Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-02-07
REFRIGERATION.


the revision of the Confession of
Faith of the Presbyterian church has
been awaking no little interest among
Protestant people. Following are
extracts from speeches upon the sub
ject by Drs. Crosby and Van Dyke.
DIR. Crosby said:
"When 1 examined the foundation
Of our faith for the hun,lredth time,
found one, and only one, statement
in the Confession which to my mind
is clearly and Numerically opposed
to the Word of God. The more /
have examined it The more / am con
yinced that this one particular is
contrary to the Word of God, per-
nicious to the church and injurious
to the highest and hol;est interests
OF religion. That one phrase OF
declaration is the use of The verb,
pass BY in the seventh section Of
the third chapter. When l say that
this one phrase only contrudicts
scripture, don't mean that approve
of MI others. Still, I eau allow
them, but when | sec statement
teaching fatalistic doctrine, con
trnry to the Bible from Genesis to
Revelations, my soul revolts Mt it.
Here is the section:
"'The rest of mankind, God was
pleased, according to the unsearcha
bile counsel of His own will, whereby
He eXtendeth or wilhholleth mercy
as lie pleaseth, for the glory of His
sovereign power over his creatures,
to pass by, and to ordnin them to
dishonor and wrath for their sin, to
the praise OF his glorious Justice
"Now what is meant by the phrase
'rass by? In the parable of the Good
Samaritan the priest passed by the
man who fell among thieves; the LIE
vite also passed him by. Here it is
said i'll our standard of belief that
God treats His creatures rs the priest
and the Levito treated The traveller.
md this in the face of statements
declaring that He loves the whole
world"
The Rev. DR.. Van Dyke began one
7, OF the most striking speeches of the
SSlentire discussion with DIR. Paxtou's
parable about the dog which haI set
his tag Tor text. The W&tmin
ster Confession rs it now stands, +"
he said, "affixcs tag to the human
race to this effect: part is consign-
ed to heaven and part to hell, and no
man can find out to which part he
belongs, nor would it make any diff
ference if he could Now, if l were
an expressmau l would refuse to
forward tagless dog; so refuse to
believe this unintclligible, inpossi.
BILE dogma, and yet my refusal makes
no difference
1--WE have voted for revision. Now,
what is the revision to be? 1 am i'll
favor of the committees report, be.
cause it eliminates reprobation from
the Confession, and suggests the
TO nation OF n new creed more Scrip
tural than the Confession, as basis
of union with other reform cd
churches. TIE first, the elimination
of reprobation, should be done as
soon as possible, if not sooner. We
want to get rid of reprobation, be
cause it is superAuous, and not es
sential even to Calvanism, as it is not
contained in any Calvanistic creed
except our own and the Irish Arti
Giles, formulated in 1915 only to fall
into innocuous desuetude in 1885
Ante natal damnation No man ever
died for that doctrine. Why, then,
should anyone clasp it to his bosom,
and weep tears at the thought Of
losing it, as if it had been bathed in
the blood of martyrs : Such n posi-
tion is like that of the old woman
who said: There's that blessed doc
trine of universal depravity. What Q
comfort it is if we only livel up to it !
THE Heavenly Father spreads q
feast for all; is it for us to say that
He refuses to let the poor sinner cal
of the crumbs which fall from His
table? And for what reason? Tc
satisfy our logic! 1t is but measur
ing the mind of the Almighty with
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