Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-03-13
CURIOSITIES OF OPINION.
Professor David Swing on the Rev
ion of the Presbyterian Greed.
Thoughts for the Consideration of the
Thoughtful.

Many minds are made for carving
opinions rather than for forming them.
Other minds seem to possess two depart
ments, one for the occasional manufacture
of new doctrine. the other for the safe
keeping of old. well-SeaSoned ideas. In
the old cabin of the west there were visible
In olden times many pieces of hickory or
oak lying across the joists above the fire.
place. There they were smoked and dried
eternally, and the chief happiness of the
old settler came from telling the visitor
how many years that piece of stuff had been
up overhead undergoing its curing process.
The guest could do nothing but confess
that the place was a good one for drying
sticks. 1t must be confessed that In, many
minds there are places for dry and eternal
storage, and that to these minds great hap
plness comes from recalling the number of
years In which the articles this stored
have occupied their peaceful position.
According to Mr.. Tyndall's recent arti--
Gle in memory of Carlyle, that great mind
which seemed so wide awake and so des-
tructive of opinions had large place in
his mind for the preservation of old scien-
! tifc opinions which seemed to Mr.. Tyn-
| dali as worthless as they were old. Mr..
| Carlyle handed out his scientific dogmas
with piece founded upon their age.
In former eras the storage department
of the mind was so large as to compose al
most the whole intellect. Generations did
not add to truth; they simply carried on
ward the old loads of stuff. A traveller of
| 200 years ago visited In Dutch Guinea a
very high and most favored wooden god
which for many years had made communi-
cations to the negroes In audible speech
| Itwould say nothing In the daylight, but
In the darkness of night it would answer
| questions for the inquiring heart. It's
favorite hour was two In the morning
At that unreasonable hour the English
wise man made a call npon the wooden
/ erently question it. The natives were not
at all panied at the taciturnity of their
wooden friend, because their minds were
made for carrying the god along from age
to age; their heads were places of cold, dry
storage. 1t was otherwise with the English
| tourist, for he poked his cane into the
mouth of the stubborn image, and for the
| purpose of opening up In the negro mind
department of inquiry, he fred his pistol
into the cheek of the IDOL No word of
objection came from the god regarding the
cane or the pistol 1t is probable that
some negro tribe in Africa is still getting
instruction from that wood, because the
African mind is only means of transpor-
| tatlon and not of any analysis or elimina-
| ton.
Among the thousands of PRESBYTERIAN
clergymen there must very naturally be
some of these storage brains In common
years this quality of mind is little noticed,
| but when day comes for making a re-
vision of an old creed then the mind that
thinks becomes very distinguishable from
the man that is simply In the carrying
trade. The Rev. DIR. McCracken, Chancell-
or of the University of New York, was
reared In Ohio among the most extreme
Calvinists. When he was a youth in
Miami University he would not sing any
hymns except the psalms of David. His
| half-brother was arraigned by his presby-
| terry for playing upon a guitar upon Sat
urday evening-that hour being too near
Sunday to admit of such levity as a guitar
and Juanita. But this youthful McCrack
en- was not mere pack-horse He now
stands along with Howard Crosby and DR..
| Van Dyke of the New York group of
Presbyterians. He had in him power of
holding a review of opinions He has
seen through and through the creed.
Many are amazed at the attitude of Dr.
John Hall He stands in no way affected
!
along very carefully all which the seven
teenth century handed over to his charge
| He may possess many fine intellectual
qualities, but one must not reckon among
these the power to make an intellectual
| advance. He is a great friend of the old
ideas IN preaching, government and relig-
ion because his mind is guardian Of old
| goods rather than producer of better
| fabrics
Out of DR.. Halls peculiar mental struct-
ure has come a repartee which will make
many impatient persons feel half glad that
the Doctor ventured to play MS part In the
drama of revision The famous Doctor
lamented that the Confession of Faith was
liable to suffer a change of even single
word; he besought the presbytery to let it
stand and then add some commentary
which would show what an opinion the
church cherished of Gods mercy. DR..
Crosby raised laugh when he arose an ex-
pressed a doubt whether it would be
wholly grand and piOus to express Gods
wrath In the regular body of the creed and
God love In a footnotei And thus will
end DR.. Hall S footnote idea.
The Chicago Presbytery has voted quite
unanimously that there should be re-
vision, but the more difficult work is be-
words and phrases and statements which
are out of harmony with the teachings of
Christ. The shorter path would perhaps
be to leave untouched the Confession of
faith, but to make essential to a Presby-
terrain clergymen belief In such state
ment of doctrine as was drawn up some
years ago for and by the Evangelical Al
lance. The orthodox Congregational
churches have found peace by making a
belief in Calvisism optional-these church
es having become evangelical rather than
doctrinal
The Chicago Presbytery is wise In not
being in haste The condition of the
Presbyterian Church is not indeed salts
factory, but the fact is not like that Of a
house on fre-a time when all must run
and scream, and when some panic-stricken
persons must hasten to jump out of an
upper window. The case admits Of care
and honest deliberation The day Of re-
vision is one of the greatest days that has
come to the Presbyterian clergy of this
land 1t need not be a day of hurry nor
need it be day of doubt and fear 1t may
well seem like a relaunching of ship-a
time of new reioicings and new hopes.
The old looker-on can not but wish that
Noyes, Swazey, Trowbridge and Forsythe
were here to take part in the rebuilding
and refurnishing of their sanctuary
New men have come into the presby-
terry in late years and have brought with
them not only the common qualifications
of the preacher, out also the discriminating
faculty that marks the age. Rev. Mr..
Stryker, Rev. Mr.. Mcpherson, Rev. Mr.
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