The Columbus journal., 1881-10-26

hlIdill w. luOthdsJ uoOtoi vi VII
vinity, has been twice tried and
convicted for heresy. The sentence
of the court upon his first conviction
was that he be suspended from the
Methodist ministry. The sentence
of the court upon his second con-
viction was that he be expelled
from the ministry and from the
church. And yet, it seems, the gen.
tleman ia not satisfied. He proposes
to be convicted a third time, by ap-
pealing from the judgment and sem
tence of the court at Sycamore to
the judicial conference.-the Meth
odist tribunal of last resort. What
the sentence of that tribunal will be
can only be conjectured. We all
know what it would have been a
couple of centuries ago. But the
power of the church to roast heretics
has been curtailed, since then, al
though the necessity and propriety
of roasting them for heavens sake
is still the same. But, considering
the changed mental tone of society,
and the prodigious footing which
heresy has gained throughout Chris
tendon since the great Protestant
heresy broke out in the sixteenth
century, it is perhaps warranted
opinion that the Methodist supreme
court will be content to sentence
Brother Thomas TO expulsion from
the abode of the redeemed in a fut-
ure state of existence. At the pres
ent day, this would appear to be the
extent of a church's jurisdiction in
heresy cases.
But why Brother Thomas should
require even that sentence to con-
vince him that he is hereto passes
understanding. 1t is a warranted
opinion that he knows he is a heret-
ic-that it did not need even one
trial and conviction for heresy to
enable his consciousness to grasp
that fact.
He knows, too, that heresy is the
highest of all crimes against the
and that the church which
should suffer this crime to 60 un-
punished would both invite and as
sure its own swift destruction.
The essential idea of a church is
an organiz ii dOgmatism. 1t implies
a formulated creed, or definite belief
in things undeiinable and unknowa-
bic, and an authority to enforce that
belief by furnishing any members of
the church who openly reject or
question it.
There never has existed an organ
lied church on any other founda-
ton. No other is imaginable on
which a church, in the accepted
of the word, could exist.
In the first two centuries of Chris
tianity there were no churches,
strictly speaking. There were a
multitude of apostles, teachers of
religious doctrine, who went about
setting forth orally by any organiz-
ed body OF persons, but beliefs held |
by themselves. 1t necessarily re-
suited that their opinions differed |
widely from each other; that they |
each others religious no.
ions, sometimes with great bitter
ness and violence Gas was the case
with Peter and PauD; that they de-
bounced each other as false teachers
md heretics. But as there was no
common standard of doctrine, no
Iuthoritatively formulated creed, no
ecclesiastical organization, i'm a word,
10 church, they were not able, as
heir devOut successors were when
hey got control of political power,
o burn those who differed from them
IA opinion concerning things of
which none of them had any knowl-
dge. A "heretic," then, meant only
person whose preachment was
iflerent to the preachment of the
erson who applied that epithet. To
'aul, Peter was hereto, and to
'eter, Paul a hereto. To Jerome,
larcion was a hereto, aud to Mar
ion, Jerome was hereto. And go
f the whole apostolic procession.
here is excellent ground for the
pinion that PaUl's alleged miracu-
BUS conversion wrought no such
hange in his prosecuting nature as
Tould have restrained him from
cutting OFF, Peter Gas he counseled
is disciples to do with other heret-
's) if he had had the government
over at his back, as before the oc-
nrrence on the road to Damascus.
To this miscellaneous assortment
f contentious but unorganized re- +;
gions doctrinsires succeeded an
ecclesiastical organization. At first,
My loose alliance of some relig-
'us leaders whose opinions con-
'inod points of similarity, it at ,
myth developed dogmatic system
ne most arbitrary, and an ecclesias- +,
cal organism the most wonderful,
'hich the world has ever known.
hat which it organized was a re-
gious autherity-a church which