The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1892-08-10

which is more familiar with the
Epistles of st. Paul than with the
poems of Emerson, and which
proves an assertion by a THUS
saith the Lord" rather than by an
appeal to Shakespeare.
Not the less does the Old Theo-
logy commend itself in that it
makes more of faith than it does of
doubt. Faith and doubt enter
into the life of every man. but that
which characterizes the man is the
emphasis which he places upon
either. The Psalmist had thoughts
too painful for him, but he kept
silence until some light shone upon
the providence of God in the mys-
terry of evil. Did not Job sit in
ashes and be still, until the AL
mighty spoke for his consolation
and enlightment2 Even Paul the
aged felt that a part of that good
fight which he had been called to
make was in keeping the faith of
the midst of an ungodly world, but
he preached what he "knew" rather
than what he failed to discover.
If, as is true, the Old Theology
exalts faith rather than reason, its
faith is not a blind assent to sense
less and contradictory dogmas. 1t
is faith founded upon a Word
whose events are embedded in his
tory and were "not done in a cor
ner." Confessing that mystery at
taches to all fundamental questions,
it believes in the invisible God
whom no eye hath seen, Just as the
science of to-day believes in the
prlmordial atom which no eye hath
seen. 1t is essentially spiritual
faith founded upon spiritual
philosophy, just as the doubt of to-
day is material creed founded
upon material philosophy, but it
knows that the demonstrations of
the reality of matter is as impossi-
BILE as a demonstration of the real
ity of spirit. Edison confesses that
he knows no more about the nature
of electricity that the first boy who
rubbed bit of amber with a bit of
silk in the dim ages of the unre-
corded past; but Edison has not
waited for what he does not know
to give to the world his lamp, his
telephone and his dynamo. We
shall never in this life attain to
more than partial knowledge; but
a theology which begins with what
it "does not know" will never be so
effective as one that begins with
what it does believe.
1t is true that the Old Theology
makes more of human sin than it
does of human virtue; but it NAV
be perhaps because there is more of
human sin with which to deal. 1t
.conceives the purpose and intent of
the Church to be that of a physi-
clan, not that of an artist; it was
sent to heal the hurt of sin, not to
idealize the broken form into con-
ceptional grace. It's message is to
save and not to dream.
The man of a refined literary taste.
in whose library there are a thou
sand volumes of delightful travel
and sweet song, may express his
contempt for the selections of his
physician, upon whose shelves he
finds books upon phthisis, and
pictures of eczema, and chromos of
sarcoma; but the time will come
when he will thank God that his
sick child is under the hand of one
whose studies have not been con-
fined to poetry and art. And when
In the very midst of a Christian
civilization two thousand years old,
nothing preserves life and property
but the policeman's club and the
soldiers Calling gun, it is hardly
worth while to confne the pulpit to
discourses upon the rose and the
nightingale.
In the heart of the Rockies, where
the Bow and the Saskatchewan
have their source, we come upon a
lake whose waters, crystal clear, re-
fleet a sky, sapphire blue. But
what attracts attention is a little
line winding around the granite
shoulder of bare foot hill, scarce
ly wider than a ribbon, worn by the
moccasin Of the Indian and the un-
shod hoof of his pony. And this
trail, we are told, leads for six hun
died miles west and north over the
great divide to those still more dis
tant lakes of whose beauty and re-
pose we have for years fond
dreamed. 1t matters nothing that
the path little resembles in finish
the width and spoootbnees of q