THE HERALD
of Christ's Kingdom

VOL. XX July, 1937 No. 7
Table of Contents

From Bondage into Glorious Liberty

Annual Report of the Pastoral Bible Institute

The Annual Meeting

"Show Us the Father and It Sufficeth Us"

The History of the Church

Convention Reports - Boston

Convention Reports - Cincinatti

From Bondage into Glorious Liberty

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. . . If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." -- John 8:32, 36.

IN THE beginning God made man in His own image. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul, a free moral agent. He could conform to the perfect will of his Creator, or he could do otherwise-he pos­sessed a full power of liberty, or freedom of action. He could obey God and live, or he could disobey and die. He chose the latter, lost his freedom in bondage to sin, and -carried the race into destruc­tion. Man's freedom of action then could no longer be exercised because he no longer was capable of exercising it in a manner becoming to one who had come into being as holy on the human plane as his Creator was on the spirit plane. The creature made for the pleasure of God became estranged from God, became subservient to the will of the Adversary, and degenerated into the sorry spectacle he presents today after six thousand years have passed since God looked upon him and pronounced him very good.

The spirit of liberty, the desire for freedom, God has graciously preserved in the heart of man, and he has been permitted to strive for its restoration after the manner of the imperfect mind. Thus while holding before himself the vision of liberty, or freedom, man has, as a race, been unable to accomplish his deliverance from bondage, and few as individu­als have been vouchsafed an understanding of the one and only way by which he may again come into favor with God and once more occupy that glorious place in His eternal purpose spoken of by the Revelator as the time when the tabernacle of God is with men, the time when God shall dwell with them and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their God.

The Struggle for Freedom

As we review the passing of time since the fall, we find a constant struggle for freedom on the part of man, because of one effort after another by the stronger to subdue the weaker. The conqueror achieves a measure of liberty at the expense of an­other whom he subjects to slavery or servitude, ever an exhibition of misdirected efforts, always the selfish interests predominating, ruthless cruelty uppermost in the conduct of those most able for one reason or another, for a time, to be supreme. Nations and people have become dominant only to be cast into the discard by other and more power­ful ones. Such has been the story of the race, un­til today is found a condition upon the earth which threatens the last vestiges of so-called civilization, calling to mind the many prophecies of the Word in which 'are pictured the passing of the old order and the establishing of the new, wherein righteous­ness shall reign. Then shall man come to that per­fect exercise of freedom and liberty, because the spirit of the Lord shall be there in full measure for all men, for we are assured that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life. This we know applies not only to those who arise unto the resurrection of life, but also to those who arise unto the resurrec­tion of krisis, i.e., judgment or opportunity.

Only when the Kingdom of God shall come and His will be done on earth shall mankind know the meaning of the Master's words, "Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free. . . . If the Son therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Here He links the promised free­dom with truth personified in His only begotten Son, our blessed Master; the Redeemer not only of the Church, His Body, but also of the whole world of mankind in His due time-the Millennial Age-that time when "the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."­ - Rom. 8:21.

Do good unto all men as we have opportunity, but especially unto the household of faith, is a solemn obligation placed upon those who have been transformed by the renewing of their minds. Such, therefore, rejoice to see any helpful measure or reformation put into operation for the uplift of mankind in general by which they may enjoy a greater freedom from the oppressions of this pres­ent evil world.

Much has been done in many directions, by the grace of God, in establishing and granting liberty of thought along civil, social, and religious lines, thus aiding in the selection of those over whom the Revelator says the second death shall have no power. They shall be blessed and holy, and they shall be priests and kings and shall reign with Him. These are the potential sons of God for whose man­ifestation the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth. - Rom. 8:19.

While we rejoice in the liberty of the world promised in the many prophecies, and our hearts go out in gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His mercies, and while we recognize restitution as the grand object of the redemptive work of our Lord, the special interest of the consecrated lies in the work of this Gospel Age, during which He is taking out from among the nations a people for His Name, a bride class, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ-Abraham's seed according to the promises, if they be Christ's.

No Longer under Bondage to Sin

These have passed from death unto life. They are no longer under bondage to sin, but are en­joying a liberty known only to those whose life is hid in Christ; members of that mystical body, "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me [them] free from the law of sin and death." (Rom. 8:1, 2.) To this class our Lord said, "Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free." And the Apostle Paul said, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

To maintain this relationship and to build one another up in the holy faith is their particular work, because they have left the camp and the court, and have entered the holy. They have no inheritance in the land, and they must make their calling and election sure. In the presence of the golden altar, protected by the divine influence, feeding upon the shew bread, and lighted 'by the golden candlestick, why should such not be always able to sing the songs of Zion, for they are no longer captives in a strange land -- although they are sojourners there, but looking for a city, not builded by hands.

The Master spoke the words of our text while He taught them in the treasury of the temple, and they resented His implication that they were not free, in no uncertain words: "We were never in bondage to any man; how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?" And note His answer, "Verily, verily I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." - John 8:33, 34.

They did not discern the mind of the Master. They thought only of their bondage to Rome; they were engrossed in the things of the flesh while He, as always, dwelt in a higher realm. He spoke of the things unseen as the things eternal. Bondage to Rome was of little importance when compared to this spiritual bondage. True liberty could come to them, as to all, only through Him, His Truth, and He alone could give it; hence "if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

The Master's discourse to them is equally applic­able to this day and condition, for it is equally true now that whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin, and no man is so secure that he may not fall into sin. It is therefore well to know the methods of the Adversary and forestall the temptation, and lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. While we may not need to be liberated from sin in the sense in which those Jews needed it, we always need to guard against sin, possibly willful sin in a measure, but surely against the weaknesses of the flesh. We need constantly to grow and develop character, and any failure to do so may in itself constitute for us sin, and thus destroy that liberty in Christ which should be ours and can be maintained only by a constant vigil and a continued nearness to the source of all that is holy.

This development may be determined by an in­creasing love for the things which are pure, lovely, and of good report; by a more keen discernment of the things which are not conducive to growth. Perhaps the things which did not trouble us yes­terday may be seen in a different light today, thus showing an increasing degree of the Holy Spirit within us and to this extent replacing the spirit of self and the flesh-the spiritual replacing the carnal.

This bondage to sin may affect the various facul­ties such as the mind, the will, or the conscience, and thus dull the spiritual perception or discern­ment. This is often caused by a failure to put aside the temptation to gratify the ambitions or indulgences of the flesh, love of ease and the pleasures of life. These things come naturally to the flesh, and unless wholly absorbed in the spir­itual things, zealous as was our Lord and those of the early Church who have left us the inspiration of their recorded experiences, we may fail to be pleasing to our heavenly Father.

Leaving Behind the Fragrance of the Altar

At this point the Adversary may come with the suggestion that we do this in our own strength; but how well we should know that only by the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit can it be done. Too often reformation takes the place of transformation in our lives, and with what sorry results. We fail sometimes to yield our minds to the molding power of God, and attempt the work of the potter instead of becoming the clay in His hands. How many times we must retrace our steps in the Christian life, and while we learn by the mistakes how much time we have lost, like Abram, we must return to Bethel and begin again at the point of departure from the Lord's leading and re­new our vows unto the Lord. How thankful we are for this blessed privilege of erecting an altar at the important points in our experiences, wheth­er they mark a return from Egypt, or, some other outstanding event in the Christian life which may mark growth or development in character.

This friend of God had no abiding place, even in the land God had promised him for an inheri­tance, but how often do we find it recorded of him that he built an altar unto the Lord. It was so when he went south from Shechem to Bethel, when he came again from his unfortunate sojourn in Egypt, when he ascended to Mount Moriah, pre­pared to make that awful sacrifice-the great test of his faith in Jehovah and his preparation for his life's work. These were not merely symbols of his faith, nor a place of meeting with his God; they were, so to speak, places where he made at each a re-consecration of his life. We do not need to gather stones from the field or roadside to build an altar of sacrifice, but how like Abraham do we need to withdraw from the confusion of life to those hallowed places made sacred by memories of the mercies and blessings of God; and it is here especially that we offer up our sacrifices of worship and praise, and thank the Giver of all good things that we have known the Truth and the Truth has made us free. As the Apostle says, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness [liberty] to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and liv­ing way, which He hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh." - Heb. 10:19, 20.

Hindrances to Full Liberty in Christ

This is the same way of which the Master spoke, "Strait is the gate, and narrow the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." (Matt. 7:14.) But 0, the liberty and freedom in Christ that awaits the one who does "find it"­ the one who is unafraid of the hard sayings, and who does not turn back from a full surrender of those things which seem to make up life for the unregenerate, who live wholly for the pleasures and profits of the flesh. But the one whose heart is touched by the Master's promises of life in greater abundance and who hears the call of the Father, finds opening unto him riches, joys, and experi­ences of marvelous beauty, things unspeakable; for the things of the Spirit cannot be discerned by the spirit of a man, but only by one possessed by the Spirit of God. One so possessed alone can proper­ly evaluate the things of life, and so the call does not appeal to any except those who appreciate the deeper things and pass on to a greater knowledge of the Truth and so to a greater freedom in Christ.

"Strait the gate and narrow the way." "Lo, I am with you alway." Bind these two state­ments of the Master and who can stand before the gate and refuse to enter in?

The Master speaks to one such, the rich young ruler, who stands out typical of those who are hindered by their possessions, whether these possessions be material or intellectual, whether they be natural graces in an unusual degree, or whether they be the riches of self-righteousness, it makes no difference. They all may be a hindrance, and if these riches or possessions can hinder one from entering the strait gate, equally so can they hinder a continuance in the Christian life if they be not completely surrendered, or if they be unduly cultivated after the step has been taken.

Danger in Earthly Riches to Enslave

This young man had kept the law from his youth up. In fact he was an exemplary young man-clean living, upright, moral, but he realized that there was something lacking in his life even yet. He had heard the Master speak, he had thrilled at the truth set forth, the higher things ap­pealed to him, and he deserved them: he doubtless hungered and thirsted after righteousness, but un­fortunately he hungered and thirsted after the ma­terial things more. There was one thing which he lacked. So he made what another has called, "the great refusal." He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. What a picture! Jesus turned, and perhaps with sorrow said to His disciples, "Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of heaven"; and again, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God."

If it is hard for a rich man to enter potentially into the Kingdom of heaven, it is as hard for him to stay there. It is hard for him to escape the bond­age of wealth and maintain his liberty in Christ. Only by a complete renunciation of the things of the flesh and a true understanding of the things of the Spirit can it be accomplished.

Jesus did not condemn the possession of riches of any kind. He associated with those who were rich in worldly goods and intellectual attainments; He was the embodiment of the natural graces Him­self. But what He did was to point out the dan­gers to their possessors. The deceitfulness of riches He declared on one occasion to be one of the causes of the choking of the Word. The Apostle also echoes the Master's opinion with his warning of the dangers which may enslave them.

Another has said on the subject of riches: "The whole Scripture portrait gallery has no more tragic histories than those of the men who have been apostates and traitors through their covetousness. Riches tend to absorb the inner passion of the soul. They create an assailing horde of temptations. They impose habits and customs which interfere with the soul's life. They make a man feel secure, so that he sits high in pride, and they engender his vanity, while they corrupt his conscience. When riches increase, a man sets. his heart upon them, and he who began his life tender of heart and gen­erous of hand, becomes not only sodden and secu­larized in spirit, but mean and avaricious in older years. Riches tend to desecrate the soul."

One who can see the truth of the above can un­derstand why it is necessary to wholly surrender them, because, with them, the gate is too strait to enter and the way too narrow to continue in.

Natural graces may be even a greater source of danger to their possessors than material wealth alone. Graciousness of manner, inborn nobility, special talents, or unusual skill along any line may constitute the riches of some; the pride of their being, may be their ability to influence, lead, or rule others, thus leading to a high-mindedness con­demned by the Apostle. Talented people so often assume a self-sufficiency which sees no need of things spiritual, for they know not of the things prepared of the Lord for those who love Him. Hu­mility or meekness often is a quality lacking in these. They see no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. They cannot place their wealth upon the altar of sacrifice and enter in at the strait gate and walk the narrow way in the freedom of Christ. It is not given to them to know the mysteries of the Kingdom nor the soul-satisfying fellowship with the Master.

As with the materially rich, God does not ask them to renounce these natural graces, but to use them in His service. A few have done so sand what outstanding characters they have been in the Chris­tian world as they have increased the talents en­trusted to them, some twofold, some five.

To the extent one fails to use his natural abilities in his consecrated life he must render an account to God, for all must so do and He is no respecter of persons. Two handsful of incense, beaten fine and placed upon the coals on the golden altar is the measure of ability required of each. Then and only then is' it a sweet-smelling savor in the nostrils of Jehovah. With a complete surrender of the will to the Holy Spirit of God, it is not a difficult mat­ter. He is not a hard taskmaster except to those who bury the entrusted talent. Only then does He reap where He sowed not, and gather where He has not strawed. Only then does He cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, after tak­ing from him even that which he hath.

To the wealth of material things and the wealth of natural graces may be added a more deadly hindrance, intellectual wealth, for the man of great intellect so often finds that the Adversary leads him by devious oaths to deny the very existence of God or if he should admit His existence he denies that He created man a perfect creature or on the human plane, from which he fell, through the specious arguments of the Prince of this world. Thus has been built up an elaborate system of philosophy which, while it requires a greater ef­fort to accept than the simple story of creation as found in the Book of Genesis, professes to find a, mine of wealth in it. Of these the Wise Man was possibly thinking when he spoke the follow­ing: "When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:) Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man la­bor to seek it out, yet shall he not be able to find it." - Eccles. 8:16, 17.

The Apostle wisely cautions against the accept­ance of vain philosophies. And may God be praised, there are a few of the real intellectuals who have refused these arguments of science so called because they reduce the Christian faith to a mere system of philosophy, or a code of Christian ethics. Fine in their teachings of morality some of them may be, yet they deny the very fundamen­tal basis of sacrificial Christianity. To them may be applied the Master's statement, "Not many wise, not many noble, are called." The gate is too strait and the way too narrow. They have not known the truth, so the truth hath not made them free. The Spirit of the Lord is not here, so there is no liberty. They are bond-slaves to a misdirected faculty which should have led them into those paths wherein they should have freedom indeed.

"And He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a pharisee, and the other a publican. The pharisee stood and prayed thus with ''himself, God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. . . . Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased." - Luke 18:9, 14.

This man spoken of by the Master was rich in self-righteousness, which is close kin to hypocrisy -the sin which He condemned above all sins, for it is probably the most difficult of all to discern in oneself, therefore a form of riches most likely to prevent its possessor from entering in at the strait gate, and walking in the narrow way.

The professing Christian who thinks more high­ly of himself than he ought, does not hold the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands have nourishment ministered; nor does he in­crease with the increase of God; neither is he dead with Christ, and manifestly he cannot be risen with Christ.

This was the disposition of those who ruled among the Jews of Christ's day-those who sat in the council and of whom He spake "Ye hypo­crites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoreth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." (Matt. 15:7-9) It was to these that He said, as He discoursed in the treasury of the temple, "Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free." They were bond-slaves to their self­righteousness. They could not enter the strait gate nor walk in the narrow way, the way of freedom. And for this reason they could not say with one of their number whose eyes of understanding were opened as he traveled on a persecuting mission over the Damascus road, "That I may be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." - Phil. 3:9.

From the days of St. Paul there have been some who have been imbued with the thought of the im­puted righteousness of Christ. The memory of Paul's self-righteousness in his early life never left him, for he constantly seems to have in his mind the need of self-renunciation, the need for sacrifice, for the forming of Christ within the professing fol­lowers of the Master. With what vehemence does he urge as a prerequisite this thought of faith in the righteousness of Christ, and then the present­ing of their bodies a living sacrifice; then their transformation by the renewing of the mind, thus making them a potential new creature in Christ Jesus. They thus come to know the Truth and the Truth doth make them free. What a blessed experience! Speaking of this robe of Christ's righteousness, one has said: "There I found shelter, and there I find shelter still: and there, when the King comes in to see the guests, I shall find shelter -at the end." "Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity."

The righteousness by faith must be the individu­al experience. As the narrow way grows more narrow, it becomes more needful to discard the im­pedimenta with which we started-taking on the character of Christ to a greater degree as time passes on, resulting in less of self and more of Thee until it becomes none of self and all of 'Thee. And so we can rejoice with the poet that from the depths of our being each can say with him that he has reached a spiritual development indicated by the lines of that old hymn:

"When I stand before the Throne,
Dressed in beauty not my own."

There is no other way "but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."

Can one marvel at the Master's statement that few there be that find eternal life though many may find the gate and the way, but become dis­mayed when they realize that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich ran to enter into the Kingdom of heaven? No matter whether those riches be of a material kind, or of the natural graces, or whether they be of the intellect or the riches of self-righteousness. Every individual who walks the narrow way and finds eternal life must stand before God divested of all except the robe of Christ's righteousness, must submit to the chiseling processes of the Master Sculptor.

Every man is born into the world with certain definite tendencies due to his inheritance, thus every man may be subject to special weaknesses and temptations. The working of one mind may not be according to another. May each recall the question of the Apostle when discussing certain things which were disturbing the Church at Cor­inth: "Why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."­ - 1 Cor. 10:29, 31.

May we covet earnestly the best gifts, but above all attain unto that more excellent way shown by the Apostle, the way of love which He calls the bond of perfectness.

"Teach me to love the world as Thou dost love,
Ready to give my dearest and my best,
Than self more dear, to save it from its sins,
And turn all hearts to Thee. Oh! grant the faith
In Thy beloved Son, Thy holy Lamb,
Which wakes, within, the sleeping life of love,
And makes us one with Him who died that men
Might share His life eternal, and might dwell
In Thee, from whose exhaustless fulness all
Who look to Thee in fervent prayer receive
Thy Spirit's bounteous gift. But from that love
Which clings in fondness to the world's bad ways,
And sinks the soul in its corrupting guile,
Save me, O God; for earth must pass away,
Ambition's pride, and all the idle glare
Of social rank, and wealth's delusive charm.
That which we see is temporal, and soon
Must yield to time's corrosive touch, and sink
To dark oblivion. But the things unseen,
Love, holiness, and truth, eternal stand
Before Thy glorious throne, and speak Thy Word
Within the heart of man. To that blest Word
Be all my powers subdued, that I may still
Show forth Thy love which quickens and redeems." 

Annual Report of the Pastoral Bible Institute

AS AGAIN we assemble for another of our An­nual Meetings, it is hoped its reports and discussions may result in an inspiration that will give us fresh impetus as we endeavor to fol­low on in the footsteps of our Master. The breth­ren on whom has devolved the responsibility of this ministry during the past year have tried to keep before their minds not only the necessity of faithfulness along the lines which are Scripturally designated principal things, but have endeavored to be faithful themselves and to encourage all the brethren to faithfulness in the use of "that which is least." No year of the Institute's ministry, we believe, has been more marked by divine bless­ing on the individual effort toward the "perfect­ing of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the meas­ure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

It is our confidence that the Editorial Committee who served you during the past months have-both earnestly and prayerfully endeavored to limit the columns of "The Herald of Christ's King­dom" to those things that would be upbuilding for the saints. While we have continued to sup­ply tracts for the use of the friends in their en­deavor to reach those who have not yet learned to appreciate the message of the Kingdom, we have not failed to recognize that the power of convic­tion rests not so much in the printed page as in the demonstration of its transforming power which it is the privilege of each child of God to show.

In our selecting of brethren to serve in the Pil­grim ministry, as well as in the choosing of ma­terial for the columns of the "Herald," it has been our ambition to stress "the love of Christ which surpasseth knowledge." The reports give us abundant reason to believe that our efforts have been attended with a large measure of success.

It is in this connection, however, a matter of great rejoicing that there is still available much that was used to bring to us our knowledge of God and His Word-the "Studies in the Scrip­tures" and the "Watch Tower Reprints." More important than this, we well realize, is it that these things be stored up in our minds; but of vastly greater importance is it that they take possession of our hearts. It is this heart knowledge of our Father and of His Only Begotten Son, we trust, that has inspired the distribution of many thou­sands of tracts and also many sets of "Studies in the Scriptures," and the preaching of the Divine Plan of the Ages by those with whom it has been our privilege to cooperate this past year. Some are finding even our Revelation sets and the Volume, "Daniel, the Beloved of Jehovah," a means of in­teresting those who have not previously known of our understanding of the Kingdom. We have been' glad to hear recently from some who had note pre­viously read these volumes of encouragement and blessing received through a study of their pages.

Some Classes that are still able to secure halls for public meetings have taken advantage of the Pilgrim service as an additional means of witness­ing to their neighbors and friends. The attendance of the public has not always been large, and never anything of which the flesh could boast, but there has always seemed to be a warming of the hearts of those who have listened to the "old, old story," as well as of those who have ministered to them of the old refrain, always "pleasant to repeat."

Though the Lord in His providence has seen fit to withdraw from the Pilgrim service, for a time at least, our dear Brother Friese, we trust he may be privileged soon to continue in this ministry. Eleven brethren have been engaged in this service -some taking extended trips, while others have merely served locally, on Sunday appointments. The United States and Canada have been well cov­ered, with few exceptions. Our special rejoicing is that these Pilgrim brethren are able to report prac­tically all the Classes showing evidence of spiritual growth. The work of this branch of the service is summed up as follows

Miles traveled 73,417
Meetings held 857
Total attendance 15,176

It is a matter of regret that some still fail to take advantage of the spiritual benefits of the "Herald" and of the Pilgrim service simply because they are not able to pay their share in the maintaining of these. Appreciating the desire on the part of these brethren to cooperate, we would, however, urge them to realize that anything which they recog­nize to be of the Father's provision because of His Spirit could not well be dispensed with The Apostle who gave the most largely in his service to the Church accounted himself "an unprofitable servant." Our indebtedness to our Heavenly Father would not be appreciably reduced by paying the subscription price of one dollar a year, or our pro­portionate expense of a Pilgrim visit.

While our limitations have made impossible the writing of many letters and required the shorten­ing of many others, not the least of our privileges has been counted, that of having contact with the dear brethren 'throughout the world' by means of the postal service. (For many this is the only means of contact they ever have with any of the Lord's people. The privilege of serving such is especially appreciated. The great bulk of our for­eign correspondence has been with the friends in Great Britain,. but all the various countries have been well represented in this feature of our service. Our records for this year show:

Number of letters received .. 4,571
Number of letters sent out .. 7,010

These are but visible records -- "outward appear­ance." We hope for much better things from the record that our Father has kept. This year's ac­tivities are closed with a prayer that they may be found to have been merely preparatory to a more effective effort along all lines during the months that lie just ahead.

From the commencement of the Institute's work the aim of those associated in it has been to avoid anything of a sectarian character. In closing, we would urge the careful guarding of this ideal and the recognizing of all who are building upon the one Foundation, as brethren, regardless of whether or not they shall see fit to cooperate in our activi­ties.

The Annual Meeting

In accordance with the announcements in our col­umns, there was a meeting of the membership and other interested brethren on June 5'th, in the offices of the Institute. This was the nineteenth annual gathering. The meeting was opened with the usual devotional serv­ice and maintained that spirit to its conclusion. Doubt­less the prayers of the friends throughout the world ascended with those of the brethren gathered in Brook­lyn asking for the abundance of the Spirit which was poured out upon them.

The business of the day followed in the usual order, which was first the election of a chairman and a secre­tary for the meeting' "and -the reading of the Minutes of the previous Annual Meeting. The Minutes were approved, following which the Chairman of the Board gave his report in which he dwelt upon the appreciation which the retiring Directors had, both of their privi­leges and responsibilities.; The General Report, the Treasurer's Report, and that of, the Auditing Commit­tee were next given and approved. The list of new members -was read at 'this time, and this evidence of growing interest in our activities was an inspiration to all.. The election of the directors followed, a song and prayer service occupying the. time of the counting of the ballots, and adding much to the blessing of the day. At its close the tellers announced the election of Brothers S. D. Bennett, M. D., J. J. Blackburn, B. Boulter, J. C.. Jordan, P. L. Read, C. E. Stiles and P. E. Thomson.

After discussing the advisability of seeking means for widening the Institute's influence, a resolution was passed directing the Chair to appoint a committee of three to contact the membership by mail, asking them for suggestions. A devotional service closed the meeting as usual.

Following the Annual Meeting, those present of the brethren elected to the Board (Brother Read being ab­sent) met to elect their officers and to consider plans for the work of the Institute during the coming year, seeking in all of this the guidance of the Lord. The officers continue as last year: S. D. Bennett, M. D., chairman; C. E. Stiles, vice-chairman; P. E. Thomson, secretary; P. L. Read, treasurer; H. E. Hollister, assist­ant treasurer.

The Board thought it not wise to urge Brother Friese to continue his service on the Editorial Committee, in view of his present state of health; but it is their hope that he may be able to engage /from time to time in the pilgrim branch of the ministry. Brother John T. Read of Chicago has been asked to take the place of Brother Friese on this committee, the other members remaining the same as last year. The personnel will therefore be: S. D. Bennett, M.D., H. E. Hollister, J. T. Read, P. L. Read, P. E. Thomson.

Financial Statement

The Statement of Income and Expense for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1937, summarized from the Treasurer's report, is as follows:

INCOME:

Contributions                    $3,364.11
Herald subscriptions              1,370.12
Books and mottoes                   766.70
Interest and gain on sale 
  of se­curities                     166.67
Credit from reserve for
  loss on securities held            32.11
Rentals                             135.00            .
                                              $5,834.71
 

EXPENSES:

Printing and mailing Herald      $1,350.67
Free tracts                         141.93
Cost of books and mottoes sold      753.68
Pilgrim expense                   1,392.15
Pilgrim salaries                  1,275.00
Office salaries                   1,382.40
Other expense                       254.02
Office expense                      472.75
Interest on mortgage                350.00
Maintenance of real estate          759.69            .
                                              $8,132.89|
Excess of expense over income                 $2,298.18
 

This excess of expense over income was met out of bequests to the Institute as has been the case in former years. However, as the remaining amount of these be­quests is small, it is obvious that unless our income in­creases we shall shortly be compelled to reduce expenses. A reduction in expenses could be accomplished only by curtailing our activities.

Statement of Auditors

We have examined the accounts for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1937, and the Financial Statement herewith and find them correct and in accord with the books of account at the end of the year.

George W. Jeffrey
Louis Newman
Gilbert E. Kemp

"Show Us the Father and It Sufficeth Us"

"Hast thou not known Me, Philip?" - John 14:9.

IT WAS a very famous English churchman and scholar who said: "Half the disputes in the world are verbal ones, and could they be brought to plain issue, they would be brought to prompt determination. We need not dispute, we need not to prove; we need but to define."

Words correctly used convey fine and often im­portant shades of meaning. The beautiful preci­sion of the language of Scripture is one of the things that make the Lord's Word a never-failing and inexhaustible source of instruction, of inspira­tion and of sustenance to the child of God; and if we practice its accuracy in our speech -- and our thinking -- it will prove to be one factor in the development of our characters -- in the process of becoming "conformed to the image of His Son."

"Character" a Copy

The use of the word character by the Lord's people is one that needs clearer definition. Per­haps we have all at times used such words as glory, name, attributes, and character, in referring to our heavenly Father, somewhat loosely and in­terchangeably, without considering their exact meaning. May it not be that our understanding of these words is a little hazy, and needs to be clarified? And does not this subject deserve our best care and discrimination in thought and utterance?

The word character -- as we may learn from any good dictionary -- primarily means a copy -- an im­pression derived from a type or other original. From this it will be seen at once that, in this pri­mary sense, God is not a character, nor does He have a character. He is the great Original of all that is good, as the Lord Jesus declared: "Why callest thou Me good? None is good, save one, even God." God is not a copy, or character, of any­thing or any one.

Therefore, when we mean what we do mean when we say "God's character," it is better to use one of the Scriptural expressions: "God Himself;" or "the divine nature;" or the "being" or "substance" of the Father; or to use the even more precise English idiom, as the translators of the Authorized Version did in Hebrews 1:3, and speak of the "person" or personality of God.

The word character is never used of God in the Scriptures; but the Greek word "karakter," which has precisely the same significance as the English word derived directly from it, is used of the Son in the text just referred to, and there, in the Au­thorized Version, translated "express image." This is the only place that the word is used in the Bible, for the simple reason that Jesus Christ was at that time the only being in the Universe who was the full and exact "karakter" of the Father. But the Scriptures tell us of a small body of one hundred and forty-four thousand other beings who shall eventually have that likeness fully and permanent­ly etched into their personalities -- partly by the acid of suffering, as it was in the case of their Princely Leader.

It is true that the word character is sometimes used in an accommodated sense in place of "reputation," as: "He bears a good character in his com­munity"; meaning that his reputation is good, or he has a good name among his neighbors. Only in this secondary and vague sense can it be said that "the name of Jehovah" means "the character of Jehovah;" and this expression -- "the name of the Lord" - "the name of Jehovah"-means vastly more than merely His reputation.

"Name" not Character

"Name" is used in the Bible just as we use it in English. Indeed, the English usage was de­rived from the English Bible, which has had so powerful an influence in forming our modern every day speech; hence our usage of the word is taken directly from the Greek.

"Name" primarily means, not what a person ac­tually is, as does "character, but merely what is known 'by others about him. One's name is what one is called by others, and what others say about one; it thus includes reputation, but further carries a sense of the power and authority and influence of the one named. This is the significance of the formula of 'baptism given by our Lord: "Into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Pronouncing these words over the one baptized testifies to his profession that he has entered into special relationship with the Father (in justification by acceptance of the Ransom), with the Son (in consecration to be "baptized into His death"), and with the Holy Spirit ("baptized in one Spirit" -- in a begetting to a new nature and a progressive sanctification of life).

"Glory" not Character

The parallelism of Hebrews 1:3 compares the Father and the Son, and contrasts their glory with the "person" of the Father and "karakter" of the Son. The Son's brightness-literally "off-flash" or effulgence -- is a reflection of the Father's glory; the Son's "karakter" is the impress of the Father's, personality. It will thus be seen that glory, though not identical with it, is more nearly related to name than to personality or character.

To summarize:

Substance, personality, nature, character, honor, are related words; they refer to that which is internal-what we actually are.

Reputation, name, glory, attributes, are external, and represent what others know or think and say of us.

This distinction is made in many Scriptures be­sides the one noted above. Another is Romans 2:6, 7, wherein those who are pleasing to God are represented as patiently seeking for the outward ("glory") as well as the inward ("honor," value, character) likeness to Himself.

The personality of God is necessarily shrouded in mystery to His weak and fallen human creatures, as indeed it is to beings of far broader powers and purer lives. His very name is indefinite because it implies infinity and abstract perfection, beyond the reach of finite knowledge or reasoning. Thus He Himself declares: "I am that I am; that is My name". Those who in faith "believe that He is, and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him," must ever be possessed of a reverent yet fervent curiosity concerning the real Personality behind His name. Indeed, Jesus declares: "This is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Him whom Thou didst send." So Philip expressed the earnest desire of all God's worshiping creatures when he said to Jesus: "'Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us."

The Scriptures affirm many significant and im­portant things of God. It is written that "God is love"; and that "God is light" or wisdom; and indirectly that God is justice and God is power. Thus we define the four "attributes." The word attribute is from the Latin word meaning to bestow; and if we remember that attributes mean qualities attributed by common consent to a person or thing, we see that "attributes" and "name" are quite closely synonymous. But knowing the attributes as well as the name of God, does not carry with it a comprehensive knowledge of His Being-of the "substance" or "person" of the Father, as it is called in Hebrews 1:3; or of His "divine nature," as Peter refers to it in 2 Pet. 1:4.

The Basis of Knowing Him

It is undoubtedly true that one cannot fully know or understand another, especially a superior, unless he is like him-and the closer the likeness, the fuller the understanding. We read that the Son is "in the bosom of the Father," and that He is "the express image" (i.e., the karakter, or engraved likeness) of the Father's "substance" or personality. And, joy of joys, we are also reminded by the Apostle Peter that "we have ex­ceeding great and precious promises whereby we may become partakers of the divine nature." In harmony with this, we understand from Romans 8:30 and other Scriptures that some (not all) of those who are distinguished among men --"glorified" by the privilege of hearing the glad tidings of "a Savior which is Christ the Lord" will accept Him as their Savior and thereby become "justi­fied"; and of the justified, some (not all) will hear the "call" to be associated with their Savior in His Priesthood, and, consecrating, receive the begetting to a new nature; and some (not all) of these called ones God has "predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son" -- the image of that Son who is Himself "the express image of the Father's person"!

Glorious possibility! Ah, we say, that I might be one of that superlatively blessed remnant of a remnant of a remnant of a remnant; that four­ times distilled extract of humanity -- the glorified, justified, begotten and conformed -- who will really know God as He is, because they have been made the impressed image -- "karakter" -- of His Person­ality!

"Show us the Father and it sufficeth us." Jesus justly but gently chided Philip when he made this request, saying: "Have I been so long time with you and dost thou not know Me, Philip?" But the Apostles, even, had not indeed known Jesus, having not the perceptivity, the capacity. And we who cannot know Him personally in the flesh must view Him through the minds of others at a distance of nineteen centuries, and are that much further handicapped. Nevertheless, as best we may, we look upon the man Jesus, the "one alto­gether lovely, the chiefest among ten thousand"; who spake as "one having authority"-as "never man spake" before. We see Jesus and we "learn content," but we are not satisfied; we "shall be satisfied" only "when we awake in His likeness."

Jesus, in all humility, stated a simple fact when He said: "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father"; nor need we confuse the separate indi­vidualities of the Father and the Son in under­standing His words. Paul might well be com­menting on Jesus' statement to Philip when he wrote (1 Cor. 2:11, 14): "For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? . . . The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God . . . he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged [or examined]." To human eyes and minds, Jesus Christ was the most perfect representation of God that could possibly be made. Only by sending His Son to be a man among men, to use "the things of a man" and act as God would act if it were possible for Him to be a man, could God reveal Himself understandably to men. There­fore those who would know God must, with all care, painstaking and perseverance, study the life and words of the earthly mirror of God, the man Christ Jesus. In no other way can mortal man ever come to even partially know God.

But Philip might well have pursued his -- and our -- inquiry further. He might have said: "But Lord, I have heard you pray to the Father, saying: 'O holy Father, the world hath not known Thee; but I have known Thee. Lord, we would see the Father, riot as a man, but even as You have seen and known Him.'

Philip did not ask this, as far as we know; but later in this conversation Jesus promised it. "It is expedient for you that I go away," He said, "For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. . . . But the Comforter, which the Father will send in My name, He shall guide you into all the truth. . . . I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you. . . . In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. . . . I shall no more speak to you in dark sayings, but shall tell you plainly of the Father."

This promise, having had the beginning of its fulfillment at Pentecost, Paul was able to write to the Corinthian brethren: (While) "the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God [i.e., concerning His "substance" or "divine nature"] neither indeed can he, for they can only be spirit­ually examined . . ." nevertheless we can and may so examine them, for, since Pentecost, "we have the mind of Christ" being formed in us.

So now we arrive at the proposition that a step beyond seeing the Father in Jesus Christ, is see­ing Him as Jesus saw Him-through the mind of Christ. How profitable, therefore, is the study of the mind of Jesus, under the guidance of that Holy Spirit of whom Jesus said: "He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine and declare it unto you. All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine; therefore [with reference to those things of the Father's personality that I know, but which you are not yet ready to receive] said I, that He taketh of Mine, and shall declare it unto you." The Son is the express image of the Father's personality; all things that the Father hath are His; and He will transmit them, as the Holy Spirit, to those who become His intimates -- collectively His Bride. Could anything be more explicit, or more beauti­ful and satisfying?

Undoubtedly one of the most important chan­nels of revelation of the "things of God" in Jesus Christ, which is opened by the Holy Spirit to the Spirit begotten believer; is the deeper understand­ing of the parables of Jesus. "Without a parable spake He not unto them," and in the parables were "revealed things hidden from the foundation of the world." Much of the theology supposed by many to have originated with Paul, was derived by him from Jesus' parables.

But still these are the things that Jesus said about His Father. What did he think about Him? What was His attitude toward Him?

We can only go beyond that which is written by inference or deduction; but sometimes "actions speak louder than words."

Thus Jesus very evidently had no shadow of doubt of His Father's personality, and interest in Him. He said: "As the Father knoweth Me, so know I the Father." He consistently acted upon this intimate knowledge, as He further declared "Father, I know that Thou hearest Me always." This, when He was about to demonstrate the resur­rection power in the person of the dead: Lazarus. "The Father loveth the Son." "As the Father hath taught Me, I speak." "The Father worketh and I work." Jesus believed that the Father knew, loved, heard and cooperated with Him, and He acted upon that belief.

He indicated by His actions no less clearly and even more positively than by His words, His con­viction that He was fulfilling a definite plan of procedure agreed upon with His Father before He came to earth. "Father," He prayed, "I have glori­fied Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gayest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." "Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations. And I appoint [covenant] unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed [covenanted] unto Me; that ye may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

And so, in recognition of the Plan, he said: "The cup that My Father hath given Me to drink, shall I not drink it?" Though He later prayed, in agony, that this cup might pass from Him, yet it was with "not My will, but Thine be done." And He drank this cup to the last bitter dregs, of shame, of suf­fering, and of death. He endured the ultimate trial of His Father forsaking Him to His enemies, stoutly maintaining that if He should "pray the Father" immediate rescue by "twelve legions of angels" would be forthcoming; but of this He would not avail Himself, because it was not in the Father's plan for Him. In the final moments of His consciousness it was into His Father's hands, with perfect confidence, that He "commended His spirit" -- and His sole hope of future life and happiness, as He went out into the darkness.

He knew the Father, hence His strength to obey and to suffer; to suffer a horrible death, and yet obey! Supremely confident of the Father's wis­dom and love-convinced of this knowledge in every fiber of His being-thus only was he enabled to accomplish the great task of human redemption assigned Him. "By His knowledge shall My right­eous servant justify many," saith Jehovah.

What a Father He must be, to draw such love and devotion, such faith, confidence and obedience, from such a Son! Shall it not suffice us for the present to thus be shown the Father?

"Except ye become as little children, ye cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven." A small boy was overheard saying to a playmate: "My father and I know everything." Skeptically his little friend challenged his boast: "Is that so! Where's Asia?" The small boy might not be up on geography, but his answer was-ready: "That's one of the things my father knows!"

And this is the never-failing answer of the Chris­tian to every doubt and fear.

Our Father has said to us: "My son, give Me thine heart." Our Elder Brother has assured us "No man is able to pluck you out of My Father's hand." And so we place our hand in His and trudge along the narrow way we do not know -- but our Father knows-being sure that, together, our Father and we know everything!

The History of the Church
No. 6

Tertullian of Carthage

ABOUT THE year 160, some historians making it ten years earlier, there was born in the city of Carthage one who was destined to become a most learned and eloquent expositor of Christian thought. Tertullian, of heathen parent­age, was perhaps more than thirty years of age when converted to Christianity.

The churches of northern Africa exercised in the first and second centuries a greater influence on Christian doctrine than any others, and second only to the Church at Alexandria was that of Carthage. Here Tertullian was trained, and here in this voluptuous city his youth was stained with sin, even as were the early years of St. Augustine, who, two hundred years after him, turned also from dissipation in this same place to a better way of living.

Tertullian, considered the most forceful writer to follow the Apostles, was the creator of Latin Christian literature. Christianity, it has been pointed out, does not destroy individuality but di­rects its way and sets the limits of its control; and so the excitable heathen became the excitable Christian, a great lack of natural patience and hu­mility marking this notable Church Father from the first. Fear seemed to linger in his Christian experience and a spirit of bondage remained in his heart. Those who have lived depraved years, as did Tertullian, seem to bear at times the horror of a soul once so stained upon repentant memory. "All that was pure and noblest in his religious life," says Farrar, "flowed from the fountain of penitence, which swept him on its troubled waves to the foot of the throne of God."

Justyn Martyr who had reached the very door of truth by way of Plato, and, leaving him outside, had entered through the only and Living way, gently refuted the error of philosophy through his very knowledge of its teachings, while Tertullian, the passionate teacher, showed for it but profound contempt, calling the greatest of all the philosoph­ers, "the patriarch of heretics," and fiercely de­nouncing Socrates and Aristotle, saying, "We de­spise the learning of secular literature, which is reckoned as folly with God." With himself and with others he constantly battled, seldom using his pen in the interest of the higher Christian de­velopment, being at all times embroiled in matters of dispute and strife with all the ardor of a born debator. Believing that the rite of baptism had in itself a saving power, he termed one who thought differently, "a viper of the Cainite heresy," adding by way of explanation that vipers always inhabit arid, that is, waterless, places. He painted a savage picture of the exultation Christians would feel some day when, instead of the cruel arena of the Pagan, they should behold not only heaven but hell also. Scathingly he contrasted the guilt of Paganism with the evil attributed to Christian innocence. It was not Tertullian's way to reason calmly, to speak the truth in love, and thus win the sinner, rather would he tread them beneath the heel of his bitter eloquence, and the saddest part of it all was that, later on, the same fellow-Chris­tians whom he had so indignantly defended against their heathen slanderers, he now attacked most bitterly in his zeal to advance his personal views which they were unable to embrace.

Montanists

This sect arose in the middle of the second cen­tury in Phrygea. Though the Church viewed it as a heresy, it started with an earnest desire to right the wrong thinking of Gnosticism* and loose prac­tices of the Church, already becoming an organ­ization of fixed rules even to the smallest and non­essential details of discipline, showing the tend­ency to grant to the bishops the binding decision on all questions of belief and conduct. The out­standing fact of Tertullian's Christian life was his adoption of the views of Montanus, and when he argued that a church which establishes itself as an unchanging, and therefore an unprogressive body, must of necessity be a dead church, for it is the continuous work of the Holy Spirit to un­fold the meaning of God's Word and to eradicate errors of the understanding, he was but voicing the belief of many in the Church of that day. The Montanists held that at first man was left to the religion of nature's teachings, then the Law was given to Israel, but now had come the dispensa­tion of the Spirit into individual hearts and lives -that rock-truth of the universal priesthood of all believers which would shake the Christian world at its revival in the coming days of Reformation. But, regrettable as it seems, the Church while de­nouncing the Montanists as heretics and crushing the cult's very existence, kept nothing of its prin­ciples of truth and wisdom, but came to adopt many of its most flagrant errors. For there were errors and mistakes, to be sure, mixed with this teach­ing. The truth they advocated as to the necessity of holy living led in a short time to spiritual pride, a "holier than thou" attitude. The favor of heaven it seemed was a thing to be purchased by fasts and torturing the body, rather than by a growth in Christian grace, and the spirituality of a child of God came to be measured by the length and fre­quency of his feasts. The Church out-did Montanus and Tertullian in the exaltation of celibacy above the Scriptures and the placing of it on a much holier footing than wedlock. When Ter­tullian discarded the regular Roman toga and wore the cloak, or pallium, of the Greek philoso­phers whom he scorned, and congratulated the cloak on covering the limbs of the best kind of a phi­losopher, a Christian, he seemed to wear it as a sort of sign that he had not only left the world but had also withdrawn from the large company of his fellow-Christians, having by now severed his connection with the catholic communion; His motives for the distinctive dress were not all for­eign to those that led the clergy more than a cen­tury later to adopt an official regalia that not only served as a badge to the world but set them apart from and above the mere "laity."

-----------------------------------------------------

* "A philosophical and religious system (1st to 6th cen­tury) teaching that knowledge rather than faith was the key to salvation."

But Tertullian's short tract, "De Pallio," was the end of his Montanistic writings. From then on he turned the bitter weapons of his learning and eloquence away from his brother Christians to those he believed heretics and enemies of the Apostolic teachings. He hated any heresy but his own, adopting the arrogant tone of infallibility which, no matter where heard, seems always to say, "Would you know what is the truth? Listen then to my opinions for, being mine they must of necessity be the truth and all else are but Satan's lies." Fiercely he had contended for liberty of conscience, but dogmatically brushed it aside ex­cept for himself and those who viewed matters as he did. And the Church has ever had its Tertullians, not so much willfully claiming justice for themselves and refusing it to others, as afflicted with the strange blind spots that seem so much a part of fallen human nature.

Cyprian

Born in Carthage about the year 200, of heathen parentage, Cyprian, first martyr bishop of Africa, was himself a heathen until about middle age. He was not original in his teachings but followed that of Tertullian. Being of an honest and inquiring turn of mind he attempted to support his ideas with Scripture, but was not always successful, as by this time many ideas quite foreign to the Scrip­tures had been added to Christianity. Indeed, for centuries little of that Bible itself but rather the words of Tertullian, Origen, Basil, and the elo­quent Chrysostom were echoed and re-echoed in the Church. If Cyprian lacked something in his understanding of the philosophy of salvation, his heart was pure, his life was blameless, and his presence compelling and kind. This with his elo­quence and the added maturity of years caused the people of Carthage to loudly cry forth his name as a candidate for bishop-the people, whose voices were being less and less heard as the bishops assumed more and more power. After his election, this bishop of the congregation was addressed by the title of "Papa," an honor already given to the Bishop of Alexandria, later to be extended also to the Bishop of Rome. Gradually, as we review. the lives of these teachers of the early Church, that history not so much their own as it is the history of the visible congregations themselves, we trace the errors creeping in-an Enemy is sowing tares. The picture drawn by Cyprian of the Church at this period shows that evil had developed during the years of freedom from worldly persecution. Many Christians were worldly, practicing fraud because they loved wealth and, having gained that wealth, in many cases becoming apostate. There was slander and deceit and superstition, tales of miracles being rife. But quiet, holy lives of faith, known or unknown to history's pages, were there as they have ever been present all down the Age, for the earth must not entirely lose its salt lest Christianity perish from the face of it.

We need not spend much time with the theology of the martyred saint, being so much a mouthpiece of Tertullian. Though he spoke of Rome as the chief Church and termed it "the root and womb of the Catholic Church," he seemed not to have recog­nized any infallibility in Rome's bishop, for he dis­agreed with him, even offering rebuke. He de­clared the bishop of a church "absolute vice-regent of Christ in things spiritual" and his only idea of Church unity was agreement amongst the various bishops for they, he believed, had inherited the promise to Peter, :applicable first to all the Apostles and now to these, their successors in authority. A supporter of Cyprian in his controversy with Stephen, Bishop of Rome, wrote him at this time, "I am justly indignant at this so open and manifest folly of Stephen who thus glories about the place of his episcopate, and maintains that he holds the succession of Peter."

The words of Cyprian, "Whoever he is, and whatever he is, he is not a Christian who is not in the Church of Christ," and, "Outside the Church there is no salvation, differ much in essence with those of Irenaeus: "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is the Church." For Cyprian sensed little of that Church, bound not by rigid forms of discipline and an exacted unity with bishops, 'but by a glorious, an invisible Head. He overlooked entirely the words of the Master, "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." Had he considered that small text more carefully, he might have noticed all human names brushed aside in those few words so sweet in portent, so pregnant in meaning. He might even have come to see that whether within or without the visible Church they are truly Christ's who hold Him as their Head and who as under-priests offer up living sacrifices-presenting their bodies as such; holy and acceptable unto God through their Lord. He might have seen, not a unity of bishops only, but a unity embracing every member of the mystical Body of Christ-that beautiful harmony of senti­ment often co-existing with diversity of opinion, that oneness of spirit in which all true followers of Jesus participate.

Cyprian, after serving thirteen years, was be­headed under the persecution of Valeran, the Christians burning his body at night to protect it from the curious and scoffing gaze of the heathen.

Origen

Origen, the most powerful theologian of the early Church, except perhaps Augustine, was born about the year 186 of uncertain nationality, al­though it is accounted a possibility that his mother was Hebrew. He had intimate acquaintance with Greek literature, but better still he knew and loved the pages of Holy Writ, for he was the son of a Christian and a martyr, and had been required all through childhood to learn a passage of the Scriptures every day. So deep was his youthful interest and so thoughtful his inquiries that his father, Leonides, was known to stoop and rever­ently kiss the breast of the sleeping child, saying that it seemed, "the Holy Spirit of God had made it His temple. When Origen was sixteen his father was beheaded and the lad was left with a mother and six brothers to support, which he did by teaching and with the aid of a wealthy friend. Raised in piety his young manhood was clouded by no such sowing to the wind as Augustine, Cyprian, and Jerome. "He was," says one, "from his youth upward a saint and the beloved teacher of many saints." But he has been much criticiz­ed throughout the centuries, even his salvation having been doubted by some so much his in­ferior in learning and saintliness as to seem beside him but ignorant and prejudiced. Mosheim de­clares him as the possessor of "every excellence that can adorn Christian character," and we find his life story a testimony to this praise. But Origen was condemned by the patriarch of Alex­andria for political reasons, and Jerome in the fourth century, fearful for his own reputation, turned against his teacher he had so enthusiastical­ly honored, while at the fifth ecumenical council at Constantinople in the sixth century his teach­ing was anathematized.

Origen taught the school at Alexandria when. Clement fled from persecution, receiving no salary or price for his lectures--the free, voluntary gifts of his pupils sufficing for his simple needs. Then he sold his collection of the Greek classics and with the money subsisted for many years, allowing him­self but six pence a day, refusing now any help from the students for, "God gives to His priests no earthly portion because God Himself is their portion." Taking Christ's words to His disciples literally, he wore no shoes for many years, nor per­mitted himself more than one coat; he drank no wine, slept on the bare floor, spent his day in work, his night in study. He fasted to such an extent that his health suffered, but he labored on for some thirteen years as a Christian teacher. He has received much censure for attending lectures on Platonism, but during that time, many heathen came to him as an eminent expounder of the new religion and he thought it most necessary to have a knowledge of that which was offered as truth by heathen or heretic that he might be better able to meet them informed. There has ever been in the Church exponents of the theory that God can be served best by ignorance, forgetting that no Philip or Andrew had been chosen to go to the intellectual heathen, the scoffing Athenians, but a Paul, versed in the classics of the world and with so much learning it was deemed by the unbeliever a contributing cause to a to them, seeming mad­ness.

When Origen, fleeing from the massacre at Alex­andria to Palestine, was invited by the bishops of Caesarea and Jerusalem to give lectures there in the Church, he was angrily recalled by his Bishop Demetrius, for the Alexandrian Church permitted no "layman" to so publicly lecture. There was jealousy in the act, no doubt; however, he re­turned, but relations between him and his bishop were so strained that he turned to writing. With the assistance of more than a half-dozen shorthand writers and many copyists furnished by Ambrosins, his commentary on St. John grew to thirty­ two volumes and there were commentaries on Genesis, Psalms, and Lamentations; indeed, so many were his books that St. Jerome remarked, "Which of us can read all his books?" And it was record­ed, although with apparent exaggeration, that there were 6000 of these. But few of the original works of Origen have come down to us. There are some translations in Latin much doctored up by the translator, who believed that heretics had tampered with them. How ominously that word "heretic" has sounded down the long corridors of the visible Church! "Every great reformer in turn, every discoverer of new forms or expressions of religious truth, every slayer of old and mon­strous errors, has been called a heretic." Anoth­er has ironically said that to be termed a heretic requires only a being in the minority or standing alone. An eminent scholar and theologian of the English Church, who near the middle of the nine­teenth century had dared to utter under the state­ly roof of the historic Westminster Abbey a most powerful and touching plea against the prevail­ing doctrine of eternal torture and thereby had brought down upon his gracious and respected head a cry of indignant protest from many of his brother-clergy but, happily, also the grateful en­dorsement of many a less courageous soul who had secretly thought as he did --Dean Farrar -- whose beautiful Life of Christ has never been allowed to go out of print, whose classic learning, coupled with the deepest of religious feeling and spiritual­ity, has been so great a blessing to his contem­poraries and those after them, has this to say "'Heresy' in the New Testament means not erro­neous opinions, but the factiousness of party spirit. He who prides himself on great orthodoxy may be heretical."

- Contributed.

Next of this series

ST. AUGUSTINE

Convention Reports

Boston, Mass.

"The Eastern General Convention held at Boston Mass., over the May 30th weekend, was attended by between 325 and 350 friends from a wide area and proved a season of real rejoicing. The classes cooperating with the Boston Class were Beverly, Lynn, New Bedford, North Brookfield, and Worcester, Mass., an Providence, R. I.

"A noticeable feature upon entering the hall was large banner across the back of the stage, with the words Faith, Hope, Love, in a circle in the center sur­rounding an open Bible, and the text across the banner, 'One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are breth­ren.' Near the front of the platform, in a setting of flowers, stood a large detail picture of Christ before Pilate.

"A full program had been arranged, with Saturday Faith Day, Sunday Hope Day, and Monday Love Day. The Chairman of the Convention Committee, in his ad­dress of welcome, spoke of the splendid cooperation of all the classes participating, and of the great desire of all concerned with the convention that isolated ones in remote places might be encouraged by the opportunity for fellowship with those of like precious faith. The discourses refreshed the minds and hearts of those pres­ent with the bountiful food which they supplied from God's wonderful storehouse of Truth and with their in­spiration toward renewed consecration and unity of fel­lowship in the bonds of Christ.

"An Immersion Service was held on Sunday. -- There had also been arranged a Question Meeting which proved most helpful, taking up the subject, 'The Lord's Pres­ence.' And particularly impressive was the demonstra­tion of work with the young people in the Sunday School, especially that portion of the demonstration in which the members of the primary, junior, and senior classes of the Boston Ecclesia's Sunday School all joined in an exercise based on the Chart, 'The Divine Plan of the Ages.' Questions relating to the. Chart were asked and the answers, with complete explanation of each, were given 'by the children, who not only pointed out on the Chart the various features referred to such as the different Dispensations, Ages, Planes of Being, Pyramids, etc., but also quoted from memory the Scripture proving each point made.

"The various sessions of the convention were inter­spersed with a program of beautiful solos and duets, and a piano recital of hymns, arranged by the Music Com­mittee of the Boston Ecclesia.

"Throughout the three days of this gathering of the Lord's people, there was shown a fulness of rejoicing in the Lord and His truth, and the fellowship of His people, and a unity of spirit which made all feel en­couraged and strengthened, and that it was indeed good to have been there."

Convention Reports

Cincinnati, Ohio

"The convention at Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 29-31 was well attended, the friends coming from as far away as Wisconsin, and many were the expressions of blessings received. Especially cheering to all hearts were the testimonies and evidences of appreciation of the priv­ilege of consecration on the part of some very young members of the local Ecclesia, as the special beauty of presenting one's self to God in youth was brought home to our minds.

"The discourses covered most doctrinal features of present truth, reviewed the divine plan of salvation d through which all the families of the earth are to be blessed, held forth the Word of God as the only true basis a for faith, urged the development of a spirit of love and tolerance, drew out the beauties of the life of faith, and emphasized the privilege of being dead with Christ that we may also reign with Him, offering practical suggestions of how we may crucify the flesh with its affections and find joy in having our Heavenly Father's will done in our lives. May our dear Father bless to His glory and our everlasting good, the spirit seed sown in this and all like gatherings."

Brooklyn, N. Y.

A gathering of the Lord's people for spiritual fellow­ship should always be an occasion of rich blessing, for such is the promise of One who has pledged Himself to be present, even where two or three of His saints come together in His name. It would be inconceivable that He would ever forget that promise, or to fulfill it by coming just to meet with His people without bringing a blessing with Him. Wherever even so few as two or three have found themselves together in His spirit, there He comes to impart the blessings He so well un­derstands we need. And thus it becomes our happy privilege to report another fulfillment of a promise which has drawn His people together again and again through­out the Age. The convention gathering of June 5th and 6th held in Brooklyn may well be added to the long list of such happy and profitable occasions.

The several discourses of this gathering seemed well chosen themes, and almost suggestive of pre-arrange­ment. First, the work of the Holy Spirit in its drawing and guiding power was ably presented. Then the im­portant lesson of "Life through Death" as illustrated in numberless ways in nature, brought some beautiful and helpful lessons to mind. This was followed by "The Riches of the Mystery" reviewing the blessedness of our inheritance through Christ-a theme well calculated to greatly increase our joy in God. Then "The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed God" followed, emphasizing sev­eral important reasons why it is a glorious Gospel, such as its simplicity, placing its possibilities within the reach of not many rich, great, or wise according to 'this world; and its having "the power of God unto salvation," as­suring all who accept it in true devotion of a final tri­umph through Christ-a glorious Gospel of unity, binding-all true saints in the blessed bonds of divine love, and united in "that blessed hope." Last of all we listened to a helpful discourse on "In His steps," point­ing out the various beauties of the Christ-life. Such themes seemed decidedly timely, and we believe were indeed a word in season. These considerations must surely give fresh encouragement to press on in the up­ward way, and greatly' increase the fervent hope that ere long the whole Church of the redeemed may be gathered into the everlasting abode our Lord has pre­pared for His own.

1937 Index