The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1891-10-08
Orthodox Creeds.

Ohio Diocese had deposed Rev. howard
Macqueary from the priesthood OF the
Protestant Episcopal Church. 1t VIII
be remembered that Mr.. Macqueary was
tried last spring on a charge OF heresy'
found guilty and suspended for SIX
months. AT the end OF that time, II ne
did not retract his expressed opinions as
to certain features of the Church creed,
that then the final action last week
would follow Instead OF retracting Mr.
Macuueary reiterated the views he had
expressed. and declared that he could
not conscientiously modify the conylc-
tions that had impelled him to the
course he had pursued. In contempia-
ton of the action of the Bishop, MI
Macaueary renowned his connection
with the Episcopal Church, and formally
accepted a charge in the UniversalIst
Church.
Last summer Mr.. Macqueary was III
the Valley of Virginia, and remarked TO
a minister in the Church with which he
had been allied, that since his suspen-
sion. he had, on one occasion, gone to
the communion table to partake OF the
service. when the minister in charge
nassed him by refusing to administer to
him the sacrament. This he said was
the ssmost unkindest cut of all" and
stung him to the quick, and well it
might, for it certainly was stretch OF
apostolic authority, and in violation OF
the scriptural injunction to Judge not,
for one minister to refuse to allow an
other minister to partake of the commu-
MON, when he offered himself tor that
privilege 1t was not only judging but
passing sentence upon a professed believ
| er in the New Testament and prescribed
ordinances, assuming to discipline the
conscience of brother man and to prac
tically tell him that he had no lot or
part in the provision made for mans res
| demption. In short, that he was an
| outcast from the fold of christianity, an
alien from the commonwealth OF Israel
and ought to be cast into outer darkness.
This, it seems to us, was carrying Or
thodoxy step too far. The creed OF
the church militant is nothing more nor
less than a human devisement, which
ought to be subject to human criticism
and human Judgment as much as any
other enunciation from fallable man
Creeds are fast losing their awe-inspiring
| influence. for progressive enlightenment
is probing and dissecting them with
merciless freedom, and exposing their
dogmatisms and human imperfections
with unrestricted liberty and trenchant
power.
We publish on our first page the ac-
ton of the Presbytery of Rochester, New
York, on the Confession of Faith. 1t
will be seen from it that the reviewers
have literally torn it to pieces eliminated
its cruel assumptions, and practically
emasculated it of it's distinguishing
characteristics. The doctrine of the
elect, formulated in a creed, the work OF
man, is, to all intents, renowned, and
more liberal interpretations given to the
relations of man to his Creator and to his
conscience. Fifty years ago to have as
sailed these hoary religious formulas
and denied the orthodoxy of the Comics
sion, in any of its provisions, would have
been considered heresy of the worst and
most offensive kind, and called for the
anathemas of the church, with an ems
phasis and relentlessnes that would have
been Invested of all charity. But the
light thrown upon all musty creeds and
!, hn nf ri iIi
and the enlargement of human percep>
lions, and the broad aud more liberal
scope conceded to investigation, have
dissipated the restricted notions of the
fathers, demolished their idols, and
torn and battered their phylacteries.=-
Human Intelligence of the nineteenth
century has not deemed it sacreligious
to question the perfection of human in
| telligence of the sixteenth century "The
| fierce light which beats" upon all hui
man deyisements, radiant from a closer
affinity to the great source of all Light
and Power, has exposed the monstrous
inconsistencies of creeds and confessions;
| and holds up to ridicule the assumption
of finite minds in arbitrarily condemn
ing some to eternal punishment and ex-
alting others to eternal life, by the
forms of creed and the formulas of a
sect. All creeds to be orthodox must
receive their inspiration from the one
central truth that Christ died to save
and through his death all may have
eternal life. Whatever devisement of
| L.. al cYtbO
dox creed, is at fault. and carries with
it no more sancity and authority than
other emanations from the councils OF
men, 1t is impious to assume that men
have the right and authority tie pre-
scribe an infallible mode of worship, to
lay down confession of faith, to insti-
tute creed, to dissent from which is to
invoke the condemnation of priest or
preacher, and invite the ban of the
church, if not the wrath of the Al
mighty. The Mohammedan ii TIL,
shrouded in the gloom of superstition
and ignorance, was even more charita>
BILE 1t was Mobammed who laid down
the law that woman should be raised
which she had been subjected under chris
tian domination. 1t was he who restrain
ed the power of divorce and forbade po-
lygamy, which had stained and marred
christian history up to his time, not
withstanding the example and preeept
of Jesus, in treating woman with hui
manity and tenderness. The early
christian writer's inveighed against them
and denounced their ''evil tendencies,
their memorable malignity." Tertulion
described them as the devils gateway
the unsealer of the forbidden tree,
the deserter of the divine law, the
destroyer of Gods image-man." ST.
Chrysostrom pronounced them "neces-
sary evil, natural temptation, dis
NAL calamity, domestic peril, dead
ly fascination, a painted evil" The Or
thodox church excluded them from the
exercise of all but the lowliest religious
functions. "They were excluded abso-
lutely from society, were prohibited
nj