Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1878-11-08

ING OF CLERGYMEN INTERESTING
PROCEEDINGS,
&c, &C., sc.
Some v EEK ago Rev DR.. Tying, rector
of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Tru'-
ity ir4 New YORK, SIT Oh foot li.e plan OF
hold ing conference Of ministers OF all
den ominations IN America, tn discuss the
corning of Christ On earth before the MIL
Ter mum. Last Friday the body met in the
church, including among its members
some hundred and fifty clergymen, many
We eondense from the
New York papers d sketch of the
proceedings:
Among the ministers present were the
Rev. Drs James II. BrOokes of the Wal
nut street Presbyterian Church, st. Louis;
A. j. Gordon, pastor OF the Clarendon
street Baptist Church, Boston; Bishop W.
r. Nicholson. Reformed EPISCOPAL. OF
Philadelphia; H. M. Parsons, of a Buffalo
Presbyterian Church; W. Y. Moorehead.
of Xenia. Ohio; Rufus w. Clarke, of an
Albany Reformed Dutch Church; S. II
Kellogg, Professor of Theology in the
Presbyterian Seminary OF Allegheny; }.
T. Cooper, Professor Of Theology in the
United Presbyterian Seminary of the same
city; Joseph A. Seiss, pastor Of Phlla
delphia Lutheran church; q. K. Imbrie, a
Presbyterian pastor OF jersey City; John
Parker, of the South second street MethO-
dist Church, Brooklyn; L. W. Bancroft,
rector OF Christ Church, Brooklyn; E. T.
Perkins, rector Of st. Paul's Episcopal
Church, Louisville, KY; J. D. Herr, pas
tor of the Central Baptist Church of New
York City; II. M. Saunders, of the Yon-
kers Baptist Church; r. G. Matlack, Sec
rotary of the Evangelical Education So
ciety, Philadelphia; Julius E. Grammar,
rector Of st. Peters Episcopal Church,
Baltimore: Charles E. Morton, pastor of
an Independent Church, Chicago; E. r.
Craven, pastor Of the Third Presbyterian
Church OF Newark; E. P. Go edwin, pas
tor of the First Congregational Church,
Brown University, Providence, K. L.; W.
Chulch in gainesville, Ohio; J. Hyatt
Smith of Brooklyn, and John Forsyth,
Chaplain at West Point. Besides these
Doctors of Divinity there appeared the
Evangelists, George Z. ?entecost, of Bos-
ton, and his singing comrade, George c..
Stebbins; Major D. w. Whittle, and his
companiol,, James Veterinarian, who con-
ducts the singing Of the Conference; j.
W Bonham, of New York City: Fl. D.
Hastings. of Boston, who is also editor Of
the Christian" and G.. G. NEWMAN, of
Philadelphia; also Henry Foster, M. D.,
the proprietor of the Clifton Springs Wa
ter Cure, and J. M. Orrock, editor of
''Messiah's Herald" Boston. The men
sitting on the platform were, most of
them, gray-haired aud venerable. The
audience filled the body of the large
church aud overlooked into the galleries.
1t may have been a result of the rain that
it was composed largely of men. 1t was
a well-dressed, substantial looking au-
dience, very quiet, evidently devout, and
prepared to listen attentively to what the
leaders might have to say. Not few, es-
pecially of the women. took cOpiOus
notes.
At 10 O'Clock the Rev. DR.. A. J. Cor
don, first asking the ushers to close the
doors, invited the congregation to join in
silent prayer, and Immediately the hun
dres assembled bowed their heads. Then
the Rev. L. W. Bancroft, rector Of Christ
Church, Brooklyn led the people in the
the Rev. DR.. Willis Lord, Professor of
Theology in the Chicago Seminary, a
White-haired, fne-featured old man, arose
and prayed. He thanked God for this as
sembly, that had gathered to get i, fuller
knowledge concerning the great truths of
Christ and His kingdom. Tie prayer over.
The Rev. DR.. Gordon said that the call for
the Convex ton proceeded from a body of
believers who gathered annually for Bible
study. Trey had been invited TO meet in
Chicago Philadelphia and New York, but
had decided to accept DIR. Tyng's very cor
dial invitation. The Convention did not
represent any sect or denomination, and
was not met under any special name, but
was held by those who believed in the per-
sonal pre-millennial advent of Christ. 1t
was felt to be especially desirable to hold
the Conference in these days, when this
doctrine was SO much neglected. The OBJ
ject of the Conference was not cOntro-
versY, not to make issues, God forbid; but
to set forth and comment on this doctrine.
The Rev. DR.. Stephen Fl. Tying, Senior,
was to have presided over the Conference,
but the rain kept him away, and so Mr..
William Reynolds OF Peoria, a ruddy-
faced, tall gentleman, with beard that
reached nearly to his waist, took The
chair. He gave out the fourth hymn, in
the prepared collection. The hymns thus
selected are all from the Moody and San
key sCollection of Gospel Hymns and
Sacred Songs" and No. 4 begins,
Rejoice and be glad! The Redeemer has come"
DR.. Tying sand chat he opened his de-
fence Of the doctrine of the personal and
visible return of the Lord with the pre-
sumptive prosif of its primitive authority.
There would be no dispute that the earli-
est writings of the Christian fathers recog-
nZe it as the current opinion of the post
Apostolic Church. The ancient creeds
had crystalized it in confession. The old
est lturgles expressed it i'll devotion. The
history of heroic achievements by martyrs
and confessors claimed itas of the highest
and NEST imperative motive. Until the
learned Origen, in the third century, in
troduced his method of allegory into exc
gesiS, there was no evidence OF dissent
from the traditional expectation. This
doctrine was primitive in the English. the
Scotch, the Lutheran. the Presbyterian,
the Baptist, the Moravian, and all other
Christian bodies which have passed
through the fires of persecution. The bur-
den of proof really rested with those who
deny their hope. There were three which
were common ground on which the Con-
ference met. The first, was that the au-
thority of the Holy Scriptures was the ba-
sis of all knowledge that the Lord Jesus
Christ would in anywise return to this
earth. The second was that the language
of the Scriptures was the source of all in
formation concerning both the matter and
the manner of the return of the Lord: and
thirdly, the laws of language were the in
struments by which they were to cOnstrue
the Words of God. But f.r the mystical,
spiritualizing school of expositors, there
would be no need to state that proposition.
Not in cipher, hieroglyphic, or cabalistic
signs, but in the language and dialect of
living men, withwhich grammar, rhetoric,
and logic could closely deal, had God made
known His purposes. There was no ESQ.,
teric sense between the lines and beneath
the letter. @ta 4.
DR.. Tying then attacked the different
classes of enemies to his doctrine. "This
much is certain,'' he said. "We shall not
all sleep lin death), but we shall all be sum-
moned before the judgment seat OF Christ.
There will be at least one generation to