Welsh Journals

flfiontbl? toreaeun?* No. 36.—DECEMBER, 1896. THE PULPIT AND THE STATE OF RELIGION IN WALES. Under the above title an article of considerable interest has appeared in a Welsh magazine from the pen of Rev. T. C. Edwards, D.D., Principal of Bala Theological College. Starting with the inquiry as to what is the chief aspect of religion at the present time Dr. Edwards endeavours to look below the surface, and fancies he discovers beneath the commercial enterprise and educational activity of the day a legible writing, like the original inscription of a palimpsest, indicating uneasi¬ ness and foreboding. Dr. Edwards does not hesitate to maintain that the ultimate supremacy will belong to Christ; but in the nearer future there is the possibility that Wales should again fall away into irreligion and unbelief. And should the country depart from its faith in the gospel after the mighty works that have been done in it, it is perfectly certain that irreligion and ungodliness will prevail to a greater extent than at any previous time. "The most important question of all, therefore, is, what can be done to impart a powerful and safe religious impulse to our young people ? I am more and more convinced continually that the doctrine concerning Christ is the doctrine for the age. Our danger lies in our failure to grasp and preach this doctrine with sufficient vigour and intensity. The stand-point of the present time is completely changed from what it used to be. If anyone now imagines that the 'burning question' is Calvinism or Arminianism, Paedobaptism, Congregationalism, Presbyterianism, or Episcopalianism, he is egregiously mistaken. The burning question—the question now focused into a flame is—Who is Jesus of Nazareth ? Though there are none of our preachers who deny the doctrine concerning Christ, I fear there are scores and hundreds of our laymen, the thoughtful as well as the thoughtless, who care nothing about believing a mystic doctrine such as this is___The truth concerning Christ meets the requirements of the age. Our young men are still able to admire the moral greatness of Jesus; and if they do not always comprehend what is signified by his priesthood they are thoroughly alive to his kingship over their souls. Our duty is to preach the truth concerning Christ in all its mystic depth by preaching Christ Himself in all his beauty, his dignity, and his authority as a living person who claims and merits our full allegiance." Passing on to observe that the doctrine concerning Christ should not merely be accepted on account of its truth, but accepted and preached as the truth ordained by God for the saving of men, Dr. Edwards concludes by remarking, that "what consumes the energy of the church and totally nullifies the effect of Christianity is the worldli-