Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-09
ECREBDS 70FFTHE PAST.
Bessie BrambIe's Ideas Upon the Re-
vision of the Confession.
DOCTRINES THAT ARE ABHORREEE
"A Comparison With Beliefs That Prompted
Puritan CrueltieS
IGNORANCE OF THE POINTS AT ISSUE
rwnrrFrx ron THE D1sPArcu.i


The recent debate Of the New York Pres
bytery upon the subject of the revision Of
the Westminster Confession of Faith shows
that the spirit of the age has at last invaded
successfully the long held fortress Of Cal
vinism, and shaken to its foundations the
rock of Puritanism, Presbyterianism, R. P.
ism and q. P. ism, so long held stubbornly
as the bulwark OF their faith.
Puritanism in its stsnchest, sternest form
fOurished most luxuriantly in New En-
gland, but has now given way to liberalism,
and an amazing growth of rationalism. In
very many of the old New ENGLAND 4ami-
lies, whose ancestors braVed the .terrors Of
| the breaking waves and the solitude of the
new world in search of a "faith's pure
| Shrine" that faith is held as superstition,
while its leading doctrine of predestination
is repudiated as something that belonged to
the barbario ages Of the past. Many are
proud OF their nsmesof Mayfower fame. and
| of being the descendants of the first fam
| lilies who found homes on "the stern and
rock-bound coast" but they have little
respect for their doctrines. They regard
with detestation the bigotry so cruel, the
religious fanaticism so controlled and ami
mated by the spirit and example of Calvin,
cution of all other seots and in that deeper
horror. the burning of innocent good women
as witches.
Calvin was an intense hater, and those
who opposed his views were, in his mind,
| doomed to non-election, and therefore no
scruples need be entertained as to sending
them "down below" a little ahead of the
time at which their death might occur in
the. order Of nature. When the great leader
| and exponent of their faith and creed per-
secuted his enemies, and never desisted from
his efforts against Servetus-ths man who
ventured to disagree with him as to the
doctrine of the Trinity-until the unfor-
tunate hereto was burned at the stake, it is
not wonderful that Calyin's earnest follow
ers and most devoted adherents felt them
selves justified in following his nlustrions
| example by burning women. As q recent
| writer has observed on the subject of di-
vorce: "In those days, when the church
held the keys Of marriage and dictated to
the civil law, no divorces were permitted, but
when a man got dissatisfied with his wife,
and desired to get rid of her, he denounced
her as a hereto and witch, and she was
delivered up to torture, and death at the
stake by decree Of the Ecclesiastical author
tiles.
EXTENT OF SHOCKING FANATICISM.
|
tainly more effectual than the present
method Of divorce by the civil courts. To
what extent this shocking system of fanati-
cisms and cruelty was carried in that sternly
| pious age is shown by the fact, as related,
| that nine millions Of women in Europe and
America were thus cruelty and hastily
ushered out of the world to dwell with the
non-elect in eternal flames by the church
authorities. That the common people
should be committed to such abominable
| doctrine-as that women were responsible
for all evil, and in league with the devil
| is not surprising under consideration that
the authorities and leaders of both Catholic
and Protestant countries in that age held
the same doctrine of belief upon that point.
Calvin held himself possessed of divine
bright to burn those denounced as heretics,
Luther said: ~ would burn them all.'
John Wesley declared that the giving up
of witchcraft was in effect giving up the
Bible Richard Baxter, ''the great Puri-
tan," who preached more sermons
and engaged in more controversies than
any other man of his age, and
who was SO inclined to a spirit of love that
he rather shrank from the hard doctrines of
Calvin, heartily condemned those who dis
believed in Furnishing witches as "wicked
Sadducees," and Cotton Mather added fuel
to the flames by his intensity of condemna-
tion for those whose hearts were moved to
compassion for "hapless heretics" When
this cruelty to women was abolished BY act
of Parliament the CslVinists of Scotland
bewailed the new law as "a great national
SIM"
STANDS OUT AS ATRoCIoUs.
The civilization of the nineteenth GEN.
tury stands aghast at the shocking revelation
that this atrocious superstition-to speak
not of others-was ruling influence in the
church for centuries, and was held by clergy
and law givers as the fulfilling of divine
law. To the people Of to-day, it is amazing
that the teachers of the gospel of love, that
those who read in their Bibles that love to
/ God and love to man were the
great coumandments-thati it was duty to
"Resist not evil" Therefore all things
whatsoever ye would that men should do to
you, do Ye even so to them for this is the
| law and the prophets, "''Judge not,' and IT
will have mercy and not sacriice"-could
yetinsist on sacrifice without mercy. Read
ing, studying, preaching the law of love
every day of their lives, they yet ineulcated
! by precept and example the practice of
cruelty, hatred and persecution even unto
death. Such glaring Inconsistency gives
| point to the lines of Burns that
Mans Inhumanity to man r-
| Makes countless thousands mourn,
ana aQQs t0rce 10 the DatberlDg ram OF lnRer-
soil against creeds, when he says as to
orthodoxy: sit is a religion that gives hope
to only a few; that puts dark shadow upon
the cradle; that wraps the coffin in dark
ness, and fills the future of mankind with
| flames and fear''-that teaches thatN"God
has created nine-tenths of mankind in order
to wreak upon them his eternal vengeance
for his own glory.
POSITION OF THE CLERGY.
In this age of thought, Of reason, of skep-
ficism, is it wonderful that even those or
dained to teach and promulgate this doc
trine and uphold it by oath as divine truth
should shrink from it, and demand re-
vision OF the creed. SO that it may express
and emphasize rather the love of God for
mankind than His terrible wrath and
because, as he says, he cannot preach pre-
| destination to eternal punishment and the
damnation OF infants to his people; he can
not say to them from the pulpit that the
majority of the people in the pews are
| elected to future Of eternal flames, no mat
ter what they do. II he thought the Bible
taught such doctrine he would tear 1t up.
This is pretty strong talk from clergyman,
| who has sworn to uphold the very doctrines
he 80 ardently now repudiates, but it shows
to what extent the pulpit has been reached by
the heresies of the age.
Even here in Pittsburg-the stronghold
of Calyinism-the pulpit is little ''of
| on the Westminster confession, as is shown
by the announcement of Brother Donehoo
that be proposes at the next meeting of
| Presbytery tn take the field against the OBJ