New-York tribune., 1891-05-25

the spirit in that smile thai In the salts
hees ese over o sIow fires and tickle their es6 with hot
pincecs. 1t is conundrum that have no ethical or
psychological solution for But IL is fact, and the
Church is steadily against The man who dares express
satisfaction in seeing him squirm for IT.
RELISH FOR PERSECUTION.
And it is right in the line OF that TO g. on and say
that Il would have been natural TO expect that before
steps were taken looking to the direction OF formal
indictment, all possible means would have been used
to arrive at safe conclusion in quiet way. You
would have supposed that before recommending an
ecclesiastical trial which r all probability will not be
concluded for years, prosecution Is begun,
it would be natural to suppose. say, that the COM
mittee having the matter under survey and advisemen
would have felt themselves under solemn obligation TO
utilize every source of information that available
grand jury that should bring Ii al Indictment, with
the confession that II had reigionsy put cotton IN It's
10 avoid hearing what 1--WE out OF six available
| witnesses could testify upon tie maIter "oulu De
beneath the contempt Of ali men who had conscience
for commonplace everyday justice only refer to
this Illustration of my point that the Church
now a. always. has quick, keen relish for dOctrinal
persecution And this singular desire to see the screws
| put upon a cOpresbyter is made only the more
pulsive by the TACT that the subject In question had
Just been elected commissioner 70 sepTesent the Pres
with which he Is charged Is 3 th4} M Oh & t
had but a liutle time betore, with large unanimy,
voted is no far expression of our doctrnal convie-
tiOus and needs tho ough overhsuling For nl-ad-
vised, incongruous, heresy smiling legislation commend
me to the recent action Of Presbytery. May the
Of bodies and the tangled machinery of minds,
and when the muse of history composes herself 70
write the minutes Of our procedure may the tears She
will shed suffice to obliterate the record , All.
Let it not be supposed that this church and this
Christ truths that are to be considered essential
We do believe in opening the doors widely but We DO
the house. And the essential truths those which
Christ by His teaching and living and dying has shown
| 10 be essential. We accept no man as master but
! Christ We will be bound by no authority but Christ.
We will not be bound by any Confession Of Faith. We
contradict Christ and when Christ bids love our
enemies and pray for them, and the imprecatory
against them, turn my face to Christ and my back 20
David My morning and evening lessons from the
Psalms / always read from an expurgated edition OF
the PsalteF In essentials unity, and in nonessentals
much diversity anybody wants The question tI.l
Is on the lips of thousands OF young men tat are on
the threshold Of the ministry and that are looking In
the direction of the Presbyterian Church Is "Can l
telectual self-respect Must pluck out my eyes and
replace my brains with sawdus candidacy for Pres
| and be at the same time loyal Presbyterianl"
1t is in view of just such nterrogatores as those ta fas nat
90 on to express II my frank conviction that the
General Assembly stultifed itself year ago when
it bound its revision committee TO eOnhne It's mo3ln n
cation of the Confession within Calvnistc lines our
objection is not the thing 1t Is TO the name our oD
lection is TO the idea Of tying great Chureh on N i've
under ground II touches the spot in keen vide e.
awake where he keeps his disappointment and r MS
but hurts my feelings to feel that the Church that
remetery M Theology is not ripe yet it has great posi-
bes In it there is within it for infinite expen-
future to pin 1t to an old it would be 70 pin
| science TO an old name. The attempt to make OF
in the world and vet to break its wheel with the
OF John Calvin any other name, Is like getting lno
sS1T So of travel before You have oosened horse
from the To tie us to the sTeeny heggn
With a htched horse And any one who supposes that
that Find OF Church in this Of the world Is gong
sae Children s before they begin to think and old
ard women after they have gotten through thinking Is
| badly mistaken
| LIBERTY BEFORE ORTHODOXY.
Start in bright live persons mind even suspicion
that there an incompatbilty between the Presby-
terap Church and thought at its best and frees and
largest and you everlastingly damned the Prsoy
teran Church in the esteem Of that man, AS Olu Ut.
| Van Dyke-a man who, am told, was not SO brOau
once as not to have good deal of room left tor eX
psnsion but who is wide and umbrageons no" Una.
some Of us who are considerably younger can easily SIT
under the shadow of his branches-as DR.. van DYKE
said in public few days ago " we caa1os snS dSS Se
liberty and orthodoxy both let us nave iOelS a ~
Now let say simple careful word aPoG6 Gd 1Hs 1ne
| suppose there is member OF the session OF @ uhs
church that has any kind OF anxiety "a as NO " "nf'aTr a
sure makes no difference Dd 70 me rebn ener t e
divine reliabieness of the Scriptures in their whole
ness or a. TO the assurance with Whlcn press uppn
men the Claims sSdsss ID goo tSemsVes to us through the
Ribe. have no care about the matter one way or
tbe other We believe that the Bible Is inspired Dy
God We do not believe that God ever told Moses TO
say that comics chew the cud, because comes 40 nQI
cbs,, fhe end Leviticus H. g. to the contrary, not
vitbstsnding That does not vitiae the Sermon
/ the Mount That does not invahdaIe tne proofs ol
Crists resurrection. That does not our tne ItIee I'll
its vitaIs any than pairing your nails stops your
hearts beating. The Bible Is TOO big thing TO hahg
Oh such iU matter that ps referred 70 in 0 Leytegs S1 o
and me unless we have had specific training for II
| any more than we are competent without spectmec
traininc TO decide how far It is 10 the sun, or what
he moon Is made Of. And the scholars are saying It,
and saving it almost universally that there are such
errors in Scripture as the one have named 90 nOt
! know whether there are do not know enough 10 be
able to Judge OF course can assume that There are
not and that would save a good deal OF trouble put
assumptions made in the interests Of convenience are
| slways avenged. 1t may be said again that allow
ton Now that is simple Intellectual cowardlce, and
man ought TO blush for very shame at the craven i'm
Pnis 80 ASK bv 'pSf yns Gence II there are errors
sooner or later it will be known and the more pains
we have taken TO keep them covered up the more the
Tihe will suffer In the worlds esteem when once 1t Is
known. There is no book In the world that Is 50
worthy of being handled with absolute eandor ana
s-sriessness as the scriptures of the Old and New
Testament And this idea OF the possible erTancy Of
what some would have consider the black art Of
the higher criticism.
ERRORS IN THE BIBLE.
Calvin believed that there were errors in the Bible
and so did Luther and stier and Lange and Tholuck
H. Il. smith OelieVed H. H. Ho"' '"oio "0 Su0N
errors and if it is according to the Confession Of
Faith 10 believe there errors then 1t would seem
h+tar n SQUARE the Confession OF Faith to the facts
than TO undertake TO square the facts to the Confession
Of Faith II would be just well for the facts. and
world sight better for the Confession of the Faith n
man saws that Leviticus H. o. is mistake the thing
10 do is not to prove that he Is false to the Confession
St 90 nroduce a cud chewing coney. If Presbyterians
enrnt keen ont of bed without ignoring its Christian
cholors and vltuperatng it's Christian experts, the
nornoiga medical expenses and watchers.
Now the special object Of these later paragraphs Is
.. nrotesf against Quddlng ways OF defending Gods
~ Va II is This small eovardly, petufoGging manner
Of handling these great matters that IS exciting the
VI @ .e-nTt of Deople have brains enough to think
d science enough to spot poroonery and disin
"enuousness and that are being led 70 suspect that
son iS one of those things that shows 10 best ad
renss1e when the light Is turned down some one
viii saw that the manner in which nave this mnng