The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-10-05
Newman Smyth.
The Question OF His Othodoxy Consid-
cred.

The Question of His Othodoxy Consid-
cred.
We take from the Christian Union the fol-
lowing account OF the examination OF the Rev.
DR.. Newman Smy tn at New Haven
A council OF Congregational churches was
held in the Centre Church, New Haven-the
late DIR. Bacons "wednesday, September 90.
The Congregational churches of New Haven
were all represented, together with Dr. Nc
Kenzie's church of Cambridge DIR. Duryea's
of Boston, and the First Congregational of
Hartford DIR. Todd OF New Haven was elect
cd Moderator. DIR. Newman Smyh made
brief statement of his religious experience,
which, he stated began with his conscious
life He united with the church at Phillips
Academy at thilteen years of age. lie then
read from carefully prepared paper a state
meut of his religious beliefs. He holds that
God reveals himself to the moral and spiritual
life Of man. that he selected and trained one
nation 20 be the bearer of a special divine rev.
citation; that this revelation cuIminat4d iu
Christ Jesus, the divine Word become ilesh
and the fual and infallibe authority of faith
and practice; that the Sacred Scriptures are in
act the record and Interpretation, in fact the
contents, of the revelation from God which is
fulfilled in Christ; aud that We have besides
the written canons of faith the progressive de-
velopInent of the faith in the mind OF the
Church through the Spirit of Christ. He
holds that all men arc sinners; that sin In
wolves both corruption of the individual and
separation from God and that this evil c0nse-
quence can be removed only by the swilling
aud concurrlng act of both God aud man. AS
to the atonement, he holds that God has ever
been willing to forgive and restore that this
willingness to forgive is net alone enough for
the reality of forgiveness, and that, therefore
Gods love has led him to such out-eiving from
himself as IS necessary for the realization of
his etsrnai willingness to forgive; he regards
allstheores OF the atonement as acceptable
helps TO our conception of it, but none of them
as satisfactory explanations OF the mystery OF
| grace 1t is on the subject of the future life
that his views have been most sharply criti-
cised; it is on this subject there is the greatest
| public interest. This part of his statement
| was as follows:
| The center of the Biblical doctrine of the future
life is Jesuss teaching concerning tn final judg-
meut 1 believe that this present dispen- alton or
world age shalt come to end at the day judge
ment. believe that this world age is the time of
probation, aud that every pers born Into this
world shall have. fair and suiiieielt probation
under Conditions Of grace. believe thai the end
OF probation is, for the present system as a whole
| the day of judgment, and for the individual his
confirmed sslf-determination 10 good evil. i be
lieye that tue end of probation for the individual
not and, from the nature of moral freedom cannot
be any outward circumstance, temporal accident or
| physical change like the death of the body. / be-
Hove that the conditions of eternal lite are Of
fered in the Gospel and that whoever wifully leg
e:t or reject them are in danger OF the sin asains
| the Ho Ghost, which Jesus sad hath never tor
giyenes either III this world or the world TO come
believe that if incidentally, in the development
of Gods purpose OF grace under the limitations of
system of nature, sufficient conditions of gracious
! probation may not have been furnished in This
world to any par ocular generation class indvid-
ual (as for example, infants idiots antediluyians
some heather, and children born apparently to no
moral chance), can trust God to provide for such
| some special opportunity for repentance in Hades
| before the final judgment. l cannJt but think
there is Scriptural warrant for this trust in
the fact that Jesus preached TO certain class OF
1 a an eaon1a ff.r hoo l1nt
| Gu, deduction from the principle of Individual ac-
eountabilitS which has been maintained in our New
| England theology While as preacher of the Cos
/ pei have no authority to offer TO any man any
| time of salvation but now, must allow that
S Jesus .S Christ, before he shall give US
may have opportunities unreye.led to up
| of offering himself graclously to any
| who may not have had decisive probation i this
life. OF what constitutes in particular cases deci-
sive probation under conditions grace we are not
the judges, but God shall judge. believe that the
obligation of Christian missions upon the com
mandment OF the Lord, and will be increasingly
owned by the church In proportion as it obtains
higher views of Gods love for the world but so sa-
| cred a cause thould not be bound up with extra
Scripturai limitations of GODS mercy. believe that
when the end of the wor shall come, at the asst
great day, these things which temporal shall be
superseded by those things which are eternal What
this eternal order kind of existence is have not
now. under this temporal form of hfe power defin-
itely to conceive, regard such phrases as endless
Tine everlasting DURATION as permissibly expressive
OF the fnality and permanence of the Judgment but
not as proper definitions OF the eternal which trans
cends conception; and accept Jesus,s teaching Of
the possibility OF eternal life dea in tue moral
| positiyeness and metaphys steal indetniten ass in
which he saw Mt TO leave for our use his doctrine Of
the future life. do not accept the burdens often
TOO heavy to be borne, imposed upon thi- faith by
the traditions of men, who addKto Jesus simple
Gospel their vain earthly and temporal imagiuatons
| ofthe eternal life and Its mo al relations.
cannot believe in a6nhiation, the extinction
| from the of b ing of anything that has been
made. How far moral personality may be self-ya-
Gated by persistent sin, and soul killed, is of
UIlnAh
for the day of revelations 10 answer. cannot Ind
either in Scripture Christian reason sufficient au
thority to warrant teaching dogma the hope of
final reconciliation of all evil to the good will of
| God.
! The reading of this statement was followed
| by rapid, keen, but thoroughly friendly ex-
animation, conducted at first by the Moderator,
| but afterward participated in by other men,
| bers OF the Council, the more import ant parts
| OF which were as follows:
| QUESTION. What do you regard as the strong
est evidence of God? ANSWER, (Quickly.) God
| himself.
those who deny him? A. That depends on the
| nature OF the denial IL would depend largely
on the admissions that were made.
q What do you regard as the strongest ev-
| 1dence OF revelation of God in Scripture? A.
| The radical difference between the history OF
Israel and that of all other contemporary ma
| tions; between the literature of Israel and all
| other literatures.
| Q. Is the revelation of God in the Scriptures
| complete and final? A. Revelation in the
! Word of God is progressive, and yet complete
| for the purposes for which the Scriptures were
| given.
| @. What is your theory of inspiration? A.
have no theory Of inspiration. / am waiting
| for Professor Ladd's book
Q. How do you distinguish the Scriptures
from other human writings? A. In the fact
that they contain special revelation from
God. Such disclosure of Divine character as
| Is found IN the Bible the pagan world was ut
| tery unable to originate.
q. In what doe S sin consist? A Man is a
sinful being toward God just as man would
be wrong who should assume totally wrong
position toward another human being. In this
sense every man has sinned. They who have
exercised no wrong choice In life are not per
sonally guilty, but all mankind are in need of
atonement.
~, Do you believe that all men are saved by
Christ alone? A. Jesus Christ is the Saviour
OF all men, and yet can conceive it possible
that men may be saved who have never heard
the Gospel preached. But these also are saved
by the grace OF God which Is in Jesus Christ
y. VIII you describe the process OF regener-
atom A. can as easily describe the process
OF the sun-rising as that Of regeneration or con-
version. 1t is the work OF God.
q. In what does il consist? A. Ii consists
10 bringing man out OF o false and disastrous
personal relationship into true, loving friend
ship with God himself. l distinguish between
the external act of sin or wrong-doing, and the
internal sinfulness or wrongness OF personal re-
lations. Conversion is the bringing the person
out from this inner wrongness back into right
ness.
O. By whom is it brought about? A. Both
by God and the sinner.
@. Do You admit the vclrious nature of
Christs atonement? L do His suffering was
an expression of sympathy with us, putting
himself in our place.
Q. Was the design of the atonement. in vour
view, the representation Of the divine chsrac-
teri A. The word representation is too shall
low. Realization is better word.
q. What are the conditions of salvation?
A. Repentance and faith, or coming to Christ.
:, Y; Is faith in Christ mere Intellectual be-
lei? A By no means. Saving faith is per-
sonal trust.