The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1877-03-15
PRESBYTERIAN COUNCIL.
Yesterdays ArfsRNooN SESSION.

1
Church, nor to testify on the spot. He
did decline to testify in chief before the
testimony Is concluded.
| Mr.. McCune announced that his tes-
| tjmony had all been presented.
DR.. Skinner said he was ready to tes-
tify. Mr.. McCune answered that he
would not call him.
| DR.. West desired TO be called but it
was decided that he could not be called
without ten days notice.
| DR.. Skinner then proceeded to make
| the argument for the prosecution.
He reached the fourth specification at
O'Clock when the meeting adjourned.
THIS MORNINGS SESSION.
| Ehe eighth days proceedings before
the Presbytery opened at the usual
hour this morning, with large attend
ance. The argument of Dr.. Skinner was
resumed. The fourth specification was
read by the clerk, to which DR.. Skinner
spoke as follows:
"rhis specification asserts the teach
ing of Mr. McCune to be that Presbyte-
rian ministers, under solemn vows to
study the peace, unity and purity OF the
| Church, are yet free to advocate views
antagonistic to those they have vowed to
maintain and still remain in their eccle-
| siastical connection, while they
who object should themselves
| retire from the body il no
content to indulge such liberty. The
| evor-varying axis of rotation for elders,
ministers and deacOns, upon such a
principle, would reverse the ecclesiastl-
cal poles themselves. The ecelesiasti-
cal orbit, under such theory, may be a
circle, an ellipse, q parabola or an
infinitely unreturning hyperbola,
and the minister himself become, III
doctrine, like the comet forms that sail
and sweep the inter-planetary spaces.
| According to Mr.. McCune, a Presby-
| terian minister is at liberty after his or
dination to hold any views he neld be-
| lore his ordination and advocate the
4 same. His doctrine Is that ministerial
vows are not binding. Under the mani
testify sophistlcal form Of expression,
the Church only asks men at their Or
| dination, what their present views are,
aud never pledges them not TO change
their NieWs,' he teaches that every
Presbyterian minister may face about 10
the full extent Of his own variations,
and yet remain in the body for The sake
OF endorsement and good standing. The
clearly implied assertion is, tnat such
liberty is con istent with ministerial
Obligations. He sugg SITS to an obJ9ctor
| to his views that the proper soiutiQn
Of the objection is for the Objector him
self to retire. He proposes with'a cool
Temperature that his name shall stand
ON Lne roll of the Presb! terry as long as
Inc is in its bounds. He declares that 10
ask M IN not to advocate what he as
an indIVi .ual believes to be Gods truth,
is to ask him to disobey God; and that II
t,I Auf ipto IA ir1lf .,,4
opinions aud ways destructive in
her Judgment to The peace, unity, and
Ipurity Oh The Church, she will sit '.n he
| Temple OF Il Jd' over his conscience. He
announces, defnt tely, for all time, that
he Will never submit to such 'usurpa-
tion OF the Divine prerogative,' and ill.,
forms The Court that he proposes still to
advocate his peculiar views. He pleads
1.-THE prestige his documents have
won from the official circuia-
ZION of them ordered by the
synod of Cincinnati in 1870, the first
Synod after the Reunion, ana seeks
shelter behind that BODY as the ecclesi-
astical indorser Of his organic union
principles. He pleads the couutenance
and concurrence of this Presbytery.
Such is the ground on which he estab-
fishes his claim to teach and preach his
lpeculiar views and advocate their
necessary and legitimate consequences.
Briefly stated, his do Urine ls that ordin-
alton vows do not bind Presbyterian
ministers while remaining under them
not to become Auti-P Presbyterian nor to
abstain from the public proclamation OF
,he r new departures from the faith and
order OF the church.
"lt 10 not the first time such license
has been proclaimed In the world, but it
is the first time in the history OF the
presbyterian Church that any minister
has ever dareu publicly to utter such
lsentiment and remain unchallenged, Ell
ther by his Presby terry or synod,
tor ten years. 1t is a feature
OF our times. Ii is non.enforcement, the
|result OF the new non-eXcludIng law of
organization. The vows OF Mr.. McCune
are solemn and unambiguous. Tney are
the vows Of every Presby terian minis
ter, elder and deacon, q solemn covenant
between himse and the whole church,
and every individual officer in 1t, before
which he stands. charged to-day for
breach OF that covenant, Carist t, his breth-
ren, The Church aud the iworld being wit.
nesses. The vows of Mr.. McCune in
the United Presby yterian Church, OF
which he was a member, and which he
took, expressly bound him to "adhere''
Hong as he remained in that
body. The vows of our own Church
bind to the same adherence every one of
It's ministers. Their education is to
this end, as also their examin.
ations, trials, license, ordination
ana installation. They MT on
lily declare that they sincerely
receive and adopt the concession of faith
as containing the system Of doctrine
taught in the Holy SCRIPTURES, and that
they approve OF the government
Land discipline of the Presbyterian
Church in these United States,
but they VOW solemnly before God and
the Presbytery to study the peace,
unity and purity of the Church, and
to be Jealous aud faithful in maintain
ing the same' Digest, PIP. 800, 4l0, All.
All this, replies MT. McCune, does not it-
volve continued adherence to views pro-
tessed at the time OF ordination. He
claims that ANY views a man may have
entertained before he comes into the
church he has right to hold and advo-
cate after he comes ln.' Spec. vi, Proof
I3.) Moderator and brethren, all this
pleading is worse than qnibble. 1t
| is evasion, bad faith. 1t is in
consistent with honor, truth, the pre-
cepts of the Gospel and loyalty to the
| Church: True, the Church does not