Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-04
Are the Charges R. P. Ministers Are
Only Biding Their Time to File
Against DR.. McAllister.
ROW OVER FALSIFIED MINUTES.
Mr.. MiIligan Holds to His Platform and
Calls the Records BurleSQue
on Fair Play.
HOW SPIRITUAL GROWTH is STUNTED.
Jurors Alleged to Have Formed Opinions in Advance of
the Testimony.

It appears that the maximum heat of the
R. P. Synod has not vet been reached and
will not be until there is another deal of the
cards and the men on trial get a chance to
strike back. A member last evening, who is
an elder and who has been a strong hacker
of the suspended ministers, stated that a
libel had already heen drawn against DR..
David McAllister and that it was then in
the hands of members of the court and
time. He refused to tell in whose hands
the document rested, but said it charged the
Doctor with falsehood and SANDER and
would be an astonisher.
Following is the letter of DR.. McAllistel
which raised so much commotion the other
day:
To the Moderator and Members of the Synod of the
Reformed Presbyterian Church;
DEAR FATHERS AND BRErHREN-The extraor-
dinary circumstances of the case must be
nv justification for addressing to you this
letter. You have seen fit to pass against me
vote of disapproval for what was termed
an unjustifiable act; and then, however kind
YOUR intention, you did me a still greater in
jury in emitting the clerks record of your
action from the minutes, which omission
has been interpreted as anattempt at cover
ing over what l would be ashamed to have
known by the Church at large and by future
generations.
ask, therefore, that full record of this
matter be entered in the minutes, just as in
any other case, as simple matter of Justice
to all concerned. An essential part of this
record is the fact that when read extracts
from copy of letter. offered to place the
letter, together with statement of all points
relating to it,in the hands of your Committee
of Discipline, that they might examine and
report TO synod. NY Judgment remains un-
shaken that this course should have been
taken before you proceeded tovote your dis
approval of what has been so severely de-
nounced as the uniustifable act of reading a
private letter. A part of the statement
which would have made to your commit
tee submit herewith.
Declares 1t Was Not Private Letter.
This copy, or worse still, this copy of a
copy of what is most strangely called "a pri-
waite letter. came into my hands unsought
and unexpected, under no seal of privacy
or confidence, but as q document that has
repeatedly been copied and widely circu-
lated and known. 1t was evidently just
what it purported to be, and in my Judgment
has important bearing on the cases of discip-
line now before this court, and particularly
on those in which contempt of the authority
of the courts Of the Lords house is charged.
a o.
me to bring it to the attention of the Synod.
Had You examined the whole matter care
fully through your Committee of Discipline,
and decided that itwas out of order to intro
Guce the document at that time, or that it
was a document without sufficient testi-
mOny to prove that it was q true copy of the
original authentic letter, would have been
content to submit to vote of disap-
proVal without murmur of dis
sent. And l now frankly confess on
sober second thought that L erred, not in
breaking the sacred seal of privacy which
had already been broken by those who per
mitted a private letter TO be copied and cir
culated, but in bringing in at all q document
which would necessarily stir up heart-sick-
ening personalities in conflict where mo-
mentous principles of human conduct in the
great sphere of national life should alone be
But even this mistake will be
overruled for good. The hand of the Mediator
duct. All these mistakes of ours are the
of his providence. L have
read somewhere of self-complacent
would-be young Napoleons of par
against whom they were combined;
1--WE boys have got into the kingrow. 1t is
only question of how long it will take US to
corner them" But all the moves in this
contest now upon us, for the honor of Christ,
are under the control of His own almighty
kingly hand. And the very mistakes of His
children which may leave them uncrowned,
VIII surely lead to the more splendid radiance
and fuller acknowledgements of His own
mediatorial diadem. Ifmy error in referring
to miserable personalities is thus over
ruled l shall be satisfied.
Believing that your earnest aim and mine
are one and the same, namely-to honor
Him whose Crown and Covenant we are
sworn to maintain, 1 subscribe myself
Yours respectfully and obediently in the
Lord. DAVID McALLlsTER.
One Escaped and Is Glad.
The curtain at the r. P. Synod rose
promptly at the regular hour and the
church, which had been swept and gar
nished as usual, was soon again spattered
with theological viscera. Considering the
heat of the weather, Rev. H. W. Temple is
doubtless glad that he jumped the inclosure
and got into the Q. P. pasture before this
racket began.
After the Synod had spent 10 minutes on
rectification Of minutes and roll call, Rev.
Mr.. Farris, the Illinois Spartan, asked that
the appellants be held down so that nothing
irrelevant might get in, and the response Of
Rev. H. w. Reed began. He began by
claiming the right to interpret the language
applied to the appellants as they construed
il and not as some members of the court
might wish to eonstrue it. He attacked
the minutes of some of the presbyterial
and said they had not been read at
subsequent meetings, so that they might be
corrected and completed, though the clerk
had been asked to have it done. He said
the Presbytery had not for a moment con-
sidered circumstances anterior to the East
End meeting and its platform which was
held TO be an attack on the r. P Church.
Suppose the East End meeting was crime
and its platform an attack on the Church, |
might the Presbytery not have proftably |
taken into consideration the irritation that |
had led to that meeting and its work, per-
sons having perSlstently attacked the men, |
bers with charges of new-lizatism. He held |
that the Covenanter Church drifted from IFS |
historic position when it got an oath fabri- |
cated-an oath to suit its purpose. SO as to |
furnish soldiers for the Government. Rev.
Mr. Reed said he had taught nothing but
what his father taught him and eschewed
the political teachings of the seminaries,
but he had found it necessary in his iudg-
ment to ascertain just where he could stand
amid the conflicting positions assumed from
time TO time by courts.
The Wrong Was Not Specified.
He held that it was light which could not
be denied TO minority. The concrete ques-
tion was whether the East End meeting was
allowable. The Presbytery had said it was
not, but Rev. Mr.. Reed held that it had not
given authority for the decision. 1t was de-
cided that it was in conflict with some act.
but that act was not specified. He then mar
shaled cluster of acts by synods which he
said confiicted but had not been repealed. |
The East End meeting had been denounced
as secret conclave, but the speaker said it |
was not held as secret associations meet. 1t |
had no signs, grips nor passwords, but it was
private, such as saints in all ages held. |
Another charge was the formation of an
organization. Presbytery did not know so,
and therefore its charge on this head is
.alse. Ihe gist of Mr. Reed,s arrument |