I STOOD by the lapidary in his work. Before him was a rough, yellow diamond with a roundish body and long tail. “That yellow diamond will probably turn white when I cut off the tail,” said the lapidary. “If it does it will be greatly increased in value.”
With almost trepidation at the experiment, he set his steel knife on the diamond, struck it a sharp blow with the hammer, and the diamond split. The yellow diamond was white, the ugly color was all in the part removed; but while the colored tail was a part of the diamond, the color was reflected all through the precious stone till it seemed to be the one ugly tint throughout. This is a transformation we are told that often occurs in the lapidary’s experience.
I thought of the lesson. How many real diamonds God has among His jewels which would be greatly enhanced in value if they would permit by divine grace and His mighty word the excision of some evil habit, some disagreeable trait of character, which colors their whole life. These disagreeable traits are protean and numerous, but they affect the beauty of character and usefulness of the whole person. Let the tail of wrong habits, of uncouth mannerisms,—whatever it may be,—be cut off, be excised, cut out, broken off, put away forever for Christ’s sake, that His pure white light may shine through and be reflected undimmed.
Sowing and Reaping
By R.
As a usual thing the great fact that we all must reap as we sow is used by religious teachers against the sinner. This is not by any means its only, or perhaps its best, application. The law is not merely a statement of fact regarding the sinner; it forms the very foundation of the hope of the Christian. From having a dreadful aspect when shrouded in the gloom of sin and hopelessness, it rises radiant with promise and beauty under the light of the Gospel of Christ.
It is incontestably true that we must reap as we sow. It is a law of the natural world; everywhere we see it working out in the realm of vegetable and animal life. Scientists give it the sounding title of “Conformity to type;” that is to say, Like begets like. In every seed there is the promise of an organism, agreeing in type with the organism that produced it.
To put in plain and simple language, we can not get something from nothing. To grow a field of corn we must plant corn. For this, no other grain will do just as well; for each seed must produce after its own kind. Wheat will produce wheat, and oats will produce oats. The law is an absolutely necessary one. Without it the world would be confusion. We might plant, but no one could possibly tell what we would reap. If we planted potatoes, we might reap artichokes; if we sowed wheat, we might reap tares.
In the natural world it is easy to see that the law is the encouragement and the incentive the world over of the farmer and the grower. God saw the need of such a law when He built the world. When He commanded the earth to bring forth grass, herb, and tree, He also laid upon these the law that each yield “seed after his kind.” Nature obeyed perfectly this mandate of God. The earth brought forth the grass and herb and tree which yielded each “seed after his kind.” They still continue so to do.
This law of reaping what we sow, of seed producing “after his kind,” is the foundation of all agricultural industry. It is for the harvest of his sowing that the farmer waits and has long patience.
A similar law operates in the spiritual world. It is, if possible, even more certain and definite than the natural law. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh [conformity to its type, if you please]; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit [conformity to the type, or kind, also].” John 3:6.
In the spiritual world, then, we can not get something from nothing. Only like can produce like. Life can not come from death, righteousness from sin, or faith from doubt.
“As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.” 1 Cor. 15:48. Here again the law of like begetting like is plainly outlined. The earthy can produce only the earthy; it can not produce the heavenly: only the heavenly can produce the heavenly.
As we have found in the world of nature, so here we find that the law is a ground of confidence, without it all would be confusion. The spiritual law is the assurance and hope of him who seeks salvation from sin and eternal death. The disciple bids us not to cease the struggle for this very reason. Hear what he says: “Let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Gal. 6:9. The farmer is not weary of sowing when he can be reasonably sure he shall reap an adequate harvest. So we are not to be weary in well-doing, for our harvest is sure.
The well-doing is a sowing in the world of spirit and the harvest is sure to be of the same kind as the sowing. If we do good, we shall reap good. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good.” Gal. 6:7-10.
He that sows to the flesh can reap only in the same kind; he can have only that which pertains to the flesh, which in the last analysis is corruption, or death. But by sowing to the Spirit we receive of the Spirit life unending. How are you sowing? What will your harvest be?
We may sow as we will,
We may plant as we may;
But the fruit of our lives
We shall gather some day.
We may drift on the tide
Where the dark waters roll,
But the river flows on
While it carries the soul
On its unceasing tide
To the unfathomed deeps,
Where life and its all
In eternity sleeps.
We may choose, if we will,
On faith’s wings to arise
To far loftier heights,
Where are measureless skies;
And the soul’s broader view
And its height from earth’s sod
Bring it closer to heaven
And nearer to God.
We may choose as we will
How life’s harvest shall grow,
But beyond, if not here,
We must reap as we sow.
R.
OUR BIBLE BAND
Schedule for Week Ending May 29, 1909.
Morning
Evening
Su.
May
23
1 Chron.
19, 20, 21
John
8: 1-27
Mo.
"
24
"
22, 23, 24
"
8: 28-59
Tu.
"
25
"
25, 26, 27
"
9: 1-23
We.
"
26
"
28, 29
"
9: 24-41
Th.
"
27
2 Chron.
1, 2, 3
"
10: 1-23
Fri.
"
28
"
4, 5, 6
"
10: 24-42
Sa.
"
29
"
7, 8, 9
"
11: 1-29
Suggestive Notes.
Our Old Testament readings begin with the 19th chapter of 1 Chronicles and close with the 9th chapter of 2 Chronicles, covering the rest of the history of David’s reign—the sad mistakes that he made; the humble spirit manifest in him under reproof; his purpose to build a house of God, which was refused by the Lord; his gathering of material for the building of that house; the call of Solomon to the kingdom; the perplexities incident to the establishment of his reign; the building of the temple of God; its solemn dedication; closing with some of his plans for the service of the house of God, and his enterprise in commerce. The ninth chapter is the story of his wonderful wisdom and riches.
Our New Testament lessons begin with John 8 and close with the twenty-ninth verse of the eleventh chapter. The principal subjects briefly touched upon in these lessons are Christ as the Light of the world, the true children of Abraham, healing of the man born blind, on the Sabbath day; Christ as the good Shepherd, Jesus at the Feast of Dedication, and the sickness and death of Lazarus, together with the meeting of Jesus with the sisters at their house.
“As a Thick Cloud”
By H.
Of old, when the priest of the Lord burned incense, a cloud arose from the altar, a figure, a token, to the sinner that his prayers had ascended to God, and that he had forgiveness for his transgressions. To the Lord it was a “sweet savor,” a token from His creature of sorrow for his sin and a desire to be free from the curse of disobedience.
Through the prophet the message came to man, “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake.” The Lamb of God, to whom all the sacrificial services pointed, atoned for all confessed sin before the Father; “slain from the foundation of the world,” He covered every fault, in that His blood was shed for the redemption of all the race.
But note what God Himself does with the sins: “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgression, and, as a cloud, thy sins.” Where then did Isaiah see his sins? —
“Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it
from the pit of corruption;
For Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy
back.”
When our sins are thus blotted out by being cast behind the Father’s back, there is the end of them, for He says, “Their sin will I remember no more.” Henceforth the Father sees only the righteousness of the Son, and to the universe that cloudy pillar of sins is transformed by the glorious light of His presence into a beautiful, radiant arch. “Behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and One sitting upon the throne; and there was a rainbow round about the throne, like an emerald to look upon.” Then will the blight of sin be no more; in its place will be the glorious bow — the bow of promise, the promise fulfilled and magnified throughout eternity. H.
Love for the Heathen
“If your love does not root itself deep enough under your feet to reach the heathen on the other side of the globe, it will not climb high enough to reach heaven over your head.”
The Bible in Greece
By W. E. Howell
(From Our Own Correspondent)
Parliament House in Athens. Here stormy sessions were held in 1901 on the question of translating the Bible and on the political complications resulting from the riot.
Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of the East. Also political representative at the Sublime Porte, of the seven or eight million Greeks in the Ottoman Empire.
General Kolokotronēs, chief commander of the Greeks in the War of Independence (1821-29).
III. The Episode of 1901
If there existed a Holy Synod in the sense in which it ought to exist in Greece, there would not have occurred the regrettable scenes which occurred yesterday at the offices of our colleagues.
These are the opening words of the leading editorial in the Greek daily newspaper that has the largest circulation in Greece, the “Onward” by name. The “regrettable scenes” referred to grew out of a demonstration by university students before and in the offices of the daily newspaper, the “Acropolis,” during which they pulled down the sign above the entrance, broke it to pieces in the street, tramped upon and burned copies of the newspaper, and forced an entrance into its offices to demand the cessation of its printing in its columns by instalments a translation of the New Testament from the original Greek into the language of the common people.
These acts of violence were accompanied by frequent shouts of “Long live the Gospel [in the original Greek]! Long live [Greek] Orthodoxy! Down with the Translation! Down with the Sacrilege! We want our Language and our Religion! We want the Translation to stop at once! Down! Down! Down!” These “demoniacal cries,” as the “Onward” itself styles them, were attended by frantic gesticulations, the brandishing of canes and umbrellas, and the showing of fists as well as by conflict with the police who sought in vain to quell the excitement and violence without resort to force.
In a further description of this history-making episode I wish to use as far as possible a close translation of the language used by student leaders, university professors, government officials, ecclesiastics, and editors, who participated in one way or another in these “regrettable scenes.” This course will leave the reader free to judge for himself the real animus of the movement in those days, which will also give him the key to the present situation in Greece. My chief authority is the newspaper of first-class standing hereinbefore cited, the “Onward,” months of October and November, volume of 1901, on file in the Parliament Library in Athens. I have also gathered information of value from well-informed Greeks who were eye-witnesses.
Greek Language and Religion
For a better understanding of what follows, it ought to be said first that the Greek regards his religion and his language as his two most sacred legacies from his forefathers. His religion forms the connecting link between his race and early Christianity in the East, remaining intact even through four hundred years’ bondage of the Greek race to the Turks. His language serves as a strong factor in identifying his race as the true descendants of the illustrious ancient Greeks. Very naturally, during centuries of Greek subjection to the Venetians and the Turks, the Greek language became corrupted by the absorption of Italian and Turkish elements. Since Greece obtained her independence in 1829, there has been a sharp controversy among the Greeks, growing more acute with the passing of time, concerning the status of their language. The purist party, with a preponderance of influence and numbers, holds that the language should be purged of all its foreign elements and restored as nearly as possible to its former purity, thus constituting one incontrovertible evidence of the identity of the modern with the ancient Greek race, and so reinforcing the inherent right of the Greek people to national existence.
The purists hold also that the Greek Church, having used in its liturgy the original language of the New Testament without interruption from the beginning, has thus done more than anything else to preserve the integrity and identity of the race; and that therefore the nation owes its existence largely to its religion. And further that, should a translation of the New Testament be made into Modern Greek and that translation be used in church service, that standing evidence of the existence of the race would to this extent cease to exist, and so the right of the race to national existence be so much the more in question. This is one of the chief POLITICAL reasons for opposing the translation and use of the Bible in Modern Greek.
The RELIGIOUS reasons are clearly stated by the Paris “Figaro,” commenting on the anomalous situation in Greece: “The Orthodox Church, like the Roman, fears that if the text of the New Testament, without approved interpretation, be made accessible to the common people, it would afford occasion for individual interpretation unnecessarily free and unusually heretical. Hence proceeded on the part of Protestants those innumerable heresies, the multitude of which militates strongly against the unity of the church.” Add to this the following Greek editorial: “A translation would be harmful because many doctrines of our church could be misinterpreted. We have as an example the Protestant church which has been divided into many sects because they have misconstrued in various ways certain passages of Scripture. A sufficient understanding of the Scripture can be had through hermeneutical exegesis. [sic].”
Church Organization
The recognized head of the Orthodox Church of the East is the Ecumenical Patriarch, who resides in Constantinople. There are four other patriarchs, residing at Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Moscow. Each patriarch has associated with him a body of advisers called the Holy Synod, of which he is president. Every large city where no patriarch resides, has a metropolitan, also with his body of advisers, or synod. The general administration of the Ecumenical Patriarch is moral or advisory rather than absolute. The patriarchs and metropolitans refer to him questions of importance, but are not obliged to follow his advice. Greece, being now an independent nation, has the right to elect her own metropolitan, who was formerly appointed by the Ecumenical Patriarch. Thus the metropolitan of Athens is all but a patriarch.
In the following account, I shall use the word Gospel, as the Greeks familiarly do, to mean the New Testament.11
The Holy Synod
Continuing the quotation at the head of this article: “The Holy Synod busies itself about many things foreign to its duty, but where it ought to express its opinion first and put an end to discussion, it comes last, limping and fainting by the way. At last, after so much delay, it met yesterday to read the memorial addressed to it by the Theological School [of the university] on this question [of the translation], and broke off the reading at the sixth page, deferring its continuance till the next sitting because, we do not know who grew tired of listening. While in all other countries the priests and other ecclesiastics are condemned for their wild fanaticism, in Greece, where the faith and the forms of the church are bound so closely with the nation, the holy fathers, or part of them, or the leaders of them, are distinguished by their inexplicable indifference.”
The theological students, with the cooperation of their instructors, had addressed to the Holy Synod of Athens a protest against the translation of the Gospel into the common language. Impatient at the delay of the synod in acting on the protest, they enacted the “regrettable scenes” at the newspaper office.
A group of Albanian villagers waiting for the Gospel in simple Greek.
“Let Us Alone”
The editorial continues: “It is singular that for two years the most energetic efforts have been put forth to make a translation of the Gospel. At first an attempt was made to impose it upon us through the Holy Synod [by the queen]. When the synod opposed it, an unofficial translation was made and circulated, as we believe, gratuitously. After this one came that of Palles [a wealthy Greek merchant of London, whose translation was being published in the Acropolis of Athens]. To-morrow we shall see some other, perhaps by ——. The next day another by ——. Each of these will be ambitious to present us his translation, and when the undertaking succeeds, we shall see a new contest for introducing it into the church. All those who have been seeking to impose their [vernacular] language upon us through their other writings, are now seeking to accomplish it through the Holy Scripture. In vain the Greek people say to them, ‘Gentlemen, let us alone. We understand the Gospel well enough—much better indeed than our parents, who were more pious than we.’”
“Yet in the face of these sentiments on the part of the people, those who are seeking to impose their translations upon us, every time they fail in their purpose, renew their efforts more boldly than ever. Why do you insist, gentlemen? Leave us alone in the dark. Have you comments? interpretations? explanations? These we will accept, but translations we shall make you a present of. If you do not yet understand the national and religious reasons that prohibit translations, we can not even discuss them with you.
“We do not approve in principle any limitation upon the freedom of speech or thought, however greatly it may be abused under ordinary conditions. But when its abuse inflicts a mortal wound upon the soul of the nation, we regard it necessary to use every honorable and manly means of placing a restraint upon it. This insistence on imposing a translation of the Gospel upon us, has become an abuse. If the prime movers in this bold innovation do not refrain from further action, we shall support from these columns every violent movement against them, whether it proceed from the students of the university or from the community, whether directed against our colleagues or any other person whatsoever.”
The National Spirit
Another editorial says: “Whether it was an uprising in behalf of the faith, or an expression of indignation against the profaners of the Gospel, the demonstrations of the students yesterday and the day before constitute an encouraging omen for the ideal and ambition of the nation. For that multitude which called out the horses and horsemen, guards and police, but which did not give way before the sword and the revolver of authority, crying more loudly, ‘Down with the profaners of the Gospel!’ was actuated by the national spirit, generated by the most noble instincts. That which did not stir the government to action, nor arouse His Holiness the Metropolitan—the only proper ones to have put an end to this wretched comedy long ago—the students of the university have now undertaken with their canes and their hands and their fists. This step signifies that in the future every attack upon our religion and our language will be warded off with the club.”
“Of course the Constitution does not limit the freedom of the press or speech, but when these wound the church in her vitals, what else can be done? If we translate the Gospel for those who do not understand the language, then we must translate it into Albanian for the Albanian villagers, and into Bulgarian for the Bulgarian-speaking Greeks in the villages of Macedonia. Upon what would then rest the lauded unity of the religion and the language which constitute the basis of our national existence?”
“It is a curious thing that the leaders in this movement for the translation of the Gospel will not accept any of the arguments brought forth against it. The people throw in their faces words of suspicion and betrayal which would restrain any honorable man from this anti-national course. But they have neither dignity that can be insulted nor resentment that can be stirred by suspicion. Having decided once for all to save the Greek nation through the translation of the Gospel, they are willing to be grossly affronted and even crucified, but they are not willing to abandon their undertaking. They never go to church. They never listen to the Gospel. But they purpose to save the Greek people by force. They plan to distribute copies of their translation gratuitously to philanthropic institutions and in the schools. Money is not a consideration in the realization of their purposes.
“But, O ye apostles of translation, leave us in the dark. We do not wish to be saved by such means.”
“What do you think was the chief cause of the downfall and decay of Byzantium?—Incessant heresies and religious strifes. If there had been an emperor willing to go down in history as a murderer, an emperor capable of ordering some night a St. Bartholomew’s massacre and wipe out of existence the leaders of heresy and the heretics, who were ruining Byzantium, that empire would exist to-day. The times do not permit such measures now, but we can proclaim in Athens some night or day a St. Bartholomew, and instead of cutting off heads, shave off the hair of strength from all those who debase our language by their heresy, among whom are the translators of the Gospel. Thenceforth there would not be any fear that there are Greeks to be found in Greece who do not understand the Gospel.”
In our next we shall tell of Student Movements, The Queen Suspected, Demonstration at the Palace, A Professor of Theology to the Rescue, Decision of the Holy Synod, Excommunication Demanded, Trades Unions Take Action. W. E. HOWELL.
R. J. Campbell’s Defection
The “Western Watchman” states that the Rev. R. J. Campbell, the noted Baptist leader of London, has announced his defection from his communion. Of course there is nothing new regarding Mr. Campbell’s defection, but it happens that he was not a Baptist, but a Congregationalist.
Hieroglyphic Record of the Seven Years of Famine
“The ‘Egyptian Gazette,’ published in Alexandria, Egypt, tells of the discovery and deciphering by Professor Brugsch of the hieroglyphic record of the ‘Seven Years of Famine,’ mentioned in Genesis. The date is 1700 B.C., the exact year mentioned in the Bible. Thus every new discovery routs the so-called Higher Critics and confirms faith in the old Book.”
President Taft Praises Grover Cleveland
President Taft, speaking of the late ex-President Cleveland, at Carnegie Hall, New York, March 18, said: “Grover Cleveland was as completely American in his character as Lincoln.” “His chief characteristics were simplicity and honesty, courage of his convictions, with a sense of public duty that has been exceeded by no statesman within my knowledge.”
Sunstroke and Paul’s Conversion
One of the German rational higher critics in writing of Paul’s conviction on the road to Damascus, declares that Paul got a sunstroke, and in his fever he thought he saw visions and heard voices, but that the whole thing was a subjective delusion and not an objective reality. A. F. Schauffler remarks in the Sunday School Times: “Now, I never knew that sunstroke turns a persecutor into a preacher, or that it makes an evangelical man out of a skeptic. One of my classmates who was with me in city missions got half a sunstroke in the city of New York, and he never did another stroke of work for a year and six months. Paul gets a full sunstroke and begins instantly to preach marvelously. If this German theory be correct, then you had better close your theological seminaries and stand all your young men out against a brick wall and sunstroke the whole of them, and then ordain them.”
