Texas Christian Advocate (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 48, No. 44, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 26, 1902 Page: 1 of 16
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Fer Annum, 82.00.
To Preachers, 81.00
Vol. XLVIll.
No. 44
DanuS, Texas, Thursday, June 26, 1902.
Editorial.
THE EVILS OF PULPIT PLAGIARISM.
7
A
pit use, at
.proposition
Not a great while ago we received a con-
fidential proposition from a Northern firm
1
A
11
(
I1
to supply us
was as cold-blooded as though
• 2
)7
2
/4
with weekly sermons for pul-
a very moderate price. Their
of the controversy thus provoked by this his men. There is nothing mysterious or ob-
THE WORLD STRIVING TO CAPTURE
THE WOMEN.
The moral and religious status of the com-
munity is determined very largely by the
women who make up its domestic and social
life. The world is thoroughly apprised of
this fact, and hence the world is striving in
all possible ways to capture our women. As
long as they are devout, earnest and conse-
scare in any part of his life from the time
he was born at Epworth until his death in
London. Tradition has never been permit-
ted to weave any mythical garb around his
"MODERN CRITICISM AND THE
PREACHING OF THE OLD
testament.”
The above is the title of a book written
by Rev. George Adam Smith, D.D., professor
in the Free Church College at Glasgow, Scot-
land. The book is really the published course
of lectures delivered more than a year ago
at the Yale Divinity School by Dr. Smith.
That the publication of this book has pro-
duced a stir in the Presbyterian Church
throughout Scotland is not a matter of sur-
prise, for it contains the extreme results of
the investigations and positions of what is
known as the Higher Criticism. The con-
spicuous ability of Dr. Smith as a scholar
and a teacher adds greatly to the interest
its spirit and attempt to get off such "learn-
ed stuff” in their sermons to the people. Not
long since we heard of one them ridiculing
the offering of Isaac by Abraham as nonsense
and unnatural. The pulpit is a poor place
for a preacher to inveigh against any por-
tion of God’s Word. In all such matters
we had better follow Christ and Paul in-
stead of Dr. George Adam Smith and Dr.
Lyman Abbott. The latter will soon pass
away, but the former will abide forever.
WESLEY.
There is no life outside the New Testament -
so interesting to Methodism as that of the
Rev. John Wesley. We never tire of the
incidents and facts of his wonderful history,
and fortunately for us and for him his whole
career is an open book, known and read of all
A PEN PICTURE OF THE REV. JOHN ence. In his countenance and demeanor
J
growth and expansion, andunlesshe gives cred-
it for the matter used, he cannot be honest
with himself and with God. He is to a cer-
tain extent a thief, in that he takes the pro-
anafpafms*tRem"f* °Wrf
man has the right to read everything of value
that comes from the press, absorb its thought,
pass it through his own mental digestion, and
then put the stamp of his ownership upon
it and make whatever use of it he desires, is
a statement that none of us will question.
But it is quite a different thing to filch the
mental labor of another, and without mak-
ing the slightest change in it pass it off as
his own. Once upon a time we attended
service and listened to a very fine sermon
that was delivered in a declamatory sort of
style, but a day or so after we took down
a volume of sermons from our library and
read every word of the sermon, even to the
illustrations, without the change of a soli-
tary syllable. There was no necessity for
this performance, for the preacher was an
educated man and capable of producing good
sermons of his own. Numbers of times after
that we heard him preach, but we had a
feeling when listening to him that he was
getting off somebody else’s sermons. They
may have been his own, but he deceived us
once and we had lost confidence in his hon-
esty. No preacher can afford to memorize
another man’s sermons and deliver them as
his own; because he will stunt his own
growth, and then somebody will detect his .
dishonest efforts and have no further confi-
dence in him. Therefore, if these Northern
sermon-manufacturers endeavor to beguile
you into their questionable transactions, or
if you have a temptation to take another
man’s published sermons and appropriate
them, you had better turn a deaf ear, and
cultivate your mind and be yourself before
God and the people. You may not preach
a great sermon, but you will do just what
God wants you to do and he will bless your
feeble efforts to tell the unsearchable riches
of Christ. But God will not bless you in
the deception you practice if you stand up
with a brazen face and preach something
that belongs in toto to somebody else.
youth, his manhood or his old age. It has some thing primitive and apostolical; while
ioenabont one hopaoaana ten voar.eisairsofrneatnessand cleanliness was dif-
since he dieu, andwe KnoW him as intimave- \ —t- - - - ■ - - - -
was one of the finest we have seen. A clear,
smooth forehead, an aquiline nose, an eye the
brightest and the most piercing that can be
conceived, and a freshness of complexion,
scarcely ever to be found at his years, and
impressive of the most perfect health, con-
spired to render him a venerable and inter-
esting figure. Few have seen him without
being struck with his appearance; and many,
who had been greatly prejudiced against him,
have been known to change their opinion the
moment they were introduced into his pres-
crated, the world has a poor show in its con-
tests with the Church. But let the leading
and influential women of the community
throw the weight of their influence in favor
of the card party, the ball room and the thea-
ter, and then the Church is placed at a great
disadvantage and the world comes to the
front in its supremacy. And we hold that
this is brought about by the women of our
country. Men, as a rule, leave all questions
pertaining to domestic and social regulations
to the women. They simply follow the lead
of their wives and daughters in things of
this character. Therefore, the moral and
religious status of the home and of society
is just about what the women determine it to
be. If they are godly, devout and spiritual,
then their community will be largely a re-
ligious community. But if they are worldly-
minded, giddy, frivolous and only nominally
religious, the world and its practices will run
riot in the community. Give to the Church
godly mothers and sensible women to create
social sentiment and religion will have noth-
ing to fear. But fill the community with
mothers and wives whose conception of do-
mestic and social obligation is on a low plane
and religion will be nominal, void of spirit-
uality, without any uplifting influence among
people. Then we want to keep the tainted
hand of the world off the mind and con-
science of our women. We want our wives and
mothers to be true to the obligations of pure
and undefiled religion, and to withstand the
efforts of the world to get into their homes
and into their social life.
they were trying to sell us a bill of groceries
or drygoods. Is it possible that this firm
of sermon-producers find encouragement
enough to justify them in going into the
business of making sermons and sending out
their produce at a stipulated price? Is i
possible that throughout the country the
are clergymen who depend upon this method
for their pulpit supplies? Or is it possible
that preachers, even to a limited extent, de-
pend upon the literal productions of others
for their Sunday deliverances? If so, it
bodes no good for the development of minis-
terial intellect and conscience. The man
who takes the sermon of another bodily and
preaches it can not make progress in mental
-EF6“-,‘7/i v
________________ 29_______LL__
G t
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE FIVE T 8 ANNUAL CONFERENCES OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH.
2. That the character of the first eleven
chapters of Genesis is non-historical.
3. That the patriarchal narratives are par-
abolical and fanciful.
These are the advanced grounds taken by
Dr. Smith in his book, and he argues his
points in such way as to meet the approval
of the highest of the Higher Critics. It
seems to be his effort to destroy the inspira-
tion and authenticity of the most of the Old
Testament writings, particulary the earlier
writings, while here and there he attempts
to atone for his destructive work by admit-
ting that they may be genuine and inspired
in spots. Nearly all the old Bible stories
he places under the head of "tradition" and
“folk lore.” While he grants that there are
historical elements at the heart of them, yet
none of them are in reality of historic value
except the story of Abraham. The great
prophets he accepts as historic characters,
and to their words, for the most part, he
attaches inspirational value. The fact is,
when he gets through with the Old Testa-
ment Scriptures there is but little left of
those writings which we have been taught to
accept as the revelations of God to Israel.
Still, he avows his adherence to the stand-
ards of his Church, and so far he has not
been brought to trial for heresy. Neverthe-
less, his positions and arguments on these
questions are being justly assailed by the
leading Presbyterian ministers of the Free
Church of Scotland. If the ground taken
by Dr. Smith is correct, we had just as
well abandon the Old Testament as the
oracle of God to his ancient people. In the
judgment of many of the ripest scholars and
leading preachers of the world, such books
as this latest one of Dr. Smith are pernicious,
not to say subversive of the long established
faith of mankind in the inspiration of the
Bible as a whole. The trouble that will
mostly arise from the reading of such litera-
ture will be with our young and immature
ministers who will become impregnated with
there was a cheerfulness mingled with grav-
ity; a sprightliness which was the natural
result of an unusual flow of spirits, and was
yet accompanied with every mark of the
most serene tranquillity. His aspect, par-
ticularly in profile, had a‘strong character of
acuteness and penetration. In dress he was
a pattern of neatness and simplicity. A
narrow, plaited stock, a coat with a small
upright collar, no buckles at the. knees, no
silk or velvet in any part of his apparel, and
a head as white as snow, gave an idea of
ly as though he were still preaching among
us. We know his faults and his virtues, his
manner of life and his style of preaching,
his pastoral work and his literary habits, and
his hours of private devotion and his time
for receiving callers—in fact, all the private
details and public utterances of the man’s
life are given to the world without reserve.
There is nothing in connection with him
as an individual or as a minister of the
("EXAS
—ap
latest deliverance. In the book in question
he assumes three very radical positions and
proceeds to defend them with his masterful
intellect and great learning, namely:
1. That the religion of Israel was polythe-
istic till the timo of the srgtvplkt
~ the eighth century before Christ.
gospel that has ever been concealed. And
the further we get away from the times in
which he wrought his wonderful mission, the
larger he becomes in his moral character
and in his intellectual achievements. Such
is the wonderful work that his genius cre-
ated and put upon foot that his growth will
continue with the increasing years. He is
one of the most wonderful men in the reli-
gious progress of the world since the days of
St. Paul. His greatness was in his soul and
in his mind. Physically, he was a very deli-
cate man of diminutive size. There is a
life-size wax figure of Wesley in the Tus-
saud collection of great men in London. He
has on the very clothing said to have been
worn by him during the latter part of his
life. In standing before this figure, the first
impression one gets is, What a little man
to have wrought out such marvelous spiritual
results in the world! He only weighed one
hundred and twenty-two pounds, and he was
small of stature. This is in exact keeping
with the pen-picture given of him by John
Hampson, who was one of Wesley’s preach-
ers and a long time very intimately asso-
ciated with him. We here reproduce it for
the benefit of our readers: "The figure of
Mr. Wesley was remarkable. His stature
was of the lowest, his habit of body in every
period of life the reverse of corpulent, and
expressive of strict temperance, and contin-
ual exercise; and, notwithstanding his small
size, his step was firm, and his appearance,
till within a few years of his death, vigor-
ous and muscular. His face, for an old man,
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Rankin, George C. Texas Christian Advocate (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 48, No. 44, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 26, 1902, newspaper, June 26, 1902; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1594139/m1/1/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Library and Archives Commission.