Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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2 £Attovtal. ‘‘WILL ORTHODOXY SURVIVE?” ‘‘Th# Survival of Orthodoxy, the Sur vival of Religion.” Some over-optimiutic people are ever ready to charge that minieters who raise their voices and wield their pens against the growing evils of the time are old fashioned, gloomy and out of date, bnt if they would only take the trouble to open their own eyes and read the facts as they are they would soon dis cover that dire tendencies are everywhere manifest. They would surely be convinced that the time for united prayer and ad ion for the suppression of evil is upon us. The times are threatening, and the powers of darkness are moving. God's people must arouse from their lethargy and determinately face the foe. This is no time'for quibbling, nor for dealing in trifling generalities. A sturdy Christiani ty is the supreme need of this hour. God wants men. Truth and right most and will triumph. The following from the South Carolina Baptist is an eye-opener. It is from the pen of Itev. Robert Morris Rabb of the Chicago Uni versity and master in' theology Read it: Men in our day are losing the sense of a personal, holy God. That is too clear to need proof. ‘‘Because iniquity abounds the love of many is waxing cold.” And be cause the love of many is waxing cold, iniquity is abounding. It works both ways. The|[fffect in turn becomes a cause. One of the saddest facts about onr generation is that.it is not a 'praying genera tion. And that means that a sense of dependence upon .God (there may be a sense of weakness) is not characteristic of our time. Prayer to God is born of a sense of de pendence npon God This ii religion of our time has not been due to a careful canvass ing of the Biblical message, and a close reasoning npon data in op position to orthodoxy. ‘‘The poppy juice is in their air,” and men have taken it in without knowing it, or while partially knowing it. There is a decided falling off in Christian womanhood, which is a clear proof that we are in a state of religions declension. Take, for instance, the degradation of woman on the stage. It could not be much greater. If there were no laws THE LUTHERAN VISITOR against nudity, thousands of women would appear nightly in the thea tres in a nude condition. Any man who has taken pains to study the stage at this time, to see for him self, knows this. It is a subject too painfully delicate to speak of; but American womanhood is verg ing fast toward a depth of animal ism vthich should arouse every true woman out of sleep. Drunkenness is on the increase among women. A very large proportion of the women in the great cities of our country are unshielded by the home. They are ‘‘making their way in the world.” Whole sections of onr great cities are being rele gated to fallen women and their nefarious living—women who have been run over, trodden down, cast off, by society. What does all this meanT What does it mean that maternity is be ing bated by so many women, and all torts of unnaturalness is blight ing home lifef To many a woman a child is a burden. What does all this mean f It means that many a woman is contending with God over the purpose of her creation. Quarrelling, abuse of husbands, hounding husbands with social questions, letting the home fall into disorder, or leaving it to ser vants; what does this meant It means that woman is becoming less and lees religious, and more and more swallowed up in the very things that make true, innocent home-life an impossibility. How about the ment Drinking, swearing, profaning God’s name, laughing at religion, helping in iquity, demanding unwomanliness of women, cheating each other, lying to each other—thus men are making history. Is this too dark a picture? Ten minutes ago I was in a drinking place in a great city. What did I see? A throng of young men ; shameful acting on a stage by young women, drinking in the midst of swearing. And in this very city there is one licensed liquor establishment to every 195 of the population, with one church to ever 1,900. Has orthodoxy had its day ? Are men and women breaking away, from its power? Will orthodoxy die? Will religion die? I propose these statements. 1. God’s patience at this time is misconstrued either as his unre ality, or as his indifference, or as his weakness. Hence the license of men in sinning. 2. The supernatural element in human history is belittled at this time; and this is belistling God. Men decline to place themselves before God in such attitude that he can display his saving strength in them and through them; then they rise up and say, ‘‘There is nothing in religion after all.” 3. We cannot continue much longer as we are. Our entangle ment is growing more and more vexations. A reaction must come. Life means too much to onr people to abuse it altogether. We shall rebuke our own littleness conjoint ly with God’s rebuking it in our consciences. We are made of bet ter stuff than onr unworthy lives just now indicate. 4. God is in the world. It is the spiritual, the religious that ap peals to him. God is concerned with the spiritual in life above all else. The prolongation of human history is for spiritual purposes. 5. The history of religion has been marked by fluctuations in man’s spiritual life from ancient days. God’s losses of spirit in man Ijave been immense! The enterprise is still under way—the enterprise of saving men. 6. The suspicion cast npon or thodoxy is dua to the moral state of the time, and to nothing in the system of orthodoxy. 7. The Gospel of Christ, the cross of Christ, salvation through Christ are the central elements of religion. God, the Father, prom ised His Son that His work should not fail. 8. Orthodoxy is quite commonly spoken against at these points; at the point of its claims as to Bibli cal authority; at the point of its teaching as to Trinity; at the point of its doctrine of eternal punish ment. Here are points of testing. Set aside Biblical authority, and there is nothing settled in religion —all becomes a state of flux, a sea of doubt. The cross with its sacri fice settles the Trinity in the main; the clear teaching of Jesus settles the doctrine of eternal punishment. Orthodoxy cannot recede from these three points and live. I mean by orthodoxy the people who hold the Biblical message in its in tegrity. 9. I? religion lives, orthodoxy will survive. If religion lives, it must live through vigorous propa- gandism. There can be no relig ious propagandism in absence of a distinct doctrine. A distinct doc trine must be gathered in the future (most certainly) from the Bible. But it will not be gathered thence, unless the inspiration of the Bible JaasDry 23, 1902 is settled in the minds of religion ists. The Biblical teaching con cerning God is distinct—His eter- nal existence, spirituality, suprem acy, holiness, His Trinity, are all distinct truths of, the, Bible. And all error that thrives on the per version of Scripture must be cor rected by the very Scripture it per verts. Religion as we know it is a pro vision for fallen men. That is a fact of knowledge and experience. The cross of Christ has no mean ing apart from our sin. Ortho doxy then is for ever sure, at the points of man’s fallen’ state, and the necessity of Christ’s atoning death. It is the cross that touches the human heart after all. A Christian experience is necessary for belief in religion, or persist ence in religion. Sin is an experi ence; religion must be also, or fail to assure us that it is as strong as the malady it would correct. Here is room for the Holy Spirit’s ac tivity. Heaven awaits the true child of God; hell awaits the enemy. Deny this, and yon cast reflection upon the whole religious enterprise which claims God for its author, and you negative the holiness of God and the wisdom of God. For to make God indiffer ent to sin is to deny His govern ment; to belittle His gift of Christ is to charge Him with folly. This a man does who says there is no hell to save us from, no heaven to save us to. Religion is sure to live; it is sure to live in an atmosphere of truth; orthodoxy is the Biblical message; but the Biblical message is the only body of religious truth we have, and the Christian religion is final. If religion lives, orthodoxy will survive. Religion will live necause God lives. Christ lives, the Spirit lives; man lives with his ten thousand needs. I conclude, then, that orthodoxy will survive, since it is the Biblical message and a system of eternal truth. ‘‘Be still and know that I am God.” ‘‘I, the Lord, change not.” ‘‘Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my word shall not pass | away.” If the words of Jesus fail, orthc doxy will fail. If they do not faili] orthodoxy will survive; for ortho doxy reflects Christ’s teaching, gives that teaching to the world. And Christ is behind his ownj Gospel.