The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1877-07-25

the glorious Church or the future, as gre
4 congregation still organised as Church, re
resented by its elders-four and twenty
twelve from the old and twelve from the ne
| dispensation and these elders casting the
;. crowns, the symbols of their authority, at tt
/ feet of Him whom they unite to acknowledg
as their head and source of all authority
the Church of all ages. Thus the Calvinistl
theory of the Church is seen to be in perfec
harmony both with the structure and the sui
stance of the Scriptures. The primary an
. germinal idea of the Church is of the elec
body contemplated in the Covenant Of Re
demption. By covenant charter this bod
is organized into community in which tn
Mediator rules, to which He gives ordinances
laws, and officers, and through which He wi
reveal His will and execute His mission t
; the race at large. This organized body, il
the nature of the case, is perpetual and iden
tical through all ages. 1t may vary in de
grees of purity down to utter apoStacy. l
may have its seat in one nation and run il
the line of national descent, or it may becom
the Church of all nations, and. treat as on
blood all kindreds of lnsn. It may now b
conspicuous, or now humble and compare
lively hidden. 1t may vary as to the degre'
of divine knowledge current in it, and may
vary as to the form of its ordinances and In
Strumentalities for teaching divine truth
But withal it is essentially the same body oi
people, organised for the same purposes, ad
ministered in by the same Ruler, and under
Him ministered to by the same sort of min
istering servants, and substantially under the
same form of government. A reference to
the Calvinistic creeds of the Reformation will
show that the theory of the Church, here de-
veloped was plainly the conception which
Calvinists then had, however. they may have
failed afterward to maintain it fully. Some
of them more fully, some less, brought out
the conception of the Church visible, as the
manifestation of the Church ideal Of the pur-
pose of redemption. 1t may now be asked
why, with this clear conception of the Church,
so far in advance of the conception of other
than Calvinistic Churches at the Reforma-
tion, the Calvinistic Churches have also, in
great measure, failed to actualise their ideal.
The answer is not difficult. In the first place,
such theory of the Church naturally excited
the hostility of the secular governments of
the world, because to their Erastian concep-
tions it seemed to be setting up within their
dominionS an imperiWm IN impersO, leading
their subjects to. say, "There is another
King, one Jesus" Hence the peculiar hos
tility of political sovereigns and Erastian leg
islators and jurists to Presbyterianism. And
hence, on the other hand, the peculiar form
of the testimony of the Scottish fathers for
"Christ's crown and covenant" 1t is very
common blunder among even men of letters
to confound the Scottish Presbyterians, in
the contest with the Tudors and Stuarts, with
the English Nonconformists, under the COM
mon title of Puritans. Whereas the Scottish
Puritan, if he. must be called such, had no
sort of ecclesiastical affinity with the English
Puritan. While the one was inherently
Radical and Republican, the other was inhe-
rently Conservative and RoyaliSt. Their
only affinity was in making common cause
against tyranny and prerogative. In con-
cluding, DR.. Robinson said: Nothing has
been said in this paper of the theories Of &C.
clesiology, which trace the visible Church of
God no farther back ~ the Apostles, nor
of the popular error, nRuAs little is said
expressly in the writ Apostles of
the form of Church cd Ement therefore it
must be matter of minor Importance. 1t
will be seen that according to the views here
presented, the Church of God as a visible or
ganization had already become venerable in
the age of the Apostles. They had no COM
mission to establish Church constitution,
but simply to modify the constitution 80 far
as to call on the Church of the one nation to
become the Church of all nations, and to
modify the ordinances of the Church, so as to
substitute the forms Of worship proper to the
worship of Christ, as historically incarnate, for
the symbols needful for the worship of Christ
while His incarnation was yet future. The
function of the Apostles was similar to those
of the American conventions called to modify
the State Constitution, 80 as to adapt them
to the changed circumstances of the people
in their rapidly growing country. Hence
they had so little to say Of Church govern
ment, and of the ordinances of infant bap'
tism, and of other topics on which they must
have spoken fully had the Christian Church
then had its first institution" (Applause.)
The Rev. s. Ireuaus Prime, New York,
submitted paper on the influence of Pres
byterianism in the United States. The
Church there, he said, had shown as great
capacity for divisions and subdivisions as it
had elsewhere, but for all that, the grand to.
tai of the Presbyterian force of the United
States showed that there were 9,028 minis
ters, 1902 congregations, 1852, ,339 .nem-
bers, making in one year-last year-contri-
buttons for religious purposes to the sum Of
$14, 1913, or about G3, ,0OO, ,OOO-equal to
about 93 for each communicant in the whole
country.
DR.. Blaikie, at this stage, said he had been
asked by the Business Committee to take the
opportunity of laying upon the table the pa
per on the Presbyterian Churches throughout
the world-s sketch of their history, statis-
tics, and work, compiled by desire, of the
General Presbyterian Council, and submitted
to this meeting in Edinburgh, Sd July, 1877.
He had only to say in reference to this re-
port that as far as time allowed, and other
engagements, he had endeavored to present
summary view of the various Presbyterian
Churches, as we'll as of some, like the Ger.
man Church, one that could hardly be in
cluded under that designation, and yet he was
not willing to pass over, especially in the
light of what had just been said by DR.. Fab
ri, and what was SO apparent, the tendency
of that Church towards more distinctive
Presbyterian system. He had to regret one
or two omissions in the titles and pages, and
e III.