The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-06-09
RELIGIOUS.

SHALL WE BURN HERETICS, Or WHAT
SHALL WE DO WITH THEM!
Pulpit Review of Current Events by Rev. Thos.
Dixon, Jr., for Sunday, May "A, 1891.
Rev. Thomas Dixon, Jr., pastor of
the Twenty-th1rd street Baptist Church,
preceded his sermon on "The Greed
Cobbler's Myth, this morning at Asso-
citation Hall, by the following review of
current events.
Suppose that we have heretics. To
define a hereto is a difficult thing.
Yet grant the ~suppOsitiOn that we have
in our midst men who r unOrthOdox,
who are teaching vital errors-what
are we to do with them? The first
thing that seems to occur to many
good people, is that they must cast
them out. They feel that they are
serving Christ in casting out the here
tic. Is this true? I fearlessly main
tain that a public trial for heresy never
has been, is not, and never will be,
justifiable OF profitable.
ELBOW ROOM.
What shall we do with them? Let
them alone. Give them elbow room.
Give them perfect freedom. God
Almighty does not need your protec-
ton. He is able to take care of him
self. Thruth is mighty and will prevail.
The truth will make men free, when
they know the truth.
1t seems to me that a trial for heresy
is never ju%stifable.
ANTI-CHRISTIAN.
1. Because such a trial becomes a
persecution. 1t is in it's spirit anti
Christian. There is for it no authority.
1t is a human invention. Such trials
have been only a disgrace is the his
tory of the Church. To stand thus
for Christ is to disgrace Christ. 1t is
impossible to imagine Jesus of Nazareth
presiding over a heresy trial. He had
ample opportunity, had He desired to
institute such a precedent.
PETERS HERESY.
Imagine the Christ, after the resur-
rection, calling the Church together in
solemn council and presiding over the
trial of Peter for heresy! Peter had
been guilty of outrageous heresy. He
denied Jesus Christ in the most critical
moment of His life. To his denial he
added curses and oaths. Why did not
Christ try him for heresy and drum
him out? Not a single harsh word did
He give to His erring child. He sent
him away with words of love.
JUDGE NOT.
Shall we who profess the name of
Christ take upon ourselves, in fulfilling
His mission, that which He refused to
do, that which is utterly foreign to His
spirit and His life? q am not come
to judge the world" says Christ. The
Christian who presides over a heresy
trial assumes the right to sit in solemn
judgment upon the inmost secrets of
the soul of man. Judge not" says
the Word. The man who tries the
hereto puts on the royal robe of the
Judge of heaven and earth, usurps the
throne of the universe, seeks to give
instruction to Almighty God.
FAIL IN THEIR PURPOSE.
2. Such trials are never justifiable,
because they always fail in their pur-
pose. Their avowed purpose is to
silence the hereto. To silence a here
tic is to open his mouth wider, and
give him a thousand hearers where he
had one. 1t always has been so in the
history of the world. It is so to-day.
It will ever be 50.
THE FLESH AND H DEVIL.
3. Such episodes in the history of
the Church unfit it for divine service.
1t withdraws the mind of the people of
God from the eternal matters that
primarily concern them, to clubbing
upon fine points of doctrine. 1t centres
the life of the Church upon a fruitless
discussion Of doctrinal ~absurdities. Tt
hands over the world to the flesh and
The devil. Such wringling is incon-
Sstent with the mission of the Church.
II can be justified by no process of