The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-11-21

SICK ana tney snall recover lverSes
II, 1S). The majority Of Christian min
listers and their congregations seem not
to be troubled by the fact that they do
not have these evidences of their rela-
tionship to the Lord, and they do not
attempt to heal the sick, to speak with
tongues, and would not dare to drink
any poisonous thing. But there are
certain conscientious people, the very
| cream of all the Churches, who are
greatly perplexed by these words be-
cause they know that they are not true
In their experience. With them, there
fore, It is a matter Of feeling doubtful
about their own salvation. or ques-
ton as to the reliability Of the Bible
as a whole. They need to have the re-
lief which we now seek to give them.
They need to know that these are not
inspired words, but poisonous and in
furious additions made during the Dark
Ages. They may, consequently, look
elsewhere In the Scriptures and find
the proper assurances of their relation
ship with God being demonstrated by
the fruits Of the holy Spirit in their
| lives and In their hearts-"meekness
gentleness, patience, long-suffering,
brothorly kindness, love-"
Miracles In the Early Church.
This spurious passage of our text is
used by many ministers who know, or
ought to know, of its falsity. But they
| have certain theory In their minds
to the effect that the miracles and un-
known tongues of the early Church
were lost by reason of unfaithfulness
to God, and that Christians today
should seek for their recovery. Not
having any Scriptures to support their
claim they use this Interpolation and
allow their hearers and readers to be-
lieve II to be the inspired message. To
what length have people gone In sup
port of human theory The first prin-.
ciple of preaching should be TO preach
the Truth, the whole Truth and moth.
ing but the Truth. Every theory which
requires bolstering up by spurious pas
sages should be abandoned. and ioill DO
abandoned by those who are honest
truth-seekers, "Bereans."
Our Lord performed miracles. SO
did his Apostles. And so did those of
the early Church upon whom the
Apostles laid their hands. But no
others have this gift. Consequently,
when the Apostles were dead and
when all those upon whom they had
laid hands Of blessing were dead, these
miracles In the Church were at an
end. We all see the propriety of this.
Miracles were appropriate at the be-
ginning for the establishment of the
Church and, for time, were necessary
for their encouragement. In their
early meetings they had no source of
information aside from the Apostles,
whom they rarely saw or heard. They
had no Bibles-no copies Of the Gospel
nor of the Epistles. They needed the
very arrangement which God provid-
ed-tongues and interpretations Of
tongues, ETC., to draw them together and
to Instruct them until, in due time, the
canon Of Scripture would be completed
that, through 1t, the man Of God might
be thoroughly furnished unto every
good word and work Oh Tim. III. 10, 10.
BY the time the Apostles died the
Church had become established, had
regular meetings, pastors and teach
ers, the Gospels and Epstles, and
some of them had begun to develop
the fruits of the Spirit. Thus the early
Church naturally outgrew the tongues
and miracles and entered a larger
sphere, just as q child loses its swad-
ding clothes in favor Of more suitable
attire. For Gods people today to de-
sire to go back to speaking with
tongues. etc., such as was practised,
and very profitably, In the early
Church, would be like an adult person
desiring to be dressed and treated as
babe. 1t is our understanding that
the speaking with unknown tongues
In religious meetings, which is grad
ually spreading over the world. is a
deception being practised upon earnest
children of God, who are deceived by
the fallen angels-the demons of the
Bible. They are thus enslaved to er-
ror and have their attention drawn
away from the Truth. To what ex-
tent the ministers of Christ Of today
are responsible for the delusion Of
these poor people Is not ours to de-
termine Had the sYpriousness of the
last verses of st. Marks Gospel been
/ duly pointed out from every pulpit, as
soon as the old MSS. were known.
some at least, might have been spared
from this snare-some who, under mis-
understanding, have been hindered
from proper expectations In respect to
Gods Word and led improperly to ex-
pect the power Of tongues aud mira
cles suggested in this spurious passage.
The Majors Tip.
When Major Banks was the best
known figure around the race tracks
OF Cincinnati and the middle west he
was extremely generous In tipping off
his friends to "sure winners" One
man who enjoyed his confidence and
played the horses according to the ma
Jor's advice lost all his ready money
and finally succeeded In reducing him
self to the point where he had to sell
out his grocery business.
One afternoon, following the placing
OF his last ten dollar note as the major
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