Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-24
have been corrected by verbal alteration and
transposition.'

have been corrected by verbal alteration and
transposition."
AS TO THE POPE.
The invidious references to 'Papacy'
which mark certain chapters of the Con
tesslon, and which were partially elimi-
mated by the revision committee, are all ex-
planned by DR.. Morris. Referring to the
propriety of applying the apostolic ex-
pressions, imam Of SIM and ''son of perdii-
tion,' and the Scriptural term, "Anti-
Christ, to the Pope of Rome, with its
natural consequence in the conclusion that
the Papal Communion is not church OF
Christ, but synagogue of Satan, he says:
But while the use of such terms is pro-
tested against as being incongruous with
the general language and temper of our
Confession. there have appeared to the COM
mittee no indications that the historic op-
position of Professionalism, and especially of
American Presbyterianism, to the perni-
cious assumptions of the Papal Hierarchy,
has in any wise diminished. These pre-
sumptions have embodied themselves con-
spicuously in the latest Vatican decree; and
the language of that decree, declaring that
the Pope of Rome is the Vicar of Christ, at
the head and infallible teacher of the
church universal, has therefore been incor-
solemn protest against it as an assumption
without warrant in Scripture or in fact ;"
DR.. Morris closes this remarkable
pamphlet with a personal explanation, in
which he states that the committee en-
deavors to follow the central line of revision
and to avoid incorporating the dogmas of
some school or section or gratifying the
wishes of the extremists, even to the cast
ing out of essential elements. Either course
would have been a mistake, disastrous, if
not fatal, to revision itself It would almost
sinevitably have divided the Church into
parties and factions. And the end of such
policy might have been denominational
dissolution.
CRITICISM FULLY MET.
Referring to the criticisms excited by the
report, DR.. Morris finds two extreme po-
sitions, against which the revision move
ment should be protected, The first is that
which decries against all revision and
clamors for a new and shorter creed. This
is the position attributed to DR.. Briggs. 1t
is described by DR.. Morris in this Ian
guage:
'tIt is easy to profess a special knowledge
of our symbols and high degree of loyalty
to them at one moment, and in the next to
explain away their plainest teachings, and
to propose some speculative substitutes In
their places, easy, in word, to claim the
name of Calyinist, and at the same time
disparage or reject what the name specially
represents to the minds of common men,"
The second dangerous element referred to
is Princeton, which DR.. Morris describes as
IAN extreme conservatism, which must not
be permitted to stand in the way of an
honest, faithful, adequate revision of the
church symbols In foot note in this
part of the pamphlet DR.. Morris attacks DIR.
B. B. Warfeld, Professor of Systematic
Theology at Princeton, who has already
opened the campaign against the adoption
of the report in an article in the Presbyterian
Reviesc DR.. Morris says:
DIR. MORRIS ANSWER.
''The writer cannot refrain from express
ing here his earnest dissent from both the
substance and the spirit of the criticisms
made upon the report in the July number of
our Regiear. The praise there bestowed is
certainly faint enough, though praise from
that quarter was hardly to be expected.
But the severe reflection upon it, as sadly
marring at one point the document with
which it deals, and confusing and obscuring
the sense at another; the imputation that
the most central doctrine in Calvanism has
been reduced in expression to the lowest
terms and then hidden away in a corner; the
assertion that some of the amendments pro-
posed are not only useless but mislead-
ing, and are destructive in their
tendency; the suggestion that the
principle of amendment followed in
it, if carried ont, would expunge Calvinism
altogether from our creed, and the Jealous
summons of the Presbyteries to grave
and pressing task of faithful criticism and |
of resolute restoration of things which the |
have omitted-all these seem to |
flow in a wrong direction and to be as in |
furious as they are unjust. Surely such |
such admonitions, will not pre-
vail in such church as ours -
DR.. Morris is hopeful for the final adop-
ton of the reports in the form presented to
the General Assembly, Notwithstanding
this opposition of Princeton. He antici- |
pates some changes and offers suggestion
of his own in recognition Of miracles, of
which the Confession says nothing. Here is
DR.. Norris amendment:
Miracles are no ordinary providences
through the action of secondary causes, but
are the immediate acts of God, within the
sphere of Providence, wrought in attesta-
ton of His Truth
THE THEORY OF BRIGGS.
As to DR.. Briggs theory of middle state
DR.. Morris has this to say: '@The writer
ventures to refer, in the way of query only,
10 the two archaeological chapters with
which the Confession closes, the chapters
which treat of the state of man after death,
IF the resurrection of the dead and..of the
Last Judgment. 1t is a remarkable illus
ration of the wisdom and foresight of the
livines of Westminster that at so many
points in the symbols they seem to have an
,icipated the developments of modern un-
belief, and so fully to have furnished the
Christian reply to the skeptical notions and
theories of later ages. Narrow though they
appear to us to have been at certain points
n their theology, at others their profund-
ty, their breadth, their sagacitv and pre-
science seem to the careful student of their
system, weighing well their weighty words,
ruly wonderful
no set of men ever saw farther into the
uture of Christian thought, age ON age.
They have said the last word for us, as well
Is for themselves, if the proper and full
significance be given to their language, of
What they affirm in these two archaeological
,hapters, especially as explained and illus
rated in the two Catechisms. Still, in view of
certain tendencies toward the minimizing
not the perversion, of what they have
written, it is becoming serious question
whether some interpretive clauses might
lot with advantage be added to their terse.
declarations on these vital topics.
TARDY HONESTY OF A BANDIT.