The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1875-12-01
REV DR. STANTON ON PRESBYTERIAN
FRATERNAL RELATIONS"

Assistant Editor OF the ASFutU 0Nt IFeSVy
ter (Cincinnati) and has, for brief spaces OF
time, held various places more or less con-
spicuous in the Church. He was for time
lsboring in the South, FIST as President OF
Oakland College, Miss, then as pastor OF
the Prytania Street church 10 New Orleans;
during which time his views on the eontro
verified questions of the day were understood,
as We are told, to coincide with those com
monty held by Southern PresbyterianS.-
During, or about the beginning of the war,
he became Professor In Danyille TheOlog-
ical Seminary, which began soon after to
present the appearance of nodding to Its
fall; and it is commonly reported that his
influence was not peculiarly fortunate in
its tostering condition. There are, IN fact,
those who even ascribe to il fatal potency
downwards. Be this as it may, soon after
being NJ lderatOr of that disastrous Assembly
of 1866, in S.. L1uis-an Assembly Of IN
happy memory, whose bends Of fragrant tyr
amy Kentucky and Missouri instantly broke
asuuder in spirit of righteous indignation
soon after this he lef; kentucky e. having
no more place in those parts and turned
in with DR.. Monfort to take part in the bust
ness belonging to " the third estate " In hu-
man affairs.
As he now comes forth to settle the ques-
ton of a. Presbyterian Fraternal Relations,
it would seen most natural that his appear
ance should be in the Herald and Pres6yter
in which he holds so prominent a place. Ia
stead of this, for some unexplained reason,
HE elaborate article graces the columns OF
the Nsw York Evangelist and the New York
Independent.
A Ter tnis fraternal introduction of DR.
Stanton to our readers, We propose some no
tice of few points he presents, so far as
they caa be considered of any Importance.
It wall be remembered that 10 their CORES
pondence recently published, DR.. Nelson
comedies TO Dr.. Palmer, that all the ssper-
sions cast upon our Church-the past Church
as well as the present-Ought to De fairly
removed. TIE object of DR.. Stanton is to
express his earnest disapprobatiOn of any
such thing. He afirms that those charges
('' immOrality and san, - ''sehisD'," heresy'
blasphemy') were all perfectly true and ur-
gently called for, especially the one Of bias
p6emy. The follOsing extract will make his
meaning plain;
ave are now brought face to face With
the question, Are these obnoxious things
true! | hesitate not to say that they are
true, not ouly, but under the circumstances
in which they were uttered, righteousness
and faithfulness demanded that they should
be proclaimed before all men. And l am
free to say, furthermore, that whenever the
Northern Church shall write 'disapprOVed
upon them, in the sense claimed to be due
by the Southern Church-aad by so doing
shall write 'guiltless upon the entire course
of the Southern Church from 1861 to 1866
she will stand convicted of pusillanimlty
and folly such az | trust may never disgrace
her before the world. But of this have no
fear"
This is open and candid and as this sac
cuser of the brethren has the spirit in him,
it is we'll to let it out. Il helps as to under
stand the position of the two Churches all
the better. With the pressure of much work
on our hands, aud compelled to write for the
issue this week what it was our intention to
postpone till next, We cannot enter as fully
INFO the subject as might be done under
other circumstances. DR.. Stanton, after a
brief notice of the immortality and
"schism charged upon us, lays out his
strength upon that 6rOtherly little mistake
of "6Iasphsmy" ascribed to our Church
We take up this first Dr. Stanton seems to
derive no small satisfaction from the idea
that the paternity of this accusation is ex-
clusyely his own. We are not sure that be
might not be stripped of this plume; but as
it is not probable another human being
would desire partnership, it may be as well
to leave him " alone in his glory" He pre-
pared the Pastoral Letter adopted by his
Assembly IN 1866, and says gift" only in
the Pastoral Letter proper is the charge of
'blssphemy fOuad.
He assigns several things as provocatiOns
to this charge. First he says" The lead
ing men of the Southern Church had filed
the land with their teachings that the negro
slavery of the South was divine institu-
ton; that it was a school of virtue that
it was AN ordinance of God in precisely
the same sense and in the same category
with marriage and civil government.
That the relation of master aud servant,
Tor slave, as it means in the Bible is law
full one--not inherently sinful, is the doctrine
of the Word of God, and has always been
with few exceptions the doctrine of the
Christian Church, until the rise of modern
Abolitionism. The contrary is now held by
that school in common with iu6dels, and a
large class of people who under recent agita-
tions have been sled away With the error of
the wicked" Slavery has assumed various
forms. The villansge formerly in England
was one f; the serfdom till recently in Rus
sa was another; and the peOnage of Mexico
third. Domestic servitude-the kind which
existed in the United States-is an instance
in which the order of things constituting
slavery was made part of the family relation.