9
CHRISTIAN HERALD.
sometimes in our lives, long, dark
places filled with sadness and
gloom, and God dQes not tell us
what they mean—we could not un­
derstand^ but we wait, and in good
time come the sunshin« and the
-r1—
hi . ..1.1 al -
4
tery of the faith,” it should be “ in
How well does this accord with
a pure conscienceand no con­ the experience of the people of God
sideration should avail to induce us generally. Rarely will you find
to ignore it, or to condemn ourselves one who has not met with such
in what we allow. Those whom passage-tunnels of greater or less
we gratify are allowed a triumph length, and of more or less dark-
when we” tKus recognize their in 1 n- ness and gloominess, hi tlie
isterial character and the scriptural- pilgrimage of life. So was it with
ness of the body that ordains them; the saints of ancient times. So was
and they ask, logically, how we can it with Abraham in Ins journey of
condemn them>^amL_ justify uuj >. three days withhi^belovcd Isaac
selves. If, when we preach the to Mount Moriah. A dark tunnel
gospel, we know no man after the all the way. So was it with Job
flesh—or after " a church,” but call during that sad period of his his­
upon all men everywhere, simply tory, of which w e read in the book
. as sinners, to repent and to obey that bears his name. A long, dark,
the truth—just as the apostles-— unalleviated night was that. And
who knew no man as a Pharisee, a •so was it oftentimes with David.
Sadducee, an Essene or Herodian— How many were I he dark passages
we should be consistent also, in all in his troubled life ?
that is given us in charge “ as
Not greatly unlike theirs has
«towards of the manifold-grace of been the
modem
God and treat a sectarian how saints. Not unlike wasT that of the
pious soever—as needing to be* young ladv, from whom we have
openly reconciled to God.
To quoted. Her illness was to her »
countenance error will not correct it. long night of affiiction. And for
It will, in this latitudinarian age, one cause and another, such nights
be regarded as illiberul, narrow­ have been common with the people
minded, uncharitable, and far out of God of all times anil of all
of the spirit of the age, to “ hold countries. With some it* has come
fast the form of Sound words;” but, from sore bereavements ; with some
whether we, as a people, have,,at­ from frustrated plans and for “ pur­
tained to a knowledge of that furm poses broken off',” and with others
or not, the principles above asserted from the hidings of their- Father’s
are unassailable ; and no one who lac«. They have walked in dark­
understands and—tqienly avows ness, seeing no light.
them, can contravene them without
But, take courage, all ye be­
betraying the cause in which they nighted and troubled souls; the
inhere. He who does not under­ dark tunnel will ere long be passed
stand the identity of the Christ through, and you will emerge from
with hia disciples; or, that he bus it amidst bright uiid joyous scenes.
no liberty to do what Christ would To quote again from, the diary al
not do, or to say what he would not ready mentioned : ” Most beautiful
■say, should not undertake to be a day. However dark the days may
leader or a guide» in the Kingdom be f<>r a time, sunshine always
of Heaven. The guests at the comes again.” Fairer far than
Lord’s Table am furnished by the sunny Italy is that heavenly laud
host with the w’ediling garment: towards which you are journeying.
They have “ put on Chiist.” He is Your days of gloom and sadness
in them; and they in him.— Old will all soon be post and gone for­
Path Guide.
ever. Soon will "come the sun­
shine and the flowers,” the " never
withering floweis.” Soon will you
“ Tunnels in our Lives.”
have become an inhabitant of " the
I have recently been reading the city that hath no need of the sun,
letters and diary of a pious-gifted neither of the moon, to shine in it;
young Scotch lady, who was an for the glory of God doth lighten it,
invalid and traveled abroad for her ami the Lainb is the light thereof.”
health. After having described, in All tears forever wiped away, you
one of her letters, her passage shall dwell amidst the splendors of
in
through the Mont Cenis tunnel, she a cloudless, eternal day.—H.
thus moralized : “ We have tunnels Observer.
ask a preacher, not in the Kingdom
of Heaven, to officiate, in whole or
in part, in this institution^, it may
be that we place ourselves in his
position; and renounce, thus, all
claim to a separate one for our-
The New Theology Again. • That promise of Christ was Robin­
son’s warrant for saying that more
light would yet break forth from
Not a few ministers, and laymen God’? Word. As the New Testa­
as well, are in the position which ment grew up fiom the Old, so the
Dr,-. Meredith championed at the Newest grows out of the New as
WHAT IS THE NEW THEOLOGY?
ft
ology ” in the Boston Congregation­
al Club. Some might announce
themselves for the new theology
and others for the old theology, but
he refused to be classified with
either side. This is a question with
more than two sides. Many of us
do not indorse either Augustine or
Newman Smyth. We go back of
the new theology to the New Tes­
tament, and back of the church
Fathers to the grandfathers ; the
Apostles and the Evangelists.
There is an oldest theology and an
old, a new and a newest. We do
not accept the old theology of
Calvin, but the oldest—that of the
whole-Bible. We accept the new
theology of the New Testament,
but not the newest theories about
the mistakes of the Bible, the after­
death» probation, and ■ the one-
sidedness of th«T atobelueiit
related to love only, not at all to
law. If, as the people generally
understand, the three points of the
new theology are: first, that the
Bible contains the word of Godi
adulterated with jnyths and mis­
takes ; second, that the atonement
of Christ was nothing more than
moral suasion to win man’s heart to
God ; third, that we are to talk and
write about an after death proba­
tion, instead of leayjpg that secret
thing which belongs unto God
where he leaves it—under the self­
answering question, “ Shall not the
Judge of all the earth do right ?”—
if thesfe theories on inspiration and
atonement and probation are the
new theology, very many of us see
no reason to accept it, while at the
same time refusing to be considered
unprogressive or 4-ugustinian.
If The Christian Union’s broador
classification is to be accepted, and
Phillips Brooks and Dr. Gordon are
to be considered representatives of
the new theology, then a majority
of the evangelical preachers of to
day probably belong under the same
banner of “ progress in theology.’
Jesus said, “ I have many things to
say unto you, but ye cannot bear
them now.” That was a promise
of the Newest Testament of mod­
ern history and experience, in
which the modern missionary move­
ment is one gospel, and the Sunday-
school movement another, and the
temperance movement another.
words warranted Webster in say­
ing, “ There is more of valuable
truth yet to be gleaned from the
Sacred Writings that has thus far
escaped the attention of commenta­
tors than from all other sources of
human knowledge combined.” --If--
it is belief in progress of theological
knowledge, rather than talking of
after-death probation, that is to be
the badge of the new theology, then
it has a large following. But that
is not at present the understood
meaning of the term. The majori­
ty of ministers, if I mistake not,
think that the mediaeval creeds
need revising, not in light of the
new theology but of the New Tes­
tament. For instance, on the doc­
trine of inspiration few ministers
believe that the Bible claims verbal
inspiration, but.dewer .still find any .
established facts ofBiblical critic­
ism to lead them to believe that
Ezra deceived Christ in regard to
the authorship of the “ Pentateuch,”
as Robertson Smith claimed at his
trial. Could a good man deceive
the God-man ?
It seems to me, then, Mr. Editor,
that we need a better definition
of the new theology and a more
uniform use of the term, to avoid
misleading statements as to men’s
theological positions.—W ilbur F,
C rafts , in Christian Union.
— ■
— - • •
Prompt Obedience.
A prompt and unquestioning
obedience should be rendered to all
God’s commands. Nd objections or
excuses should be made. When
God commands obedience it is to be
rendered because he commands, not
because it will be wise and profit­
able to obey. No time should be
spent in considering the reasonable­
ness of the command, or the re­
wards of obedience. The time
shouTiTbe spent in obeying.
It sometimes happens that a duty
is set before the Christian. He
hesitates to enter upon its per­
formance, on account of the difficul­
ties which he foresees he may meet
with. The obligation is clear. The
way is open, but he is not sure that
he will succeed.
When Christ ordered the disci­
ples to feed five thousand men with
five loaves, they proceeded at once
to obey the command. They did