St. Paul daily globe., 1891-06-08
THE NEWER ORTHODOXY.
Rev. III. Nj. Simmons on Some
Pending Creed Changes.

"The Newer Orthodoxy" Recent
troubles in orthodox churches were dis
cussed. He said: "Not long ago we
heard much of the New Orthodoxy
To-day we have newer and more
het erOdOX one, even in fields which
see med then proof against all change.
At that time, hardly ten years since,
Howard Crosby wrote In the North
American Review: Il know of no Pres
byterian minister or person who does
not accept the Westminster confession.
Now, in the June Forum, DR.. Briggs
writes that the Westminster confession
contains large amount of doctrine that
is rejected by the vast majority of
protestant Minister'S Even of the Bible
Dr. Briggs said i'll his inaugural: i
shall venture to affirm that, so far as l
can see, there are errors in the Scrip
lures that no one has been able to eX-
plain away, and the theory that
they were not in the original
text Is a sheer assumption Such
statements, not from a mere minister,
but from trainer of ministers in the
most prominent Presbyterian theologi-
cal seminary of the country, is most
significant fact. Evidently, too, Dr..
Briggs has plenty of support. His con-
demnation by the New York presbytery
shifting legislation, by DR.. Parkhurst in
one of the most prominent Presbyterian
pulpits of the city; and the latter
prayed that when the muse of history
shall write her final account of
the proceeding, may the tears
she will shed suffice to obliter-
ate the record. He said such proceed
ings would lead young men to ask:
Must pluck out my eyes and replace
my brains with sawdust, as candidate
for Presbyterian orders?" He regretted
that the church which my heart and
life are bound up in is anchored to
as DR.. Parkhurst in 1t, it will not re-
main so anchored long. DR.. Briggs
receives a large support in the general
assembly, too. And even when the
assembly vetoed his appointment,
according to yesterdays papers,
the seminary board Of directors has de-
fed the veto and declared, by vote of
20 to 2, that DIR. Briggs shall continue
to hold his place as before. All this
looks as if the newer orthodoxy is not
going to be at all delicate in denying its
old doctrines.
''Or it would be truer to say that it is
not thereby denying old doctrines. but
rather denying the negations in them
L
old theology taught valuable truths,
but limited them by too many a not
and only and so denied more than it
affirmed. 1t said God is not supreme
and infinite, but opposed by Satan: His
kingdom Is not universal, but only in
the Christian church; He does not have
son in every good man, but only III
Jesus, and by him only are we saved;
His word is not In all good literature,
but only i'll the Bible; His creation is
not good, but cursed; His crowning
work and image in men is not divine,
but depraved, and so on to the
doctrine of eternal punishment,
which was worse denial of
All that the new orthodoxy needs to do
is to deny these ''nOts'' and "onlys,''
and so let in the larger positive truths
that are waiting behind them as the
light is outside our windows. For truth
is best symboliZed by the light which
only asks TO have the curtain lifted that
it may come in. The church has been
too prone to forget that the sun is in the
sky, and has sought to pump petroleum
instead and get back the buried
sunlight of old centuries. 1t
has made good deal of gas in
its pulpits from the sulphur-laden coal
ueuS vi nOIe Ioptllldu ages. lnlS was
right enough in the dark periods of his
tory. But to-day the sun is up, and
makes such sermons more useless and
unhealthy than lamps left burning
through the day. As Lessing said, the
prayer for light is answered by simply
opening our eyes. The church only
needs to open its eyes, to roll
up its negative curtains and
widen its narrow windows and see
the light of nature and God, which fills
the solar system. and waits to fill the
soul with sunshine if we will but make
room for it. 1t will then no longer
need to be so anxious about one small
book. but will find an infinite Scripture
reaching from its Genesis in suns to it's
Revelation in souls-an eternal Bible,
in which all truth is the law, all human
hopes are the Prophets. all loves are
Psalms, and all goodness is a Gospel