The record-union., 1891-07-11

OA0hAN u
and the Synod of New York. In those
days New York took Princeton under
its protection, and sheltered it for seven
teen years This was at time when
Presbyterianism held America, and
lost it by its internal quar-
rels. The driving out Of the
Cumberlanders was an act OF oppres-
sion. They were right and their perse-
cutors wrong on the, then, merits OF the
question, which related to the intellect
uaI qualifications of the ministry. To
make such pretext the occasion for ex-
cision was violence of Christian lib
erty, and to the rights of Christ in his
church. The expulsion of the new school
was like unto it. Whether the issues
raised did or did not include any vital
quality, whatever they were, those who
crowded them to the extent OF disInte-
grafton believed, or professed to believe,
that they did. There never was here
tic-burning Pope who did not exploit
ELUSIVE piety while permitting the MUIR
der.
1.-The idea of absolute conformity to
creed was inherited from the Roman
Church and yet maintains its existence
in parts of the Protestant denominations.
1t is known that no two men see any OBJ
ject, physical or mental, in Identical
light, or receive identical impressions
from it. Mems minds vary as much as
their features, forms, proclivities and
tastes. Hence the endless variety in the
intellectual and spiritual, as well as in
the physical worlds. So that uniformity
i'll religious thinking is impossible. Uni
tormlty is only to be secured by stopping
the working of the intellectual faculties
and employing only memory. If we are
to make small differences dividing lines
of church organization, then we shall
have as many separate denominations as
we have of religious men who think.
Only the Infinite Mind can see truth in
all relations"
The Interior (Presbyterian) says
''Fhey locked the Bible up in the tomb of
dead languages, but the stone was rolled
away Then they relocked it in the mon
astic libraries and searched out and burnt
the copies which escaped. Then Volney,
Voltaire, Hume, Hobbs and Paine, and
thousands more set to work to discredit
it, and destroy its authority and influence
among men-but that was only scattering
the divine fire. Then they patronized it
which only made them appear ridicu-
lous in the presence of its impressive dig
nifty. They have tried to supersede it by
hierarchy and an 'infallible' living
oracle, but it rose calmly above its
enemies as the full moon rises above the
foos and the seas. Why should book
which has all the elements of unpopular
ity, which is severe in itsreproof and ter
rible in its condemnationS and threaten
ingS against men and their cherished
sins, which turns neither to the right
hand nor to the left, to accommodate any
man, people or age-why should such a
book increase year by year and age after
age, i'll applied power, in dominating in
fiuence, and in the devout affections OF
mankind! Why should scholarship bow
to it, philosophy submit to it, and
ethics turn to it for precepts! Why
should legislation appeal to it, oratory go
to it for style, thought and illustration,
and poetry draw upon it for inspiration.
When one thinks Of these questions and
answers them to himself, it is just iu-
possible to be alarmed about the safety
of the Word of God"
Writing on 1.-THE Theological Crisis
in the North An1erfcd1I ReUleiU for July,
Professor Charles A. Briggs says:
THE chief struggle between Biblical
criticism and the traditional dogma is
about the question of inerrancy. No
word Of Holy Scripture, no sentence OF
historic creed, makes this claim for the
Bible. 1t is a theory of modern dogma
ticians. Biblical criticism finds errors in
Holy Scripture in great numbers. These
errors are in the circumstantials, and
not in the essentials. They do not dis
turb any doctrine, they do not change
the faith and life of the Christian
Church. The great reformers, Calvin
and Luther, recognized errors in the
Scriptures; Baxter and Rutherford
were not anxious about them; the great
est theologians of modern Germany, Van
Oosterzee, Tholuck. Neander, Stier,
Lange, Dorner, Delitzsch, do not ignore
them. Where is the German scholar OF
any rank who denies them? British
scholars such as Sunday, Cheyue, Driver,
Gore, Davidson, Bruce, Dods, Blailxie;
American scholars such as Schaff, Fisher,
Thayer, Harper, Smyth, Evans, III. P.
Smith, Francis Brown, and hosts OF
others, frankly point them out. 1t may
be regarded as the consensus of Biblical
scholars that the Bible is not inerrant;
and yet the dogmaticians insist that one
error destroys its inspiration. They
battle in death struggle for their dogma
because their Bible shares in
whole Bible on single error.
One error in citation, one error in natural
history, in astronomy, in geology, in
chronology, destroys the whole Bible for
them. 1t is now generally admitted that
there are errors III the present text, but it is
claimed that the original autographs as
they first came from their authors were
It's pure speculation in the interest OF
their dogma. Criticism does not find the
number of errors decreasing; they rather
increase as we work our way back in the
study of manuscripts, versions and cita-
tions, and advance in the critical analysis
| of the literature. 1t diScreditS the entire
work of criticism to speculate as tc
another text than the best one We
can get after the most patient and
! painstaking study, Biblical criticism
! pursues its work in purely scientific
! spirit. 1t will detect, recognize and
! point out errors wherever it may FIND
/ them in Holy Scripture. II the Reform
ers and Puritans, the great Biblical
! scholars of the past, have maintained
/ the errors they have seen in it, it is i'm
| probable that the Biblical critics OF oul
/ day will be disturbed by them. If any
/ one is disturbed, it viii be those who
/ have been misled by the dogmaticians tc
/ rest their faith on the doctrine of iner-
rancy. These will ere long find the doc.
! trine broken reed that will give them {
! severe fall and shock to their faith, if il
! does not pierce them to the heart with
| the bitter agony ofperplexity and doubt
|
! THE record of cures accomplished by
| Hoods Sarsaparilla can never be com
pletely written. The peculiar curative
! powers of Hoods Sarsaparilla are sue
/ cessful when everything else has failed
/ If your blood is impure, your digestion
out of order, try Hoods SarsaparilIa.
An Illinois Central conductor says thai
! female tramps are on the increase. They
are not as daring as the men in jumping
I on and Oft trains, but they are found
hanging all over a freight car, on the
! trucks or clinging to the truss rods by
/ hands and feet-in fact in a good many
dangerous places that male tramp would
/ not think Of getting in.