Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1905-08-11
NEW LIGHT AND OLD TRUTH.
M p.ok KIrsoffIaks


BY Prof. kirSof Lake.
Text: 'The old things are passed
away; behold they are become new"
ii. Cor. 5:17.
If apostles broadened their views in
such a manner as st. Paul seems to
have done, we may be quite sure that
the church of our own day Is not real
ly doing it's duty if it be content not to
develop further but only to repeat the
old teaching; yet it is a serious ques-
ton whether it is an unfair criticism
of much teaching which is given in
churches and schools to say that
though to the mind of the educated
layman Apocalyptic phraseOlogy has
undoubtedly become old and unedify-
ing, u authorized teachers will not
allow 1t to pass away but try to Ignore,
or still worse to accept the Limitations
which it imposes, and shut their eyes
and ears to developments of thought
which are neither irrational nor ire
ligiOus, and which their congregations
have long ago accepted
The treatment of Apocalyptic ideas
is only an instance of the great re-
sponsibility which the almost sudden
development of thought has laid upon
the teachers of our generation. In
many ways the position %singularly par
allels that of st. Paul in the period
between the first and second epistles
to the Corinthians. During that period
st. Paul was brought face to face with
certain unmistakable indications of the
method of Gods working in history,
which he never previously had consid-
cred. He had, to judge from his earlier
epistles, evidently thought that God
would work out his purpose in the
world by the speedy return of our Lord
to judge mankind; but the more he
thought of the greatness Of the mis-
sion to which he had been called, the
clearer became his perception of the
fact that this work was intended to
be carried out to the end, the deeper
became his insight into the purposes
of God, and the more certainly did the
Apocalyptic ideas of his earlier epis-
ties yield to the more spiritual ones
of his later years. By revelation had
he been called to do a great work, and
the doing of the work gave him a fur
Their revelation of the mind of God.
Is not that just what we have in our
generation? Have not we also come
to see a greater purpose running
through life and a vaster prospect
opening before us than were ever con
templated in the religious ideas of our
forefathers?
Revelation is nov part Of our knowl-
edge Of Gods working; the educated
world has tried it, and though men
may dispute about it's details, the main
issue, as opposed to older ideas, will
never again be seriously called in ques-
ton. To a very real extent it sup
plants the less perfect statements of
former revelations just as the concep-
tons of eternal life in st. Paul's later
writings %supplant the conceptions OF
his earlier epistles.
In many cases the wrecked faith OF
boys and young men is the result OF
that mistaken form or teaching which
Is content either to pass over diff
culties in silence, or to attempt to solve
them by an Interpretation of the Bi
BILE which cannot possibly convince
anyone, and by statements Of the prob
lem which are a travesty of the fact
That is an easy form Of teaching; but
teachers who adopt 1t and parents who
tolerate it are guilty of an intellectual
Incidence which is causing Christ'i
little one to stumble.