The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1868-04-29

illustrations OF the great doctrines or the Uos'
pei, for which they contend, never has been
granted in any of the Reformed Churches
and that since the days when Arminius made
the attempt down to the time when Barnes,
Beman and Duffeld repeated it, the expert
ment of combining orthodoxy with such liber-
ty, under Calvinistic creed, has never been
made without producing strife and division
worse than that which it was intended to cure.
We might go on to demonstrate the broad
churchism of this whole movement by COM
menting on the means adopted to urge it for
ward. If we were disposed to be critical, or
severe, the character and management of some
our Union Conventions-the way in which IL
Illustrations ofunion have been skillfully prepared
and then appealed to as prouideatiot tnd'cd-
tons; such, for example, as that extraordinary
marriage at our last Assembly-the fact so Of
ten appealed to, that the laity are far in
advance of the ministry on this subject, that is
to say, the scholars are cunning ahead of their
divinely appointed guides and teachers and com
pelling them to fall in with the popular tide; =
all these and many more such topics would sug-
gest large materials for doctrine, instruction and
reproof But we forbear. We cannot refrain,
however, from noticing some of the popular ar
guments by which we are urged to layaside doc
trinal controversies and unite for the sake of
union.
Next to the familiar and confident appeals to
divine providence, by which the finger Of God
is made to point in whatever direction men de-
sire to go, and the spirit of human compromises
profanely identified with the spirit of prophecy /;
the thing that troubles us most is the way in
which Scripture is quoted, and, as we think, per-
verted, to sustain the foregone conclusion of re-
union. How often, for example, is it asserted
that this whole movement is the divinely arranged
ful6lment of the Saviour's intercessary prayer,
and that to oppose it is to oppose the interces-
sion of the great High Priest. Let us ask the
brethren who use this argument few plain ques
TONS a. Do they believe that the Saviour's
prayer has not get been anSloered that his true
people are not already one in the sense in which
he prayed for their unity? (2.) Do they serious
ly think that the thing he desired and demanded
with his authoritative 81 WILL" is an organic
union, embracing diversity of views and feel
ings under an external form? (3.) If so, how
can they vindicate their own inconsistency
Are they willing, upon some such basis as the
Apostles Creed, to embrace Methodists, Episco
palians, Lutherans and CalviniStS in one grand
organization? And if not, are they prepared to
adopt the logical conclusion that none but Pres
byterians were embraced in the Saviour's inter-
cessary prayer that they "all may be one?''-
The familiar passages in Ephesians iv: 3-6 and
in l Cor. i 4, are pressed, by similar perver-
version, into the service of the reunion move
ment. But we confidently affirm, and appeal for
proof to every Protestant commentator since the
days of Luther, that these periods have no refer
enee to external union, except so far as it may
be the natural and spontaneous expression Of
inoard unity And we also affirm that every
plan proposed for the reunion of the Old and
New School either ignores, or openly renounces
the very thiny on which the Apostle so urgently
insists He exhorts us all "by the name of Je-
sus Christ to speak the same hing-to be per-
fectly Joined together IN the same mind and an
the same Judgment" But the popular cry for
reunion reiterates the demand for full liberty to
speak different things, and camors in the name
of Christ for liberal organization in which we
shall be perfectly joined together in the recogni-
ton of various and irreconcileable judgments, as
though they were all equally orthodox. The ad-
vocates of reunion reject with scorn, and de-
nounce as narrow and exclusive, the idea that
there is only one historic sense of our theOlogi-
cal standards. And the Joint Committee, repre-
senting the two great Assemblies of Presbyteri-
ans, has come at last to the solemn conclusion
that in the reunited Church full liberty is to be
allowed for every one to adopt without censure
or rebuke his own explanations and illustra-
tions'' of the doctrines he processes to hold
What more than this was ever demanded by
Arius, Pelagius, Socinus, or ArminiuS? Let
men who have read ecclesiastical history pause
and consider, before they plunge the Presbyte-
ran Church into this yawning gulf, this bottom
less pit of broad Church indifferentism. Let
them record the indisputable fact that the peri
DDS of greatest external unity in the Church
have been the times of her greatest corruption
and ineffciency. Their eulogies on external
union are specious but deusive. We cannot
fight the devil with fire; nor overcome senti-
mental. formal and fowery religion by more
flowers and sentiments. Sweet and fragrant
they may be for a time but, pucked away from
the root and branch of stern, sound doctrine,
they will soon wither, and rot, and become a
stencil. 1--WE would revive the work of the Re-
formers we must revive the spirit of the Re-
formers; the spirit of earnest contention for the
truth. We never can divert men from ritualism
and from pantheistic materialism by erecting a
rituaGstic and material structure of a higher
grade and more comprehensive proportions. 1t
can be done only by quickening in individual
souls the vital power of doctrinal truth, and
causing them to grapple with the profound pro-
blems of revealed theology.
One of the most alarming features of this
whole movement is the fact that learned Doctors
and theological professors have adopted the pop
ular cant against doctrinal controversy, and re-
iterate before mixed assemblies the glittering
platitudes of those who in all ages have rallied
! against strict adherence to creeds. choice
specimen may be found in the speech of DR..
Fisher in the Philadelphia Convention, which
we select as one of the best of its class. There
is not space to make quotations. Read 1t, and
er atno disco omnes And then, read the follow
ing extract from the first chapter Of Dicks The
ology: "Polemic theology is often held up as
the object of scorn and detestation, and it is
loudly demanded that the voice of controversy
should be heard no more within the walls of the
Church-that the disciples of Christ should bury
their disputes in oblivion, and without minding
differences, should dwell together as brethren in
unity. There is much simplicity and want OF
discernment in this proposal when it is sincere