The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume], June 18, 1919, Page 3, Image 3

About The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1909-1931

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ing. Christian apostasy. He referred in the
same way to the principle of independency as
established by the Congregationalists on the
one hand and that of Episcopacy as represent
ed by the Anglican church on the other. "Si
lence the testimony of any of these distinctive
denominations of Protestanism and the spirit
ual interests of the whole church, would suf
fer." ?
"The same might be said," he declared, "of
the Methodist emphasis on free grace on the
one hand and the Calvinistlc emphasis on di
vine sovereignty on the other."
He paid a tribute also to the smaller denom
inations like the Christian church, the Evan
gelical Association, the Methodist Protestants,
the Mennonites, the Moravians, the Reform
ed Episcopal church, the United Brethren, the
Evangelical church and others, "all of which,"
he said, "were born in a revival or owed their
origin to a new emphasis on an old and nearly
forgotten truth or a protest against some er
ror."
He said the argument for world church un
ion growing out of the thought of efficiency
made a discprd in the service of God. Effi
ciency means a maximum of result with a min
imum of expenditures, but Christ answered
that argument at Bethany when he commend
ed Mary for wasting the alabaster box of oint
ment on His head. World church union might
secure more money for certain enterprises, but
the smaller denominations and the smaller
churches would bring more sinners to repent
ance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which
is the real mission of the church.
The reported object of the world church
union was to "give expression on questions of
civic reform, law enforcement, international
morality and world peace."
"No sane man," he said, "will question the
desirability or necessity of these objects, and
no well-balanced Christian will think it well
pleasing to God to neglect to promote them as
an individual; but they are not the calling of
the church considered either as an organiza
tion or an organism, and for the church
throughout the world to become absorbed in
them to the extent named is for the Bride of
Christ to become a harlot. These things are
by-products of Christianity, and when Chris
tianity itself is promoted by the evangelization
of the masses, these by-products are as cer
tain to follow as the grass is certain to spring
up after rain."
"The advocates of the world church union
are riding into power on the plea of recon
structing things after the war," he contin
ued. "They tell us that we are in a new worlds
today and that the church must adapt itself
to new conditions, but it is the same old world
in reality which is only trying to get a new
grip on itself. Sin has not weakened its hold
upon humanity and no new remedy has been
found to dispose of it.
"The claim of the advocates of union that
the church is failing to function because its
membership is absorbed in the salvation of
their own souls while the world goes to the
devil, has been effectively answered by Dr.
Andrew Gillies in the Christian Advocate, who
shows that the very opposite is true. For more
than one decade there has been a steady change
of emphasis in the church from the salvation
of the individual to the salvation of so
ciety, and the > danger is, as the writer
above quoted says, that the churches shall be
come mere agents of social service, 'ethical
asylums,' instead of homes in which souls are
born into a newness of life."
Dr.- Gray said further that the theory that
the church must go into politics and socialism
was not attractive to the masses, but the very'
opposite. "The masses are coming to believe
that the church is entrenching on the prerog
atives of the State," he said, "and as a south
ern preacher puts it, 'The church is endeav
oring to enact into laws such ideals of moral
ity and social reforms as she has been unable
to inscribe on the tablets of the human heart.
She is endeavoring to enforce by the strong
arm of the government Avhat she has failed to
accomplish by moral suasion.' For this rea
son the masses are murmuring against the
church and beginning to demand its abolition,
and its hope lies in its return to the gospel and
the simple ways of saving men."
In closing Dr. Gray showed from the Scrip
tures that Christian union had already been
mad? between true believers by the Holy
Spirit, and the duty devolving upon them was
simply to keep it in the spirit of love and in the
bond of peace.
"In all this present "agitation for world
church union," said Dr. Gray, "it has been
left for the Baltimore Sun, a secular newspa
per, to utter the truest word that I have read
when it said editorially, 'The principles of the
Christian religion are essential to the safety
and welfare of the world, but if they are to
prevail the churches themselves must be re
constructed, not in creeds, but in spirit and in
life. The only thing necessary is that they
should co-operate in Christian work as breth
ren.
"Doetrinal agreements and church federa
tions are obstacles in the way of the divine pur
pose in this matter because they so closely re
semble the real article that they prevent it
from receiving its proper recognition.
"As men and neighbors, as those of one
blood and of one kin," said Dr. Gray, "let
us do all that we can legitimately do to reform
the city and the State and to promote inter
national morality and world peace, but when it
conies to the formation of a world church un
ion to promote such things important as they
are, let us beware that we are not found fight
ing against God, betraying the Lord for tfiirty
pieces of silver and selling our birthright for
a mess of pottage."
CHURCH UNION.
By Rev. Eugene Bell.
There probably has never been a time when
the question "of Church union was so promi
nently before*the Christians of the whole world
as it is today. In England, Scotland, Austra
lia and New Zealand it is a burning question.
All }cnow how prominent the organic union of
the churches has been in Canada for years. Re
cently also in the United States there have
been conferences of a very large number of de
nominations looking to the organic union not
only of those whose creeds are very similar,
but of all the evangelical churches.
Those in all mission fields, and especially
those in Korea, know how prominent questions
of comity, co-operation and union have been in
all mission work. Such is the present import
ance and urgency of this question that it be
hooves all Christian workers to face it and de
cide their attitude towards the whole subject.
It seems to the writer that the true and
Scriptural position to take is that we should
be able to recognize and work with any one
who sincerely and truly loves our Lord Jesus
Christ. Personally, if any one really accepts
.ahd sincerely loves my Lord I can take sueh a
one by the hand and call him my brother. He
may call himself a Methodist, a Baptist, a Con
gregationalist, a Catholic, a Presbyterian, a
Quaker, or any one of a long list of other
names. I have one name for him, provided he
loves the same Lord that I love ? he is my
brother and I 4ove him. It makes little differ
ence to me what he calls himself. If he sin
cerely loves the same Lord that 1 do I cannot
only take him by the hand and call him my
brother, but I can pray with him and worship
with him and work with him, and wherever
we are working in the same field I could unite
with him and go into the same organic body
if necessary and desirable under all the cir
cumstances. For the sake of harmony I could
give up, in many respects, my particular form
of worship and church service, I could allow
individual, liberty in the mode of baptism. I
could give up- the name of Presbyterian and
the Presbyterian form of Church government,
even though I love it and think it is more
nearly scriptural than any other; and I could
accept the episcopal form of government and
have a bishop in their sense of the word. And
I could modify my ideas about a great many
things amf* could surrender a great deal for )
the sake of harmony and comity, and even or
ganic union where that seemed best because I
love my brother, who, I believe, has been re
deemed by the same precious blood that J have
been. He may not recognize me, but I feel %,
that he is my brother. lie may not be willing
to be in the same organization with me, and
may even decline to meet me in conference.
But I consider him my brother and feel that
my heart is at one with his. If he feels the
same way we are truly one, in the sense that
our Saviour prayed that we should be, though
he may live in a far distant country and may
have been reared and trained and still believe
in a far different organization from mine.
Whenever I meet him my heart goes out to
him and his to me, for our prayers for each
other have mingled together at a common
throne of grace daily. "Whenever we touch el
bows in our work it is not for rivalry, but for
prayer for each other. And if so located that
elbows touch often, there is no difficulty in
getting as close together as the circumstances
warrant, because we are one at heart.
On the contrary, one may even call himself
a Presbyterian, of my own particular denom
ination, and yet if the Lord he believes in was
born out of wedlock, of a natural father, who
was either self-deceived or trying to deceive
others when he said God was his Father and
"made himself equal with God'*; who died on
the cross simply as a martyr or example and
not to make vicarious atonement for sin, who
never arose bodily from the grave as he said
he would, and who is never to return to this
earth as he plainly asserted; and if he me
lieves that the Bible was not written by men
who were moved by the Holy Ghost and is
therefore not fully inspired and not of final
authority, but is to be subjected to man's in
tellect and reason ? such a one may be a mem
ber in "good and regular standing" in my
own communion and even be an ordained min
ister, yet I can never feel that he is a brother
with whom I can be in real heart union. Even
in the same field I know he is trying to under
mine and pull down the structure I have been
sent to build up. Furthermore, I can never
feel in accord and true heart union with a
church-court that insists on ordaining and au
thorizing such a one to use its pulpits to dis
seminate his views. Any kind of organic union
with such a body would be worse than merely
nominal.
How Did the Allies Fight?
Probably nothing in recent years, or in all