The Presbyterian of the South : [combining the] Southwestern Presbyterian, Central Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian. [volume], January 19, 1921, Page 3, Image 3

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

Image provided by: Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA

                
Contributed
TRAINED LEADERS? THE SUPREME
NEED.
Rev. Wesley Baker.
Within a generation the -whole nation has
assumed a new attitude towards the training
of the teacher as it relates to public schools.
Within that period departments of education
which are virtually high-class normal schools
have been instituted and equipped in almost
every college and university in the land. Where
these institutions had already made a begin
ning, these departments have been enriched,
enlarged and elaborately equipped. The
legislatures of the various States have given
uncounted millions to this work, and there has
seldom been a murmur or protest. No money
voted in the last twenty years seems to have
been more freely or willingly set apart. All of
this. because there is an ever-deepening sense
of the fact that the teacher is the school. The
people also realize that the teacher, to be suc
cessful in any large service in these great
days, must be a trained teacher.
Sunday school authorities have been slow to
realize what has been going on in the "world of
secular education. We have too long rested
in the delusion that religious teaching is en
tirely a matter of the Holy Spirit, that we can
ignore the settled principles of psychology and
of the specialized methods that are necessary
in public education. Far be it from the writer
to fail to emphasize the absolute and indispen
sable need of the work of the Holy Spirit; but
??ne of the greatest needs of the Sunday school
today is for teachers who will add to their
devotion to the things of God a knowledge of
the pupil, of how to tcach him, and how to
train him for a life of Christian service. More
over, in all of this there is no thought of mini
mizing in the least the splendid work now be
ing done by the great army of faithful teach
ers in our schools. On the other hand, the
effort being made is to increase their teaching
efficiency and usefulness.
Teacher-training is not a fad, but a neces
sity. Xo school can afiford to consider it as
something apart from the requirements of its
work. Every school which realized the respon
sibility placed upon it and attempts to meet
it must give attention to training its leaders
and teachers. Why?
1. Because of the importance of the teach
er's task. The Sunday school has to do with
religion and education. The first is the most
important subject that concerns human life.
The second is the most effective method of
bringing religion to bear upon human life. We
require special training for engineers, physi
cians, nurses, day school teachers, and yet who
will say that the work of the Sunday school
teacher is less important than that in any of
these professions?
2. Because of competing interests. The
Sunday school must hold the child in spite of
other interests.
?i. Because of teaching conditions. Teach
ing conditions in many schools are frequently
very bad. Lack of equipment, discipline, and
shortness of time combine to make a task that
will test the ability of expert teachers. If he
does not know how to make the best of his
opportunities much vital time and the chances
of the child for religious training are lost.
4. Because of the peril -of a Godless nation.
The best trained teachers are none too good for
this work. Twenty-seven million young peo
ple under twenty-five years of age without
religious training means twenty-seven million
spiritual illiterates. The Godless nation is a
doomed nation.*
There never was a time when the need was
greater than now for an army of trained men
and women with hearts 011 fire with a real
passion and love to make Jesus Christ known
as the divine Saviour of lost souls. The Rich
mond School of Methods to be held in the
John Marshall Iligh School, February 20th to
25th, will be one of the vital agencies in de
veloping such trained leaders.
GOD.
By Rev. Charles Win, Sommerville, D. D.
"In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth" ? a sublime sentence, declaring
the fact of creation and assuming the fact of
God. It is the assumption of the great truth
of the existence of God that we here concern
outselves with. The Bible nowhere undertakes
to prove that God is. Philosophers have de
vised famous proofs of the fact of His exis
tence, but while those arguments assist the be
lief that He is, they fall short of proving the
fact. The Bible assumes the fact that God is,
and so strikes out all assumptions of men to
the contrary. It strikes out Atheism, the fool's
thought that there is 110 God, and starts out
with the sublime statement, "In the beginning
God." Is it not wondrous that a man can
behold the created universe, and yet can see
110 trace of God, its creator, in it and above it
and beneath it, and through it? How else
will one account for that phenomenon except
by assuming that the God of this world hath
blinded their eyes from beholding the truth?
'"?Tie fool hath said in his heart, there is no
God. "
The Bible sweeps away Polytheism, though
there be lords many, and gods many ? who are
called gods, but are 110 gods. And it sweeps
away all Dualism of Good and Evil principles.
There are these two principles, and they are
ever in conflict, as Paul states in the seventh
of Romans, but there is 110 donbt as to the end
of tin* conflict, nor as to which shall triumph.
God is One, and there is no other. God is
Good, and 110 other is. God is first, and there
is none beside Him. He permits evil, but He
neither approves it, nor is He controlled by it.
lie overrules it for Jlis glory, and in His own
time He will remove it from His presence.
I11 the beginning God ? that denies Material
ism ; for God is not material, nor dependent
upon matter; but is before it and above it,
its creator by the word of His power, out of
nothing, and for His glory. God is a pure
spirit, independent of all matter and all func
tions of matter.
It sweeps away Pantheism, that half truth
so popularly held to-day. God is in nature,
the dewdrop, and the storni "loud do mani
fest God. He is present in all His works.
Hut that is for other than the pantheistic
view that God is all, and all is God, that "God
exists only in the successive forms or events
which constitute the universe"; that "all per
sons are transient forms" of Ilis being." Xo,
God is in all. but above all, imminent spirit,
transcendant spirit, a Person, before all, apart
from all. "over all, God blessed forever."
The fact of God strikes out Fatalism. lie
is not some master mechanician bound up and
controlled by Ilis own creation. God is free,
a free agent. "lie doeth according to Ilis
will in the army of heaven and among the in
habitants of the earth ; and none can stay his
hand, or say unto Him, what doest Thont''
The Bible sweeps away Agnosticism, that
form of error so prevalent among would-be
philosophers. It is true that God is the Great
Unknown, that lie is the Unknowable. "No
man hath seen God at any time." "No man
can see God and live." None by searching
can find out God. Yet you may know Hint
since "The only begotten which is in the bosom
of the father, He hath declared Ilim."
You know mathematics? How much mathe- ?
matics do you know? You know Latin, you
know law? How much Latin, how much law,
how much biology and chemistry, do you know?
Compare your knowledge in some subject with
that of some master of that subject, and how
much do you know? How much do you know
of yourself? Your own heart, your own mys
terious self? How little do you know! "Who
knows light? Who knows electricity? Yes,
God is the great Unknown, the Abyss unfath
omed, unknowable. 11c is the Transccndant
Person, the Immanent, Vital Spirit, the First
Cause, the great "I AM." "O the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God! How unsearchable are Ilis judgments,
and His ways past finding out!"
Yet you may know Him m Jesus Chris: to
the saving of your souls. To know Him aright
is life. "This is life eternal, that they might
know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent."
How little, indeed, do we know Him ! When
we come into that land of glory we shall, 1
think, carry with us our knowledge; and ve
shall add to our knowledge. We shall know
God more and more. But when we have been
there myriads of ages, growing all the while
in the knowledge of God, we shall find even
there that the full knowledge of God lies out
beyond us to infinity.
Finally, "in the beginning God" sweeps
away Deism ? God is separate from His uni
verse, above it, apart from it, yet He has not
forsaken it, nor left it to itself. He is not
some master contriver who has wrought out
an ingenious machine, given it regulations, a
beaten track, and power sufficient for perpetual
motion. No, God is without His machine, but
in control thereof; His hand is ever upon lever
and throttle, it moves, turns, slows down, or
speeds away, stops, and goes as He wills. He
"upholds all things by the word of His power."
I. What Is God?
What, then, is God? "God is a spirit, and
they that worship Him must worship Him in
spirit and in truth." "God is a spirit," so we
teach the little ones that come to us for in
struction in holy things, and "has not a body
like men." "God is a spirit, infinite, eternal
and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom,
power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth."
So we teach all who will learn, from that won
derful compendium of doctrine, the Westmin
ster Shorter Catechism.
Those three attributes ? infinity, eternity,
unchangeableness ? cannot be communicated to
men, but the other seven can be in some
measure communicated to you. In fact, you
are like God in them; you were created in His
image, and you have more or less of that image
remaining stamped upon your soul. Where by
Tlis grace you reach the glory land, that image
in perfection shall be restored in you, and you
"shall be like Him when you see Him. our
Saviour, as He is."
Such is God. Not all men know God, not
all men know God to be the only true God
and our God, and accordingly they do not wor
ship and glorify Him. It is a great privilege
to know God.
II.- What Does Qod Do?
,God works. He is not idle. The Bible scorns
a man ? and that means a woman ? who does