The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-09-06


raments, and, in general, of their stand
ing as valid branch of the Church
Catholic. Hence the reply we should
have made to the demand, " Restore fra
ternal relations" ought constantly to
have been: You hare them already,
unless you please to rupture then, on yost,'
side. And in restoring fraternal rela-
tons, in full form, to the Northern Pres
byterians, without any amends or repara-
ton, the moment they stopped cursing
us, our Southern Assemblies showed a
Christian forbearance and Christlike
spirit never surpassed on this earth; a
spirit which 1, for one, shall never hear
disparaged without protest a charity
which, with any fair mind, would forever
acquit them of the charge of spite in
maintaining their righteous attitude on
wholly different point.
Correspondence by Delegates.
That other point wrapped up under
the foreign name of " fraternal rela-
tons is the demand that we shall enter
into special intercourse qVith the North,
By annual delegates. This is wholly an
other matter. 1t has a perfectly distinct,
historical meaning. The Old School As
semblies, before the war, maintained fra
ternal relations with every valid, how
ever imperfect, branch of the visible
Church. 1t kept up the particular inter
course by annual delegates, with very
few-only the most orthodox Calvinistic
Congregations, the Dutch Reformed, and
the Secession Churches. And the re-
cogniz7d meaning of the intercourse was
this: II testified TO q special harmony of
doctrine and ecclesiastical principles be-
t1Oee1 that Church and ours. 1t was a
badge Of virtual unity of principle. Thus,
for instance When the Old School AS
sembly seeded in 1888, our Old School
Assembly, while recognizing her valid
Church character and all the duties OF
lraternal charity toward her and her
people, absolutely refused to keep up
this special intercourse by delegates with
her. To do SO would have traVersed
our righteous and obligatory testimony
against the partial errors of New School
ism. 1t would have been criminal
self-contradiction, or else betrayal of the
position of truth in debate between us
and them. So now. This special inter
course by delegates, if not deceitful and
dishonest, should mean virtual unity of
principles.
But the Northern Church chose to de-
stroy that unity both in doctrine and
Church order. By the Spring resolu-
tions of 1861, she saw fit to Introduce
into her Church government principle
of spiritual despotism essentially Popish
the invasion of the right of members
to follow their own consciences in ques-
tons wholly extra Scrip ural and merely
political. THUS defined by DR.. Hodge
himself) This was dreadfully aggra-
waited by the circumstances, which showed
it an attempt to pervert the sacred pow
er of Christs Church for dragooning free
citizens into the support of what history
will stigmatize as an aggressive, revolu-
tionary, partisan faction, with the most
lawless and mischievous aims. This
Popish element of Church order was
signalized, moreover, by such mournful
events as the persecution of the sainted
McPheeters the virtual sanction of the
invasion of their own st. Louis Presby-
terry by provost marshal; the ip8o fncto
orders, the invasion of the rights of the
Kentucky Synod And this fundamen-
tai departure from Presbyterianism is
jealousy retained and asserted by them
to-day, as we shall see.
Next came the corrupting of their doc
trinal record, by their fusion with the
New School The amount of this mix
ture was /: that the Westminster stan
dards while held as the symbols of the
body, might be so explained
in it as they had been actually ex planned
in either body. The meaning of this is
that any New Schoolism, which was
countenanced or permitted in the New
School body, should be entitled to toler-
ance in the mixed body So DR.. Hatfield
construed it at once, and the Fusion AS
sembly at once endorsed him by making
him one of its most important officers.
This has made the mixed Church respon
S5ble for all the doctrinaJ errors for which |
our wise fathers of 1888 separated them
selves from the other branch, and for
which they inexorably refused the special
recognition of correspondence by dele
gates for thirty years So that I now
stand precisely where the old school
Miller, Alexander, Baxter.
Hodge, Breckenridge, Plumer, Thorn
well-stood on this matter. 1t was OF
this surrender Of doctrinal purity that
DR.. Hodge said ." If the Truth be lost,
all is lost" But" one will say, CDR.
Hodge staid with them !" Yes incon-