The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-08-04
THE CHURCH OF GOD.


An excellent form of ecclesiastical pol
ity, even an excellent body of doctrine,
does not secure necessarily a living Chris
tan organization. Doctrine is exceeding
lyimportant, but dead church does not
carry out It's doctrine. 1t is not the creed
that is at fault, but the non-execution of
the teachings of the creed Even the
Bible is of no value, if the vail is not
taken away. Thousands repeat the Apos-
ties creed, who do not "believe" when
they say 1 believe" The creed is ad-
mirable, and necessary. Because it is
not efectually applied, does not warrant
the statement that creeds are of little
value. Where the heart does not go along
with the utterance of the lips, the creed,
like reading the Scriptures, is an empty
shell. The creed only acquires value
to him who seeks after the truth. 1t
purpOrts to embody the truth, and it fur
nishes no nourishment where there is no
appetite. When the heart is prepared to
assimilate this nourishment, then it be-
comes eficacious. Truth, in a word, is
only as sounding brass, unless there is a
receptlveraeSS on the part of the soul.
What are the truths of the world of
Botany to him who does not care to learn
them? What is the significance of the
stars to him whose eyes are never lifted
above the backs of his horses, or whose
gaze is riveted on the movements of lot
OF balls over the surface of a green table {?
Truth is coy, and difficult to win-ob-
truding herself on no one. What is the
Shorter Catechism of the Westminster
Assembly to an average politician? No
more than the stars or the flowers; not
that the stars or the flowers have no
voice; only the voice is not heard.
A Church, then, with noble creed
may be dead Church. The facts of &C.
ology, or the world of Chemistry were
the same hundred years ago that they
are to-day. But Geology or Chemistry
was dead science to the poets, and states
men, and knights, of the Elizabethan era,
as they were amid the civilization of the
Greeks or the Romans. The Church may
not understand its creed.
So Of the form of Church Government.
There may be best form of church gov
eminent; but if the spirit is absent, the
form is nothing. A church with an in
ferior form of government may be supe-
rior to a church fashioned after the apos-
tolic model
The Lutheran Church in Germany was
a noble church in the days of the Refor-
nation. possesses to-day a noble creed
and noble form of government. But it
is not the same living church. The
Church Of England has noble creed, and
an excellent form, but the Church of
England was a dead Church when the
Wesleys and Whitefeld startled it with
the evangelical reform of the last cen
fury The Church of Scotland was a
body Of dead doctrines at the beginning
Of the present century, and the Presby-
terrain Church Of England, which had
contributed to frame the splendid West
minister Confession, soon lost its vitality
and even its theology And so Of the
Calvinistic Church Of France. The form
Of government, or the articles of their
creed, did not save them.
The truest church will be found where
there is the most vivid realization Of the
person Of CHRIST When He is forgotten.
the form is nothing and the creed dies.
Personal union to Him in the work Of
Regeneration is the great active principle
Of Life in a church, and when sometime
else'-be it the sacraments, or a ceremo-
NAL, OF a dead orthodoxy-is substituted
for this the Church becomes a ghastly
skeleton without flesh and blood, and from
which the soul has fed.