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About Christian herald. (Portland ;) 1882-18?? | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1883)
óritusTiÁM tiftitÄLTk C hristian H erald . _______ EDITOR :_______ J. F. FLOYD. FRIDAY, JAN. 26, 1883. Our Needs on the Ooast. 'Our present needs on this coast are very many, but we only have space and time at this writing to point out a few of the leading ones. • 1. We need more preachers. The harvest is plenteous, but the labor ers are few. We have here a broad and beautiful field all ready for the harvest. Who will come and gather in the sheaves ? Almost daily we receive letters at this office from this State, California and Washington Territory calling i for.help from our preachers. There I are large districts of country where Our plea has never been ■ h e aed ■ and—where - the people are living almost in the blackest of spiritual darkness, with-now and then a disciple who has come from “ the East and settled down among them. Some of these tell us that they have not heard a sermon preached by our brethren for years. Many of these are taking the H er ald which is a souree of much en couragement to them; otherwise they would almost give up in des pair. There are also churches all along this coast, some in towns and cities of much importance, who are able an<4 willing to secure good preaching provided the right mant for the place can l>e found. But it is a fact that there are not enough1 preachers to fill all the places that need preaching, and to evangelize the field. But be it remembered that we do not by any means wish to convey the idea that we do not now have many good and able preachers on this coast; some occu pying places of much prominence, for this would be far from the facts in the case. A better and more self sacrificing class of preachers it has never been our pleasure to meet. But what are all these when compared with the population of the Pacific slope ? What we need and what we must have in the near future is enough preaching talent to stem the vast and increasing tide of emigration, from every, part - of the workf-now pouring. in upon us. These people must have the •Ç J bread of spiritual life, and our re sources for spreading the gospel should keep pace with this increase of population. This can only be - 1 ■ tn * - ■ r X. J i r ministerial force. Be it, further more, remembered that we do not heed mechanically manufactured clergymen poss^Soft”"01“ the ldeir that a thirty minutes declamation on Lord’s day is all that is needed. We have not yet reached that point, although when it conies to an appreciation of good preaching, claim „to. .ba ift firn front raflM- What we want is men of energy and ability who know what it is to deny themselves and work for the Master, and who are willing to do ft; Neither do we need men to come for the purpose of looking on for awhile without feeling a deep interest in our work; but we es pecially want those who can b.um t"he bridges behind them, as one brother expressed it, and become permanently identified with us and our work, and become thoroughly imbued with our spirit. . Tn this way and this only can we expect to building up the churches among us. Let us then as Christ directs, pray the Lord of the harvest that he may send more laborers into the field. 2. We need more money. We don’t mean that we are as a people so poor financially, but while we have money, it should be so used that it will accompTi^irie"grearest“ amount of good. This can only be done by paying and paying well those whom we call to our State and to our work. Then there are those among us who have been here for years whose usefulness could l>e greatly increased in a more substantial way. The Lord loveth a cheerful giver, and we are told that those who preach the gos pel shall live of the gospel.- 3. We need more cooperation among the churches. Cooperation is one of the very best ways of spreading the gospel and increasing the finances of the churches. The strong should assist the weak in building up the cause. Then it t those churches that are more for tunate in possessing this world’s goods be lil>eral,and willing to look after the prosperity ot those who need assistance. We have many things to say on the subject of Mis sionary work and cooperation but this must suffice for the present. The Blessed Virgin. ridiculed the private study and in able of sin,” a "Virgin, through terpretation of thé Scriptures, tried grace, free from all stain of sin,” to prove the infallibility of the etc. If we are irreverent in the ■ffyww. qfc- LJathBiie ywaia-ibeeauae we up by declaring that Mormonism prefer to follow Jesus Christ rather and polygamy are the results of the that the Fathers in paying this Lutheran Reformation and the free eame reverence to the Blessed Vir investigation of the Bible. As no gin, then let it be so. 3. Turning to the Bible, the “ H er one else seemed disposed, we took ald “ quote« : “ There, came then hie up the challenge and assumed~the oth y ? LX * — • responsibility of pointing out some he answered them, saving : Who is my mother or my brethren. And he looked of the absurdities of Romanism and round about him ‘and said, Behold my the true principles of apostolic mother and my brethreo. For whoeo- shall do the will of God, the same Christianity. This week the Sen .ever is my mother and my sister and my tinel comes to our office with con brother.’* And we will ask the “ H er ......... ald .” Who ever did the will of God as siderable space devoted to our sincerely, as tborenebly and as perfect special benefit under the caption ly as the Blessed Virgin ? Therefore, se words, instead of discarding her “ The Christian Herald.” This th her, are an endorsement of all the claims time the editor confines his article of her maternity. Or, does the ‘•H erald ’’ per hips to the “ Blessed Virgin.” A few maintain that Our Blessed Savior was paragraphs only demand attention, ever wanting in reverence toward bis and we number them ami reply to Mother ? The very idea of it is blasphe mous. - * . " * each separately. We never said that these words 1. We will do the.“ H erald ” the just'ce of acknowledging that this time, discarded her, nor that Christ was at least, he does not sav that, in the ever wanting in reverence towards honor we pay to the R.Vfrgfn.'ttrareli his mother; but we do say tlaaX "lie idolatry. That is so much gained. Don’t go too fast friend; we might say a great deal more about the idolatrous feature d^S(fe!í"hT5ftór than we have said. But we would like to have the Sentinel to define idolatry, and then tell us the differ ence between it and the honor they do to the B. Virgin. It might turn out that he has not gained so much after all. Will the Sentinel also tell us exactly what in the honor they pay to the Virgin consists ? Please do not overlook these points as we wish to give them our atten tion. 2. But, when quoting what we bad written, the editor of the ** H erald ,, should not give as our words the very expressions of the Holy Fathers of the Chnrch. If the editor of the Sentinel does not indorse the words of the " Holy Fathers of the Church ” in refer ence to the Blessed Virgin, why did he quote them to prove his point ? We did not say they were hie words; yet in the very next sen tence he tells us," When they speak of the Mother of God with tender love and filial reverence, we, un doubtedly think the Protestant world irreverent because the latter do not look at the mother of our Savior with this same reverence.” Then in this, as is the custom of Catholics, he places the supersti tious utterances of the " Holy Fathers ’* above .the authority aS Jesus Christ, ’for he very well knows that our Savior was never guilty of the blasphemous nonsense of talking about the " Blessed Vir gin,” the " Mother of God, pure for Week before last the Catholic Sentinel marie a vigorous attack on the Protestant world and the min isters of Portland in particular,. on account of their supposed irrever by constantly recruiting our ence for the mother of Jesus, ever,” ft “ beautiful .Virgin, iocap- was ever wanting in undue rever ence towards her or any one else as the.n have us exercise. We quoted this passage for the single purpose of showing that instead of making his mother an object of worship, he simply placed her among his other dlscipiee. Is it blasphemous for us to speak of her as did Jesus? Shall we follow his example, or that of the superstitious fathers ? That Mary did the will of God in more tha^ one respect, we do not deny. But if on this account we attribute to her a greater degree of holiness, more veneration and rever ence than to any other true disciple of Jesus Christ, where do we find the authority ? Now we submit that the Sentinel'» own interpreta tion of this passage is against him. Read the following: 4. What the “ H erald ’ s *’ Interpreta tion of the above text of the Goa pel is, he does not condeacendto make knowD. We will interpet it for him, and that with the teaching of one we venerate immensely more than our contempora ry. “ Every pious soul,’1 aayw St. Au gustine, ** that does the will of the Heavenly Father, is the mother of Christ, inasmuch aa, through the fecun dity of char.ty, Cbriat is being formed therein. Mary therefore, having ful filled God’s will, is, corporally, Christ’s mother, and, spiritually, Christ’s moth- and sister : thus, this same holy woman is, not spiritually, only, but also corpo rally, both mother and Virgin. Yea, she is also the mother ef the members of Christ, that is ourselves ; spiritually, because who has co-operated, through her charity, to the spiritual ' birth the faithful within the Cnurch ; and ooxporally,because she ia the real mother of the Head whereof we are the mem ber.’’ Profound words; worthy of more •han a cursory reading which we leave to the meditation of the “ H erald .” If an Augustine says, “every