Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-16
NUMBER 40.

! Oi DIR. StUTrs letter on the Covell case.
the Christian Union says: "WhiIe DR..
| Storrs expresses The highest regard for all
the members OF the committee and for
each of the Secretaries, aud personal
friendship and afTectionate honor for the
Home Secretary, it is clear that his
method of dealing with this question is
not what has come to he known as the Al
den method; that he disapproves the in
| quisitorial Cross-exanination OF caud;dates-
the use of creeds ard little memorandums,S
the citation Of texts the chilling of mis-
sionary enthusiasm by the suspicion of
evangelical soundness of volunteers. the
| 'pinning Of candidates attention TO the
austere problems of the future the
abrupt and sharp edged challenge, if YOU
doubt you cannot co. Ard he intimates.
though in careful and well-chosen
phraseology, that if this spirit is
to animate the Prudential Committee.
and this method is to characterize
the reception of missionary volunteers. the
Board must look for some one else to take
the head Of the Board which shall only
| too gladly vacate' In short. if we under
stand DR.. Storr's letter Alright, he means
the American Board and the public to
| understand, though he uses no phraseolory
which can be tortured into a threat. that
if the Board should, on the one hand. ap-
prove, by its words or its action, the doc
trine of future probation, or should, on
the other, continue the policy which
repels and discourages men OF the charac-
ter and spirit of Mr. Covell, it must look
for new President. < < 1t is. at all
events, reasonably certain that either the
administration at Boston must, bv change
in personnel or change in spirit and meth
cd, conform to the policy which DR.. Storrs
has laid down, and must carry it out in the
spirit and temper which he has manifested,
or it must be prepared to accept next fall
his declination, and to take UP the work
OF the Board with a new President in his
place"
The Little Rock arkansas Ci,srehman
2. E.) says: "We are profoundly i'm
pressed with the belief that the ordination
Of negroes to the ministry is wretched
blunder The negro is not morally strong
enough to hold the sacred deposit Of holy
orders He is too unstable: his will Is too
feeble. His moral sense is hazy, and even
when he seems to clearly see the right, he
lacks resolution; he is wanting in vigorous
moral volition. The negro lacks ballast;
ut easily 4boGS HIS utcu II VIII Like
more than three or four generations of
Christian heredity to work the native ami
malism out of the African sufficiently to fit
him for holy orders. OF course there may
be individual exceptions here and there,
prophecies of the future type, which the
race may realize thousand years hence,
maybe sooner. What we are concerned
with now is the negro's present intellect
i
ly lay down the proposition that
the negro's present intellectual and
moral constitution is not equal to the
great responsibility Of the ministry. 1t is
cruel to put the strain on him. The
church's standard cf moral rectitude for
her ministry is too high for the negro.
The first ordination Of negro was an eth
nological blunder, and a moral wrong to
the whole church. Race laws are as di-
vine as the Ten Commandments. We can
no more violate Gods race laws with i'm
punity than We can break the Decalogue
with safety. The moral elevation of a
race is a slow process. We canpot
forestall the law of hereditary
accumulation of moral increment.
The principle upon which we should carry
on our Christian work among the negroes
is that of the mission of a superior
race to an inferior race. We of the
white race are, relatively speaking, moral
iniliionaires; ous African brethren are
moral paupers. Fer the white race to IN
trust the eyanselizasion of the negro to
the negro is q breach sof divine trust, q
betrayal of Christ's mission"
The CG1isfatn Register (Unit) says:
"Prof Briggs book entitled 'Whither%
recently reviewed in our columns, is SO full
of heresy that his Presbyterian brethren
are somewhat staggered by it, His heresy
seems to take the most varied forms
Sometimes it consists in the wicked sin Of
increasing the number of the saved, and
sometimes in showing that not all the
saved are sanctihed by death. In q recent
article in the December Xdgozinc Of Chris
iiaa Literature, DIR. Briggs says: q am well
aware that it has been Il common opinion
that believers are, at their dealh-.hat is,
at the very moment Of death-o3upeteiy
santi6ed. This opinion seems to be favored
by the statement of the Shorter Catechism:
The souls OF believers are at their death
made perfect il holiness This is one of
the number Of instances in which the
Shorter Catechism by its brief, ungulrded
statements has occasioned error This
leads the Pres5yterfoa Journal to say:
That is cool from one Of our theological
Professors To think Of any Professor in
Presbyterian theological seminary ven
turing even to intimate that the Shorter
Catechism is in any respect erroneous IS to
our stanch Presbyterian contemporary
the hight Of andacity. Ii finds in
the same article another passage in
which the rationalism is very bold
DIR. Briggs sin here consists IN suggest
ing that the saints who have entered
the middle state ARE still the same
persons, with all the gifts and graces,
and also all the evil habits of mind, dis
position, and temper they had when they
left the world. It is unpsychological to
suppose that these will all be changed in
the moment Of death The editor of the
journal cannot refrain from piling I'D the
fago!s and preparing a torch for the heret-
ical professor. he asks, Does not such a
pointed public departure from the stan
dards, by u minister and theological pro-
fessor, force an unwelcome duty upon the
Presbytery of New York and upon the
coming General Assembly,"