Newspaper Page Text
[ March 27, 1912.
Li ve Issues
SOME COMMENTS OX A RECENT
ISSUE.
Dear Presbyterian: Your paper, always
good, in the issue of February 28,
is of special interest. Some of us. who
love ii-e Lord and his work, are no' able
to throw < Mrs elves, with fu'lefct s>:utVi'll
V iho T .Q vmon *a M i
Movement. We rejoice iu a'.i the }?i 1
it has dor.e cr may do. Wo can and do
pray for ilie 1 ?rd to guide i* according
to his will. Yet there are some things as
to its conception, character and course,
that give us pause?a pause which we
feel that a comprehensive and loyal
fai'h calls ri.r.
It was with more than ordinary interest
therefore, that I, for one, took up Dr.
T. C Johnsor b "'mpression as to : .o
hattftnooga Convention", on the firs.
page of your paper, to read candidly
and carefully. Dr. Johnson's name
evoked the spirit of condor. The importance
of the subject called for care
as well as candor, in considering the
"Impression" of an eye-witness, to what
has been the object of so much generai
interest. I rose from the read'ng with
certain impressions. The first was the
judicial honesty of spirit, which I have
always known him to have, displayed
Kir rkt. * - * ?'
uj x^>. juiiuouii o in hid report 01 wnat
lie saw and heard. The second impression
was the good spirit, which also
I have also known him to have, win:
which he said all the good things he
could at length, and only suggested
some strictures towards the close of
his article. I wish he had elaborated
that which he mentions at the last. The
church needs such instruction, at present,
and with reference to this as well
as all the other movements. Which are
but the ways in which voluntaryism Is
now asserting itself. The Laymen's
Missionary Movement has sought the
endorsement of the church for its success,
but is essentially an effort of voi
untaryism, as outside of, If not against
ecclesiastical control. Its whole t--ne
and trend is anti-ecclesiastical. Ifth'b
statement is true, Is It in accord with
our lord's revealed plan? Did he not
establish the Church? Did he not glvo
it authority and responsibility in the
matters of doctrine, discipline and distribution?
Does he not call upon us to
recognize and be subject to his wisdom?
W? must not forget that the Church is
a part of the revealed scheme of grace.
If we break down government in the
Ixird's House, what will be the it
heritance of our children? The whole
thing looks specious. Error always
does, in order to be successful. The
history of the Church and of error
proves this to be true unmistakably. The
error of Voluntaryism is at the root
of all its movements. It lives upon a
false conception as to the Lord's way,
and. while patronizing the Church, puts
it aside. Sooner or later, when the
i'hurch allies herself with organized
Voluntaryism, she comes, directly or
indirectly, to be dom'nated by it. At
.?V LUC ^uuikU wanes it triitl UI llie
Movement; at last "the tall wags the
dog."
18 Nashville in control of Athens, or
is Athens In control of Nashville?
1 wish Dr. Johnson would give the
Church some loving and wise gu'dance
In this critical time of her history. The
very success of these Voluntary Movements
makes them the more dangerous
to the order and discipline of God's
bouse.
And your editorial on "leaders" is
line. G've us more of it. Egoism, native
and cultivated by mystical piety, is
-
JU1IN IHt
THE PRESBYTERI
i Discussed
like a certain man in Ohio, of that
type, who said: "I am willing to lead
wherever the Lord will follow." And
there is so much of this Egoism in the
Experts. It converts the Experts into
ImpertB.
Let us have missionary zeal and
activity at home as well as abroad.
i^et us rejoice In all the genuine enthusiasm
to disseminate the whole
Gospel into the whole world. What
some of us feel insistent about is the
honor of our Lord in the using of his
means and in the preserving of his
plan. This alone will succeed in the
long run. A Minister.
PREJUDICE AGAINST PRESBYTERIANS.
By John C. Williams.
The Presbyterian Church is ranked
among the most liberal and cons'dera<te
of other denominations and has ever
been a leader In the efforts to establish
religious freedom for all and has had a
prominent part in shaping the course of
the United States in religious matters
and the political form of government
was based on the Presbyterian form.
At the time of the adoption of the
United States Constitution the Presbyterian
Church had the advantage over
all the others and bid fair to become
the most popular and the strongest numerically
as well as the most influential.
The statistics for the year just
closed, however, reveal the fact that our
great church stands fifth In the church
family groups and the Southern Presbyterians
occupy the nineteenth place.
-Now why do we not hold first place,
both in the nation and in the South, ns
was to have been expected and as our
fathers confidentially thought we
wnnlrt ?
It is very evident to any careful observer
that there is a great deal of prejudice
against the Presbyterian Church
and specially aga'nst the Westminster
Confession of Faith and this is not con.
fined to the illiterate and immoral, but
to all classes and in all sections of the
country. There is prejudice against all
denominations, but it is based on what
they teach and practice: there is prejudice
against the Baptist because they
teach immersion as the only valid baptism
and that they practice close communion.
They do not deny such beliefs,
but defend and uphold them.
There is prejudice against the Methodists
because they believe in the possible
apostacy of a child of God and
thftV HpfpnH tholr nnolflnn on/? /?n??5*
not. But when we come to the Presbyterians
the remarkable thing is the
prejud'ce against us is not mainly on
what we believe and teach, but on what
we do not believe and vehemently deny
as having any countenance in our system
of doctrine. The great prejudice
against the Presbyterian Church is
based mainly on the current belief that
our Confession teaches the horr'ble
ideas of fatalism and infant damnation
in the Third and Tenth Chapters and it
has been hurled at us from the first
days of Cumberlandism to the latest
political cartoon by the humorous "Mr.
Dooley" who represents Woodrow Wilson
teach'ng the damnation of Infants
to his students.
Do we believe in such travesties of
theology and religion? So, we do not
and never have and our Confession
when fairly interpreted contains no
such ideas. Our author'tles, Hodge,
Thornwell and Dabney deny it and at
least seven General Assemblies have
Presbyterian Of
Of The South
AN OF THE SOUTH
declared that we did not teach such
monstrous doctrines and yet the mass
of the people and the majority of theologians
believe that we do and charge It
up to our account.
Where does this general belief come
from and how conies it that so many accuse
us of holding such ideas? We say
It is false that the Third Chapter teaches
fatalism and the Tenth infant damnation
and the question then is where did
the ideas come from and what keeps
them going? While the Confession of
Faith is one of the greatest of religious
human documents and has had wonderful
influence on the thought and conduct
of the world, yet it Is still human
and fallible and must share in the
weakness it attributes to all earthly
courts and records and the fault lies
mainly with the Confession itself and
language of these chapters are not as
clear and free from doubtful construe,
tion as they should be. The words are
capable of being misunderstood and
misconstrued by the honest and misrepresented
by the dishonest and there
is where the trouble l'es. Wherever
the Confession goes and is read there
will be those who will hold u? their
hands and say, "The Presbyterians believe
and teach that infants dying in
infancy are lost."
As all people are concerned about infants
this idea comes with a dull coldness
and they cannot endure such a
thought or even an implication of such
a dread possibility of an innocent little
babe being sent to hell torments. What
then must we do? Our church led the
way?following John Calvin?in teaching
the salvation of the unconscious
babes and has never believed for one
moment that one of them is lost and
must we continue to rest under such an
aspersion and go on all of our days
weighted down with such an unnatural
and unholy accusation. The way, and
be only way, to destroy this wrong impression
and prevent men in scorn and
ridicule pointing at us and accusing us
of teaching infants are in hell not a
span long, is to amend the language of
the Confession and make it so clear
that we believe ill infant salvatinn and
not their damnation that our opponents
would as soon accuse us of stealing
corn from a blind horse as that we believed,
by the remotest implication, that
one infant dy'ng in infancy goes to hell.
And this is what we have the opportunity
of doing in the proposed amendment
to the Tenth Chapter. Adopt this
amendment and this prejudice will receive
a severe blow and the Southern
Fresbyter'an Church will go forward
in reaching the millions of the destitute
about us and those in the remotest part
of the earth with surprising rapidity.
But is it not sacrilegious to amend
the Confession and is it. not dangerous
to change the work of the fathers and
will not we open the flood-gates to
change and will not liberalism and
modern unbelief swamp us and our
testimony to truth be lost? are quesUnna
aol/o/1 m?/1
wvruv uuncU (ftllU OUIUC llCO'iaiC ilUUUl
making this needed alteration for fear
that once started on revision we cannot
stop and our Church will die. Did
Presbyterian wisdom and conservatism
die with Twisse, ?Rutherford and Gillespie?
Are there not still m'ghty men
of valor among us? But our Revolutionary
fathers did not hesitate to revise
the Confession when they found
that it was best to dc so and there came
great spiritual and temporal bless'ngs
upon the Church. And the fathers of
1886 did not hesitate to revise this
mighty Bystem of doctrine when they
detected imperfection and again there
came great blessings upon the Church.
\NO CLU
(403) 17
It it> u historic fact that every time
there has beeu an amendment to the
Confession of Faith there "has come
extraordinary blessings upon the Church
and the work committed to her care
and she has made great strides forward
and enlarged her borders and God has
U.nMnrl 1 *?
Buuiou piuptnuuoi; upun uer. ? uai tiiti
fathers have done we can do and as
they get the ear and heart of the people
by changing, as they saw a need, so can
we and we may expect the hearts of the
?.000.000 unsaved whites in the South
to be opened to us and we can do them
good and they ?\lil do us good.
The lauguage of the Confession
should be made as simple and transparent
as that of the Shorter Catechism
and this is what the proposed amendment
seeks to do. Thera is uo charge
that the- Catechism teaches Infant
damnation and the reason is -.hat the
language was made clear tiit chll
uren uuu youzn couia grasp ana understand
as they succeeded. The lauguage
of the Confession is not clear and is
liable to be misunderstood and that
must be rectified.
There was a young man from the
outside reached by a Presbyterian Sunday
school and he. with others, committed
the Shorter Catechism to
memory and as he attended the church
regularly he was approached on the
subject of uniting with the church. He
asked for the creed of the church that
be might come to an intelligent conclusion
as to its tenets before joining.
The minister, recently from the east,
glady gave him his Confession with the
expectation that he would soon unite
with his church. He knew of the case
of that old woman from the "Beautiful
Isle of Nowhere" who rejected the Confession
because, while she approved of
the coarse print, could not endure the
Hue?Bible proof texts?and so he was
ready to defend the Bible and convince
... u .UK. it iron IU lli>riuuil> Willi I 111'
Confession. In a few weeks the young
man united with another denomination
and said his reason for doing so was
he could not belong to a church which
taught that infants were lost. He
stumbled over the course print of the
i onfession. The name of this man is
legion and we have lost many of them
for the same reason. The minister has
had several calls for his creed and when
he can do so, leaves off the Confession
and gives them Smith's "Creed of Presbyterians"
or Bowen's "What We Believe."
and finds that he has better success
in landing them In the Presbyterian
church. It Is needless to say that
whenever the time comes to vote in his
Presbytery on amendments to the Confession
his vote is recorded in the
affirmative.
The unanimous voice of Presbyterians
now and in the past has been for the
salvation of all infants dying in infancy
and such voice should be clearly and
unmistakably expressed in their Stand
arus ana wiien we find a joint in our
confessional armor then we should lose
no time in fixing it and thus prevent the
arrows of the enemy, hostile and friendly,
from piercing through and drawing
blue blood. The proposed amendment
represents the true belief of historic
Presbyter'anism and Calvinism of
which we boast and the faith and ideals
of world-wide Presbyterianism to-day.
De Queen, Ark.
We often do more good by our sympathy
than by our labors, and render to
tbe world a more lasting service by
absence of Jealousy and recognition of
merit than we could ever render by the
straining efforts of personal ambition.
Dean Farrar.
BSee Announcement
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