Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1883-01-19
Religious Topics.
BEECHER NOT AN INFIDEL.


the report that Henry Ward Beecher
has gone over to intidelity, horse,
foot Dragons, and says he has
"only become Universalist, with Il
leaning toward rationalistic views of
inspiration. MI. Beecher writes at
times as if he was born in the mid
die ages, and had just walked up to
the dreadful fact that certain monks
were proclaiminy hell of material
fire-a literal furnace of birthstone;
and that certain hardshell theolo
gians We're representing God as re-
morseless tyrant, who created mil
lions of men on purpose to damn
them. He seems really to believe
that such medieval dogmas are held
by the Reformed Churches in the
present age, and that he is raised up
to testify against them. He enjoys
knocking down the men he has set
up. And while We are willing he
should take his tXercise in his own
way, we are sorry lie cannot find a
more manly way. Mr.. Beecher
knows that he is misrepresentinS
and caricaturing the orthodox, Evan
gelical creeds of the present day,
and that he is doing it merely for
effect; and for this he ought TO be
ashamed of himself" However, the
Occidcm is glad to learn, from his
recent statement of faith, that Mr..
Beecher still believes in a personal
God-yes, a tri-personal God; in the
divinity of Christ, SO strongly that he
cannot pray to any other being
not even to God the Father; i'll a
Bible inspiration which is not verbal,
and in the Atonement according to
DR.. Bushnell, etc. etc. Mr.. Bcecher
is thought to have done right, with
his Unlversalist views, in asking to
be dismissed from the Congrega-
tional Association, and they did
wrong in asking him to remain: " If
the punishment of sin is denied, the
gospel becomes the folly instead of
the wisdom of God"
THE BIBLE AND OTHER ORTHODOX BOOKS.
The i sion Waterman (BaptisD.
calls attention to the remarkable
confession of Rev. DR.. Geo. f. Ellis,
prominent Unitarian clergyman Of
that city, that the Bible was on the
side of orthodoxy and not Unfair
ianism, if the doctrine of infallible
inspiration be granted and the very
letter of Scripture be adhered to;
and it compliments DR.. Ellis oil his
candor in making this acknowledge
ment, even at this late day. The
language of DR.. Ellis in a recent adj
dress before the Unitarian Club. as
quoted in the Waterman, is this:
" Fifty years of study, thought and
reading, given largely to the Bible
and to the literature which peculiarly
relates to it, have brought me to this
conclusion: That the book-taken
with the especial divine quality and
character claimed for it. and SO ex-
tensisely assigned to it, as inspired
and infallible as whole, and in all
its contents-is an orthodox book.
1t yields what is called the orthodox
creed. ~ Only that kind of in
genious, special discriminative. and
IN candor l must add, forced treat
ment which it receives from US lib
erals, can make the book teach any
thing but orthodoxy. The Evan
gelical sects are right in maintaining
that their view of Scripture and its
doctrines draws o deep and wide
division of creed between them and
ourselves" DR.. Ellis thinks DR..
Charming and his confreres were
wOrsted in their controvers, with
Professor Stuart and others sixty
years ago because they conceded the
miraculous and totally inspired char
actsr of the Bible, and tina. Liber-
allsm cannot vanquish Orthodoxy, if
it yields to the latter in its own way
of regarding and treating the whole
Bible" The Waterman remarks
that Theodore Parker said, substan-
TALLY, the same thing many years
ago, and it is we'll that Unitarians,
one after another, should find out
that they are not" Bible Christians.
Is OUR GOVERNMENT CHRISTIAN
The christian ch .racter of the
United States Government is ably
discussed in the Philadelphia Chris
tian Statesman and decided in the
negative. The writer of the article,
Rev. A. J. Mcfarland, says: The
character of a government is to be
learned from its constitution. An
acknowledgment of God only by
government is not sufficient to en-
title it to be regarded as Christian.
The Jew, the Mohammedan, and
even the Pagan. while they occupy
the farthest remove from Christian
ity, all acknowledge Deity. But
not even this has been done. This
al.