Newspaper Page Text
1U no?8) THE I
man ism and Protestantism." These publications
may be procured from Dr. Orts by addressing
him at Union Theological Seminary, Richmond,
Ya. The price of the pamphlets is ten cents
each.
THE PROPOSED APPROACHMENT
It will be remembered that our last Assembly
appointed a committee to confer with a similar
committee of the United Presbyterian Assembly
to ascertain whether a basis of union of the two
Churches is practicable, and if so, to report the
said basis to their respective Assemblies for their
consideration and action thereon. Meanwhile it
is well for the people of the two Churches to
learn something of each other in an unofficial
and unconventional way. So far as acquaintance
from personal contact goes, these two great conservative
Presbyterian bodies are yet awaiting
an introduction and a very considerable amount
of moving in the same circle. It is to be presumed
that they observe substantially the same
ecclesiastical proprieties and maintain the same
code of good form and accepted conventionality,
but as yet the matter has not advanced even to
the experimental stage. They are in one part
~c ?nd wp in another. They are strong
UL IIIC WW* u??v .. w ...
in Pennsylvania, Ohio and the Northwest, while
our central parallel lies in the Carolinas, North
Georgia, Tennessee and the Southwest.
The United Presbyterian recently finished an
inquiry "to ascertain whether a basis of union"
with the Northern Presbyterian Church could be
found. For the present, at least, such a basis has
not been discovered. By way of facilitating that
inquiry, or at least enlightening its readers, The
United Presbyterian published a brief statement
of "Our Distinctive Principles," intended to indicate
"the difference between the Presbyterian
and the United Presbyterian Churches." This
statement, adaquately and clearly made, should
furnish valuable information to our people on
those points of doctrine and practice on which
the two churches agree, and the points, if any,
.rm u-iiinVi fhpv differ. We auote the editorial in
full.
A correspondent asks that a brief answer shall
be given to the question, "What is the difference
between the Presbyterian and the United Presbyterian
Churches? The briefest possible answer
would be to say that the difference consists in
what are known as our distinctive principles, and
the faithfulness with which we are living up to
those principles. In so far as doctrines are concerned,
and we do not doubt that this is what
our correspondent means, we, in common with
the Presbyterian Church, hold to what are known
as Westminster Standards, that is, the Westminster
Confession of Faith and the Catechisms
Larger and Shorter. These constitute the creed
of English-speaking Presbyterians everywhere.
But in addition to these Standards, we have a
Testimony, consisting of eighteen articles, which
was adopted at the time of the union of the Associate
Reformed Churches, forming the United
Presbyterian Church. This Testimony contains
the statements of doctrine and order on which
the United Presbyterian Churoh justifies its existence
separate from the other Presbyterian
Churches.
There is an opinion prevailing more or less generally,
to the effect that our distinctive principles
are to be found in the last five of the eighteen
articles of our Testimony, but the fact is that
the badge of our denominational profession includes
every one of the eighteen. These are too
long to be given here, but they deal with the foli
u:?i. . ti? T>I T : i: _ e ?
npwiu^ situjccis; 1 nt? i itsnnry in?|#ii ?iion ui tiic
Scriptures, the Eternal Sonship of Christ, the
Covenant of Works, the Pall of Man and his
Present Inability, the Nature and Extent of the
Atonement, Imputed Righteousness, the Gospel
Offer, Saving Faith, Evangelical Repentance, the
Reliever's Deliverance from the Law as a Covenant.
the Work of the Holy Spirit, the Headship
of Christ, the Supremacy of God's Law, Slaveholding.
Secret Societies, Communion, Covenant:rand
Psalmody.
It is true that many of these articles are but
'RESBYTERIAN OF THE S t
fuller statements of, or logical inferences from
the doctrines of the Confession and Catechisms,
but they were formulated and adopted because
U V?12 J il-' '1
ii, v?tK? ueueveu uiai xney were needed, and we
hold to them to-day for the same reason. Of the
last five articles of the Testimony, the one on
Human Slavery was a very live article until this
matter ceased to be a national question. It serves
no purpose now except to show the Church's
record. The article on Secret Societies marks a
difference between the Presbyterian and -the
United Presbyterian Churches. Our denomination
protests against oath-bound secretism. The
article on Communion is distinctive in that it
prohibits unregulated access to the Lord's Table.
The article on Psalmody is a distinctive feature
of our Church, which employs the inspired Psalter
in the worship of God, to the exclusion of all
uninspired compositions.
That the ministers and other officers of our
sister Church do sincerely receive and adopt the
Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms,
would indicate substantial harmony between them
HO TV?A 4-iilnA A'P J
>UU u?. A. tie truest Ui lilt: lWUIIIUIlvV, VUIJSlSllLlg
of eighteen articles which was adopted at the
time of the union of the Associate Reformed
Churches, are familiar. The last five of these
are foreign to our own standards or teachings.
It would be a signal departure from our traditions
and usage to adopt them. It is practically
certain that they cannot he accepted as
part of the system of doctrine included in the
ordination vows of our ministers and officers,
nor in the faith and practice of our loyal people.
We s^hall earnestly hope for an adjustment that
shall be promotive of harmony, unity, co-operation
and at least such organic relationship as
shall promote the prosperity of Zion and shall
glorify the name of Him "Whose we are and
Whom we serve.
THE BIBLE IN THE SCHOOLS.
The public school system of our country has
come to stay. It never can and never will be
Oil r\AMnA/I AJ |V?*? ?- ? ? ? ? ? -? ^ ' '
nuj/ciacucu u,y me private ur parocmai system.
The principle of the separation of church and
state is deeply ground into the fibre of American
thought and life. More and more we are coming
to believe it is the duty of the state to open wide
the school house doors. It is based on the magnificent
principle of the strong helping the weak.
The state is strong?often the individual is weak
?or worthless. Compulsory education is coming.
The public school system has its weaknesses.
It has not stressed moral teaching as it should.
For fear of impinging on the province of the
Church on the one band, and of teaching sectarianism
on the other, it has shied away from
much sound moral instruction. The Church has
ceased to do secular teaching. The minister and
tVlA a/^Virvrvlnr*acfoY* oro nnf a J 4-"U~ ?
^..uuiuiuuni ui^ uub v/nr nun Lite same now.
Her strong denominational colleges will exist,
but it is becoming increasingly difficult to
establish new ones.
Some of us may not like this state of affairs,
but we face a condition, not a theory?and that
condition has settled down for life. What ought
God's people to do in the face of such conditions?
They are in a majority in most school
districts. They surely can secure teachers of
high moral and Christian character. That is a
tremendous gain. They can see that the elements
of moral science are taught in the curriculum of
the grammar school.
To that end the Bible, pure and simple, with
tint mne or comment ongnt to De taught our children
in the schools.
All are agreed that here in this Book of books
is the most wonderful compendium of moral
truth. Tt is the only absolutely true book. All
other books have to be changed. This never. The
only changes are those that bring the translation
nearer to the original text. It lays the founda
> U T H [September 25, 1912
tion of all morals. No people have ever read it
who did not rise to a higher plane of moral living.
Compare England of Henry the VIII's
reign, and the time of Oliver Cromwell. An
open Bi'ble did it.
All teachers are agreeing more and more that
we need to teach morals. Much wrong is done
ismorantlv in nnhplipf TmmnrtalHv ia
w v - tj * <* V11CU
ignorance.
We are seeking for the best text-books. Why
not have the best in morals? If the Bible is the
best, why not have the Bible? "Oh, it is such
a Sectarian Book!" Is it? Why then do more
than two hundred sects draw their life from it?
If it is so sectarian that it might teach children
of Roman Catholic faith, Presbyterian ism, why
do Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans.
Baptists, Methodists, Disciples all believe in
this Book ? The fact is that the Sectarian bias is
given by the teacher of that particular Church.
The fact that the Presbyterian gets his Calvinism;
the Methodist, his Arminianism; the Episcopalian,
his Episcopacy, etc., from this source
is evidence that the Bible is better and broader
and truer than they all.
It may be made sectarian, just as one history
may teach the South was right, and another, the
North, but the Bible just as it is, is not sectar
lan. its principal business is to teach what man
is to believe concerning God, and what duty God
requires of man, and this surely, no one can
rightly object to, save an atheist. " Oh, it is such
a Holy Book, it ought not to be dragged into the
school room, like a geography or reader." Is it
not time we were learning, that one place is as
holy as another. The counting room, the railroad
train, the school-desk?all may be pulpits
from which men may teach the truth.
We ought to revere God every where. Love
of truth and reverence are not confined to any
one place. We need not fear the teaching of the
Bible in the schools will lessen the influence or
narrow the work of the Church of God. It will
increase it.
The trouble with the Church now is, it has put
itself often out of line with the advancing development
of man. It has fallen behind, because
it has failed to lead. Let us steadily contend
for the Bible in our schools, not to teach Deuominationalism,
but righteousness. Let us get
out of the absurd position of including a hundred
'books, every one of which has some error, and
excluding the only Book that has none.
Let us make our education symmetrical, 'by
training the morals as well as the mind. a. a. l
NOTES IN PASSING.
by bert.
When the apostles had returned
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xjlv/m tuca niii-v^iuil mill I1HU IIltHlt? ic"
port to the Lord of the things they had
done, and taught he said to them, "Come ye
yourselves apart into a desert place and rest
awhile." ~
Bait the eager multitude moved more rapidly
than they and reached the place first. Then, instead
of resting, they must needs help him to
feed the hungry crowd. Jesus had compassion
upon his disciples. They had been working very
hard and had done much good. They needed
rest, and deserved rest, and he invited them to
the only place they mfight. expect rest, a lonely
rvlaee. But they were not permitted to sit idly
J il ii*? "?
uowii: trie mumruae was eager and insistent.
"Did they not then rest? T think that when
they had seen the wonder of that great crowd so
miraculously fed they felt refreshed. They may
have been tired, yet as they went about through
the multitude distributing here and there and
listening to the satisfied murmurings of those
they were serving I think all thought of wear>