PART V. THE STANDARD OF THE CHRIS TIAN CONFEDERACY. A DIFFICULT BUT VITAL FACTOR. Though difficult, this is the most vital and essential factor in the whole scheme. It may not be an easy matter to draft a standard which is at once lofty enough in its requirements to attract the desirable people and wide enough to permit latitude on matters of lesser importance. Many differing minds, accustomed to look at things from many different viewpoints, will doubtless constitute a problem in this respect. It cannot be expected that all God's true people could be brought into this federation, but most surely a vast multitude of them would gladly enter it. The everywhere evident desire to defend, against a common foe, the things that matter most will render it easier for thousands of Christians to agree to differ on the things that are of lesser concern. The following is a suggested "standard" which we think would form a good basis for discussion, revision and approval. Some general observations follow. Here it is only necessary to say that the idea is to have a "Covenant" as the basis of the Confederacy. All who wished to enter it would be asked to thoughtfully and prayerfully sign this Covenant. Copies, in tasteful design, could be lithographed suitable for preservation or for display on the walls of a home. This Covenant would at once place all Christian Confederates in a position where there could be no possible doubt as to where they stood in doctrine, in their relationships with the world and as regards their pleasure, pursuits and practices. The suggested Covenant is as follows: THE COVENANT OF THE CHRISTIAN CONFED ERACY. SOLEMNLY, SINCERELY, WITHOUT RESERVE, AND OF MY OWN FREE CHOICE, I DO HERE AND NOW ENTER INTO THIS COVENANT WITH GOD: I. I DECLARE THAT I BELIEVE IN A PER SONAL GOD, the Creator and Sustainer of all things and the Originator of the laws of the universe. I will seek to live in daily communion with Him as my Heavenly Father; to serve Him, not as a God afar off, but recognizing His handiworks in the wonders of creation, as in the events and circumstances of my life, to endeavor to abide in His Presence to rejoice in His goodness and exalt Him in public and family worship. II. I DECLARE THAT I HAVE ACCEPTED AND DO ACCEPT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST as God's revelation of Himself to me. I avow Him to be the Son of God, equal in power, identical in character, the same in majesty with His Heavenly Father, and I here and now disavow any and every creed or argument tending to deny His deity or diminish His glory. III. I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST, THE promised Comforter, Whose presence and baptism of power I claim as essential to a life of victory. I am determined to seek after the fullest measure of His infilling, the endowment of His gifts and the bestowment of His graces. IV. I BELIEVE IN THE PERSONALITY OF THE DEVIL, to whose influences and temptations I have yielded in the past, having thus broken the perfect law of God and brought upon myself sorrow in this world and the danger of penalty in the world to come. V. I DECLARE THAT I HAVE ACCEPTED THE SALVATION offered through the merits of Jesus Christ in His life on earth, His death on the cross and His resurrection from the I grave. have taken Him to be my Saviour. I believe that He has borne my guilt, cleansed my heart and made me a child of God. VI. I BELIEVE IN THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES as the revelation of the mind and will of God. I renounce all criticisms which would weaken their supremacy. On the authority of Jesus Christ I accept them, in their original form, as the divine Word which, when heaven and earth are passed away, shall yet endure. Relying on the aid of the Holy Spirit's interpretation, I promise to study the Bible and to obey its commandments. VII. I PROMISE TO UNITE WITH GOD'S CHILDREN in the fellowship of that society or church which commends itself to my judgment as being most in harmony with my views and in accord with my convictions concerning the plain teaching of God's word. Remembering that Christ has many earthly folds for His one flock, and never looking for perfection in any human institution, I am determined, by prayer, love, humility, a holy example, a loyal service and a fearless testimony, to help my spiritual leaders and encourage all to reach after the standard set up for the Church in the New Testament. VIII. I HERE PROMISE TO TAKE CARE OF AND USE MY BODY as the temple of the Holy Ghost; to endeavor to practice such habits of cleanliness and purity as shall render it better able to minister to the service of Christ. To trust God, with or without means, to protect and heal it. To avoid all that would injure or defile it. To abstain entirely from the use of tobacco and from intoxicating liquors or narcotics in any form (except as medicinally administered), and to seek, in the exercise of all my lawful appetites, to do all for the glory of God. IX. I SOLEMNLY RESOLVE TO ABSTAIN FROM |