Evening star., 1886-11-11
THE ANDOVER QUARREL.
Wn0t the Answer of the Professor
Under Fire Will BE.

A telegram from Boston, November 8, says:
The charges preferred against certain professors
OF Andover Theological seminary have been
approve1 by the board of visitors, and finally
concluded, and copies have been served upon
the accused, together with an order that
answers be filed by Saturday. November 27th.
When the answers are filed, the board of
visitors will fix time for the public hearing.
The comp aint, as served upon the wicked pro-
1essors. are substantially the same as was
originally preferred. They are little more
SPECIFIC In detail. and are drawn against the
dseilnquents individually, instead of jointly as
The answer on the part of the professors
uuuer nre Will be general denial, coupled with
the statement that for half a century it has
peen conceded that the Andover creed should
o ne accepted, with certain liberty of interpreta-
TED to this view, and that Messrs Harris, Hincks
and Taylor, the three professors most recently
CHOSEN, accepted their chairs with the under.
standing that the same manner of carrying out
the oequests as rules elsewhere should be fol-
lowed at Andover. The gentlemen under fire
beileve that II the charges against them are
dismissed. the agitation will cease, but If not,
there will be q serious split in the denomina-
ton, as they have the assurance that large
committed to their views.
-, A Portland, Me-. letter to the Record says:
"Ihe so-called 'Andover controversy has
awakened considerable interest here, as well as
elsewhere. Professor Hncks, one of the here
ties, was formerly pastor Of the State street
church in this city. His personal worth and
marked ability were recognized, but still he
was not wholly popular as preacher. There
were complaints that he was too rigid and con-
servatlve in his theology. In fact he was look ed
upon as the stiffest kind of an orthodox, and
any suggestion of lOOseneSs of doctrine in his
case would have been taken as joke by those
VINO regularly listened to him. OF course there
are Wloe dlf1erences OF opinion in regard to the
merits or the controversy, but those who may
oe supposed to know say that a majority of the
ieaoing clergymen. and perhaps "a still larger
majority OF the laymen, of the denomination
may be classed with the conservative rather
than with the liberal or 'Andover' element
Ihefe are some notable exceptions. however.
Rev Dr. Hyde, the young and progressive pres
ldent OF Bowdoin college, is counted as an .d-
herent of the new school,
ut will be remembered that Maine has a
congregational divinity school, the Bangor
theological seminary, and while the professors
there nave not. perhaps, taken public or def
mite position upon this question, it is said that
several OF them are quite divided in their theo-
logical views. The Maine CongregatiOnalists
nave as newspaper organ, the Christian
Mirror, which may be considered as in some
sense rival of the Congregation aliSt, and it is
understood that its editor, Rev. DIR. Warren,
although conservative in his views, by no
means lndorses the course of Or. Dex ter in the
Andover matter. On the whole it would prob
ably be not far out of the way to say that while
the larger part are not in agreement with the
position OF the AndOver professors, Maine Con-
gregationalists, as a body, do not think it ad-
visable to make a fight over the question"