Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-12-12
A NOTABLE SUGGESTION.


 Only a few years before his death Henry Ward Beecher in his pulpit said that clergyman who frankly preached the Calvinist doctrines of election and reproduction would soon find himself without pulpit and without salary. When he uttered this statement few per sons would have realized that in so short a time the revulsion would have become so decided as to admit of the Presbyte rian church proposing to modify its creed on these points or to frame new one ignoring the essential elements of old one. In response to the action of the Presbyterian general assembly of last May the various Presbyteries have been voting on the matter and without an ex ception the result has been in each case an almost unanimous vote in favor of action which will resent in greatly modi flying the objectionable statement of the Westminster confession.
 Prof Briggs, their ablest professor in their leading theological seminary, in his address at the late annual dinner of the Presbyterian club of New York city went so far as to say, "A new Reforma tion is necessary
 Another cheering sign of the present discussion is its changing tone towards the Catholic church. The Westminster assembly, whose sessions began in 1643, disided its actions between asserting Calvinism, rejecting Episcopacy. the nd bn c,1r,,1ico nd demning the Catholic church. The latter action was most natural for that time. though the direct conflict was with the Episcopal church of England, which by parliamentary action had required sub- mission to the Act of Uniformity, refu- sal to do which had thrown thousands of the clergy out of their parishes. The present discussion happily affords an op- portunity to revise the confessions statements concerning the Catholic church, the disposition to do which is evident from the action of the Brooklyn Prespytery on Monday by a vote of go to 4, which included the following:
 We suggest that the confession con- tains polemic statements in regard to the Roman Catholic church which are out of place ill symbol of faith, which cannot be sustained by due warrant of scripture. and ought therefore to be omitted.
 Q.) The declaration in Chapter g, Section :, that VOWS of perpetual single life, professed poverty and regular nbaIianrn and SinfI11 enares in which no one may entangle himself.''
 (2.) The rule laid down in Chapter 24, Section 8, that ''such that profess the true reformed religion should not marry with infdels, papists, or other idolators."
 (3.) The assertion in Chapter 9. Sec tion 6, that ''the Pope is that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition that exalteth himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God"
 It is to be noted that this is a proposi- tion not merely to withdraw the obnox- ious statements but an acknowledge ment that the Westminster assembly errtd in asserting that the condemned articles were contrary to scripture. Such a confession sofrankly made will be most graciously received by the vast body of clergy and laity of the Catholic church, and recalls the fact that the revised version of the bible as it is termed, the work of the province of Canterbury of the church of England, assisted by leading dlvines of other Protestant bodies in England and the United States, is much nearer to the Vulgate of St Jerome than that called King James version, of 1911.
 As an illustration of this we cite the fact that in the Vulgate the Lords Prayer does not have the doNology. This doxology did not appear in the English prayer books of 1549 and 1552. It first appeared in part of the gospels of King James version. When the last version of the English prayer book was made, in 1862, it appeared as part of the Lords Prayer. to be used on joyful occasions, and was omitted in the litanies.
 The confession of distinguished body of Presbyterian clergymen that their ancestors in their specific condemnation of the Catholic church's teachings did so "without warrant of scripture is a sign that charity has come to stay and that misguided prejudice is fast dying out. To do justlce to self is human, to do justice to another is divine.