New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-07-16
THE pANPRESBYThRIAN COUNCIL.


THE PANPRESBYThRIAN COUNCIL.
A council, political or religious, representing
"a .OOO. 600 of people divided in opinion, met
TO settle upon basis of permanent union
among them, is a spectacle which would COM
mand attention at any time or place. The
present council hardly has received the con-
siGeration it deserves from outsiders, possibly
because this is an age OF grand palavers, ana
palavcr by no means assures final action. Inc
Presbytc rians in this country, 1t Is true, are
much agitated by the cOncouIse OF their lead
ers they watch eagerly the progress OF the
discussions, and point to the growth OF their
sect with Unsuitable pride. These genial
Scotchmen and ruddy American diyines
regarding their scattered clans of mill
ions from the high street of Edinburgh
have aSsuIcdly Il different outlook from
the Covenanter in Mary's day coming out
of his cave in the mountains to preach
to the halfdozcn prosecuted worshippers.
No contrast could he sharper than that be-
tween the Lord Ballour of BuIleigh, who wei
coined the delegates the other day. and his
famous namesakc. The one was born into
an iron ace. when difference in religious
doctrine meant clashing steel in the hand and
bitter hate in the heart; the other to an age
Of comfort and luxury, and good fellowship,
when even the most bigoted sectarian begins
TO recognize a brother in Papist Protestant
and Pagan. and to discover that the good
Lord has provided other windows which let in
the light Of heaven to the world besides the
narrow loop-hole which his own sect has
opened.
The Presbyterian is profcssedly a missionary,
proselyting body. There is little cause, there
fore, for wonder at its rapid increase; it has,
too. unlike most other dissenting sectS, always
insisted upon a certain amount Of scholarship
in its clergy hence its ranks are largely filed
frcn the educated classes, especially rs its
appeals are made, as a rule, more To the rea-
sOuing than to the emotional faculties. Ii
never appeals TO the senses except under
protest. Its success, for these reasons has
not been so marked among the heather, or
the ignorant classes of civilized countries, as
that of some of its Christian co-workers.
There has been no greater change, however,
in the world itself between the days of the
early and the later Balfour of Burlcigh than
in the tone and temper of the church
which they represent john Knox, whose
memory is invoked so often just now a!
Edinburgh, we suspect, would glover with
alien ewes on these his brothers if his
fierce truculent ghost should suddenly stride in
among them. There was no tempering or ius-
ing of conflicting eliths in his surly Chris
tianitv. Like good many canonizcd saints,
his shade forms IA superb tigure-head for his
church, but there is not Il congregation in it
nowadays who would covet the living man
rs a member. The fact is, the age of John
Knox IN | the Covenanting the0ogians, whose
breath of life was Il Q. +. d., is happily over
in the history of Christianity. The spirit of
the gentle Master of Love and Brotherhood,
let lis hope, is abroad i'll the hearts of
men more fully than in those days of
bigotry and martyrdom, and there is no surer
SIGN that it is abroad than this same Pan
Presbyterian Council. The forty-eght divls-
ions of the sect which it is proposed to unite,
include widely conflicting differences i'll dogma,
from the straitest lines of the Old School i'll
this country to the lattudinaranSm of the
UnitalIans of England. Now, in uniting these
bodies on any basis of important doctrines"
it is not possible, nor desirable, to change the
already established opinion of any member as
to certain points. All that can be done
is to give to these points position
of lessened importance, and to establish
the entire Church upon fundamental belief
in few supreme principles. just here, as 1t
seems 10 us is the true meaning of this great
Council in the history of humanity: that body
of the most firm, aggressive dOctrinarians in
the world should be willing to lay aside dog
matte differences, and strike hands for their
own help and the lettering of the world on
the immutable foundation of Christian love
and brotherhood In this view, if the Union
is accomplished, the Council will be lifted into
"A most reverent consideration from the whole
of Christendom. If 1t is not accomplished, it
will be because the old spirit is alive and
busy. 1t would have been more polite, per-
baps. in these peaceable brethren to have met
a little farther from the haunts of John Knox,
or at any rate not TO invoke his ghost so
vehemently.
Al.