The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1912-01-29

(RASI0R -RUSSElLlJ 80. report Of his !
- address fOllows- |
Never before have l seen so cosmo-
politan city as Singapore. The |
swarms Of Chinese, Malays, Hindoos,
Javanese, Slamese, singhalese, Bur
mese. Afghans, Madrassi, Tamils and
many other nationaites are here inter
spersed by representatives Of practi-
cally every nation I'm 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 lie hath sent"
stlrs my heart and my head as well.
| My heart goes ont 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" QIebrews xi,
%; and his question. "How shall they
believe In Him of whom they have not
| heardT Romans X, 14 and also the
commission: "Thls Gospel of the King
dom shall be preached IN all the world
for n witness; and then shall the end
come" (Matthew xiv, ~. Properly
enough we ask. What kind of an end Is
coming, and what will IL mean 10 the
twelve millions who know not God and
TO the thousands OF millions of their
ancestors who died similarly ignorant
of Him?
] am, of course, familiar with the
diverse theories of the various denom-
nations Of Christians, voiced by their
creeds. / defer TO these to the extent
of saying that many noble men are
today and have I'm time past been as
Isociated with these Christian denom-
nations and their differing presenta-
tlons. On account Of their piety and
learning these men deserve respectful
attention, but we cannot admit that
they were inspired nor that their con
clusions are infalllblc 1t is our priv
ilege, nay. It is our duty, to try their
suggestions as we would test n gold
coin. First, we would ring It. 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 it have the right ring? Does It's
teaching comport with the Divine
character? Is 1t reasonable, just, etc?
Secondly, VIII It stand the acid test
OF the Word Of God? If not, ii must
be rejected, even though It's baser
metal be covered with a 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 elSo's guess, while at the
same time we acknowledge the Bible
TO he the Divine Message. If the BIZ
BILE be the Divine Message. as st. Paul
says, at Is worthy Of all acceptation."
Il Timothy iy, o. If not worthy of all
acceptatlon, It Is not worthy of ac-
ceptance at all. and all Christian hopes
: built upon the Bible would corrc-
spondlngly fall. The lesson Of this Is
the solidarity of the Truth-the Bible.
: What does 1t say about the heather?
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 If
God had foreordained the heather TO
I salvation Tie would have seen to it
I that the Gospel would be preached to
! chem; and that their not hearing the
4 Iiospel signifies that God passed them
. by" MS "non-elect;" that the "elect'
are to be found only amongst those
who have been favored OF God and
. who accept that favor ana are "sanc-
: tilted by the Truth" and "made meet
4 for the inheritance of the saints In
y light" (Colossians !, l2)
8 Another class of people by their
a creeds. which no longer truly repre-
= sent them. tell us that they believe as
above. only that they add another con
It dition. namely, that "the elect" in or
d der TO be Of "the elect,' must be
y brought to n knowledge of water bap
= tism-complete immerslon-and mus
: obey this teaching; otherwise they are
not the truly "elect." Thus these
q ngree with the former that the poor
q heather masses are completely passed
= by, have no hope for the future that
e they are lost-and by lost they mean
J. enroute for an eternity OF merry torture
most horrible suffering.
= Another theory held by equally gooo
II Christian people denies that there Is
" any election" IN RESPECT TO toe mar
iae ana GAl.el l.L Alg le.l Y. !