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

4. Such trials are aDSurd HereSy Is
an unknown quantity. The hereto of
to-day is the saint of tomorrow. What
is heresy? If we should call the roll
of the illustrious dead, the greatest
names in sacred history since the day
of Christ would respond as heretics in
their day. The nineteenth century
smiles at the habits and customes and
beliefs of the eighteenth century. The
eighteenth laughed at the seventeenth,
the seventeenth at the sixteenth, and
so on down the ages.
HUNDRED YEARS rom NOW.
A hundred years from now, at the
close of the twentieth century, with
the progress of human invention, with
the progress of human knowledge, with
the light that will fill the world, a new
generation will look back and smile
upon the absurdities and the crotchets
of the great men of the nineteenth cen
fury. What is heresy today may be
the substance of faith in the future.
Not the substance of supposed faith,
but the substance of vital faith.
GIVES THE LIE.
Who is the real hereto? The man
who differs on the question of dogma
is this heresy? Shall we try a man
who differs with us on a question of
abstract doctrine, and yet whose life
is the personifcation of the spirit of
Christ? Shall we try such a man, and
leave untried as orthodox a man who
processes all things, and in life gives
the lie to all he processes? Is not the
real hereto the man who denies in
spirit, denies in life, the Christianity
of the Christ?
DISGRACE THE CHURCH
5. Such trials disgrace the Church
before the world. They hold the
Church up to the ridicule of the world,
conduct them as decently as we may.
They are alwaysmad the cover beneath
which envious and narrow-minded men
vent their spleen, their jealousy, their
bigotry, their narrow-mindedness,
against their broader and greater,
stronger rivals. There never was a
heresy trial in the history of the
Church beneath which there could not
be found somewhere concealed dirty
personalities. Men may say what they
please about a lofty regard for the
cause of. truth. The man who descends
to such a public trial and persecution
and bounding of a faithful servent of
God is certain to display before he
finishes his work a personal animUs
that will disgrace the professions he
has made.
BETWEEN THE LINES.
Beneath all the cry against Professor
Briggs and Heber Newton and others,
knowing ones a read between the
lines disappointed ambitions, narrow
je~alousies, envyings and bitter person
alities. 1t is useless for men to deny
this. 1t is so patent that denial is alb
surd. The world knows it. The world
does not regard the can't phraseology
of ecclesiasticism. On such questions
the world calls a spade a spade. Such
exhibitions strike at the very heart of
faith. They are stumbling blocks over
which thousands fall and abandon
their faith. Such exhibitions are ever
a disgrace to the Church of Jesus
Christ. They set back the cause of
truth sometimes for generations, some
tinooC for ooDt11rinc
RELIC OF BARBARIsM.
The heresy trial is a record of bar,
barism, a relic of savagery. 1t belongs
to the c~rudeness and ignorance and
superstition of barbaric times. It
smells of roasting flesh. Is it not time
to Danish this relic of superstition and
barbarism? Can it give any force to
the cause of Christian life to-day
Should not every true Christian seek
with might and main to wipe out this
stain from the history of the Church?
Have we not enough dark pages in hui
man history made by those who pro-
fess the name of Jesus Christ? Shall
we separate still further the Christian
ity of Christ from historic Christianity
Should we not rather seek to make
these two things one and the same, to
fill the actual Church of Christ with
the true spirit of Him who died on
Calvary? No man can enter into the
trial of a hereto and take Jesus Christ
with him.
BANKS AND THE SILVER BILL.
| Mr. EDITOR thn defeat of