The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 17, 1857.

intervening period—will afford to some minds
the most conclusive argument in favour of
doing so. Some, again, will say the farther
we progress from those who have known
Christ the less likely are we to understand
what He meant, while the constant growth of
sects and conflicting opinions creates such con•
fusion in religion that we had best cling to
what we have already got. But upon others
the same facts will have precisely the contrary
effect, according to whether they regard the
Christian dispensation as the final manifesta-
tion of God upon earth, and that the duration
of the world is to be conjectured from the
literal interpretation of Scripture, or whether
they prefer to believe the contrary of these
things. Yet, even in the latter case, we might
surely well ask preachers such as Mr. Robert-
son why we are not to look for precisely the
same authority for the modification of the
Church now as regulated her polity in the
transition from the patriarchial to the Jewish,
and from the Jewish to the Christian dispen-
sation? If a direct revelation was necessary
to the one, why not to the other? Holding
this opinion strongly ourselves, we can but
deeply regret to find such passages as these in
the sermons before us :

Institutions pass—churches alter—old forms change,
and highminded and good men cling to them as if they
were the only things by which God would regenerate the
world.

To mourn over old superstitions and effete creeds is
just as unwise as is the grief of the mother mourning over
the form which was once her child. She cannot separate
her affection from that form—those hands—those limbs—
those features—are they not her child? The true answer
is, her child is not there, it is only the form of her child;
and it is as unwise to mourn over the decay of those in-
stitutions—the change of human forms—as it was unwise
in Jonah to mourn with that passionate sorrow over the
decay of the gourd which had sheltered him from the heat
of the noontide sun.
And so, brethren, all things change, all things outward
change and alter, but the God of the Church lives on.
The Church of God remains under fresh forms, the one
holy entire family in heaven and earth.

Now, this divorcing of the spiritual unity of
the Church from that visible polity which God
himself hath instituted is alike unscriptural,
contrary to the testimony of catholic antiquity,
and therefore highly dangerous, especially in
such days as these.
Again, in the same sermon, and also in
" The Law of Christian Conscience," Mr.
Robertson has expressed himself in terms
that would lead many to adopt conclusions
from which himself would shrink with horror.
For example, what would these words, taken
by themselves, lead to ?--

The belief of the whole world cannot make that thing
true to me which to me seems false. The conscience of
the whole world cannot make a thing right to me if in my
heart I believe it wrong.

Again, in applying this principle, he says :

It may be a mistaken principle, but there is no doubt
that it causes much pain to many Christians to see a car-
riage used on the Lord's Day. But you, with higher
views of the spirit of Christianity, who know that the
Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath,
who can enter more deeply into the truth taught by our
Blessed Lord that every day is to be dedicated to Him,
and consecrated to His service—upon the high principle
of Christian liberty you can use your carriage, you can
exercise your liberty.
Now, would not Mr. Robertson have acted
more wisely if he had added to these state-
ments a salutary admonition that the indivi-
dual conscience must be subjected to the out-
ward law of God, and when left to itself may
become so perverted as to lose the power of
discerning between truth and error, even as
the optic nerve, becoming diseased, sees blue
as green, and black as white. The warning
of Scripture might well have come in here—
" Woe to him that putteth darkness for light
" and light for darkness."
Again, we cannot speak too strongly against
the rationalistic spirit in which he approaches
the doctrine of the Trinity ; neither can we
conceive the spiritual state of a congregation
in the English Church which could make such
a statement as the following necessary or ad-
visable :

Here, then, my Christian brethren, are the three con-
sciousnesses by which He becomes known to us; three,
we said, known to us. We dare not to limit God, we dare
not presume to say that there are in God only three per-
sonalities--only three consciousnesses. All that we dare
presume to say is that there are three in reference to us,
and only three; that a fourth there is not; that, per-
chance (?), in the present state a fourth you cannot add
to these,Vreator, Redeemer, SauctiMr.