Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-06-03
ARE THESE MEN HERETICS?
DIR. NEWTON AND DR.. PARKHURST.


ONE AN EPIsCoPALIAN, THE OTHER A
PREsBYTERIAN.-THEY BOTH PROTEST
AGAINST THE NARRowNEss OF THE
DoeMATIclsM THAT RULES THEIR
CHURCHES.
Two very remarkable sermons were
preached in the city of New York last Sun
day week, the one by Rev. DR.. X. Heber
Newton, the Episcopalian clergyman VII,
is charged with heresy; the other by Rev.
DIR. G. II. Parkhurst, of the Madison Square
Presbyterian church. From the synoptical
reports of these sermons in the Herald the
following extracts are made:
Rev. DR.. Newton, says the Herald, threw
down the gage of battle to those who are
clamoriug to have him turned out of the
Protestant Episcopal church. Without the
shadow Of an equivocation and in language
that has been carefully thought out, he de-
fined his position on the matter concerning
which he has been accused of holding here
tical views. He took no back steps. He
practically threw overheard the thirty. nine
articles. He declared that they contained
no statements of faith that were binding on
him. He stood on the Nicene Greed, and
under that creed he declared emphatlcally
that it was possible to hold all the diver
gent views concerning future punishment,
creation, evolution, the atopement and
other doctrinal matters which are at present
turning the religious world upside down.
ssThe Nicene Greed, said DR.. Newton,
| is charter of liberty. It frees US from
nine.tenths of the burning questions with
| which Professionalism is on fire to-day.
What the Nicene Creed afirms is bounden
on every loyal child of the church. 10 deny
the affirmations Of that creed is to be dis
loyal. To accept loyalty as the church 8
teaching what ones own individual mind
fails to affirm is thoroughly honest atti-
tude, To interpret that creed in different
ways is necessary. Inevitable, since human
minds are not constructed upon one mould.
If 80 be that the Interpretation can show
historic justification, it is legitimate within
the church.
Concerning the doctrine Of the Trinity,
he said:
1.-THE doctrine of the Trinity is purely
philosophical formulas metaphysical state
ment in Interpretation of the mystery of the
relations of the divine being to creation
which again is a mystery of the nature of
the divine being Himself. To interpret
this doctrine accurately is, therefore, Who'll
ly beyond the power of any man. To in
terpret it some way, as closely as possible
to the historic meaning discernible in the
fathers and recognized through the church,
is the duty of every clergyman"
OF the incarnation he said, 't is spirit
ual truth, philosophically stated" Of Jesus
Christ he aid he is 'sas the spiritual sense
has ever discovered-a man filed with the
indwelling God, God manifest in the flesh,
the fullEess of the Godhead bodily, the
God man."
He who reads the signs of the time, F"
ne sale, "sees clearly one of two alterna-
tives before our American Protestantism-
the throwing overheard of It's creeds o, the
simplifying of its creeds. Today could our
Protestant churches be content to part with
our reformation confessions of faith and fall
back upon the great Catholic creed which
has come down through the centuries, and
is by our own church held forth as the
common heritage of all who profess and
call themselves Christians there would be
an end of strife and contention. Well nigh
every battle being waged in our sister
churches would cease at once. DIR. b idg-
man would not have to leave his psstorate
on the question of future punishment. DR..
Briggs could excite no contention 10 the
church on the question of inspiration. The
Cancellation of creeds is to be found ia the
return to that common creed of Christen-
dom which rules out from the form of faith
these dogmas over which men are disput-
ing and leaves them to the realm of Opin-
ion.
sour great creed is the Cancellation of
the faith of today with the truth of the
future. To be loyal to the Nicene Greed is
to welcome every new thought that proves
itself true as the utteraucs of that divine
word, who is speaking through creation to
the soul of man."
DR.. PARKHURsT's SERMON.
Rev. DR.. G. Fl. Parkhurst cast a bomb
into the Presbyterian camp yesterday
morning, says the Herald, by delivering a
sermon that will cause widespread critic
ism. if it does not meet with censure, at the
hands of presbytery. DR.. ParkhuIst made
strong defence for Prof. Briggs, and some
Of his criticisms of the action Of those who
condemned him are anything but compli-
mentary.
II am not" said he, speaking of any
one century, but of all the centuries of the
church. We raise vast piles of money to
CONVERT mar end oe, i INN INTO tie ch1fcn;
but the moment of supreme felicity, the
compact flame of radiance and heat, is
when there is prospect of getting man
out of the church. The church has always
fought new ideas. It never subscribes to a
discovery in science till it has to. 1t al
ways widens its conception grudgingly and
sulkily. When on the frontier, between
the known and the unknown, it has always
behaved as though it were scared. And
the man who has new understanding Of
things is always hated man. No matter
what his character may be, no matter what
his integrity, no matter how profound, no
matter how willing he might be to lay
down his life for the truth, as he appre-
hends it, he is feared and hated man. 1t
is wonderfully curious, considered just SIM
ply as psychological facs. And they al
ways try to kill him. Of course, as civiliz
alton has advanced. modes of burning and
buryipg alive have been modified and have
| assumed more sthetic forms, but there is
the same queer impulse back of it all.
1.-THE question that is on the lips of
thousands Of young men that are on the
threshold of the ministry, and that are
| looking in the direction of the Presbyterian
church, is: Can I enter the Presby terrain
ministry and still retain my intellectual
self respect? Must l pluck ont my eyes
| and replace my brains with saw-dust, as
candidacy for Presbyterian orders9 Can l
| be an independent thinker and be at tbs
same time loyal Presbyterian
1t was in view of such Undergraduates,
DR.. Parkhurst went on, that he would 60
on to express it as his frank conviction
that the general assembly stultiHsd itself
one year ago whsn it bound it's revision
committee to confine it's modification of
| the confession within Calvanistic limits.
sour objection" he said, sis to the idea
| of tying great church in live century