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