Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

The profound and simple statement of Jesus Christ as compared with the complex philosophies and the abstract statements of other faiths is as the shining of the noonday sun compared with the vague and confused light of eventide. To fully realize the Fatherhood of God and to live the brotherhood of man in the spirit of Jesus would be to perfect the best and truest elements in all religions and make real the kingdom of God on earth.

4. The work of missions still further reveals one of the chief causes of the slow progress of the Gospel throughout the world. Many things besides the wickedness of the human heart serve to prevent men to-day from coming rapidly into the ranks of Christendom. Memories of wrongs, of rapacities, all the more brutal because perpetrated by strength upon weakness; the liquor traffic; opium shames; rude and domineering ways; official discourtesies; mixed races rising up in the Oriental cities; licentiousness; careers of vice and villany, to say nothing of war with all its frightful curse, and the sad, useless differences of Christendom,- all these things have stood in the way. It is no wonder that China, or India, or Africa have not fallen in love with the nations of the western world. To approach the people of a different faith with the Bible in one hand and a repeating rifle in the other is not to win allegiance to the Prince of Peace; to establish Christian schools while at the same time we are fleecing the people commercially is not to win respect for Christian education; to found churches in the name of the common Lord, which are nevertheless estranged by sectarian divisions, is not to commend to these people the religion we profess. May not the awakening of the conscience in our own land to-day that gives such promise for the future be in some large measure due to the revelations which missions have brought to the Christian consciousness at home, that nothing else save the "doing of the things He commands us" is a guarantee of the truth or vitality of our faith? How long must it be true that Christianity shall be obliged to apologize for Christendom?

II. Missions have greatly clarified and simplified certain fundamental ideals of the Christian consciousness.

1. As respects theology. The actual work of the missionary as he comes in contact with the minds reared in a different mental and religious atmosphere, leads him inevitably to make the distinction as between what is essential and what is non-essential. Our missionaries all testify that the face-to-face contact with other religions works a great transformation in the theologies received in the seminaries at home, and this in the direction of simplification. The authority of Jesus Christ as a teacher was twofold; first, it was the authority of personality; and

second, it was the authority of one who dealt in the elementals. The greatness of the religion of Jesus lay not merely in the fact of its simplicity. It is simple because it makes its appeal to the intuitions common to all people, and reveals truths that by their elemental and universal character commend themselves to all men. Our representatives on mission fields are telling us more and more clearly that we need not expect to be able to foist upon the Oriental mind a system of religion, however true, which is expressed in terms of thought and phraseology familiar only to the Occidental mind; that some of our doctrines need to be eliminated and that with others the great need is for the translation of their essential truth into terms that can be readily grasped and understood by the minds addressed. The world does not need our creeds, but rather the great truths of our religion, which creeds have so often struggled crudely to embody. The old Hebrew teacher, brushing aside all non-essentials, reached the elementals of religion when he said: "What doth the Lord require of thee but to deal justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God?"

2. As respects Christian unity. Religion has been called the "great divider," and yet no one can question to-day that it was intended to be the great unifier. At the beginning of the twentieth century we confront gigantic forces which are brutal and severe in the extreme. Every day it is borne in upon us more clearly that if the most precious things of life are to be preserved, all those who love these things must stand together. It would be an interesting subject of inquiry, though beyond our range, to discover how far the sentiment in favor of Christian unity has been directly the outcome of the increase in missionary zeal and enterprise. As we read the reports of Gospel conquests among men of various races and of all grades in the scale of civilization, of how the savage has been tamed, cannibalism diminished, and needless cruelties abated, peaceful industries established, and the useful arts cultivated, men have been forced to ask the question: "Is not this far better than rivaling one another at home and giving almost exclusive attention to the minor issues that divide us?" For in proportion as attention is given any particular subject, it is withdrawn from other matters of controversy. Inevitably missions promote unity. Dr. George C. Candlin, one of our honored missionaries in China, is authority for the statement that upon mission fields sectarianism has practically disappeared; "that among Protestant missions nineteen members out of twenty could give no account whatever of the differences between one mission and another." In that notable meeting of the Ecumenical Missionary Conference held in New York City in 1900, the Christian consciousness received, through the missionary representatives of all branches of the Church, the greatest

impulse toward Christian unity and co-operation that has come since the day of Pentecost, and that should have dealt the sectarian spirit its death-blow. One of the greatest demands made upon religions to-day is for a common meeting-place where all can work together in the cause of the holiest and the best.

Missions have con

3. As respects the ultimate aim of missions. vinced the Christian consciousness that the aim to be always kept in view is the raising up of Christian leaders and a Christian people who shall ultimately take up the work of Christianity in their own country and carry it forward to a larger success. In this sense foreign missions must be regarded as temporary in their calling. It must be definitely expected that the missionaries from outside will in the course of time give place to native leaders and native churches that will carry on the work as it never could be done by our missionaries. It is thus the duty of foreign missions to render themselves needless. A time must come when the foreigner has done his work and should leave the future to the native body, born of God. This has been the history of the civilization of every land; not until the work becomes indigenous will it become truly permanent. Christian consciousness to-day is thus made to see more and more clearly that its work in foreign lands is not primarily to reach and evangelize all the individuals, but to reach and train special leaders who shall themselves complete the work begun."

III. The work of missions has empowered the Christian consciousness for service. There are three essentials to power. First: a vital faith to believe in the truth one proclaims. Second: a courage to obey that truth. And third: a divine passion for humanity.

1. A vital faith to believe. That which vitalizes faith is not our logic or our philosophies; it is not that we are able to make clear the philosophy of any "plan of salvation;" it is not that our system of thought seems to be flawless and perfect throughout. That which alone makes faith in the truth one holds strong and vital is the actual experience of what that truth can and does accomplish. And this is the particular work of missions rather than of our libraries on theology, or our seminaries, or the musings by the fireside. It is the fact, however imperfect and faulty the methods have been, that in India and Africa and the Islands of the Seas, the blind have been made to see, and the deaf to hear; the lepers have been cleansed, and the lame walk, and to the poor the Gospel is preached. Whatever of truth is vital in the Christian consciousness to-day is there because of what our eyes have seen and our ears heard and our hearts felt as to the transforming and uplifting power of the Gospel of God's love for all mankind.

2. Again, it is missions that have awakened a courage that dares to

obey the truth we profess. The cure for that which is imperfect in the missionary enterprise is not less missions but more. The lofty heroism displayed in missionary annals, the inspiring lives which have been given in the spirit of utter self-effacement in the cause of humanity and of God - these are the incentives that stimulate the Christian consciousness of to-day to a more complete and implicit obedience to mission work. Not words, but deeds; not preaching, but doing; not passive lives, but whole-hearted loyalty, are the evidences of the genuineness of our religion.

3. Again, it is missions that are responsible above all else for that most splendid sign of our times, the divine passion for humanity. In countless ways the Christian consciousness of our age is seeking to translate its faith, its hope, and its love into concrete terms of practical helpfulness. We have not solved all the problems of our generation, and yet hope lies in the fact that we are becoming more keenly conscious of the problems that face us and of what is involved in them; that we are asking ourselves more earnestly than ever before what can we do to right the wrong, to replace injustice with justice, to bridge the gulfs that now separate men and nations. No one can read the great missionary biographies, no one can become at all conversant with the great work of missionary enterprises in all parts of the world, without feeling his soul stirred with a passion divine to have some real part in God's great work of bringing men into fellowship with Himself.

The vital faith to believe the truth, the courage that dares to obey the truth, and that divine passion for men that will not rest until all the world shall know the truth lead us into the secret of spiritual power, for in this way alone are we vitally linked to Him who said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life."

HOW FAR SHOULD THE MINISTER TEACH IN THE PULPIT THE HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF

THE SACRED SCRIPTURES?

HARLAN CREELMAN, PH. D.

PROFESSOR CONGREGATIONAL COLLEGE, MONTREAL, CANADA

This question, as thus expressed, implies at least three things: First, that the view of the historical character of the Scriptures is the true one, viz., that the Bible, as the record of divine revelation, has also an historical background; that while it is a divine book, containing the Word of God, it is at the same time most closely interlinked with the progress of a particular people; that it is not simply related to certain circumstances belonging to one particular age, but is the outgrowth of various periods and reflects different historical conditions; in a word, that the Bible has behind it a history with which it is intimately connected. In so far, therefore, as this fact is overlooked in any treatment of the Bible, in so far will that study be deficient. Second, that Christian congregations are in need of such instruction. With, of course, many notable exceptions, to the average man and woman the Bible is the Bible. A verse or passage has pretty much the same significance wherever found, and little if any thought or attention is given to its historical setting. The difference between such a view of the Bible and that of the minister who approaches it from the historical standpoint is great. On account of ignorance of this point of view, people are likely to hold crude or false conceptions of the truth, or they are liable to become the prey of fantastic or arbitrary cults, claiming Biblical authority and sanction, of which every age furnishes illustrations. Third, that the minister is under obligation to meet this need by instructing his people on this important truth from the pulpit. It implies that in addition to whatever teaching can be given on this subject in the Sunday school, in the young people's society, or the pastor's training class, though it be ever so comprehensive and high in quality, the pulpit also has a part to do; and that this is not simply permissible, but is incumbent upon the minister as a part of his duty. For to mention but one reason, the different organizations just referred to reach only parts of a congregation.

The essential question for discussion is how far such teaching should be given in the pulpit.

Now, the minister who accepts the historical view of the Scriptures will naturally desire to have his people share in his knowledge as fully

« ÎnapoiContinuă »