Full Text for CTM Theological Observer 9-1 (Text)

arnurnr~itt (UQtnlngiral flnutlJly Continuing LEHRE UND WEHRE MAGAZIN FUER Ev.-LuTH. HOMILETIK THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY Vol. IX January, 1938 No.1 CONTENTS Page The Danger of Lowering Professional Standards P. E. Kreizmann __ . ____ .___ 1 St. Paul and Woman's Status. J. T. Mueller .... -.-.--.-.--.-.--__ . __ 13 Abgoetterei unter dem Volk Israel im Alten Testament P. E. KretzmallD-____ 21 Sermon Study on las. 4, 13-17. Th. Laetsch.-_______________ 32 Miscellanea _______ . ____ . ___ ._._. __ ._. ______ . ________________ 41 Theological Observer. - Kirchlich-ZeitgeschichtIiches __ . _______ 51 Book Review. - Literatur __________ .. ________________________ 69 EIn Prediger muss nlcht alleln wet- den, also dass er die Schafe unter- weise. wie de rechte Christen sollen seln. sondern auch daneben den Woe1- fen wehTIm, dass de die Schafe nlcht angreifen und mit faJscher Lehre ver- tuehren und Irrtum elnfuehren. Luthe1" Es 1st keln Ding. das die Leute mehr bel der Kirche behae1t denn die gute Predigt. - Apologle, Arl. 24. It the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare hImself to the battle? -1 Cor_ 14, 8. Published for the Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States CONCORDIA PUBLISHING BOUSE, St. Louis, Mo. ARC IV Theological Observer - .Ihrd;lid;,,seitgefd;td;t1id;es 51 Theological Observer - Sl'itdJlidJ.geitgefdJidJtIidJe~ I. 1lmeri1m HllW ~iuch of the Bible is True? - That is the question the Modernist who rejects the doctrine of the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures has to answer. The professor of the University of Chicago Dr. H. L. Willett, who conducts the Question Box in the Christian Century, was confronted with this problem when a reader asked, "How much of the Bible is to be taken as factual and trustworthy, and how is one to make sure of the portions that are to be believed?" Certainly an unavoidable question for all who refuse to believe what the Bible says about itself. The an- swer of Professor Willett will hardly be found satisfactory by his cor- respondent. He says of the Old Testament Scriptures: "They embody tradition, folk-lore, and imaginative material as well as authentic recitals of actual incidents. They even include works of fiction, such as the books of Ruth, Jonah, and Esther, as well as fables and parables, such as those spoken by Jesus. A whole world of mythology lies back of the literature of the Old Testament, and to this frequent reference is made in the poetry and preaching of the Scriptures. One is not likely to be misled in discriminating between statements of fact and the obvious fiction of illustrative references." This is a polite way of saying that there is no criterion which can be employed with the assurance that one is differentiating between truth and fiction. The concluding para- graph of Professor Willett's statement reads: "It is evident that it is not only the privilege but the duty of the student of Scripture to exercise his right of judgment regarding the statements of the Bible, remember- ing the origin and character of the record and the fact that the freedom to estimate the historical and moral value of all parts of the book, the right of private judgment, is the foundation-stone of Protestantism. Beyond this the introductions and commentaries offer useful suggestions." There you are in a bog, bewildered and wondering who had the audacity to offer you light and instead of it gave you darkness. A. Is Jesus Christ the God-Man or the Divine Man? - In his book Jesus Christ Our Lord (published by the Abingdon Press, 1937) Dr. Otto Justice Baab of the faculty of Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, Ill., applies a long series of honorific epithets to Jesus. He calls Jesus "the Son of God," "the veritable Son of God," "the very Son of God." He speaks of "Jesus' kinship with God," of "Christ's divine nature," "the very divinity of Christ," abhors "the denial of the divinity of Christ," and insists that "it is the high and holy purpose of the Church to demonstrate without equivocation the divinity of Christ, its Lord." But he will not call Jesus God. He declares on page 41: "It is historically possible and reasonable to believe that Jesus regarded Himself as a divine being. . .. But this is quite different from ascribing deity to Jesus. . .. It is hard to imagine His acceptance of the Johannine idea of a metaphysical oneness between Himself and Deity." So all that the high-sounding titles which the Modernist confers upon Jesus import is that Jesus "is the embodiment of the greatest power in the universe," 52 Theological Observer - .Ritcf;)Hcfh'leitgefcf;)icf;)t1icf;)eg "the most significant embodiment of the divine power of integrating understanding in all of history," "the divinity that was in His soul expressed itself essentially in an attitude of understanding, all-embracing love." We had read the booK: thus far for the purpose of review, but at page 57 we stalled. "We mean, then, that Jesus is so uniquely and concretely related to the power we call God that His divinity is beyond dispute. In Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. In Him the power of mutual and sacrificial love which is God has come to men. After all the ages when various levels of existence in the evolutionary process were struggling to incarnate the principle of mutual helpfulness, blindly at first and then in the dim beginnings of conscious life, there finally came to earth a human personality in whom this power had full sway and effectiveness. No one save the Son of God could so sublimely and completely surrender Himself as an instrument of this divine power." We are stalled here for the present. We shall not write the review till several points that here perplex us are settled. First, have these won- derful powers of the evolutionary process come to a standstill? Could they not produce a second Jesus? And with the power of Jesus' in- fluence working for nineteen hundred years, why are not beings pro- duced that excel Jesus? Has the evolutionary force exhausted itself centuries ago? Again, what a wicked force must inheTe in the evolu- tionary process to produce a being like Jesus, the acme of humanity, who "regarded Himself as a divine being"! Evolution, producing the noblest creature, has produced the most wicked creature! Then, too, we cannot understand why Dr. Baab should use the phrase "there finally came to eaTth." It has sense when we speak of the incarnation of the Son of God. It has sense, in what is called on this same page the "Jewish" conception, that "the Son or God was a heavenly creature set aside for a special mission to men." But one who looks upon Jesus as a mere man might say that He "appeared on earth" but should not say He "came to earth." One who does not accept the Biblical account should refrain from using Biblical phrases. E. A 'iiVarning Concerning Unionism. - When in New Haven, Conn., Episcopalians met representatives of eleven other Protestant bodies, a joint Communion was held, which was justly criticized by the Living ChUTCh. The editor of that paper writes: "We must take this opportunity to state as emphatically and unequivocally as possible our conviction that 'joint Communion services' in which priests of the Episcopal Church participate together with ministers of Protestant denominations are a wrong approach to the subject of Christian unity. We felt that the united Communion service at Oxford was a mistake, even though it had such high authority for it as the Archbishop of Canterbury. We feel equally that the joint Communion service in Connecticut was a mistake so far as the participation of Anglicans is concerned, and we hope that it will not be allowed to stand as a precedent. Intercommunion is the goal of the unity movement, not simply a step along the way. The Episcopal Church is a part of Catholic Christendom. Catholics have a very definite concept of the Holy Communion, a concept that we be- lieve in all sincerity to be the only true interpretation of our Lord's own teaching. We believe in the real, objective presence of our Lord 53 in the blessed Sacrament of the Altar when the Holy Communion is properly celebrated by a properly ordained priest of the Catholic Church. vVe believe that our Lord is present in the blessed Sacrament, not in some vague, subjective sense, but actually and objectively, quite as truly as He was present in the manger in Bethlehem or on the cross of Calvary. He is to be worshiped on His altar-throne just as the shepherds and the Wise Men worshiped Him in Palestine and as the angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven worship Him there. Protestants do not hold this belief. Not only do they not believe in the necessity of a sac- rificing priesthood for the celebration of the Holy Communion, but most of them do not mean the same thing that we do by this Sacrament. In Baptist theology, for example, the Lord's Supper is not even described as a Sacrament, but simply as an ordinance. Certain Liberals see in it nothing but a memorial of a historic event. Some even go so far as to share the Unitarian denial that Christ is God and so cannot believe that He is present in the blessed Sacrament. When we join with our Protes- tant brethren in the celebration of what purports to be a united Com- munion service, when actually it means one thing to us, another thing to orthodox Protestants, still another to liberal Protestants, and something still different to Unitarians, we are not promoting Christian unity but simply muddying the waters and confusing the issue. Moreover, if we persist in united Connnunion services with Protestants, we shall endanger our relationships with the Eastern Orthodox and Old Catholics, thus disrupting the measure of unity that we have already been able to ob- tain with our brethren with whom we share the full Catholic faith. We wish to be as kindly and charitable in this matter as we can, but we feel that we must speak out frankly and plainly. We hope that our Protes- tant brethren will recognize that it is not lack of Christian charity but devotion to one of the most fundamental doctrines of our faith that ani- mates us in so doing." Naturally, much is to be subtracted from the above before we can subscribe to it. One wishes very much that the writer would have pre- sented more fully his teaching on the Lord's Supper. It is evident that he believes in the real presence; but whether it is the Roman Catholic doctrine of the real presence which he accepts or that of the Lutheran Church is not quite clear. When he speaks of worshiping Jesus on His altar-throne, the fear inevitably rises in one that he holds Roman Catholic notions concerning the Sacrament. But what is commendatory in the editoriaL is th2 definiteness with which the author speaks against the joint Communion services or people who are not agreed in doctrine, not even with respect to the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. How people whose teachings on the Sacrament of the Altar are conflicting can go to the Lord's Table together is indeed an enigma for all who hold that in the Church, if anywhere, the principles of honesty and sincerity should obtain. A. Unionistic lVi:ake-lBeIief. - The unionists try hard to minimize the differences in the way of church union. They like to play up the points of agreement. And they are satisfied with a great minimum. In an article, 'The Outlook for Church Union,' discussing the results of Oxford 54 Theological Observer - .reitd)!icI)~{leitgefd)id)tlicl)es and Edinburgh, the Christian Century of September 22, 1937, states: "Edinburgh asked: Are our differences on this point and that insur- mountable barriers to union? Here was realism. And it was the kind of realism which was so honest and candid that even where the dif- ferences were insurmountable, the discussion resulted in increased mutual respect, coupled with hope that further fellowship and discussion would lead to a common understanding." However: "But this realism also led to the discovery of unsuspected margins of agreement. The dis- cussion of the number of Sacraments is a good illustration. It was pointed out that Protestantism generally holds to two, Baptism and the Lord's Supper; Eastern orthodoxy holds, with Roman Catholicism, to seven; Anglicanism has left the number indeterminate, but generally agrees with the Protestant bodies in giving special place to two. How- ever, it emerged in the discussions that we all have the equivalent of seven sacraments, and perhaps more! Certainly the Orthodox and Ro- man churches are not peculiar in holding marriage to be a 'divine ordi- nance.' Also, every clergyman of the now liturgical churches performs some act of grace for the dying, which is the equivalent of 'extreme unction.' Moreover, all churches 'ordain' their ministers. There is also in. the discipline of all churches at least a suggestion of 'penance.' Con- firmation is a universal practise in churches which practise infant bap- tism. And as for those churches which practise only adult baptism a new 'sacrament' is coming into wide use, namely, the dedication of infants and their recognition as members of the Christian community for whose care the church has peculiar responsibility." This is pathetic. E. "Papam esse verum antichristum."-A paragraph from Dr. J. A. Dell's review of Lenski's Interpretation of St. Paul's Ep'istles to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians, to Timothy, to Titus, and to Philemon, published in the Journal of the American Lutheran Conference, October, 1937, p. 73, reads: "Perhaps you are interested in 'the man of sin' in 2 Thess. 2. 'This is an apostasy (v. 3),' says Lenski. 'It is therefore to be sought in the Church visible, not outside of the Church, - not in the pagan world, in the general pagan moral decline, in Mohammedanism, in the French Revolution, in the rise and spread of Masonry, in Soviet Russia, or in lesser phenomena. We must not confuse the little antichrists with the great antichrists, the antichrists outside of the visible Church with the great Antichrist inside of it. . .. The secret beginnings were actively stirring in Paul's own time, v.7. We may debate as to what or who still held these beginnings down at that time (-to xu"];:lJ(ov - 0 X(J."];EJ(fJ)V). In the writer's opinion the best view is that this was the Roman imperium, a force (neuter), and this force represented in the person (masculine) of the pagan emperors. This got out of the way, v.7, when Constantine, the first Christian emperor, came to the throne. Only then did the Papacy become possible. The great apostasy is Romanism.''' Instead of quoting this paragraph from Lenski's commentary directly, we have pre- ferred to call attention to its incorporation into the Journal of the Amer- ican Lutheran Conference. We cannot refrain, however, from quoting another paragraph from the commentary, on page 444 f.: "What obstructs the vision of so many Theological Observer - ~itcl)1ic()~3eitgefcl)icl)tlic()cs 55 and leads them to deny that the Pope is the Antichrist is a failure to appreciate in their person the fact that justification by faith <:ilone is the soul and center of all that is true Christianity. All other doctrines have their roots in this one. vVe quote Franz Pieper: 'It is true, the open unbelievers are raging enemies of the Church. But what Christians are to think of pronounced unbelievers they know. By this they are not deceived. How does it, then, come about that men are today disinclined to recognize the Pope as the Antichrist? Whence this strange and de- plorable fact that nearly all late "believing" theologians hunt about for the Antichrist while he does his great and mighty work in the Church right before their eyes? They are not established in the living knowl- edge of the doctrine oj justification and in the imp01"tance of this doc- trine faT the Church. From my own experience I must confess that in my own conscience I was not vitally convinced that the Pope is the Antichrist until, on the one hand, I realized what the doctrine of jus- tification is and what its significance is for the Church, and, on the other hand, that the Papacy has its real essence in denying and cursing the dodI'ine of justification and by its show of piety and its claim to be the only saving Church binds to itself men's consciences.' (Christliche Doumatik, II, 669 f.) Beyond the curse pronounced by the Council of Trent, sessio 0, canon 11, nothing can go in the way of antichristianity in the official Church: Si quis dixerit, homines iustifica1'i vel sola imputa- tione iustitiae Clwisti, etc ... , The confessional statement of the Smal- cald Articles, II, Art. IV, (Trig!., 475), is true: 'This teaching shows force- fully that the Pope is the very Antichrist,' " etc. By the way, while we are studying Lenski's commentary on 2 Thess. 2, we shall glance at the exposition of vv. 13 and 14: "God hath frorn the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our Gospel." "Chose; only the middle of aLQEw is used in the New Testament and only the simplex. The sense is much the same as though Paul had used Ih,Hyscri}m or JtQooQ[~EtV, although each verb has its own connotation. Here Et1~u .. m means no more than that God 'took you for Himself,' took you for His own, and in that sense 'chose you.' 'From the beginning.' ... The sense is thus the same as 'before the foundation of the world' (Eph. 1,4), in eternity. . .. There is no other choice, or election, save this one for salvation in connection with sanctification and faith. Some think only of final salvation (heaven), i. e., of the 'glory' mentioned in v.14; but sanctification and faith point to 'salvation' both here and hereafter . . . . 'Ev (EV uy,c(()"!~0) does not mean 'in view of' or 'in the foreknowl- edge of.' . .. None were chosen by God without this connection. F. Pieper well says that sanctification and faith belong to the act of choosing and not merly to the execution of the act, as Calvinists teach. (Christliche Dogmatik, III, 538.) . .. What God did for the Thessalonians in time rests on His timeless act: if no choice, then no call, etc." There are statements in Lenski's commentary regarding election which are not so clear, some that are not acceptable, but here all is clear: We owe our salvation, our faith included, to the eternal election of grace. "If no choice, then no call, etc." E. 56 Theological Observer - .RitdjTidj~,(leitgefdjidjmdjeg "All Scripture is Given by Inspiration of God." - We have not yet tired of transcribing portions from Lenski's commentary. It is a labor of love. From the comment on 2 Tim. 3, 16 we select the following state- ments: "Paul's passive ~EOJt'VEUO"to£" must in some way be ruled out. Many follow the bold method: They let Paul say what he pleases; they do not believe what he says. Many that are not so bold tone down the idea of inspiration until nothing but the decorative word is left. Some- how they at least do not like to give up the word. They generally, how- ever, speak with contempt of what they denominate 'the verbal theory of inspiration.' They propose a 'theory' of a totally different kind, cer- tainly one that allows for more or less error in Holy Writ. . .. All of it presents and reveals the fact of inspiration, only the fact. There is no, theory about it, can be none. A fact is simply to be seen as a fact, then treated as a fact, not to be dissolved into a theory. He who does the latter may lose the fact; many already have lost it. - 'All Scripture' is 'writing,' YQaq111. The pen traces words and combines these into sen- tences and paragraphs. These words convey the thought. Erase the words, and the thought disappears. These are not W oerter, vocables, but W orte, words expressing thoughts. This is verbal inspiration. It is be- fore us on every written page of the Book. The1'e is no other divine inspiration. The thoughts cannot be separated from the words, which are its vehicles. To speak of an inspiration of thought that is not an. inspiration of the words is to disregard what the Scriptures show us as a fact. To Q'Yj1%'V uJto TOU XUQLOU, 'the thing that was uttered or spoken by the Lord' (Matt. 1, 22), was uttered in words, Yahveh uttered them, Were these utterances fallible, errant in any way, in any word or ex- pression? Does Yahveh ever err? 'Thy Word is truth,' rl)'11~ELa, John 17,17. 'Which things also we speak, not in words (AOYOl) taught of human wisdom, but taught of the Spirit,' 1 Cor. 2, 13. The very MYOL were taught by the Spirit by verbal inspiration, they are inerrant in every word, unless we intend to charge the Lord and His Spirit with errancy, fallibility." E. The Harassed Presbyterian Church of America. - The troubles of this new organization, led by Dr. Machen till his lamented death, Jan- uary 1, are not few. A group has left it to organize a new body to be called the "Bible Presbyterian Synod." This synod, as the Presbyterian Tribune states, is intending to stand by the Independent Board, while the year-old Presbyterian Church of America has abandoned the Indepen- dent Board and taken steps to form its own committee on foreign mis- sions. One cause of the dissension undoubtedly is that the men who are at the head of the Bible Presbyterian Synod movement are premil- lenarians, who, while they accept the Westminster Confession of Faith and the catechisms, intend "to amend these standards in any particular in which the premillennial teaching of the Scripture may be held to be obscured." Another reason why the Presbyterian Church of America severed its relations with the Independent Board is said to have been the fact that some of the leaders of the Independent Board had not be- come members of the Presbyterian Church of America. We have here a plain demonstration of what unhealthy enthusiasm (Schwaermerei) will lead to. A. 57 Developments at Princeton Seminary. - Under this heading Chris- tianity Today (November, 1937) reports with undisguised fear two recent developments at Princeton Seminary which show that the liberal ele- ments in control of the seminary are trying to keep Presbyterian con- servatism out of both the management and the teaching force of Prince- ton. In the first place, Dr. Robert E. Speer has been elected to succeed Dr. W. L. McEwan as president of the Board of Trustees, and this must be taken as a step favoring the Auburn Affirmation group. Dr. Speer is the first layman to be made president of the Board of Control of the educational activities of the seminary. But what is even worse is the fact that on October 12 the Board elected the Rev. Dr. E. G. Homrighausen to succeed the late Harold L. Donnelly as professor of Christian Educa- tion. Dr. Homrighausen is at present pastor of the Carrollton Avenue Church (Evangelical and Reformed) in Indianapolis and lecturer on Church History in the College of Religion of Butler University. The liberal stand of this minister is proved by Christianity Today from his recent book Christianity in America, from which it quotes the following modernistic statements with reference to the inspiration of the Bible: "The old idea of an infallible Bible, inspired in every jot and tittle, which is often associated with preaching, has run its course." (P.10S.) "While in many respects that scholarship [critical] has been destructive, in a much larger sense it has liberated us from all these notions of an infallible book." (P.llS.) "Few intelligent Protestants can still hold to the idea that the Bible is an infallible book; that it contains no linguistic errors, no historical discrepancies, no antiquated scientific assumptions, not even bad ethical standards. Some might still claim for the 'original copies' of the Bible an infallible character, but this only begs the ques- tion and makes such Christian apologetics more ridiculous in the eyes of sincere men." (P.121.) "The Bible is not the actual Word of God, but merely a human witness to what the Word of God did in and with men and history. The words of the Bible are not to be believed because they are in the Bible. In reading the Bible, there comes to me a strange language, there confronts me a real God, and there emerges before me something about life that I do not discover anywhere else. It is because the Scriptures do this that they are 'sacred.' Not all the Bible does this for me. There is much in the Bible like chaff, or rather like the seemingly insignificant parts of a watch. There is a residue in the Bible that remains intact in spite of all its inaccuracies, its antedated cosmology and science." (P.136.) In closing the report, Christianity Today re- marks rather mildly: "With these statements before us, it seems difficult, if not impossible, to suppose that Dr. Homrighausen holds that view of Holy Scripture to which each and every member of the Board of Trustees and faculty of Princeton Seminary is required to subscribe." Dr. Hom- righausen, by the way, is a member of the critical wing of Barthian rationalism. J. T. M. Triennial Convention of the Protestant Episcopal ChLU'ch. - This convention, which met in Cincin:nati in October, 1937, has attracted a good deal of attention. Some of the chief news items reported in the religious press concerning it are the following. The former presiding bishop, Rev. James De Wolf Perry, was not reelected. The new pre- 58 Theological Observer - ~ird)!td)~.8eit\1efd)id)md)e!l siding bishop is Bishop Tucker of Virginia, a man sixty-three years old, who served prominently as missionary and Christian leader in Japan. His election is held as indicating that a new era of missionary advance will be inaugurated by his Church. "Under the new plan of organization the presiding bishop will have a new place of leadership in the formula- tion of the policies of the Church, for he will be president of the National Council and will also be more directly in charge of the Forward Move- ment. It is likely also that he will head the new commission on strategy and policy." (The Living Church.) The proposed World Council, which is to continue the work of the Oxford and Edinburgh conferences, was enthusiastically endorsed, and provision was made for the sending of one clerical and one lay delegate to the preliminary conference to be held in Holland in May, 1938. With respect to the office of the presiding bishop it was decided that he should be elected for life, that is, till he reaches the retiring age of sixty-eight. The presiding bishop was instructed to turn over the supervision of his particular diocese as much as possible to his coadjutor, that is, the assis- tant bishop, in order that he might give all of his time to the work of the Church at large. With respect to marriage and divorce several attempts were made to alter the present canon of the Church, "which permits remarriage by the Church only in the case of the innocent party in a divorce granted on grounds of adultery." One group tried to put the decision of the question whether a divorced person seeking another mar- riage might be granted this request into the hands of the diocesan bishop, who after consultation with the parochial minister would have to say whether the marriage could be authorized. Another group likewise sought to invest the bishop with the authority of decision in such cases, limiting them, however, to divorce obtained on the ground of adultery. Both proposed alterations were defeated. While one must applaud the action of the convention inasmuch as it refused to yield to Liberalism, it is regrettable that the Protestant Episcopal Church is not adhering to the full teachings of the Scriptures on this point, recognizing that not only adultery, but likewise malicious desertion constitutes a valid reason for obtaining a divorce. It must have been very impressive when it was announced that the special collection of the woman's auxiliary, gathered at a service in connection with the convention, amounted to $861,000. The report of the Joint Commission on Approaches to Unity says that a conference was held with rePresentatives of the Augustana Synod, at which "a surprising unanimity on the subjects of the Holy Scriptures, the historic creeds, and the Sacraments" was revealed. The report continues: "Difference on the matter of holy orders was frankly confessed and the way left open for further discussions. Numerous suspicions were allayed, and many misconceptions were cleared away. Progress will be necessarily slow in this direction, but the prospect is encouraging." The Commission found itself largely in agreement with the Commission on Unity of the Methodist Episcopal Church and will continue its discussions with it. It strongly recommends reunion with the "separated brethren," the Reformed Episcopal Church. As to its discussions with the Northern Presbyterians, the commission proposed that both churches, the Protestant Episcopal and the Presbyterian Church Theological Observer - .!l'itd)Hd)~8ettgefd)id)tlid)es 59 in the United States of America, should accept the following declara- tion: "The two churches, one in the faith of the Lord Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, recognizing the Holy Scriptures as the supreme rule of faith, accepting the two Sacraments ordained by Christ, and believing that the visible unity of Christian churches is the will of God, hereby firmly declare their purpose to achieve organic union between the re- spective churches. Upon the basis of this agreement the two churches agree to take immediate steps toward the framing of plans whereby this may be achieved." This proposal was accepted and will be communi- cated to the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. by the presiding bishop. A. "A Significant Statement by a Liberal Editor." - As a "significant statement by a liberal editor" Christianity Today (October, 1937) quotes the following editorial comment by Dr. Charles C. Morrison of the Chris- tian Century: "For more than a hundred years the Church has been engaged in the solemn business of forgetting its Gospel. It has not repudiated or denied it but has allowed it to be so mixed and adul- terated with the wisdom of this world that its own unique testimony has been blurred with ambiguity. The fundamentals of the Christian faith have been covered over with secularism, and our churchmanship has proceeded upon the assumption that the Church's contribution to human life must be made in terms of prevalent philosophies which have no relation to the Christian faith." This brief description of the insidious work of Modernism is so well founded that it merits careful consideration. What Dr. Morrison here so nicely declares in his ex- cellent analysis of the case is precisely the course which the high dig- nitaries of modern rationalism, such as Schleiermacher and Ritschl, as well as their many imitators have followed: they have mixed and ad1Ll- terated the Gospel with the wisdom of this world! Not so adequate is what Dr. Morrison writes next: "The rise of totalitarian states and the manifest inability of secular society to get itself together, especially since the World War, have set Christian men to the task of digging down to the foundations of their faith, with the result that a conception of the Church and of the Gospel is emerging which transcends the categories of social reform in the secular sense and exhibits Christianity as the only savior of the world." While it is true that the World War and its aftermath are partly responsible for the bankruptcy of extreme rational- ism, the real "digging down to the foundations of faith" is, properly speaking, the good fruit of the testimony of scores of faithful witnesses throughout the world, of Bekenntnisfronten which took their task seri- ously. Incidentally, the "new conception of the Church and of the Gospel, transcending the categories of social reform in the secular sense" is largely only a "new rationalism," not essentially different from its unlamented predecessor, just a new way of "covering fundamentals with secularism." J. T. M. When Patriotism Becomes Worship. - The Sunday-school Times (September 4, 1937) under this heading calls attention to the seriousness of the problem arising from the fact that the Japanese government in- sists upon the participation of Christians, especially in Korea and Man- 60 Theological Observer - ,IHtdjHd)~8citgefd)id)md)e~ churia, in the Shinto festivities. The Times has discussed the problem before and in the issue mentioned restates and reaffirms its position that under no condition must Christians join in these rites of pagan worship. Because of his uncompromising stand in the matter Dr. George McCune was forced from the presidency of the Union Christian College and the principalship of the Presbyterian Boys Academy at Pyeng Yang and obliged to leave Korea. So far only one church-body has definitely taken a stand on the question whether Christians in Japan, Korea, and Manchuria, and especially the teachers and pupils in the Christian mis- sion-schools and colleges there, may bow at the shrines, namely, the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions of the Southern Presbyterian Church. Regarding the claim that such Shinto obeisance is merely polit- , ical in nature and not in any way religious the Sunday-school Tinws writes: "The Japanese government regards the Shinto shrines as the very foundation of its policy of national patriotic education. Around the shrines has been gathered all the folklore and tradition of Japanese nationalism. They are regarded as the shades of the spirits of the em- perors, the mythological ancestors of the country, and the heroes of the empire. To do obeisance at the shrine is therefore, according to the government, but the normal and rightful duty of every Japanese subject, and shrine attendance is to be required of all pupils in schools as a part of the necessary training in loyalty and patriotism. It is natural that such policies should receive special emphasis at a time when extreme nationalism is epidemic around the world, and it is evident that no let-up is contemplated. Of course, the government takes the position that there is nothing in all this that should prove in any way embarrassing to the Christian schools, as, according to its claim, the shrines are purely patri- otic in nature and have no religious significance. It is at this point that the difficulties begin, for our missionaries are unable so to regard Shinto shrines." Among the objections of the missionaries the following are the most convincing: 1. There is a great volume of Japanese opinion and scholarship supporting the view that Shinto is a religion. 2. Government spokesmen apply all the terms of religion to the cult. 3. The objects of veneration have ascribed to them the attributes of deity. 4. Shinto has always been classified as a religion. 5. There are distinctly religious ele- ments in the ritual. 6. Terms of religion are regularly employed. The matter certainly is a most serious one, and one can readily understand the appeal of the Times: "Surely Christian people everywhere should unite in prayer for the missionaries and for their boards at home that all may be true to the will and Word of God in this crisis time." J.T.M. Heathen Thefts from the Bible. - Under this heading the Sunday- school Times (Nov. 20, 1937) argues a most important apologetic fact which the Christian minister or teacher may occasionally use in his defense of the Bible. The article is too long to be quoted here in full, but even a few excerpts will suffice to acquaint the reader with the weighty matter. We read: "Parallels to Scripture in Asiatic literature have been diligently sought out in an attempt to disprove the uniqueness of Christian ethics and of Scripture revelation and even in order to trace a Buddhist or other origin of our Lord's words and miracles. The error Theological Observer - ~ird)!ic{v3eitgei d) icf) tIicf)es 61 in these calculations is that they often reverse history. What is brought forward as a heathen parallel or lofty teaching is quite often of Christian origin, modified and reduced. Here, as so often, critics fail to take into account the fluidity of the ancient world. Christian missions entered India at a very early date. The tradition that Thomas went to India and preached Christ in the kingdom of Gundophares was treated as legendary until, in the last century, it was discovered that a monarch of that name ruled in the Punjab at that very time. In A. D. 68 a colony of ten thousand Jews emigrated en masse from Palestine to the Malabar coast, and in A. D. 190 Pantaenus, who was sent to India to teach the Brahmans, found a Christian church already established there. These and other historical indications have their fatal correspondences in Buddhist literature. The Jakata stories of a disciple walking on the water and of Buddha making one loaf feed more than five hundred people are of post-Christian date and obviously a theft from the gospel narrative. The fact that Buddha as vyell as Christ preached on mountain tops appears from the Lalita Vistara; but this writing, according to Rhys Davids, is not earlier than the sixth century A. D. The Yale Sanscritist, the late Prof. E. W. Hopkins, with the best of will could find only five cogent parallels between Buddha and Christ, of the fifty col- lected. And even these five are either not close parallels or are post- Christian in date, such as that our Lord saw Nathanael under a fig-tree and that Buddha also attained enlightenment under a fig-tree, or that, when Buddha was a babe, the old Yogi Asita flew down from the Hima- layas to prophesy the child's further greatness, as Simeon prophesied in the Temple. Dr. Fosdick has ignorantly tried to parallel the miraculous births of Buddha and of Christ. But pre-Christian Buddhists never affirmed that Buddha was born of a virgin; and to compare the story of the white elephant entering the body of Buddha's mother, later to pass out of her side in the shape of Buddha, with the lovely and con- vincing story of the first chapter of Luke, is an affront both to reason and to good taste. The Bhagavad Gita ('The Lord's Recitation') is un- questionably the best that heathenism has to offer in the way of litera- ture. The Gita is the story of Krishna, and in its original form it some- what antedates the Chrisian era. It was, however, remodeled and re- wTitten in post-Christian times, and in meter and language was made wholly different from the ancient Upanishads. The character of Krishna, too, is entirely altered, and Christian elements are introduced. He is thus represented as sin-forgiving, a conception wholly alien to Asian religion. This process or stealing from the New Testament is obvious in other Hindu literature, where Krishna is described as the guardian of the flock, the sinless God, the Lord of the world who consented to die that he might fulfil the word of seers; also in the story of the Stake Saint, unjustly impaled with thieves. In the later Puranas (all post-Christian) Krishna is man-God, born in a stable, one who later restored a widow's son to life, healed a cripple, was anointed with a box of ointment, and so on. The Bhagavad Gita parallels many Scripture-passages so closely as to make the source of its quotations unquestionable." The Times then quotes a large number of passages in parallel and concludes: "Here is an extensive and convincing plagiarism of the ideas 62 Theological Observer - stitd)lid)",/3eitgefd)id)tHdjes and expressions found in John's gospel. But how flat and colorless they have become in the transition! Our Lord spake as one having authority; but there is no accent of authority in these stolen heathen maxims, although they come in the last analysis from the King Himself. His words were gracious; these are insipid. The wisdom of the East, in this instance, is neither wise nor Eastern. To sentimentalize over it is to leave the living waters for broken cisterns. Dr. Hu Shih, the 'father of the Renascence movement in China,' who is said to have the finest mind in China today, says: 'China has nothing [in her civilization and religion] worth preserving. You foreigners who tell China that she has, are doing her disservice. You but add to her false pride.' This is equally true of India." J. T. M. Deaths. - On September 30, 1937, the United Lutheran Church of America lost one of its prominent members through the death of Rev. Dr. Augustus Steimle, pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Advent, New York City. He had been a represehtative of the U. L. C. at the recent World Conference on Faith and Order in Edinburgh. - Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, suflered the loss of Carl Doving, a prominent hymnologist, who died October 2, 1937. Brief Items. - How the Edinburgh Conference disposed for itself of the differences in the doctrine held by its members touching the Lord's Supper is shown by this paragraph of the official report: "We all believe that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, though as to how that presence is manifested and realized we may differ. Every precise defini- tion of the presence is found to be a limiting thing, and the attempt to formulate such definitions and to impose them on the Church has itself been the cause of disunity in the past. . .. Weare throughout in the realm of spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit that the blessing and the gift are given. The presence, which we do not try to define, is a spiritual presence." The conference here was frankly unionistic. With respect to Baptism, after using the ambiguous language "Baptism is a sign and seal of Christian discipleship in obedience to our Lord's command," the report says: "Since the time available precluded the extended discussion of such points as baptismal regeneration, the admission of unbaptized persons to Holy Communion, and the relation of confirmation to Baptism, we are unable to express an opinion how far they would constitute obstacles to proposals for a united Church." The Episcopal convention held in Cincinnati in October occupied itself with some political matters. It advocated liberalization of the Japanese Exclusion Act and passed resolutions opposing Communism and the Totalitarian State. Almost 450 separate resolutions are said to have been considered during the twelve legislative days of the convention. The Federal war on syphilis was sanctioned; but the convention did not endorse the view that both parties requesting a church marriage should be required to present a medical certificate showing that they are free from venereal diseases. It did not endorse intinction with respect to Holy Communion. It advocated that candidates for the ministry should be given "medical, physical, and nervous examinations." Theological Observer - ~itd)ficl)={3eitgefcl)id)tltcl)cs 63 When the Disciples of Christ, the followers of Alexander Campbell, recently held their international convention in Columbus, 0., 2,500 del- egates were in attendance. When a resolution was submitted which stated that labor has the right to organize and to bargain collectively concerning hours, wages, and conditions of work, opposition to it was voiced by some of the members, who declared that it was divisive, that it too specifically tied the Church to a certain course, and that it would not be of any value. Nevertheless it was adopted. "Unitarians were scored by their new president (Rev. Frederick M. Eliot) for having spent entirely too much time in talking about social action. Passing resolutions at conferences too often was a salve to the conscience and a substitute for doing something. Also, Unitarian social pronouncements were too much an imitation of the statements of other bodies. The liberal Church should work out its own methods in accor- dance with its own peculiar genius." - Christian Century. On account of its gripping language a paragraph from a speech delivered by Dean Umphrey Lee of the Vanderbilt School of Religion in view of the coming bicentennial of the Methodist Church is here quoted: "Anniversaries are dangerous, and Methodism must decide whether it is a movement or a monument. We are talking of unification; but if there is nothing to unite, there is no need for uniting. As another once said: 'There is no point in changing the labels of empty bottles.''' As the Ch1'istian Century reports, Lord Camrose of London and the paper of which he is the editor-in-chief, the DaiLy Telegraph, sued a Fascist paper called the Action for libel. Lord Camrose had been at- tacked on the ground that he was of Jewish origin and a conspirator in international Jewish intrigues. With respect to the first charge the evidence submitted consisted in the marriage of Lord Camrose's nephew to a Rothschild. For the second no support could be adduced. The jury decided that the Action should pay Lord Camrose 12,500 pounds and the Daily Telegraph 7,500 pounds. When the Unitarians met in Niagara Falls for their Sixth General Conference, they were addressed by Rabbi Hillel Silver of Cleveland, who spoke to them on Kant's "Categorical Imperative." And then some people are surprised that the Unitarian denomination does not grow more rapidly. Glasgow, Scotland, in September entertained the Sixth International Spiritualist Congress. Seventeen countries were represented, among them India. One group of the members, it is reported, listened to papers on the scientific aspect of Spiritualism, while the other took up matters pertaining to the religious side. This great delusion evidently still has much vitality. A. U. ,2l1ishml) ;tier ttniunitlmu§ bet lutijerifdjen 2anbe§firdjen. SDie ,,@b.~53u±~. g:rei~ fird)e" bom 19. @September 1937 icfjreili±: ,,:;5n ben .YJuUenfer Q3efcfjriiffen bon biefem :;5afjre fja± bie calbiniftifd)e DhcIjhtng in ber lBdennenben Stird)e, bie lJticl.jhtng bel' Q3ntbertii±e, ben 2.utIjerifd)cn in SDeutfd)Ianb bas ffied)t ou einer feIbftiinbigen Iutl)erijd)en SHrcfje runb 10(g uligefprocfjcn. SDie lBrubertii±e 64 Theological Observer - .Ritcf)licf)~3eitgefd)icf)tlicf)eg ~aben ba§; mart~fdje ,matmer mefenntnW fiir Me entfdjeibenbe Worm et< nart, nadj bet audj bie rut~erifdjen mcfenntniffe aus3ufegen finb. @:lie ~aben jebet SHtdje Me QlcItung ag Stirdje unb jebem ~fattet bie Qlertuug ar§; ebangefifdjer ~farrer aligefptodjen, roenn fie fidj nidjt in bicfem @:linne aUf bas marmet [lefenntni§; betpffidjten faffen. Sl:latauf ~at nun bet ,mat bet ebangcnfdjdjmlllfillbifdjen 2ldifeln. Untet bet ftliet~ fdjtift ,,2u±~et£! tefotmatotifcqe£! j8efenntni£l in ben 6cqmaIfaThifcqen Wtti~ feIn" lie~anbeIt l13tof. D. ~orne~2eilJaig in bet "W. €i. E. ~." nelift anberm aucq bie ~o~e j8ebeutung be£! sola fide in ben 6cqmalfaIbifcqen Wttifehl, biefe£! eminen±en mOtaugattifd£! in bet cqtiftIicqen 2e~te, toorauf "fte~et alIei3, toa£! toit toibet ben l13alJft, Steufer unb )!Belt Ie~ten unb Ielien". ~n feinet ~.atIegung lieton± D. ~orne ettoa£!, toai3 aucq toit un£! immet toiebet au£! 6cqtift unb j8efenntni£! fIatmacqen miiffen, bamit nicqt ettoa in unfern @ebanfen unb l13tebig±en tto~ alIen t~eotetifcqen ~eftljalteni3 an bem sola gratia bocq Ungeteimte£! unb ~aIfcqei3 untetlaufen moge. )!Bit Iefen ba (bediitat): ,,~et @Iaulie ift bet einaige )!Beg, auf bem toit au @oti fommen lonnen. . .. @Iaulie, ba£! ~eif)t bot arrem ljiet bie j8 a n f tot t e t f I ii tun g a I let men f cq Ii cq en )!B e t f e [bon un£! ljetbotge~olien]. ~iefet @Iaulie aliet - ift et nicljt feIliet ein ,)!Bed bei3 IDlenfcljen'? ®etoiB, i cq muf) glaulien; icq muf) ja fagen oU bem, toai3 @oti getan ~at. ~[liet ba£! ift fUt 2ut~et feine 2eiftung. B'iit S3ut~et ift bet @Iaulie nicqi eine fromme obet eine ~etoifcqe SJaltung, au bet toit un£! auffcqtoingen. €ii3 liefte~t bie @efaljt, baf) toit, too bon @Iaulien unb @Iiiuliigfeit bie !Rebe ift, uni3 bat~ untet einen foIcqen ebIen Wuffcljtoung bet 6eele botftelIen. Wliet 2ut~er betfteljt ben @Iaulien nicqi bon feinem 6 u li i e f ±, fonbern gana unb gat bon feinem () li j d t, feinem @egenfianb, ljet. )!Ba£! @laulie ift, ba£! lie~ ftimmt ficlj aU£!fcljIief)Iiclj bon bem ~et, to 0 tan icq glaulie. €i£! lieftimmt ficq ljiet aIfo bon @oti, bon @ 0 it e i3 e tI 0 fen bet St at in Q: lj ti ~ ft u i3, lj e t. ~et cqtiftIicqe @Iaulie fcqtoelit unb fcqtoingt nicqt frei in bet UnenbIicqfeit feinet feeIifcqen j8etoegung, fonbern et fIammed ficq feft, et ,ljangt', toie 2ut~et fagt, an @otiei3 )!Bod unb @otiei3 Stat. 60 liinbet 2u±ljeti3 SJaulJtattifeI meiftet~aft unb mit einet faum toiebet erreicqten ~lat~ ~eit lieibei3 aUfammen: bai3 ganae ,olijeftibe' )!Bed bet €itlofung unb bai3 gana lJetfonIicqe ~a, bai3 bet @Iaulie au biefem )!Bed flJtecqen muf), bamU bie €itlofung i~m geIte. ~iefet @laulie ift bet gtoBe, bet aIlein lJtolieljaItige Sttoft ber IDlenfcqen. . .. ~et tomifcq~faif)oIifcqe SJeiIi3toeg liiBt ben IDlen~ fcqen etoig in lJeinboIlet Ungetoif)f)eit iller fein SJeiI, elien bei3ljaIli, toeH ljier alIei3 auf bet Stat, aUf bet ~taft, bei3 IDlenfcqen fteljt. Stroft unb @etoiBf)eit ljalien toit nut bann, toenn toir bie 6acqe unfetet 6eIigfeit gana @oti, gana Q:ljtiftui3, oefe~Ien. ~ai3 ift bai3 e i n e, toa£! 2utljet bom @Iaulien au f agen ljat. ~ocq ftiitfet ift in unf ern WttifeIn aliet bai3 anbete oeiont: WlIein bief et @Iaulie gilii @ott unb f einem Q:~tiftui3 bie €iljte, Die 1f)m ge~ oii~d. ~nbem et bem @Iaulien j8a~n macqt toibet aIle menfcqIicqe unb 5 firdjIidjc lffierferei, ftreite± .2utljer - feine 6pur tueniger uneroittHdj al~ (Ialbin - fiir ®otte~ uub (Iljrifti @'iljre. @'inttueber tuir laff en (Iljriftu§ unf ern alIeinigen ,\')eUaub unb meiter fein, ober tuir ljaoen (Iljrtftu~ fdjon geliiftert unb berleugnet, f doft tuenn tuir iljm bem ~amen nadj aUe f eine @'iljrentitel lalfen unb bieUeidjt gar feTher oe±euemb geoen. SDa~ ift bie erfdjrecfenbe IDUigIidjfeit, bie .2u±ljer gerabe ljier in ben 6djmalfalbifdjen WrtifeIn fdjo~ nl1ng~lo~ aufbecH al§ bie iirgfte 6iinbe be~ menfdjen, a10 bie aUf ben ®ipfel getrieoene ®ottrofigfeit ber S'l'irdje: baB man f djeinoar ®ott eljd unb (Iljri~ ftl1~ anoe!e! unb in lffiirfIidjfeit ®oit unb (Iljdftu~ beradjtet unb bom ~ron ftiirilt, inbem man feine lffierfe, fetne fSuf3e, fetnen gu±en lffiiITen an bie 6telIe rett, bie iljm geljort. 60 tuirb au§ bem Ieoenbigen ,\')@'irrn ber fSilieI ein ljannlofer @'iljrenpriifibent, ber fdjIief3Iidj oU aUem ja fagt, tua~ tuir tun, lua§ un~ gefiirrt. Wudj biefe l)),ogIidjfeit ift nidjt nur in ber romifdjen lffiert llJirHidj getuorben. 2ludj mit Diefer lffialjrljeit fpridjt .2utljer mitten ljinetn in unfere lffielt unb in unfer ®etuiffen." ~n einem borigen l13affu~ fdjreiOt D. SDome: "SDa~ alIe§ [oefonber~, ba13 "ber lfficg ber guten lffierfe ljoffnung§Io§ beroau± if±" J fag! .2utljer 3U~ niidjft gegen ffiom. Woer er l)at e~ tualjrridj nidjt n u r gegen ffiom f agen tuollen. lffiir [inb an bie reforma±orifd)e Woleljnung ber romifdjen ,lffied~ ljeiIigrett' faft alIilufeljr getuoljnt. lffiir ljoren untuillfiirIidj .2utljer§ 6ii~e aI~ nur gegen bie ;itorljeit unb ben Woerglauoen be~ bamafigen romifdjen fSeidj±~ uub WOfaf3tuefeu§ geridjtet, unb tuir bergcffen bariiOer gana au fragen, in~ h1iefem fein Qlanntuort tuiDcr bie guten [\Sed audj un§ treffen ronnte. ®cgentuiiriigfcit oefommt .2u±ljer~ .2eljre erfi bann, tuenn roir anfangen au merfen, baf3 bief er ®Iauoe an Die @leIoftredjtfertigl1ng~fraft, an bie natiir~ Iidje ®iite I1nb molIenbl1ng~fiiljigfeit be~ menf djen, gegen ben .2utljer ljier fei.u 6djtuert fdjtuingt, berfeIoe ®Iauoe ift, ber audj einem ieben bon un~ im fSlut neg±. . .. lffiir miinten aufljorcn, unfere {"yrommigfeit unb ffiedjt~ fdjaffenljeit aum @ldjlupftuinfel unferer ljeimIid)en @leIoftfid)erljeit au madjen, unb miinten fdjarfe Wugen ljaoen, biefe ljarmiicfige @lelOftfidjerljeit be~ mew fdjen au enibecfen unb aufaufiooern in arrem, tueffen menfdjen fidj riiljmen unb ±toften. @'itft bann ljii±ten luir .2u±ljet berfianben. @'irft bann roiire i ein fdjnwlfaIbifdje§ lBefennmi£l unfet fSefennmiB." ;iDa tuir ilJ?enfdjen bon ileatur alIe l13eIagianer finb unb unfer berberO±e~ {"Yleifdj oi§ aum ;itob fL)nergiftifdj eingeftelIt oIeiOt, fo ifi Die bon D. SDome ge~ geoene [\Samung alIctbing~ audj un~ in~ ®etuiffen gerufen. SDer feine 2Iv tiM arigi fIat, luie feljr c§ gefrudjtei f)a±, baf3 man fidj in biefem ~uoi~ Iiiltm§jaljr bie @lcljmaHaIbifdjen Wrtifer briioen tuieber neu angefef)en ljat . .2eiber ljat man im alIgemeinen ljierauranbe bent ~uoiliium ioeniger ~nterelfe en±gegengeoradjt al§ in SDeuifdjlanb. .Bur @'iljre bient un~ bie~ burdjau~ nidji. ~.;it. m. Union Itr~ @c\uiffen~rltft. lffiie e~ in Sfreifen au~fieljt, luo Union ljerrfdjt, aet(jt ein gerabeillt ljeri1ilerreif:lenber WppelI in ber "W. @'i. R S'l'." (17. @lept. 1937), bem roir einige @l~e, S'l'Iagerufe au~ ber tiefften @leefe, enmeljmen. SDa fdjreiot ein l13aftor: "SDaB tuir fein fSefennmiB ljaoen, ba~ ift unfere ~ot. SDaf3 oei un~ jeber l13rofeffor feljren unb jeber l13aftor prebigen fann, tua~ er tuilI, ba§ ift uniere ~ot. SDaf:l e~ bem einaefnen l13afior iioerIaffen ifi, 00 er frine ®emcinbe unmernidj rutljerifdj, unied ober reforntied madjt, ba~ ift unfere ~o±. lffiie tueitljin ift unfete ~eologie ta±fiidjIidj unied ge~ Theological Observer - ~itd)lid)~8eitgefcf)id)tlid)es 67 morbenI . .. )lEo bIeibt ba bie g:rage nadj ber )lEafjrfjem Un£l ~eu±igen brennt bie Not unferer SHrdje aUf ben g:ingern unb im ~eraen; mir finb nodj nidjt aur ffiufje gele~t, lonbern ftefjen im stampf - unb mie bide bon un£l fdjauen fefjnfiidjtig au£l naclj ben SHtdjen, bie aUf ba£l IBefennmi£l fjiiren biirfen I )lEiebid \.)Sfaner ber ':jSrenf3ifcljen Union fucljen ~nfcljruf3 an ben Iutfjerifcljen mat - unb bUrfen ifjn niel)t finben. )lEiffen 6ie, mie bide \.)Saftoten ber Union llln bet SHrdjen~ 1tnb IBefennmi£lnot milIen au IBifdjiifen Iutfjerifcljet SHtdje gingen, bamit biefe ifjte 6edfotget feien ~ )lEit bUten eudj aUe: fefjt boel) bie Not auel) unferet @emiffenl )lEeift nicljt aUf bie btUbetIidje mebe fjin I )lEir finb c£l nicljt, bie biefe berIeten. (g ift noclj immer fo: mo Euiljcraner unb meformierte aum @efpri±dj fommen mit bem )lEilIen, bie [rberaeug1tng be£l anbern mie bie @tenaen amif cljen lieiben au acfjten [? J, ba fommt e£l noclj immet aum ftucljtliaren @efpti±clj iibet bie @tenaen fjinlneg [n. )lEo aber bet Unietie baamifcljentritt unb bie @tenaen betmifcljen milI, ba gibt e£l ~ampf unb 6treit. )lEir fur unfer )teH fjarten bie briibetficlje melie gemif3 feft, aber ebenfo moUen mir auclj bie )lEafjtfjafiigfeit feftfjartenl Alaetheuein en agapae! SDa£l foU unfer )lEoti fein; aber eben bamm bitten mit: IBefteit un£l bon ber @emifien£lIaft ber Union, benn in il)r £onnen mit nicljt beibe£l feftfjarten, fonbern muffen entmebet bie alaetheia ober bie agapae berIeten." )lEit in unfetm freien Eanb mit unfern ftcien ~itcljen £Onnen un§ mofjI faltln einett recljten IBegtiff bon bet ~eraen§quar macljen, au§ bet l)erau£l biefe )lEot±e gefLoffcn finb. ~liet lnicljtig ift e£l boclj, baf3 mir narauf acljten, iDa£l biefer Q[ngfticljrei auclj un§ Iefjten batf. ~.)t. IDe. What Oxford and IEdinbmgh Stood For. - Writing in the Living Church, Bishop G. C. Stewart of Chicago (Episcopalian) thinks that six great agreements were reached in the field of life and work: 1. The repudiation of the doctrine of the supremacy of the State over the Church; 2. the opposition to racial barriers (Jewish or otherwise) in church and society; 3. the responsibility of Christians to test economic and social institutions in the light of the will of God; 4. freedom of education and equal educational opportunities; 5. the condemnation of war as a world policy; 6. the will to present a united Christian front to the world. With respect to Edinburgh and its deliberations on Faith and Order he holds that the conference resulted 1. in the increasing sense of present unity; 2. the consideration of doctrinal differences in an atmosphere of hope for solving all the difficulties that stand in the way of union; 3. the willingness "to realize the ideal of the Church as the living body, wor- shiping and serving God and Christ." Time will tell whether the optimists who hold that these conferences brought a deepening of the understanding of the Gospel and other real spiritual benefits are right or not. A. ,,&eiftrtdJe lI5fl)d-,oti)cra1lic" in @ttglanb. Unter ber g:iifjrung be£l @'ita~ bifcljof£l bon glod fjat fidj in @nglallb ein SiomHee bon ~raten gebiIbe±, ba§ eine ~erfuclj£lmnif iu ~acme1) )lEta erricljten mill, in ber eine pf1)djologifdje ~eiTung etptobt mitD. ~ie IBeljanbIung liegt gana in ben ~i±nben bon ~'rtilten, aber bie augrunbe Iiegenbe ~bee ift ba£l 2ufammenarbeiten be§ ~Trate£l mit bem @eiftricljen, ba§ in @ngIanb immer mefjr ~ortfcljritte maclj±. 68 Theological Observer - ~irc9licl)~8eit\Jefd)id)tIid)e~ (§£! gilit fcljon eine !Reifje ~nftitute, in benen ba£! !Dacljfenbe ~ntereffe aunt llCu£!bruc! fommt, ba£! biele englifclje wrate an bieiem @lrenageliiet a!Difcljen bcr !Religion unb ber mebiiJinifcljen )illiffenfcljafJ: nefjmen. teio !Durbe filraliclj eine u@liI.be filr geifHiclje ~f1:)cljotfjeralJieu gegriinbet, bie ein Bufammen~ arlieHen a!Difcljen ~ienern ber !Religion unb wraten liei ber IDefjan.brung ber Shanfen fjerlieifilfjren !DiII; bem SfomHee gefjoren a!Dei wratinnen an. j80r einem ~afjr !Dutbe bon Rev. ~ofjn j)J,aiIIarb ba£! erfte &;;iau£! filr geiftriclje &;;ieHung in milton IlClilie1:) in ~orfet gegriinbet, !Dorin brei wrate regelmiitig IDefuclje macljen. ~er @lriinber erfriirte jel;?t einem IDericljterftatter: u)illit fjalien feit a!Dolf monmen fjier gearlieHet, unb bie (§rgeliniffe fjalien llnfere &;;ioffnungen iilierlioten, bie freHiclj nie gana frei !Daren bon ber teiclj!Diiclje menfcljIicljer IDegrenatfjeit." ~n )illale£! gilit e£! biele 2eute, bie erfriiren, bon ifjren SfranffjeHen bon bem ~aftor @leorge ~effre1:) gefjeilt !Dorben au fein, ber in 20nbon eine teicljule erricljtet fjat, !Dorin 2efjrer unb ~aftoren in bief er neuen ~orm ber &;;ieHfunf± untenicljtet !Derben. «(2:fjriftHclje )illert, mr. 15.) (1lC. (§. R Sf.) !!In£! Slorea. ~ie jalJanifclje !Regierung fjat angeorbnei, baf3 in allen teicljulen, bie eine !Regierung£!unterftutung erfjarten, teicljintofcljreine aUfgeftelit !Derben follen. ~ie !Regierung lieaeicljnet ben IlCft ber j8erneigung bor bieiem teicljrein be£! Sfaif er£! aI£l eine lJatriotif clje, niclj± religiof e &;;ian.brung, butclj bie bie 2ielie aur mation geftiitft !Derbe. IlClier bon bielen eil1geliornen (2:fjriften !Ditb ber IlCft boclj al£! religiofe, bem erften @lelio! !DiberflJrecljenbe )tat auf~ gefaf3±' ~atauffjin fjalien bie grof3en j)JUHion£!gefellfcljaften ficlj entfcljloffen, ifjr teicljuI!Defen allmiifjliclj aliauliauen. ~a£! liebeutet bie teicljlief3ung bon teicljulen, bie jel;?t 25,000 Sfinber liefucljen. ~ie ebangelifclje Sfirclje in Sforea aeigt neuerbing£! !Dieber ein erfreuliclje£! )ill adj£!tum; in ben Iel;?ten ~afjren lietrug e£! 75.5 ~roaent. teiie aiifjIt jel;?t 520,000 (2:fjrif±en, 15,000 frei,< !DiIIige (§bangeliften unb 35,000 teionntag£!fcljiiIer. j80n liefonberer IDebeu,< tung filr ba£! 2elien ber @lemeinben finb bie IDilieHurfe, bie au berf cljiebenen BeHen aligefjarten !Derben. (§ine ober gar feclj£! )illocljen rang fommi man ilufammen aum teitubium, @leliet, aut j80rliereitung aUf bie ~rebigt unb Butiiftung auf anbere cljriftriclje IlCrlieit. ~m Iel;?ien ~afjr !Durben 182,000 IDefucljer folcljer IDilieIfurfe geaiifjIt. )illelclje Sfirclje in ber )illert liringt !DoljI fo biele ifjrer IlCnljiinger fo gtiinbliclj un±er ben teicljall be£! )illorte£! @lotte£!? (1lC. (§. R Sf.) ~ntereff anter ~nttb in !!i:giil1ten. ~n bem lii£!ljer liefannten reicljfjaltigen iig1:)lJtif cljen teicljrifJ:tum feljrte e£! an IlCnbeutungen iilier bie in ber IDiliel iilier,< Iieferten fielien umageren" ~afjre. ~er wgt)jJtologe teieIim &;;iaffan glaulii iel;?t am ~uf3e ber teilJfjin~ liei ben grof3en ~1:)ramiben bon @lifelj (Sfairo) ein teicljrifJ:benfmar gefunben au fjalien, bas bie oioIifclje ftlierlieferung bon ben &;;iungerjafjren lieftiitig±. Unier einem ~fjatao, beffen mame niclji genanni ift, finb, !Die es in bem gefunbenen ~ofument ljettt, fielien ~aljre fjiniereinanber bie fonft rcgelmiitig einfel;?enben ftlierfclj!Demmungen bes m@ ausgelilielien, !Das &;;iungersnot unb (§lJibemien aur ~orge !jatte. teielim &;;iaffan graulii biefe maturereigniffe auf bie ~afjre bor 1700 bor (2:fjrifto anfel;?en au fonnen. ~ie teicljrifJ:benfmiiler biefer Beit feien burclj bie ~ljaraonen ber 18. unb 19. ~1:)naftie griinbliclj berniclj±et !Dorben. teio edliire e£! ficlj, baf3 liisljer ltdunben gefefjrt ljiitten. (1lC. (§. R Sf.)