Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-21

| greatly fear that old orthodoxy would have
thought that Paul was double dealing, and
l am not sure that Professor. Park would
not have adjured him to say that he was an
idolator if he was an idolator; and no doubt
M. Voysey would have cried out upon the
miserable subterfuge'' if he had been on
| Mars hill that day. But Paul stoutly
asserted and maintained his right to speak
his own way.
From our day, prophet, priest and king
have passsd. The words have no living
meaning for US. Even with the Roman
Catholic Church, priest, altar, sacrifice are
merely symbolic. No smell of blood is
found, no bleating of lambs is heard in a
Catholic cathedral any more than in
Protestant meeting house. If Paul were
preaching to us he would not represent
Christ as a sacrifice. He would say to us as
to Timothy: "Let every man that knoweth
the name Of Christ depart from iniquity."
NOT DAY OF CREEDs.
Therefore, when the Andover Greed orders
its professors to declare that Christ, as our
Redeemer, executeth the Office OF prophet,
priest and king; when Prefessor Park ap-
portions the work of Christ bv lot to the
various functions of the Jewish priesthood,
they are guilty of-what? An anachronism.
Nothing more. They are speaking as OLD
They are emphasizing, the temporary, the
already vanished part of the Hebrew teach
ing. Now that the Jewish ritual has for us
completely passed away, all this terminol-
ogy has for us only historical, not vital
meaning. We have no such officer as
prophet, priest or king. All these offices
were merged in Christ so long ago that the
words themselves are merely literary.
Everything on that theme was said GEN.
turies ago. when Paul faced the past with a
gospel which was to supplant them all.
What needs to be hammered into us is what
Paul said, fronting the future: "Let him
that nameth the name of Christ be careful
to depart from iniquity."
But deny it not-the literary and moral
sense these words still have. In that sense
they are wholly true. Nothing has ever
put into them a single element of falseness.
Every good thing which prophet, priest or
king was supposed to do or actually did for
the Hebrews, that Christ came to do for all
the world. If were to frame creed l
should not put in the Hebraistic clause, but
could subscribe to the Hebraistic clause in
any creed whatever.
A CHILD's THEOLOGY.
There is pretty little rhymed theology
lisped by very little folk:
"0ut Of the sky as came through"
As scientific biogenesis this Socratic
creed may leave something to be desired;
but it expresses the Bible truth, the truth
which, by exclusion, is thus far the estab-
lished truth of science. that life is from
God; and it teaches this truth to the child
by a pointed, definite and rememberable
statement.
Nay, go further than this. It is not
only that the baby soul could know nothing
of hereditary transmission, but the scientist
who knows all that man knows of heredity
knows no more than the little child, where
did you get your eyes so blue.
From your father. No, the fathers eyes
are black. From your grandfather then.
No, the grandfather retains his own eyes
blue and bright. The scientist is profound
ly ignorant. Heredity is but ignorance
writ another way. The sage knows no more
than baby the principle on which baby's
eyes are blue and baby's brothers eyes are
black. 1t is only that so the Hidden and
| Absolute Force wrought it out in the eternal
order; and SO the baby prattles great truth
with innocent lips.
should not frame creed saying:
believe that children are brought from
heaven; and that the blue is painted on
their passage through the earth's atmos-
| pnere. but II the little ch1l0ren- nad made
| themselves into Christian society to,help
each other to be kind and true, could with
good conscience sign even such creed. 1
/ could sign it for substance of doctrine fully
believing that all souls are born of God and
partake of the divine nature, and I could
sign it for scientific truth if 1 were chal-
lenged. For, as the human body is demon
strably composed of 95 parts water and all
parts earth, and as the earth's atmosphere is
largely composed of water, it must be that
the baby's blue eyes are gathered from the
earthly materials and chiefly from the watery
atmosphere of the planet on which it lives
and from which its tiny body is composed!
The only creed one could not sign would be
creed precluding the order of nature.
This creed would simply give the order Of
nature, the Divine order, under figure
which the childish mind could follow.
Therefore, when the innocents lift their
sweet voices in devout inquiry: "Where
did you get your eyes so blue?' loudest and
frmest shall ring my voice with theirs in
confident, and may say, defiant response
and accord: "Out of the sky as 1 came
through GAIL HAMILTON.