The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-05-17

York: West, Minneapolis; baluwn ahu IAl"oe'
Han Francisco: MoDermott, Butte; Leland Hotel.
Springfield. Ill.
HERESY HUNTING.
There is promise of rare sport in one
section Of the happy hunting grounds OF
ecclesiaticism. A whole pack of dull,
honest Presbyterians is in full cry on
the trail of the reverend DIR. Charles
Augustus Briggs, the scent is hot, and a
rare run is promised. Your bigot--
Presbyterian or otherwlse-has a keen
nose for the hereto. 1t is seldom that
heaven has been kind to him in any
other way, but place the faint Of heresy
within the fold, and he is bound to be
in at the death. This time, q terrible
conspiracy has been laid bare, a o n
spiracy to poison the stream of religious
teaching at the very fountain head. By
some subtle device of the enemy, this
reverend doctor was recently installed
in the chair Of biblical theology at Union
seminary, New York. Custom demand
ed that he should deliver an inaugural
address, and the wolf in sleeps cloth
ing stood revealed. What an address
it was! Brains, reason, modern research,
all displayed in full view before the ten
der neophytes of the Presbyterian pull
pit OF the future. To treat them to
such fare was an outrage! They who
had been accustomed to take their re-
ligious doses as they took a pill. Shut
your eyes, open your mouth, and down
it goes! Hard to swallow, now and then,
aver under these conditions, but to in
sist on the acceptance by these homoeo-
pathic infants of a terrible %allopathic
dose of intelligence and scholarly re-
search-the bigots have not ceased to
sympathlze with the young men even
yet. Such an example in such a place
is terrible to think of. The audacity Of
the arch-schemer is beyond belief. With
an air Of the simplest innocence, he sug-
gests that he merely eollated the result
of his own elaborate researches and
those Of other notable Biblical scholars,
and that he had previously given them
more extensive circulation in his books.
Your bigot has no use for books that do
not coincide with his own darkuesses, it
would be a mistake to say, v1ews. Even
then, books are one thing; and a public
address, another. 1t is incredible that
a professor should SO far have forgotten
what was due to his position and his
salary.
Here is a man, entrusted with the
tuition of many budding shoots of pres
byt~erianism, who stands up in open
meeting and asserts the great fountains
Of divine authority are three, the Bible,
church and-the reason. Did any bigot
ever hear, is it conceivable that reason
has anything to do with presbyterian
doctrine? Here is a man whose char.
ity is SO foolish as to widen the circle Of
the elect $780," and who assert his belief
that redemption is not limited to this
world, but continues during the vas
periods of time which have elapsed
for most men in the middle state be
tween death and the resurrection. A
man who declares that there are human
distractions to the Bible and that NJ
one can get at a sacred book, unless hi
forces his way through these obstacles
Who ventures to condemn a superstition
reverence for the Bible itself, and tn
belief in the very verbal inspiration o
the book. Who has the audacity t
suggest that Ignatius Donnelly nigh
find valuable material for his perverte
ingenuity in the reputed authorship c
the book ascribed to Job, and seems t
believe that a Presbyterian might cree
into heaven without making ar affidavit
Il the truth of Jobs claims. Who aci
ually assert the existence OF manuscriE
errors in the Bible, insinuates that mil
icles are in violation of the laws of ma
ture, and calls public attention to tn
occasional failures in minute prophes,
And this mar sat in the theologic;
chair of a Presby terrain seminary. 1cht
bod, Ichabod, the glory is gone frol
Israel!
To thoughtful men-Presbyterians {
we'll as others-this heresy hunting is
pitiable spectacle. They have only
look around them to see the sin an
misery that cucumber much Of tn
worlds progress. 1t is little wondt
that they lose all patience with the fl
natics who strain at a gnat and swallo
a camel. So much to be done, 80 lit
time, so few workers. Meantime, one
gies are going to waste and valuab
sympathy is alienated by the narrowe
bigotry. Worst of all, the disease is ia
assuming a chronic form. DR.. Briggs
in accord with all the foremost Bible
scholars Of the day. In regard to t
authenticity of authorship, the br
fessors in the Old Testament depa,
ment in all the universiti
of Europe, without n exec
ton, are on his side. He
not opposing the scriptures. He is 1
over in antagonism to the Westmins'
confession, a purely human compilatie
There is no church in the civilization
to-day, that can afford to hound from
doors the apostles of culture and
search. IF the Presbyterian church
m~oss-grown enough to venture on
experiment, the loss will fall, not on
Briggs, but on the sect that loses