Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-29
A UNIVERSAL CREED
In Course of Preparation for All the
Presbyterian Bodies.
TWENTY-FIVE MILLION MEMBERS
Interested in the Work of the Committee
Now in Session.
A MAJORITY OF THEM BRIGGS PEOPLE
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPArcH.l

a MAJUhl11 VF 1hEM DhlUUD TEUf LIE
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATcH.l
NEW YORK, Aug. 2S.-The committee on
a consensus creed for use in all of the Pres
byterian denominations has been holding
midsummer sessions at Spring Lake Beach
on the New Jersey coast. Twenty-Five
million Presbyterian members of the COM
munions on the five continents are interested
in the results of these sessions. This is the
fourth session of the committee The
previous sessions were held quietly in New
York City. 1t may be ten years before the
work of the committee is completed.
The idea is to get up short, concise, COM
Elementary creed that will express the con-
sensus of opinion in all the Presbyterian
bodies to supplement and not to supplant
the special creed of each. Some of these
100000 Presbyterians subscribe to the
Westminster Confession; others subscribe to
the Heidelburg Confession: Others TO the
Augsburg Confession, but all are Calvan-
istic and all maintain a form of government
designated as Presbyterian. The first use
of the creed will be in the missionary fields
and in colonial settlements
STRENGTH IN UNITY.
Presbyterians coming together from all
quarters of the globe are divided by fine
distinctions into small bodies If these
small societies can be united under one creed
there would be strength and unity instead
or weakness and rivalry. Another use Will
be TO supply popular creed for the :, SOC, 600
members of the Presbyterian Church IN
America, to express in brief and concise
language the system of doctrine taught in
the Westminster Confession, to which the
elders and preachers are now required to
subscribe 4 third use is to supply the
converted Brahmanists and Buddhists of the
East with a plain and simple statement of
the Calvnistic doctrines.
Of the 81 organizations, the chief are the
North and the South PRESBYTERIAN Churches
in the United States, the United Presby-
terians, the Dutch Reform, the two Scotch
churches and the Evangelical Calvinistic
churches Of Ireland, England. Wales, Hol-
land, Germany, France and Australia One
of the first duties of this committee was to
engage the cooperation of each of these i'm
portant bodies. Communication was estab-
lished at once with 81 OF these organizations.
Some of the churches at once authorized CO.
operation in formulating such creed.
THE FIRST REPLIES MADE.
The first to comply was the Free Church
of Belgium and the Presbyterian church of
New South Wales. Several have declined
to take action for the present. These are
the Presbyterian Church South; the United
Presbyterian Church of North America; the
Presbyterian Church of ireland, and the
Reform Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
The committee engaged in this important
work was appointed by the Presbyterian
General Assembly of 1890, and is as follows:
The Rev. DR.. William H. Moore, Colum-
bus, Chairman; DR. William II. Roberts, Of
Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati;
Secretary; DR. John Dewitt, of McCor-
mick Theological Seminary, Chicago; DR..
Francis Brown, of Union Theological Sem
mary, New York; DR.. Benjamin b. War
field, Of Princeton Theological Seminary,
New Jersey, resigned; DR.. Howard Crosby,
of New York, deceased; Elder Henry Day,
Of Dr. John Halls Church, New York;
Elder Robert \. Wilson, of the famous
Elder Z. =. DUrant, of ALBANY To DR.
Crosby's place the Rev. DR. Charles A
Dickey, pastor of the Albert Barnes
Church, Philadelphia, was appointed, and !
in place of DIR. Warfield was named DR..
John T. Duffield, of Princeton College.
A MAJORITY OF BRIGGS MEN.
and Dickey and Elders Day and Wilson,
are known as liberals. They are Briggs
men and favorable to broad and sweeping
revision of the church's standards of faith
and practice. The other four are conserva-
tiyeS, and were originally against revision,
but since revision has been ordered bv ma
iOrity of the church they are for revision to
q limited extent. They are against DR..
Briggs The working committee, however,
is anti-Briggs and anti-revision. DR.. Brown |
is abroad and Lawyer Day is sick. Dr.
Dickey is not in attendance at Spring Lake |
Beach. As the complementary creed is |
about complete in tentative form, it may |
be supposed to reflect the opinions of the |
minority.
This brief creed will go before the next |
General Assembly, which meets in Port |
land, Ore, next May. As this Assembly |
is be chosen with reference to revising the |
archaic document known as the Westmin- |
ster Confession, it will be especially quail
flied to handle this complementary creed |
The Complementary creed wIIl not be cast |
in the mold of the Apostles Creed or of |
the Nicene Greed, which are written in a |
short form, well adapted to be chanted, as |
IS done by surplice choirs in Episcopal serv-
ices. Such a creed as this is what DR.. |
Briggs and his friends want
STICKING TO CALvINIsM.
But the committee is preparing a creed |
that will be more like syllabus of the |
Westminster Confession, stating in general |
terms the famous dogmas of John Calvin, |
and set off into about "a sections like the |
Thirty-nine Articles. 1t is possible that |
before the 81 churches are done with this |
creed it may have lost both its |
Calvanistic character and its sectional form.
This same committee is engaged in revis-
ing the Apostles Greed. PRESBYTERIAN
parents are required by the church to teach
their children the Apostles Creed, which is
Dne of the standards of the church. Two
phrases of this creed have become obnoxious
to many Christians, and the last General
Assembly suggested their elimination They
are: "IIe descended into hell, +" referring
10 Christ's death, and 'The Holy Catholic
Church" =" The first phrase is Objectionable
% Presbyterians because it seems to be in
Inc with the theory of purgatory or of
period Of second probation that is disturb
nS the Protestant churches in some quar-
-eTS
The other phrase contains the word
Catholic" suggestive of the Roman
Catholic Church, an idea extremely repul-
ave to PresbyterianS. OF course it is well
Known that Catholic means universal,
jut this committee is to see if the word
Universal" should not be substituted for
Catholic" in the Apostles Creed
Dr. John Dewitt, of Chicago, was ap-
,ointed a subcommittee TO prepare report
VI these two phrases, to be submitted to the
at its next session in the fall.
against that time Secretary Roberts ex-
lects to have RESPONSES from others of the