S C R I B N E R ' S M A G A Z I N E Important ... - Rparchives.org
S C R I B N E R ' S M A G A Z I N E Important ... - Rparchives.org
S C R I B N E R ' S M A G A Z I N E Important ... - Rparchives.org
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S I G N E D E D I T O R I A L S<br />
XEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 3, 1913.<br />
RtADY FOR SERVICE.<br />
By the Rev. J. C. .AJcFeeters, D. D.<br />
This week the Christian Nation enters upon its thirtieth year.<br />
Its weekly issue has come to our homes all this time with faithful<br />
constancy; no interruption during a period which almost covers the<br />
life of a generation. It came each time burdened with the Hving<br />
words of half a score or more servants of Jesus Christ, whose earnest<br />
faces, solemn voices, and throbbing hearts almost seemed to appear in<br />
the columns they have filled with blood-rich reading.<br />
Whatever may be said of the Christian Nation, whatever imperfections<br />
may have appeared, and neither man nor journal can claim<br />
perfection, this much can safely be said: The paper has pursued a<br />
straightforward course, faithful to the principles of the Covenanter<br />
Church, as the Editor sees them. Nor has his position on the<br />
fundamentals ever been successfully gainsaid!<br />
The Christmn Nation has passed through some periods that were<br />
critical in our Church, yet have we never seen either deviation or<br />
hesitancy regarding the royal truths of Jesus Christ for which the<br />
Covenanter Church stands. Her testimony has ever found expression<br />
in the clear ringing tones of the paper. No power has been<br />
able for a moment to subsidize its pages.<br />
This much, without a hint of solicitation, we have written as<br />
due to the Weekly that has stood, and struggled, and triumphed, in<br />
the cause of Jesus Christ and His Covenanter Church for a score<br />
and half years; and still holds forth, as a battle flag, on the outer<br />
fortifications of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.<br />
Now what for the future?<br />
The first thirty years are merely years of adolescence; years of<br />
upbuilding, preparation for real effort, getting ready for the work<br />
that must yet be done. It takes no less than thirty years to get<br />
ready for hard service; to turn muscle into sinew, gristle into bone,<br />
and brain into grey matter; to develop noble, vigorous, indefatigable<br />
power. The hardships and painful struggles of the under-years are<br />
all needed to prepare for the tasks that are to follow. David was<br />
thirty years old when he began to reign. What strange lessons he<br />
learned on the way to the throne! and what wonderful achievements<br />
he was afterwards able to accomplish! Jesus began to be<br />
thirty years old, when He entered upon the great mission of His<br />
life. His public ministry was but the flowering of His private life;<br />
the fruitage of His mature manhood; the activity of His perfections<br />
as our glorious Redeemer.<br />
The thirtx years of life granted tlie Christian Nation, in the<br />
Midst of storm and zvhirkvind, is prophetic. To be matured through<br />
the vicissitudes of the past, to be tested •at every vital point, to endure<br />
all strain zvith a heroic -will and to stand face to face zvith<br />
present responsibilities and future developments, must indeed be significant.<br />
The trend of events throughout the world, the marvelous providences<br />
of our enthroned Lord Jesus Christ, the stirring of all nations,<br />
the progress and conquests of the Compel, the increas'ng expectation<br />
of an approaching crisis that will shake all earthly powers, the evident<br />
coming of our Lord Jesus to take unto Him His great powers<br />
and reign—all this places an - alarming emphasi.s. on the testimony<br />
of the Covenanter Church. The w^rld needs tn hear a voice,<br />
yea, is on tip-toe listening for a clear voice, a lightning-tipped.<br />
thunder-toned voice, a voice heraldincj repentance toward God, and<br />
salvation through faith in Je=us Christ, a voice announcing the doom<br />
of the wicked. The work of the Church mu,«t become intensely<br />
more progrc^Mve and aggressive, along nil' lines, or she will be<br />
driven back by the waves of oprio?ition.<br />
Herein lies' the opportunity of the Christian Nation, yea, its<br />
verv justification—its own recognition of tasks not yet touched, and<br />
responsibilities that are just appearing on its horizon. The good<br />
THB CHRISTIAN NATION. Vol. 69.<br />
it has accomplished must not be minimized, yet, in our Judgment<br />
it is an handful of corn compared to the everlasting trees of Lebanon<br />
Vi^hen we consider what is yet to be done.<br />
The times demand strong testimony against wickedness in high<br />
places. We have been too placid, too musical, too entertaining, ju<br />
declaring the counsel of God against this perverse and rebellious<br />
nation. We have proceeded on the educational method, and<br />
have neglected the retributional. Our country indulges in peace<br />
and glories in prosperity and unlimited power, yet what real peace,<br />
where infidelity, like Jezebel, sits in power in our civil government!<br />
The wrath of the Lord is heard rumbling in the national heavens.<br />
A¥hat mean the floods, the drought, the rumors of war, the leprous<br />
sores breaking out ail over the political body. What need of advanced<br />
testimony! vigorous, alarming, even denunciatory! Xhe<br />
ears of the nation must tingle, or our government may be wrecked,<br />
and much people be destroyed.<br />
The missions of the Church also demand, not mere steps, but<br />
strides, of advance. Surely the day of opportunity has come; large<br />
fields are open, beyond our power to cultivate. Three million people<br />
waiting for us, as a Church, to feed them with the Gospel of<br />
Christ! That gives every man and woman three hundred. Whence<br />
shall we buy bread for so many? We are amazed, crushed, feel<br />
helpless before such.' a task, yet it is ours either to perform or<br />
neglect. What shall be done witih the task? An officer was<br />
once commanded to plant his battery on the top of a hill. His<br />
men stopped at a steep place, and said they could take the guns<br />
no further. He drew out the paper that contained his order, and<br />
replied: "My orders are to place the guns on the top of the hill, and<br />
they must be placed.'' The Church must face what seems to be<br />
impossibilities if she ever does her best work.<br />
We expect to see the Christian Nation wave, as a battle-fiag<br />
of the Covenant in the forefront of the Covenanter lines, while<br />
the warfare grows fiercer, and the conquest of the world for Jesus<br />
demands larger services and greater sacrifices,<br />
J. C. McFEETERS. •.<br />
THE FALL OF THE TEMPORAL POWER.<br />
By Prof. D. B. Willson.<br />
The closing years of the temporal power of the Pope of Rome<br />
is an interesting study. This period covers a score of years from<br />
Friday, April 12, 1850, the day the exiled Pope, Pius IX., re-entered<br />
Rome, under French protection, till September 20, 1870, when the<br />
Italian army under Cadorna took possession of the city. Louis<br />
Napoleon, the elected President of prance, did not possess the confidence<br />
of the Pope. The hopes of the Papacy lay rather in the<br />
influences, Spanish and French, that surrounded his wife in her<br />
Court.<br />
No wisdom was learned by the Papacy from the late event*.<br />
Louis Napoleon, on August 18, 1849, had written of the French intervention<br />
as for a general amnesty, the secularization of the administration,<br />
the promulgation of the Napoleonic Code, and the formation<br />
of a lay government. "Such must be' the conditions if<br />
temporal power were to be resuscitated with the help of France.<br />
But no reform could come into such a system ais the Papal civil rule,<br />
the prelates having the administration of affairs under a monarch. Surveillance<br />
was constant and severe, yet when it relaxed a little, as in<br />
1857, the National Committee of Rome arose, mysterious, yet<br />
potent to the end in the politics of Rome. "There was no intention<br />
to attack either the Pope's rehgious authority or the doctrines of the<br />
church.*''' The Republican party and Mazzini were for quick and<br />
violent action. The committee hailed the return of the Italian and<br />
French troops frorn the Crimea. They were in touch with Cavour,<br />
the Italian Prime Minister, and greeted Victor Emanuel as havin,?<br />
a right to rule in Rome. Cavour had been firmly opposed by Austria.<br />
A Papal army of defence was raised in i860. Cavour had re-<br />
*Pagcs 1.5, IR, R. Pr', rVsarp, "Thelnr.t V^-ya of Papal Rome," Uou.;hton<br />
M-ffin €0 , 1900.<br />
**Page 2:^7.