HUMILITY AT A DISCOUNT WITH CLERGY.
THE louder a man boasts of himself and the more domineering over others he becomes the more will he be reverenced. This is true in all religious circles to-day amongst the "clergy." It was so, too, in St. Paul's day. He pointed it out to the Corinthians, saying, in substance: The more a religious teacher brow-beats you and the more he exacts from you of money and reverence, the more you will esteem him. (2 Cor. 11:20.) This still seems to be the trend of unbalanced human nature. It is exemplified in every church organization except the true one, where alone meekness, gentleness and patience are recognized as the proper adornments of Christ's representatives.
As an extreme example note the following proclamation of John Alex. Dowie to his deluded followers, clipped from his own publication:
"The time has come when the world shall no longer make money out of Zion investments, for Zion can now invest more profitably in Zion industries, through Zion's own Financial Institutions. Therefore I say to you, are you loyal to Zion when you are backing up worldly institutions outside when Zion needs your resources and your strength and can use these to God's glory, and to your increased prosperity? I say to you, and I say to Zion everywhere, that you will have to recognize fully the tremendous fact that I was within my rights and only fulfilling my Divinely imposed and positive duty when I issued the Command of September 21st. After due time given for the prayerful consideration of that Command, every man or woman throughout the world who says, 'I will not obey,' is asked to send in his or her resignation. If you will not obey, then I will know that you are outside of Zion. My responsibility as your leader, under God, will cease; for you will have found another leader, or be a 'wandering star.'...I do not want you in Zion. You are a curse to Zion and the quicker you get out the better off Zion will be."
Felix Adler, rabbi and D.D., has been discoursing on prayer to New Yorkers. He said,—
"Prayer also gives vent to that instinct in the human heart to worship God. But here, too, in regard to worship, I cannot sympathize with the kind of worship of which we do so much nowadays—characterized by the posture in praying—by kneeling. When a congregation falls on its knees I recoil. I find it repugnant to my whole nature.
"Prayer is said to have the effect of putting before us a divine model. But the idea of God, when it rises in the mind, fills it with a kind of nebulous light, but doesn't present the clear outlines of a model.
"I think men are really better and abler examples for behavior and serve us better as models than deity—such men, for instance, as Socrates, Brutus and Lincoln. They furnish definite models, not a vague notion of perfection; they do us good. Let us have moral heroes, human exemplars."
Mark how vain Evolutionists speedily become. Pluming themselves on their humility in acknowledging protoplasm, jellyfish and monkeys as their progenitors, they pride themselves on having attained so high a dignity that it causes a shudder to see others bow to him whom they acknowledge as their Creator.
As for Mr. Adler's preference for a human rather than a divine model, let us remember that he rejects the human model provided by Jehovah—"the man Christ Jesus." Let us remember, too, that the horrible "doctrines of devils" promulgated by Satan (through Heathen, Jewish and Christian "Doctors of Divinity") so misrepresent the plan and character of God as to make any half-decent man a "model" of justice in comparison.
Thank God that Satan is soon to be "bound," that he may deceive the nations (peoples) no more. Then Felix Adler's eyes and all the other blind eyes shall be opened, and they shall see the glorious character of the great Creator. Then Felix Adler and all others will bow the knee: as it is written, "Unto me every knee shall bow." If he bow willingly and adoringly he may then go up the "highway of holiness" to everlasting life under the guidance of the wonderful teachers of the Millennium. If he refuse to bow his heart he, with all such, will "perish" in the Second Death.
REV. DR. DIX WARNS THE GREEDY RICH.
In the pulpit of the richest church in America [R3286 : page 452] Dr. Dix preached a Thanksgiving Day discourse of which the following is an extract:
"The account between God and man is still open, our debt to Him still unpaid. True, there is ample material whereof to bring a thank offering to Almighty God.
"Peace is within our borders. The horrible nightmare of the past winter induced by the coal strike no longer makes heads sick and hearts faint. The spirit of anarchy has done no more murder in high places. The state is secure from foreign assaults and domestic disaffection. For these and countless other instances of the Divine favor and goodness we do give thanks."
Then the eloquent preacher drew the other side of the picture and surprised his hearers with these words:
"Still, shadows fall, and under them we add intercession to thanksgiving. What casts some of those shadows? Class alienation. The insolence of wealth and the angry discontent of the poor, the growth of riotous living, the misuse of money and its reckless squandering on pleasure and pride; education without religion; the steady breaking up of homes by divorce and remarriage; the appearance of vast systems of religious imposture and their success in making converts; the spirit of gambling in every place where it can be practiced.
"Others are the cold-blooded assaults on private property by those who attack corporations and drag them down to bankruptcy in order to enrich themselves; the insecurity of life through contempt of the law, and the freedom of assassins, whether sane or insane, to wreck their will upon their innocent victims; the steady decline of womanhood from its old ideals and its deterioration through copying the ways and invading the sphere of men. These are some of the things that cast a shadow on the years. No one sees how they are to be stopped, and no one who thinks it over from a Christian standpoint can doubt that if they are not stopped the harvest will be frightful beyond telling."
HIGHER CRITICS CONTRADICT EACH OTHER.
Rev. Sheraton of Wycliffe College, Canada, recently, defending the Pentateuch, said:
"One good reason for rejecting the radical theory of the higher critics is that their criticisms have been nothing less than a series of speculations since their inception, each one contradicting all those that preceded it. Originally the crude objection was made that Moses could not have written the Pentateuch, because of the illiterate character of the age in which he lived. Discoveries in Bible lands, however, make it abundantly plain that there was a regular mania for writing and recording in ancient Egypt; and that tablets were erected and correspondence took place in [R3287 : page 452] Canaan before the Exodus. Moreover, recent research makes it evident that such an accurate knowledge was had by the sacred writer of the geography, arts, social and religious customs of Egypt, that no one but an eye-witness could have so described the conditions. No one living at a remote age could have drawn upon his imagination for the facts.
"It was objected at a later date, in 1866, that the body of laws in the middle books were placed there after the Babylonian exile; and this was a portion that the critics had hitherto declared to be the oldest. No unanimity was shown on their part. Objection was also made to the diversity of style appearing in Deuteronomy and by a process of vivisection thirty-six verses in that book were actually attributed to 32 authors. Almost all great literary works have been attacked in the same way, and in just as plausible a manner. Homer's authorship of the Iliad and Caesar's production of Commentaries were disputed for years because of the diversity of style. Sir Walter Besant, who finished a novel commenced by a dead friend, said no one had ever pointed out the place where he took up the work. The critics were captious and magnified differences, as the result of their restless analyses was fruitless, tedious and repulsive.—Toronto News."