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THE CHRISTIAN NATION.
Vol. 59.
put to the vote of the local congregations. In
the case of the Presbyterians, a third of the
membership did not vote, which many took
to be a sign that they were not ready for
the issue. But the general assembly, which
has lately been in session in Toronto, took
decisive action by a vote of 178 to 54, in
favor of proceeding as rapidly as possible to
th'e union. The Congregationalists, in their
national council, were absolutely unanimous
m favor of going forward to the completion
of the union. Tbe Methodist general conference
has also put itself on record as overwhelmingly
favoring union. The Presbyterians
were the laggards. Their acquiescence assures
the fact. It is rather remarkable that the
Presbyterians voted to give up tbeir denominational
identity at this time, for the great
congress of Presbyterian representatives had
given such an exhibition of Presbyterian potency
and had so deeply stirred the denominational
enthusiasm that some observers felt that
this newly quickened denominational consciousness
would balk the union project. It
is proved not to be the case, however, and the
negotiations have been put into the hands of
a committee to proceed to the epochal issue
which has been the goal of the most advanced
leaders in the denomination.
"One of the unexpected by-produots of the
union movement in Canada was the effect upon
the Anglican Church, which has organized a
Church Unity League, and which takes the
advanced position of recognizing the non-
Episcopal churches. In England, Canada and
the States, the Anglican and Protestant Episcopal
churches, which hold the doctrine of
the historic episcopacy, have not been willing
to recognize the validity of other ordinations
than their own. Thus they have not looked
upon the non-Episcopal churches as churches
in the fullest sense of that term. The Canadians,
however, have gone a step forward, although
their action has oalld forth a protest
from the bishops of eastern Canada. At the
recent meeting of the Church Unity League,
to which, by the way. Earl Grey cabled his
congratulations, loud applause greeted tbe following
^Iterance from the' venerable Archdeacon
Cody:
" 'Wouldn't you like to meet John Bunyan,
Francis of Assisi, Thomas a Kempis, Father
John of Cronsta'dt, David Livingstone and
Paton of the New Hebrides as well as Keble,
Phillips Brooks and Kingsley? How can we
refuse to recognize on earth those who will
be stars in the spiritual firmament hereafter?
Will there not arise some sense of shame to
remember hereafter that we refused to recognize
these on earth?
Tbis child in our homes, this human being,
whose endowments are so many, this
human spirit, this center of such potential
powers, this creature, surely is a something
"3,Ieanwhile, the World Conference on Faith
and Order, which the Episcopalians are pronoting,
grows more important and realizable weighing things eatable in the markets or
higher than, to be a machine, used only in
with each month. In this matter of church measuring things wearable for our bodies. You
union it seems as if the irreconcilables are will always find men enough for section
growing reconciled, and the irreducible minimum
of anti-unionists is being reduced toward
hands.
It was tbe privilege of the writer to be
the vanishing point."
This writer has it all his own way—on
in Eskridge on Wednesday, July 16th, the
paper.
On Saturday,_June 28, in Hyde Park, London,
an assemblage of over 120,000 people
gathered to protest against the Welsh Disestablishment
bill, and adopted this:
"We will not have our Church dismembered
and four of its dioceses disestablished
and disendowed,"
"It remained stationary for only a very
short while, for at 6:25, or but ten minutes
after the last of the marchers had come to
rest, the proceedings at the various platforms
closed with the adoption of the brief resolution
already cited, with a blessing, a moment
of silent prayer, and the playing of the National
Anthem; and immediately the vastcrowd
began to disentangle itself and the
great demonstration was over. The singing
of the Welsh choir was a notable feature
of the proceedings. The choir consisted of
nearly one thousand choristers from the
four dioceses of Bangor, Llandaff, St. Asaph,
and St. David's."
THE CAILL OF THE COLLEGE!
By the Rev. W. P Johnston, D. D.
One of our essayists has said "that a man's
mind is the instrument of his productive power.
The measure of his future efficiency, is
his mental capability."
If this be true, then the instrument sbould
be developed to its capacity. Characteristics
of children should be observed, and paths
pointed out to them, according to characteristics.
In what direction a son shall go, to
depend, not on what the father has been doing,
but upon the innate capacity of the child.
Because a father's acres are many, and soil
fertile and cattle plentiful, on the bills,
should be no, reason why a son should join
the father in the care pf the cattle, and spend
life upon tbe same grounds.
The widowed mother of Isaac Newton sent
her son, after some time spent in a preparatory
school, to Woolstrop, the country estate,
left him by his father, that he might take
the care of it, having nothing beyond that
in her mind for him. She was perhaps as
fully observant as the most of parents.
Gladstone would likely have found a place
by the side of his father, behind the counter,
m the Liverpool merchant's place of business,
if Hartray, the Headmaster in the Eton
School, had not awakened the divine spark.
He found nothing in his home as an inspiratcn.
Eton gave him what the home denied.
guest of Rev. W. A. Aikin and his wife.
There were present also Rev. Samuel Edgar
and Dr. Peoples. I listened to talks on that
day made to that large congregation by the
pastor and these men.
Samuel Edgar came from a dry goods
store in Boston. The dry goods business is
a worthy one. It is not good enough for
Samuel Edgar, with his heart and brain and
voice, for the health of whose life men pray
on two sides of the ocean. Dr. Peoples went
from a bank in Philadelphia to the study of
medicine. All he had to do was to stay. His
advance was sure year by year. The Philadelphia
bank was not good enough for a
man that was pleading for a hospital in Asia
Minor, a man trying through cured bodies to
save the souls to whom the bodies belonged.
The pastor came from a farm in Kansas to
college. Farm life is fine.,not fine enough
fcr a man with Mr. Aikin's instincts for
duty, and zeal for the enrichments of men's
lives, not the enrichment and enlargement of
men's barns.
Other young men, and older ones too,
were found, who, because of the capacity for
work gotten out of the schools, had found
great work and were doing it. Mr. Edgar
at Stafford could not be more active if he had
been allowed to stay at Cyprus. Mr. Blair at
Olathe could have shown no more zealif
permitted to remain in China.
At Denison, at Winchester, at Olathe, at
Eskridge, at Topeka, at Stafford, at Sterling,
at Morning Sun, at Sharon, at Wyman, at
Washington, /were found graduates of the
High School or those about to graduate as
capable as those that I have named, who
ought to be where instruments are fittedfor
their employments. These graduates should
be allowed to go, advised, urged to go to
College. There ought to be twenty-five new
students in Geneva this autumn from the
congregations named; more too. If parents
were wise, if awake to the interests of children,
if aware of the needs of our own church,
if realizing the gain of society in the equipm.ent
of cbildren trained in Godly homes,
through the discipline of the schools, they
would urge children to do something worth
while, and help them in the getting ready
for it-
WIENER AND THE BIBLE CRITICS. .
By .the Rev. J. M. Coleman.
"Who wrote the Pentateuch?" is a question
which has been answered in various ways
since the time of tbe renegade Huguenot,
Jean Astruc. If the books are allowed to
testify for themselves, there can be no doubt
about the Mosaic authorship, but most of
the students in our colleges are taught a different
story. The current claim of the critics
is that tbe Pentateuch is made up from
different documents put together long after
the time of Moses.
One of the supports for this theory was
found in Ex. 6:3, so the critics claimed, where
God says to Moses "by my name Jehovah
was I known to them," meaning the patriarchs.
As one reads the Pentateuch with
care he notices that the word Jehovah, translated
Lord, occurs often from Genesis 2:4
onward and the critics drew the conclusion
that the writer of Ex. 6 :3 -was not the writer
of the previous passgiges '"; riiicb the