The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1891-11-29
The Bible, the Church, and the Reason.

The New York Presbytery threw out the
case against DR.. BRIGGs with q mild ad-
monition to him not to do 30 again. But
he has not needed the warning. On every
subsequent occasion when he has spoken In
public he has shown his determination to
persist in the teachings for which he was
indicted He has neither recanted nor mod
flied the doctrines and positions OF bis In
augural address. but has rather made them
more pronounced and unmistakable: and 1t
is fair to him to say that from the first he
has adhered to them stubbornly. and IN
the face Of the threatening opposition OF the
General Assembly itself.
In his latest public utterance ut the Pres
byterian Church Of the Covenant last Sum
day evening he reaffirmed the declaration
Of his inaugural address which was made
one OF the chief counts Of the Indictment
against him. He repeated that There are
historically three great fountains OF Divine
authority. the Bible. the Church. and the
reason" though practically his argument
reduced the three to one only.
He contended that the authority OF the
Church came before the authority OF the BIZ
BILE, since "GoD established Israel as the
holy nation before the proclamation OF the
Ten Commandments and before single
statute OF the Pentateuch WAS framed"
and JESUS CHRIST planted the Church
decades before a single one OF the writings
OF the New Testament canon was writ
ten" II. then. the Church was SUI
ticient source OF authority without the
Bible at any time in history. when and why
was that sufficiency lost? II the Church
was competent to determine the rule Of
faith and practice as q source OF Divine au-
thority before the Bible was written or COL
lected from mass Of religious tradition
and literature. why Is 1t not equally compe-
tent now? II historically the Church pre-
coded the Bible as an original fountain OF
authority. was not the authority OF the
Bible established by the Church. and did
not the Bible come through the Church
Does not DR.. BRIGGS. therefore. make the
authority OF the Bible dependent on the au-
thority Of the Church?
He has said. however. that the Bible is
fallible book. marred by human imperfec-
tons and limitations. and that consequent
ly the human reason must separate Its
truth from its error. Hence he denies to
the Church the authority and capacity to
determine infallibility. He passes that
1OnCClOn over 10 Inc lnulVluudl EeuSou 6uu
conscience. declaring inierentially that the
Church was incompetent for the task. since
it mixed up error with truth In the
canonical Scriptures. It Is true that
he says that 1.-The Bible alone is
the infallible rule Of faith and practice"
but In the same breath he denies its infalli-
bility. He admits that the Church is a
great fountain Of Divine authority and the
original fountain. but he destroys Its au-
thority by denying It's ability to discrimi-
nate between the revelation Of GoD and the
production of the human intellect.
In other words. he has left for himself
only one path to pursue. and 1t leads to the
rejection Of every source OF Divine authori-
ty. except the reason. After tending logi-
cally to the Roman Catholic position. he
turned away from it squarely and entered
the broad path to agnosticism. For him
neither the Church nor the Bible. but the
reason. Is the fountain OF authority. To
put it In different way. there Is no infalli-
bility. according to DR.. BRIGGS. for the rea-
son. Of course. Is fallible: and there is no
religious certainty. but all is speculative
and debatable. He does not acknowledge
that this is his conclusion. and evidently he
does not want to land there. but there he
must go. all the same. unless he turns
about and takes the other course into Ca
fholiciam