The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-02-22
For the Central Presbyterian.
Our Standards and the New
Directory,


"The Confession of Faith" is the name
of book which contains the Confession
of Faith proper, the Catechisms, the Book
of Church Order, and the Directory of
Worship, of the Presbyterian Church.
With the kind of training that our min
listers have been receiving, and the Holy
Spirits presence to bestow upon them the
gift of continuance in sound doctrine, our
beloved Church might accomplish great
deal of good, without these or any other
symbols. Some churches which have no
system of doctrine other than the Scrip
lures have done good service for Christs
kingdom. But still, we all agree that our
Confession of Faith is a very valuable,
yea an indispensable book. The writer
is sure that he feels the want of copy,
complete In one volume, with the proof
texts printed IN full at the foot OF the
pages, and index, bound in the best style
of the book binder He knows others
who feel the same want. Doubtless,
there are many new elders and deacons
and members in our churches who would
be glad to supply themselves with this
book, If it could be had.
But our Church has never had it in
its complete form. The reason is we'll
known. Portions of it have been under
going revision ever since we had a sep
arate existence as a Church. Several
make-shifts for it have been provided in
the meantime The first was a 24mo.
volume, got out by our Committee of
Publication, containing the Confession of
Faith proper, and the Catechisms, with
only the references to the proof-texts, and
the Book of Church Order and Directory
of Worship which were then in force.
This edition, of course, was only intended
to be temporary; because every one wants
the proof texts printed along with the
statements Of doctrine, for permanent use.
But 1T was necessary to have it in some
cheap form to supply the demand at that
time. Then, after its adoption by the
General Assembly in 1879, the New Book
Of Church Order was published in a sep
arate volume. as asupplement to the edi-
ton Of the Confession of Faith mentioned
above. These two little volumes, which
were not always found together, were the
best we could do, while awaiting the re-
vision fthe Directory of Worship They,
however, did not satisfy the demand, and
year or more ago, the Presbyterian
Publishing Company, as they had a per
feet right to do, brought out another edi-
ton containing the Confession of Faith
proper, with the texts printed in full,
the Shorter Catechism, and the New Book
Of Church Order. This would have met
the present, and even the permanent
wants Of many Of our people, had 1t not
0er1 strangely omitted the Larger cute
chtsm.
If that omission had been made in an
edition of the Confession of Faith before
the new Book of Church Order was ADOPT
ed it perhaps would have been less no
ticed. But since the following has be-
come part Of our Rules of Discipline,
CHAP. Ill, sec, j. Nothing, therefore,
ought to be considered by any court as
an offence, or admitted as a matter of ac-
cusation, which cannot be proved to be
such from Scripture, as interpreted in
these standards" we cannot spare the
Larger Catechism, which is the only ex-
position o. the moral law our book con-
tains, and is, therefore, the part Of the
standards to which appeal is directly
made in every case OF discipline for inn
moral conduct that ever occurs.
This state Of things will not improve
until the new Directory Of Worship is
finished. And we submit that we find
IN these facts very urgent reason for the
completion Of the work Of revision by the
next General Assembly, if it can possibly
be done. 1t is not probable that the
members Of that Assembly, or Of any