The record-union., 1893-11-11

when the church abandoned the cosmi-
cal ideas which it mistakenly supposed
were taught IN them. 1t will be vindi-
catlon OF Scripture to abandon any error
OF the human mind for which Scriptural
authority is mistakenly thought. Let
those learned brethren give period OF
repose TO themselves in regard TO their
InconSeQuential controversies over IN
consequential theories of construction
and criticism, and bring their minds
down to the elucidation Of questions
which trouble the plain Christian. Let
them begin below on the facts, and rea-
son up, and not soar up and pounce
down-and above all say nothing till
they are agreed upon on something that
1t Is to editication to say"
There are not few persons" says the
New York Outlook, ''who fear the effect
of the modern critical method of study
ing the Bible, lest it shall destroy the au-
thority Of the Bible; lest, even more than
that, 1t shall despoil the Bible of its SUI
pernaturalism and take away one more,
and TO them the chief, witness to the
presence and power OF revealed God.
We are quite prepared to recognize the
force of this objection if the effect is what
fear imagines it will be. We are quite
in some cases the apparent, il not the
real, effect But we do not believe that it
is necessary result, or will be the ultl-
mate result. The modern criticism is
only one of the methods of The modern
evolutionary philosophy: and that phil
os0phy may be either theistic or atheis-
tic. Evolutionary philosophy may ap-
proach life in purely rationalistic spirit;
that is, it may refuse to accept the testi-
mony of the spiritual nature; it may
study phenomena merely, and under
take, not to account for them, but only to
classify them. 1t may practically ignore,
If not deny, the testimony of conscious
ness, and study both man and nature as
machines. If the student approaches the
Bible in this spirit, he will eliminate
from it the supernatural, simply because
he eliminates the supernatural from all
life, and will regard miracles as myths or
impositicns, and prophecies as the erratlc
guesses of genius, and seeming revelation
as the ebullitiOns of emotionalism. In
brief, taking it for granted that God is
not in His world, this philosophy will
endeavor to explain all the evidences, OF
His presence by some other hypothesis.
But it will not do this more in its study
of the Bible than in its study of nature of
history, OF the spiritual life. And it will
not succeed; because the evidences of that
presence are TOO numerous, too cumu-
lative, too conclusive, to be explained
away"
"Large conventions" :" remarks the New
York Observer (Pres.), sometimes sug
gest Niagara. There is great power there,
but it has yet TO be utilized. When large
areas are TO be irrigated, the water is
borne along by many avenues, each of
which conveys its individual allotment.
So as each Christian heart carries to some
other heart portion of the water of life,
widespread irrigation will be insured
and the desert and the solitary place will
bloom with beauty and ripen unto har-
vest. We have heard Christians speak of
the time of their attendance upon con-
ventions as days of peculiar privilege
and power, as days like those which
chosen disciples spent with Christ on the
Mount of TRANSPORTATION. But those
days of glory were days of retirement,
and the multitude was not feature OF
the sacred occasion. Tie days when
Jesus is transfgured before US. or when
we see Jesus only, are generally times of
quiet when the soul finds itself hidden
from the world. Only when all else is
blotted from the canvas can Christ ap-
pear in Him Incompatible beauty and
attractiVeneSs. The Christian zeal and
enthusiasm which can be sustained only
as they are fed at convention feasts and
convocation fountains, are not of the
kind needed to endure the tolls and per-
form the tasks of the most successful
service. Such assem- blies bless and help
so far as they are regarded as. accessory
rather than absolutely essential. Those
persons who fail to attend such gather
ings may miss much. Those who in
their religious dissipation attend all, or
many of them, may miss more"
1--WE express it as our deliberate con-
viction that the Methodist Episcopal
Church has destroyed what little life
ever existed in its white conferences
throughout the South by stuffing them
with missionary appropriations" says
the Christian AdUocdte (Meth.) of Nash
vile, Tenn. sit is not an infrequent
thing, we are informed, for the presiding
Bishops to lecture them for their inef1i-
cheney, and to assure them that if they
continue to show no signs of improve
ment the appropriations will be with
drawn. That is thing which no Bishop
among US would venture to do. Much
as we respect the occupants Of the episco-
cal office, we are not ready to submit to
paternal or personal government. But to
return to our point we insist that self
support, wherever it is at all possibility,
is the only wise and proper policy for a
church to adopt. The Christian man or
the company of Christian men that are
willing to be coddled and petted are also
in a fair way to lose every virlle and
manly grace of character"