p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 46. (11/12/1902)

A Great Obstacle.

—Dr. Ellinwood, Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, discusses in the November Homiletic Review the “Place of the Bible in Twentieth-century Missions.” “Shall essential doctrines be eliminated? Shall there be any change of emphasis?” Shall the Biblical type of Christian missions be modified to meet modern thought? Dr. Ellinwood finds no insuperable objections in the great Oriental religions against the idea of Incarnation, or of predestination, or of future rewards and punishments, or of the resurrection of the dead, or of the Trinity. One of the greatest obstacles he finds in dealing with Confucianism is ancestral worship. He says:—

Christianity teaches the Chinaman that the souls of his father and all his ancestors are still living; and as they knew nothing of the salvation by Jesus Christ, the implication is that they are lost. This is indeed a formidable stone of stumbling, but not greater than has confronted the preaching of the Gospel in all lands and in all ages of the world.

But this would prove no obstacle, if the truth of the Bible were taught. For nowhere does the Bible teach that all who have died are living. “The dead know not anything,” is the repeated teaching of the Old Testament, and the New Testament declares that man's whole hope of future life rests upon the resurrection of Christ Jesus, and through Him of all the dead in the last day. Tell the Chinese that the ancestors of all the past are asleep, waiting for the coming of the Master, who will wake them in His own good time, and give to each the reward or punishment due. And, too, what right has Dr. Ellinwood or any one else to intimate that all those who have died are lost? Christ by His Spirit has enlightened, and does, and will, enlighten every one who comes into the world. John 1:9. How do we know how many hearts in the darkness of heathendom the great Jehovah has found “perfect toward Him”? 2 Chron. 16:9. That soul who sees but one ray of light and holds it, follows it, cherishes it, will not be left of God. Better is his case than that of the one who has a flood of light, and rejects all by rejecting perhaps but one ray. The former found God in the one ray of light accepted. The latter lost Him in the one ray of light rejected. O there would be far fewer obstacles, if men would preach the Gospel as it is. In Gospel predestination they would see the glory, and wisdom, and love of God. The eternally burning hell would be abolished. Jesus Christ would stand forth in the Bible, meeting all the sinner’s need, let that sinner be Buddhist, Brahmin, Confucianist, Catholic, or Protestant.

Baptized “In” or “With”?

Baptized “in” or “with”?—The American Standard Revised Version of Matt. 3:11 reads as follows: “I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance; but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire,” instead of “with water,” as in our common version. Because of this it has been called a “Baptist production,” and that it is the “fruit of unpardonable sectarianism.” To this the editor of the S. S. Times replies by telling the story of the New England town which had failed to fire a cannon salute when President Andrew Jackson visited the place. They drew up an elaborate apology, specifying thirteen reasons why a cannon was not fired. The first was that they had no cannon. The President told them to never mind the other twelve. The editor goes on to say that “there are a number of valid answers to the charge that the American Revision is the production of ‘unpardonable [Baptist] sectarianism,’ but perhaps one that will appeal to the American public is the fact that among the survivors of the American Revision Committee who edited the final version of 1901 there was not a single Baptist brother left in the American New Testament Company! Dr. Kendrick, the only Baptist scholar active in the New Testament Revision in America, died Oct. 22, 1895, before the work on the Standard Edition fairly began.” The American Standard Revised Version is the translation par excellence.

Germany Drifting Romeward.

By Editor

We call attention to the article in the Outlook department, entitled, “Emperor William as a Roman Catholic.” This is not surprising; for the “sure word of prophecy” declares that all the nations of earth shall bow in homage before the Papacy. Other nations are tending the same way, tho perhaps not quite so conspicuously, unless America be the exception. These are stirring days of perplexity and peril. He only will read the signs aright who reads them from God’s Word.

Not Ashamed of the Gospel

The only shame which could be felt of the Gospel of Christ comes because it is not known. No one who knows that Gospel can be ashamed of it. “It is the power of God unto salvation.” It takes the poor soul in the mire of selfishness, and sin, and corruption, and makes him a child of God. He has looked into the law, and has seen only condemnation; but he has embraced the Gospel, and found there revealed for him the righteousness of God. How could any one who knows this be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ?

The Greatest of All

(1 Corinthians 13, American Standard Revised Version)

*If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of Prophecy, And know all Mysteries and all Knowledge; And if I have all Faith, so as to remove Mountains, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my Goods to feed the poor, And if I give my Body to be Burned, BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, It profiteth me nothing.*

*LOVE suffereth long, and is kind: LOVE envieth not; LOVE vaunteth not itself, Is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemly, Seeketh not its own, Is not provoked, Taketh not account of evil: Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, But rejoiceth with the Truth; Beareth all things, Believeth all things, Hopeth all things, Endureth all things. LOVE NEVER FAILETH:*

*But whether there be Prophecies, they shall be done away; Whether there be Tongues, they shall cease; Whether there be Knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part, And we prophesy in part: But when that which is Perfect is come, That which is in Part shall be done away.*

*When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: Now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror darkly; But then face to face: Now I know in part; But then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. But now abideth FAITH, HOPE, LOVE, These three; And the greatest of these is*

LOVE

Here not There.—

In speaking of difficulties in Oriental heathen lands, Dr. Ellinwood tells us “that the Christian church, however shaken and dubious in regard to its doctrines here at home, need have no fear that they will be the occasion of any special stumbling on the mission-fields. . . . The difficulty is here not there, and the cheap current criticism, that our Christian faith is a rock of offense to the heathen world, is really without foundation. The more earnestly and definitely the truths of redemption are taught, the more fully and implicitly are they received; and as a rule natives on heathen soil are more inclined to take God at His word than are the average believers of Western lands.” But the thought will arise, Can churches here composed of ministers, teachers, members who are uncertain, much longer send out missionaries who themselves believe “earnestly and definitely the truths of redemption”? And can they so set forth these truths, if they do not believe them? O that the church of Christ would leave the chaff of human wisdom, and take to the hungry souls the Bread of Life!

The Papacy and the Philippine Settlement

The “Christian Advocate,” the chief organ of the Methodist Episcopal denomination, again and again calls attention to the settlement of the Philippine matters. While it believes, as should every one, that strict justice should be done to the friars, it also believes that there is great danger that special favors will be granted them. It closes a note of warning thus: “All Europe is looking on to see if the government of the United States will firmly maintain the principles of an absolutely free church in a free State, or, as a means of governing in peace, throw its influence perniciously in favor of the ancient intolerant régime.” Other papers feel as does the Advocate. They do not see how this government is yielding step by step to the entreaties of the Vatican, do not see the strong, almost invisible web which the Papacy is weaving—as she believes to be her duty—around the sleeping giant of the West.

The History of Standard Oil

“The History of Standard Oil” opens in the November McClure’s. It is by Ida M. Tarbell, the author of a “Life of Lincoln.” It will prove interesting reading in showing how the great industry has grown till it throttles nations. These articles are illustrated. The first chapter is entitled, “The Birth of an Industry.”

A Sad Observation.

—Dr. Frank Hugh Foster tells us in the November Homiletic Review that “with all charity, observation lends support to the fear lest the ‘passing’ of the revival is in many cases the passing, on the part of the preacher, of a knowledge of what sin, and repentance, and forgiveness are.”

Christian Zeal in Election Times

These election times are days of excitement in which men are chiefly striving for place and prosperity. Principles are entirely lost sight of. Where policy rules, principles can not abide.

It would be a glorious thing for the cause of Christ, if Christians generally were as enthusiastic as the politicians are in these days.