New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-06-14
CRITICISMS or THE ASSEMBLY.

In "The Evangelist Of last week three emil
nent Presbyterian cergymen condemned WIN
great severity the action OF the presbyterian
General Assembly in regard to Professor bnSSs
DIR. Parkhurst. portion of whose letter appeared
the other day in The TRIBUNE, handles Prince
ton without gloves. According to him, the AS
semblv was a Princeton Assembly. The president
of Princeton persuaded q Union Seminary d.
rector to nominate q Princeton man as Mod
orator. Then the Moderator nominated COM
mittee of Princeton men to investigate Dr.
Briggs. a Union Seminary professor, with the
PRESIDENT of Princeton as chairman. OF course
such a committee could not fail to condemn Dr.
Briggs: and 50 we have the spectacle Of one
great seminary of the Church sitting in judg-
ment on a rival seminary Dr. Parkhurst de-
nounces this as piece of sinuous trickery which
will ultimately hurt Princeton more than Dr.
Briggs. It must be confessed, too that on the
face of it his denunciation appears to be de-
served. There was a good deal OF Church pol
tics in the Assembly; and the motto OF many
estimable commissioners seems to have been
"Anything to down Briggs"
The second correspondent is the Rev Dr. ,.
NJ. Hamilton, formerly pastor OF the Fourteenth
Street Church in this city, who says Inc
issue will not increase the respect OF the world
for the Presbyterian Church. She has suffered
immensely more than DIR. Briggs. lie
has done more to make the Bible a real living
book to me than all the other teachers and min
listers | have known in the whole course OF my
life. In my Judgment DR.. Briggs is the
only inspiring teacher of the Bible our Chufch
possesses If Dr. Hamilton speaks for any
large number Of his felOw-clergymen-and there
is reason to believe that he does-the future OF
the PRESBYTERIAN Church rather than OF Pro-
lessor Briggs is the real question at issue. If 1t
will not allow is scholars to study the BLDG
unless they first bind themselves to come to no
conclusions save such as are acceptable to a
certain theological school in the Church, then
it is safe to say there will soon be very few
scholars in the Church.
The third critic is the venerable DR.. George
l.. Prentiss. the lifelong friend of the late Henry
B. Smith "lou ask me-" he says, how
feel about the whole matter Well, ! regard 1t
with a double feeling; at one time it arouses
my Indignation and disgust; and then again
it inclines me to philoSOphize gOOd-naturedly
on the very small amount of wisdom with which
the world is often governed" DIR. Prentiss de-
clares himself to have been grleYOuSIy ulS1p-
pointed in the course of Dr. Patton, in that he
failed to strike a blow for justice, for sacred
scholarship, for reasonable liberty of thought
and teaching, and for the suppression OF clamor
as an ecclesiastical and theological force But
he is even moro disappointed in the General
Assembly for allowing Princeton to strike down
sister institution by the exercise of the very
veto power which the institution in question had
so generously given to the General Assembly.
1t is true Professor Briggs has been condemned
by great majority but Dr. PrentiSS reminds
| the Church that in 1915 Roman Catholic bap-
tism was condemned by much greater ma
iority, position from which the Church has
since been compelled to recede. Principles and
facts cannot be changed by majority vote.
1t is evident from these frank expressions of
opinion that the Presbyterian Church has a great
many difficult and delicate problems to face
during the next few years. A spirit of revolt
against the old theology is abroad among its
clergy, and its whole future depends on the
course it will take in meeting that spirit.