The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1912-02-06

politan a city as Singapore. The
swarms of Chinese, Malays, Hindoos,
Javanese, Siamese, Singhalese, Bur
mese, Afghans, Madrassi, Tamils and
many other nationalities are here inter
spersed by representatives Of pract-
cally every nation In the world. Hence
forth New York City must In my mind
take second place as respects cosmo-
politan population. The sight Of these
commingled peoples, only few Of
whom know of, worship, or in any
wise acknowledge "the Only True God,
and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent"
stirs my heart, and my head as well.
My heart goes out in sympathy for
them. My head inquiries respecting
Gods provision for the three-fourths of
humanity who have never heard Of
Him and the salvation which He has
provided in Christ.
We recognize the clear statement Of
the Apostle that Without faith it is
impossible to please God" Hebrews II,
81, and his question, How shall they
believe in Him of whom they have not
heardY' Romans Z, IA and also the
commission: This Gospel OF the King
dom shall be preached In all the world
for a witness; and then shall the end
come" Cfatthew xiv, 14). Properly
enough we ask, What kind of an end Is
coming, and what Will it mean to the
twelve millions who know not God and
to the thousands OF millions Of their
10 4,.A m@w orIxx Ssww. mt
Of Him?
/ am, of course, familiar with the
diverse theories of the various demon
nations of Christians, voiced by their
creeds. / defer to these to the extent
Of saying that many noble men are
today and have in time past been as
ISOLATED with these Christian Aenom-
nations and their differing presenta-
tons. On account Of their piety and
learning these men deserve respectful
attention, but we cannot admit that
they were inspired nor that their con-
illusions are infallible. 1t il our priv
Iege,. nay, it Is our duty, to try their
suggestions as we would test gold
coin. First, we would ring 1t. If the
ring were unsatisfactory, we would
apply the acid test and thus demon
strate It, Similarly, no human creed
should be accepted as infallibly cor
rect without the. application Of tests.
Does 1t have the right ringf Does its
teaching comport with the Divine
character? Is It reasonable, just, etc?
Secondly, VIII it stand the acid test
Of the Word of God? If not, it must
be rejected, even though It's baser
metal be covered with plating Of the
gold Of Truth.
Tried and Found Wanting.
It will not do for us to say what we
guess or what is our opinion or what is
somebody's eIse's guess, while at the
same time we acknowledge the Bible
to be the Divine Message. II the BIZ
BILE be the Divine Message, as St. Paul
says, at is worthy Of all acceptatlon."
q Timothy iv, 81 If not worthy Of all
acceptation, 1t is not worthy Of ac-
ceptance at all, and all Christian hopes
built upon the Bible would CORE
spondlngly fall. The lesson Of this 10
the solidarity Of the Truth-the Bible.
What does 1t say about the heathen7
We ask this question of the various
creeds of Christendom and hearken
to their reply.
A considerable class Of very good
people by their creeds tell us that II
God had foreordained the heather to
salvation He would have seen to It
that the Gospel would be preached to
them; and that their not hearing the
Gospel signifies that God passed them
by" as "non-elect;;" that the 'elect"
are to be found only amongst those
who have been favored of God and
who accept that favor and are "sanc-
tilted by the Truth" and made meet
for the inheritance Of the saints In
| light" (Colossians /, 12.)
Another class of people by their
creeds, which no longer truly repre-
sent them, tell US that they believe as
above, only that they add another con-
dition, namely, that 'the elect" in or
der to be Of "the elect" must be
brought to a knowledge Of water bap-
tism-complete immersion-and must
obey this teaching; otherwise they are
not the truly ELECT" Thus these
agree with the former that the poor
heather masses are completely passed
by, have no hope for the future, that
they are lost-and by lost they mean
enroute for an eternity Of merry torture
most horrible suffering.
Another theory held by equally good
Christian people denies that there is
any election In respect to the mat
ter, and denies that any particular
amount Of water Is necessary, although
1t does recommend little. This creed
or theory declares Gods love for the
heather, but says that He made faith
In Jesus sacrificial death a condition
Of salvation and that the responsible
lty for the heathen's not knowing, and
consequently their going to eternal tor
ment, rests with Christians them
selves. They say that God did His
part In providing the Savior and that
the carrying of this knowledge is who'll
ly dependent upon Christians. One
! would think that with this view few
Christians would be able to sleep a
single night after once asserting to
such a responsibility and realizing how
little they have done or have been able
to do to meet the responsibility.
Some dear people holding the views
last mentioned have started a Men
and Religion Forward Movement"
They propose to use about two mil
don dollars In starting the movement
and thereby to collect fund of thirty
million dollars (six million pounds.
Dear peopleI How l love them for
their zeal, even though it be as the
Apostle said, mot according to knowl-
edger'-Romans X, 2.
If they could stand In Singapore's
streets and journey with us little the
syes Of their understanding would be
opened. They would begin to figure
put that the sum they expect to spend
In converting the world would be lit
lie over half penny per soul! They
must indeed think the heathens cheap
when they reflect that the estimates on
the work of the Rev. Billy Sunday a
year after his meetings show cost
Of about six hundred dollars per soul,
with doubts entertained respecting
the saintship of even these. The Unit
| ed States Government statistics and
the British Government statistics show
that century ago the numbers of
heather were six hundred millions
and that today the number Is double
that, namely, twelve hundred millions.
A Better Hope Found.
Whichever of the foregoing views