The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1891-05-03

And are they to be taught Qnaug. p. 20
that rationalists can find God,' and tob-
tain place in the company of the faith
full without the church or the Bible, and
without Christ?
Such an issue should not have been
forced upon the Church in this reckless
way. Questions which should be settled
by calm, scholarly discussion ought not
TO have been forced upon ecclesiastical
tribunals. But the extreme partisan atti-
tude so unwisely taken by DR.. Briggs at
this juncture allows no discretion. 1t
cOmpelS the Church, nOte3lS Oole7lS, to face
the alternative of indorsing or refusing to
indorse the sentiments of his inaugural.
To take no action is to indorse and quietly
to suffer these sentiments to become the
ruling policy in the seminaries of the
Church tor ali time to come. And to do
this is to change its base completely, to
permit its doctrinal standards to fall into
contempt, and to give up its cardinal
tenet of the supreme authority Of the
Word of God"
And in the same journal the Rev. Dr.
w. G. L. Shedd of Union Theological
Seminary says: "rhe holy men of God
who spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost We're not anonymous authors,
like Walter Scott when he was the great
people, their names are mentioned in the
Bible in connection with the fact of
their inspiration and the time of its
occurrence. The moment, therefore that
inspiration is severed from known
individuals; the moment it is discon-
nected from the college of prophets and
apostles 1t becomes inspiration in the
air. which is like revision in the air.
The keen and self-consistent advocates of
the fragmentary theory, like Kuenen
and Williamson, perceive that it is in
compatible with inspiration, and speak
accordingly, but some who are less log
zeal, or more under the restraints of an
evangelical connection, try to retain the
inspiration of the Pentateuch while de-
nying that Moses is its author. The
Pentateuch, they say, was composed by
some person after the exile, no one
knows who. But whoever he was he
was inspired This would be the in
spiration OF indefinite persons like Tom,
Dick and Harry, whom nobody knows,
and not of definite historical persons like
Moses and David, Matthew and John,
chosen of God by name and known to
men.
''These two theories Of the origin of the
Bible are now before the Presbyterian
churches of Great Britain and America.
The historical theory has been, until re-
Gently, universally accepted and taught.
An effort is now being made to introduce
the fraglnentary theory. II it succeeds,
1t will revolutioni2e the entire theology
of these churches"
AS to the proposed action in the case of
the approaching General Assembly, the
EUdsgetiSt (Pres.) says: IF, in defiance
OF all remOnStrance from any quarter,
the General Assembly should assume the
power, and undertake to impose upon
the directors of the Union Theological
Seminary its command to drop from it's
faculty one Of its most distinguished pro-
fessors, the board would be very likely
to stand on its dignity, and ask, BY
what authority do ye these things? There
has been no election which calls either
for your approval or your veto.' All that
has been done IS this: That DR.. Briggs,
already professor in the seminary, has
| been transferred by a simple resolution,
| without notice, from one chair to another.
He was not even nominated for an cleo
ton, according to the constitution OF the
seminary, which requires that nominal
ton be made one month before an cleo
ton takes place. A transfer from one
chair to another is one of the internal
matters which must be left to the con-
venience and discretion of the directors.
If the assembly wishes to reach DIR.
Briggs, it must be through the Presby-
terry of New York, and as that body has
already taken the matter in hand. and
may be presumed to be, what every pres
bytery ought to be, rightfully jealous of
any interference with what belongs to
itself alone, it would seem to be the die
tate of respectful courtesy on the part Of
other preSbyteries to leave to their New
York sister the conduct Of what is, ac-
cording TO all Presbyterian rules. its own
proper business"
The National Baptist says: "a man
of established orthodoxy may say what
he pleases, but a man who is a little I'M
der suspicion cannot be too careful, 1t is
an old story, and probably not true (but
then, it might have been true), of the
countryman who went into public hall
in Boston, at a time when Theodore
Parker was preaching on the third story
and DIR. Hague, man of faultless ortho-
dOXy, on the second story. The country
man, expecting to hear A. Mr.. Parker,
stopped on the second story and heard
DIR. Hague. On going out, he said: a
would turn the world upside down.
IF Mr.. Beecher had said that two and
two make four, great many people
would shrek that he was undermining
the foundations of orthodoxy, and that,
in a short time, both the church and the
nation would be in ruins. But if DR..
John Hall or DR.. Cuyler should say that
two and two make tive or ten, or twenty,
or ten thousand, it would not damage
their reputation by so much as a single
hair, no, not filament.n