall he be a real presence in us, and, so far as we are concerned, in tht church and in the world ; reveal ing to an ever purer conscious ness truths which even now we cannot bear, and leading us on to the day when all who truly know God shall shine as the stars in heaven. “Great God accept our soul’s desire, And giyc us strength to li re thy praise.” Portl nd, Michigan, Contributions GLORYING IN TRIBULATION. FROM THE CHRISTIAN. Tribulation worketh patience ; trials of faith show its value and its power;, and many ot the choicest blessings come through sorrow and poverty and conflict and distress. The Sunday School Illustrator gives some exam ples : “A Russian convert, for break ing his heathen images, was sen tenced to transportation to Sibe ria, to go on foot one thousand miles, in chains, through the snow. A fellow convert went-to see him depart and cheer him as he left home and friends. To his astonishment he found the exiled man full of joy and prais i.pg God for the privilege of preaching Christ to his fellow prisoners. We are indebted to saints in prison for many valued treasures. Paul’s sweetest epis tles emanated from prison. John’s Revelation was given from the lonely isle of Patmos—Rev. i : 9. Bunyan’s immortal work was written in Bedford Jail. Luther translated his Bible into German in Wartburg Castle, in Aber deen Castle Rutherford wrote the letters that are a Christian classic. George Wither, the Pu ritan poet, wrote many of his best pieces in prison. Montgom ery wrote some of his poems in jail. Wm. Tyndall, from Vil vorde Jail, An’nie Askew, from Smithfield, and Judson from the Burmese prison, wrote comfort ing and inspiring messages, ' while MadamtjGuyon’s sweetest 1 poems and deepest experiences were the result of her long im prisonment in the Bastile. Is yours a chained hand and a pris oned life? There may be work for you even in a prison. Three ministers, going into a town foi evangelistic work, preached it e street. One after another they were arrested and impris oned. They made so much noise singing and praying in their cell that the magistrate ordered them to be separated. Two of them were put into a cell with a rob ber, but they preached the gos pel to the robber and he was converted. Then there was more noise than ever. The magistrate said to the constable, ‘I told you to separate these men.’ ‘Well,’ was the answer, ‘I have separat ed them.’ — ‘Separate them again.’ — ‘If I separate them again, they will all get it, the robber is as bad as the rest now.’ ” God can bring good out of evil, joy out of sorrow, and light out of darkness. He can make the wrath of man to praise him, and cause all things to work to gether for good to his chosen ones. Let us glory in tribulation and rejoice in afflictions, for in all these things we are now more than conquerors ; and if we suf fer with our Master here, we shall reign with him by and by. TAKE THE RIttHT PATH. BY DR. TALMAGE. FROM AN EXCHANGE. I read of a minister of the Gos pel who was very lond of climb ing among the Swiss mountains. One day he was climbing among very dangerous places, and thought himself all alone, when he heard a voice beneath him say, “Father, look out for the safe path ; I am following,” and he looked back and saw that he was climbing not only for himself,but climbing for his boy. Oh, let us be sure and take the safe path ! Our children are following, our neighbors are following, a great multitude stepping right into our steps. Oh, be sure and take the right path ! Exhibit a Christian example, and so by your godly walk compel the people to come in. I think there is work also in the way of kindly admonition. I io not believe there is a person in this house who, if approached in a kindly and brotherly man ner, would refuse to listen. If you are rebuffed, it is because you lack in tact and common sense. But, oh, how much more effective work there is in the way of kindly admonition ! There are thousands of men all around you who have never had one personal invitation to the cross. Give that one invitation, and you would be surprised at the alacrity with which they would accept it. THE JOY OE GOD. FROM THE KING’S HIGHWAY. Life and earth and the world abound with joy even to running over. Happiness sweeps the whole earth with its gay illumin ation, just as the strong, swift sunshine throws its unimpeded mantle over hill and dale, land and sea. We are too happy ; our happiness runs away with us. Its superabundance will hardly let us sober ourselves or steady our views of this transitory world, joys are thousand fold, we cannot count them ; their name is legion ; we can hardly class them by their kinds. They run out from beneath the throne of God, and electrify millions of souls the world over at the same moment. Our very life is joy, if we will only be honest enough to acknowledge it to God and to ourselves. The unhappiest man on earth has more satisfaction than unhappiness. It is seldom he would even give up his own self and take another, still less forfeit the pleasure of living al together. What a Creator must ours he, in whose world merely to live is a stronger joy than any temporal misery, however unpar alleled, which can befall us! And how marvelously God mul tiplies his grace upon us in our ioy, opening our hearts to love him more generously, enlighten ing our minds to see him more clearly, quickening our grati tude, giving us a surprising elas ticity in our exercises, and tak ing away the dangerous, alluring beauty of earth’s idols by the very strength of the gladsome, | disenchanting light which he throws upon them!
The Christian Sun (Elon College, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 15, 1898, edition 1
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