Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-10
DEFENSE< OF BRIGGS.
Professor Brown Will Conduct It
When the Case Comes Up.
NO MORE PATCHED-UP EXCUSES.
Or. Briggs Will Boldly Face His AccuserS
and Defend Himself.
MYSTERY OF DICKEY's RESIGNATION
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.


ing ready for his trial for heresy. His so
journ abroad ends in another month and hi
will be here in readiness for the Octobe
meeting of the Presbytery, when the tria
is to begin. An outgoing steamer recent,
carried TO England large packet addressed
to DR.. Briggs. 1t contained neat set O
newspaper clippings in the Briggs case, ant
these are now being arranged for the trial
DR.. Francis Brown, Professor of Hebrew a
Union Seminary, will return with DR.
Briggs to assist him in the defense. 1t il
DIR. Browns distinction that of all whc
have come forward as defenders of the ad
dress, he alone has made his defense un
qualified by excuses for DR.. Briggs manner
and style, or by explanations and apologize.
| for his views.
DR.. Brown was abroad when the Briggs
case was up in Presbytery last May. HI
begged repeatedly to be allowed to return
and help his friend and teacher in the i'm.
pending trial With such man as DR..
Brown in charge of his case the result, both
in Presbytery and Assembly, would have
been very different. But the Union Semi
nary directors assured DR.. Brown that there
was no danger, and the case took its course
hltnouI pan anu ieaueI.
DR. BROWN WELL PREPARED.
It is refreshing to learn that this same
blind trust in fate is not to characterize the
trial for heresy. DIR. Brown has tact. He
knows men and he understands how to
manage them. With him as a pilot the
Briggs craft may pass through the troubled
waters uninjured. AT any rate there will
be no more excuses, no more apologies, no
more patched-up explanations of sincere but
mistaken friends. And DR.. Briggs will be
defend himself without self-stultifcation
against the charges of heresy.
Some of the friends of Union Seminary
express the belief that the case of DR..
Briggs is to be dropped. The categorical
answers, they say, are to be taken as suffi-
cient proof of DR.. Briggs orthodoxy. This
is to be done in the interests of peace and
harmony and for the future the brilliant con-
troversialist is to conhne his expositions
of higher criticism to his classroom.
This is utterly improbable, because DR..
Briggs is not the man to be bridled, and be-
cause the committee of prosecution is de-
termined to see the trial through to its end.
Nothing but point blank retraction of the
address and its appendix by its author can
now stop the trial for heresy. Charges and
specifications based on this address, covering
the three points upon which charges were
originally made, are now being prepared
and the trial will be proceeded with in
October. 1t will be no answer to these
specifications to bring forward other state
ments of the accused that are unquestion-
ably sound. A hundred such statements
would not clear away the accusation of
heresy SO long as a single departure from
the Westminster Confession were to be
found in the address. Only definite and
positive recantation would satisfy.
BRIGGS WILL NOT REcANr.
DR.. Briggs will not recant. The absolute
sincerity Of the man is too apparent. His
convictions are deep and ingenious and
they rest upon long continued and ex-
haustive research into the subjects upon
which he has been attacked. DR.. Briggs
has no enthusiasm for these categorical
questions and answers. They were ar
ranged in the hope that the General Assem-
bly, would swallow them and pass the
Briggs case without vote. They are sup
posed to restate the propositions objected
to by DR.. Briggs critics, in language in
capable of being misunderstood, and thus
to show that if what he did say was heresy,
what he meant to say was perfectly ortho-
doxical.
These questions answered and signed by
Dr. Briggs ere to be circulated in the As
sembly to save Union from the dreadful
veto. Originally it was intended to have a
meeting of the directors of the seminary,
before whom DR.. Briggs was to appear and
be examined in the Westminster Catechism
to show the public that he was sound. DR..
Briggs firmly refused to be party to this
scheme and then it was suggested that the
questioning was to be confined to the three
points upon which charges were made.
This proposition met with refusal also. The
professor was unwilling to be catechised as
to his belief by directors, some of whom
were openly hostile to him.
Finally, he was prevailed upon to answer
categorically certain written questions to
be prepared, and DR.. Parkhurst and DR..
White set to work to prepare them. The
subject was covered by seven brief SEN
tcnces, taken bodily from his address.
These were answered satisfactorily, but DR..
Booth insisted on adding another of his own
wording covering the matter of belief in
miracles and the eight were answered and
signed Thereupon the board passed a
unanimous vote of confidence in the ac-
cused professor. DIR. Booth was absent
when the vote was taken. The following
day DR.. Briggs was himself again, and in
the pulpit of Henry Ward Beecher's
1Hucll Hc uciiNtTeu HIS WOHueTiul duureSS
on Biblical prophecy.
THE DICKEY RESIGNATION.
The mystery surrounding the resignation
of Director Charles A. Dickey, of Union
Seminary, is not yet cleared away. Facto-
tum Kingsley, of the board. promptly and
denied that there was a resigna-
tion or that one was ever thought of by Dr.
Dickey. Certain of the directors, includ-
ing DR.. Dickey himself, unaware of this de-
nial, made no secret of the resignation. 1t
was explained in an offhand way that the