Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-07
Are Very Hard to Understand From
His Recent Utterances.
IF HE SUSTAINS THE STANDARDS
he Had Queer Way Of Saying So in His
Inaugural Address.
NOT BRAVE ENOUGH FOB A HERETO
WRITTEN FOR THE D1srArcH.l

whose nerves have been-drawn to danger
GUS tension over the startling revelations
brought. to the knowledge Of the vulgar
populace in connection with the Sir Gordon.
Cummings Prince of Wales baccarat scandal,
to be informed of the real nature of the
Briggs matter and the causes which have
led up to the present untoward results.
Here, then, is the case in as few
words as can possibly put it, and at the
same time give any intelligent presentation
of the matter.
For II years prior to his transference to
the Chair of Biblical Theology, Dr.. Briggs
had been quietly and acceptably filling the
Chair Of '.Hebrew and Cognate Languages
in the same institution. By his studlous
methods and fluent pen he had won for him.
self an enviable reputation as student Of
the Scriptures. His published writings
have always attracted attention as in every
way worthy of the man and the abundant
opportunities afforded him in his special
calling. His recent articles on the revision
of the standards of the Presbyterian Church
| were to the minds of many unanswerable in
their logic, and proved effective in drawing
very many
l
To me his criticisms seemed thoroughly
reasonable and scriptural, and, am free to
confess, facilitated me in forming my con-
clusions as to the imperative need of q
change In many particulars in the authora-
tive statements Of Presbyterian belief For
| many years growing conviction had taken
| possession of my mind that the Westminster
| divines were very fallible in their judg-
ments and exceedingly harsh and unscrip-
tural in their conclusions. 1t is now conf
IDENTIFY, and with considerable more COM
placency than is pleasing to me, asserted
that by the unfortunate break of DR.. Briggs,
revision has received a blow from which it
is not likely soon to recover. If that is the
case am very sorry for it, for if there is
anything that needs to be Strengthened out
and pruned, and modified and eliminated,
and qualified and reversed, it is that same
Confession of Faith in many Of its state
ments.
Well, so far, all my sympathies were with
Dr.. Briggs and the stand that he had taken.
But when it comes to his inaugural address
on the occasion of his installation in the
professorship of Biblical Theology last JAN
uary, feel reluctance, as do many of his
sincerest admirers, to follow him in his
meanderings and dogmatizings, especially
since he took it all back in his subsequent
categorical replies to the pointed interroga-
tories Of the directors of the same institu-
tion. -
,~,s~r The Quality of the Moses. "a
Before consent to 'spoil the Egyptians
and start forth into the wilderness In search
of the promised land want to be assured
that our Moses will not desert us at the Red
Sea, just when Pharoah and his hosts have
caught up with US. No man makes a good
hereto unless he Is prepared to stick to his
statements through thick and thin, and even
give stronger emphasis to them when called
to account. To me the strong point in Ser
vetus' favor, when Calvin and his coadiutors
had decided to burn him, was that he pro-
tested with all earnestness against such
cruel fate, and expressed his great dread of
it, but at the same time assured his relent-
less prosecutors that he believed every
word which determined his fate; and even
amid the flames insisted that he could not
believe otherwise.
Had DR.. Briggs declined to recant, and
beside, not recanted, as he certainly did in
effect when he answered those questions of
the directors; and had he, like a man of
courage and steadfast convictions, gone
boldly to Detroit and confronted his ac-
cusers, verify believe that the vote would
not have been so beggarly small in his de-
fense, while his admirers throughout the
land would have had more heart to stand by
his cause. The unfortunate utterance of
DR. Briggs on the occasion referred to, as
his friends generally regard them, or his
heretical doctrines, as his most jealous op-
ponents pronounce them, do not to the or
dinary mind present themselves as either
very unfortunate nor dangerously hetero- |
do1.
The Elasticity of Language.
The fact is, those who have never shown |
any sympathy with the man or his opinions |
freely concede that they were capable of be- |
ing stated intelligibly in language such that |
not the slightest taint of heresy would at
tach to them. That there is broad de-
batable territory between orthodoxy and |
by reason of the tricks which |
the English tongue will occasionally prac-
tice upon us, is only too apparent from
the vexatious controversies which have
been waged in ecclesiastical assemblies
over the utterances of some unlucky theo-
logic wight, which were not pitched in the
same key with that in which his inerrant
brethren were won't to render them.
The trouble in which DR.. Briggs has in
volved himself was not so much on account
of any bald heresies uttered by him, but
rather because of what his opponents regard
as an arraignment of Professionalism, and his
attacks upon the accepted
teachers of the Church for whose ministry
be had been selected to train young men.
After having deliberately taken the oath to
defend the standards of the Church he SEEM
ingly attacked several of its tenets, and in
general spoke deprecatingly of attachment
to creeds and dogmas. Without going into
details, or attempting to defend or refute
his statements, they may be briefly summed
up as follows:
His Confidence In Reason.
In declaring that there were 'Three great
fountains of divine authority-the Bible, the
Church and the Reason" his adversaries
contend that he treated all these as CO.
ordinate, and Of equal authority; that any
'ne Of them Independently could be depend
ID upon to assure ones salvation. He
seemed to argue that by the exercise of pure
'eason independently of the Church or Bible
nan can find trust and rest in God. He
,harges Professionalism with substituting for
he Word of God 'The authority of Prot
,stant rule of faith, and with "enyeloping
he Bible with creeds and ecclesiastical de-
,isions" All Of which seemed out of place
n one who was about to undertake to train
men for service in the church which stood
" these offensive creeds and decisions.
Then he seemed to his antagonists to un-
luly depreciate the attachment which Prot
stants IN common were wont to manifest
oward the Holy Scriptures, an attachment
which he styled as ''Bibliolatry." As to
Verbal Inspiration" he scouts at the idea,
nd stands up merely for the inspiration of
he concept" notwithstanding his afirma-
ion that the 'Bible was the only infallible
ule of faith and practice" As to the au-
horship of the Bible he maintains that "the
reat mass OF the Old Testament was written