The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1891-01-15
sTAUNTON, VA.
On Trial for Heresy.

/
sesses peculiar interest, both for the sa
lient facts involved, and that Mr.. Mac
Queary is a Virginian. He is a slightly
built young man of about 80 years Of
age. He is native of Albemarle coun
ty, Virginia, where his father was {
/ planter. In early life he was engaged il
business in Washington, but subse
quently returned to college in Virgins
and after graduation entered the Theo
] logical Seminary at Alexandria. He was
in due course ordained to the priesthood
and some years since became rector oil
st. Paurs Church, Canton, Ohio, where
he soon became popular as a parish min
lister and preacher. Among other intel
lectual agencies he organized philo
sophical society and literary club. He
says of himself:
Il was educated in the strictest school
of evangelical orthodoxy. In the semi.
nary apologetics and divinity always in
terested me more than any other branch
of study. l left the seminary thorough
ly orthodox. In 1885 I attended the
church congress in New Haven, and
stopped in New York, Philadelphia and
Baltimore to study church life My eyes
were opened, and | returned to Fair
mount, W. Va, determined to reconsider
my whole theological position. | first
broke with the traditional faith on the
question of endless punishment, and this
after a careful study of Canon Farrar's
and Canon Rows works. The atonement
next claimed my attention, and l soon saw
the unscripturalness and the irrationali-
ty of the Calyinistic theology. Of course
it was only step to the question of
mans fall and the question of his origin
and development. After study of Daw
son, McCosh, Geike and the Duke of
| Argyll who are either anti-evolutionists
lie Conte, Winchell, and then to fuller
consideration of the works of Darwin,
| Spencer and Huxley, and the result was
acceptance of the views of the latter.
''Tyndalls discussion of prayer for
material blessings brought up the sub
ject of miracles, and l turned first to
orthodox apologists, Motley, Christlieb,
Westcott, and then to the rationalists,
Raur, Strauss Renan, Davidson, etc. l
flung them aside, took up the early faith
ers themselves, and studied the literature
of primitive Christianity, and was forced
to the conclusion stated in my book,
which is an outline of theology from the
evolution standpoint, in which l have
collected the opinions urged by eminent
Christians, many of them leading theo-
logians in my own church, the difference
between me and them being that | have
collected all their 'heresies' into COM
plete system, whereas they have divided
Z! it up among themselves.
The book in which these conclusions
were stated is entitled 1.-THE Evolution
of Man and Christianity" 1t was pub
lished about year ago and was fiercely
reviewed by the religious press. The
| views expressed upon the incarnation
and the resurrection were especially
startling, and on these points Mr.. Mac
| Queary thus defines his own faith:
Il believe that Christ was God mani
fest in the flesh'-that is, He was as much
OF the divine spirit as could be forced,
SO to speak, into finite human form. His
human spirit was perfect and was be-
gotten by a special operation of the Ho-
! ly Ghost, but l believe that this concep-
ton occurred along the line of natural
generation, and not in contradiction OF
! the laws of lie which God has ordained.
Excepting, then, the virgin birth, | be-
lieve the Catholic doctrine of the incar-
nation
''As to the resurrection, l believe that
Jesus appeared after His death in the
spiritual body spoken of by st. Paul in
Corinthians Is, and not his fleshly body
that He had before He died, and that all
the details about the guarded tomb and
the eating of fish in the gospels are later
additions to the primitive account. In
short, I accept both the miraculous birth
and the resurrection of Our Lord, merely
rejecting the physical element in these
miracles because, in my judgment, in
sufficiently attested."
The Cleveland correspondent of the
New York Times, under date OF the 9th.
gives the following interesting state
ment of the grounds of the trial and Of
fence complained Of:
| The ecclesiastical trial of the Rev.
Howard MacQueary of Canton, Ohio,
which will begin Tomorrow, promises to
be one of the most famous in the history
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and
will attract the attention of Christians
of every name, not so much because of
the prominence of the clergyman to be
tried and the doctrinal points involved,
as the general desire to know just how
much latitude is to be allowed to the
Episcopal clergy.
The heretcal opinions for the holding
and stating of which Mr.. MacQueary
has been summoned before jury of his
peers by Bishop Leonard were given to
the public about one year ago in book
entitled 1.-THE Evolution of Man and
Christianity Subsequent statements
by Mr.. MacQueary have not modified the
expressions COutdlueti ttlS OOOh, tut
a second edition, to be issued on the goth
inst, will reiterate and endeavor to sub
stantiate, by additional argument and
proof, the condemned opinions.
|. Mr.. MacQueary is an evoIutionist who
believes that man has been evolved
body and soul, from lower ANNA
FORM He says: "There is no more
reason to believe that Genesis is inspirec
than to believe George Smiths Chaldear
4 Genesis is; they both came from the
same region, and were evidently the re
suit of speculations of Chaldean sages.
He ridicues the idea that God came
down to some spot-say in the plains Of
Mesopotamia-an took up dust ano
made q mud man and breathed into hi
nostrils the breath Of life.7 1.-The thirc
chapter of Gensis, like Bunyan's Pill
grim's Progress contains profounc
moral and spiritual truths, but we DC
not believe that the popular view o.
mans primitive condition is either scrip
turally or scientifically correct. The pro
position that being created perfectly
pure and in direct communication witt