The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-10-06
CoRRESP NOE.
Notes on the Council.
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 30, 80.

MesSrS. EdatorS,-Supposing that your
readers will be interested in some further
notes from the great Council, [ avail my
self of a leisure moment to give you an
other hasty letter After weeks obser-
walton of the working of the Council I
feel prepared to speak with more conf
dence as to it's constitution and tone, as
well as in reference to the influence it is
likely to exert. Of its ability, as repre-
sentative of the intelligence and culture
of the Presbyterian Church in all lands,
I have been more and more convinced
from day to day. The papers that have
been read and the discussions that have
followed have been marked in most in
stances by thorough scholarship and Wig
orous power of thought. This was of
course to be expected; but there is an
other quality about these papers and ad
dresses that was regarded beforehand by
many as matter of grave doubt. [ refer
to the spirit of conservatism which has
pervaded the deliberations of the body.
1t is true we have had few wild plat
form speeches-but they have not been
from representative men.from men who
are recognized leaders in their own
most valuable papers too, there have been
sentences or paragraphs with which the
men of our own branch Of the Church
could not heartily agree. Thus in the
very admirable paper of Principal Flint,
of Edinburgh, on Agnosticism, there was
one passage which seemed to teach that
the discipline Of the Church ought not to
be brought to bear for the suppression of
those forms Of heresy into which the min
istry are being drawn by the bewilder-
ments of modern science; though it was
afterwards explained that he only meant
to say that the mere exercise of church
discipline alone will not meet the diff
Guilty in the case, and that other means
must be resorted to, to fortify our younger
clergy against the insidious influence of
these modern forms Of infdelity. And
so in the remarks of Principal Cairns on
the subject of Inspiration, there was an
apparent shrinking from the bold asser-
ton of the plenary inspiration of Scrip
ture when dealing apologetically with
those who deny the faith; but think it
was clear afterwards that what he really
meant was simply to assert the superior
ity of the internal over the external evi-
dences as the foundation of argument for
the truth of Christianity when dealing
with infdels.
I am very sure we should none of us
agree with DR.. Atwater in one of his
points in his paper on Religion and Pol
itics, where, in treating of those mixed"
cases which hold both a political and
moral element, he seemed to make no dis
tinction between those in which the moral
question precedes and settles the political,
as in questions of the Sabbath Laws"
" Lotteries, Reputation of Public
Debts, etc., where the Church may and
must speak out promptly and without
hesitation, and those other cases in which
the political question precedes and con-
dltlons the moral, as in cases Of allegiance
to one or other of two conflicting powers
where the Church cannot settle the prim-
ary question which Of these is the lawful
power, and until that is settled cannot
legislate as to the moral duty Of allie
glance.
But these were little things, compared
with Che great steady current of orthodox
opinion and conservative sentiment that
was manifest on every hand Nothing
was more evident than that the great
heart Of the Council was beating in steady
sympathy with the old time-honored
creeds and confessions of the Church.
There was another spirit manifested
too, that was, if possible, even more to be
reoiced in. I refer to the earnest spirit
OF evangelism that pervaded the Council
Ihe two subjects that awakened the deem
est interest and called forth the liveliest
emotion, were, according to the testimony
Oh many others besides myself, those Of