New-York tribune., 1891-05-21
THE PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

THE PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLf
The session of the Presbyterian General AS
semby which begins to-day in Detroit Will Dc
one Of the most important in the history OF the
Church. Many indeed, believe that IL Will
mark an epoch in the life of American Presoy-
teriaris,n. but it has been observed that breth-
rem in all the churches often make elaborate
prepaIarions for an epoch, and at the end the
muse of history is called upon to record only
IN incident. In point of fact, the age itself IS
an epoch in the history ;of the Christian re-
lieion. whose character and results cannot be
very materially affected by any single gather
ing of an individual body of Christians.
Nevertheless such gatherings have then
value as marking phases Of thought in the
churches which they represent. And the pres
ent meeting of the General Assembly Will nave
a special value because it will be called upon
to register the judgment of the Church IN re-
gard to the fitness of DR.. Briggslto be pro-
fessor in one Of the Churchs theological semi
naries, and also in regard to the report OF the
committee appointed to revise the Westminster
Confession. The Briggs case in the Assembly,
according to present indications, may not DC
much of a case after all, now that Dr. Briggs
is upheld by the faculty and by unanimous
vote of the directors of the Union Seminary.
Even if the Assembly should, under these cir
cumstances, veto his appointment TO the chair
of biblical Theology, the seminary directors
could, and probably would, take the seminary
out of the control of the Church, when, OF
course Professor Briggs would be no longer
amenablo to the General Assembly on this
issue. The Briggs case now before the New
York presbytery, is an entirely distinct one. anu
can only come before the General Assembly, If
at all, on appeal from the NewYo Synod.
The really important Question, therefore, be-
fore the Assembly is-reysion, and that question
has been much simplified by the action of the
last General Assemblyin committing the Church
to revision, as well as by the wise and con-
servative report of the Revision Committee,
given in full in TIE TRIBUNE yesterday. What
the Assembly has to do is to look plain facts in
| the face and to decide whether the report of
the committee fairly meets those facts. The
Westminster Confession no longer expresses the
full thought and belief of the Church. The
committee stands on impregnabe ground when
| it declares that there is a gulf between the
spirit of the Confession and that of the Pres
| byteiian Church to-day. A revision of some
sort is therefore necessary if the Church is to
live and grow; for even the most hidebOund
conservative would not maintain that the
Church can prosper when majority of its mem
| beIs are out of sympathy with its Greed.
Whether the suggestions of the committee will
bring the Greed into harmony with the mind of
the Church or not is question for the General
Assembly to decide. One thing, however, is
certain: if the gulf spoken of is to be bridged
at all, the bridge constructed by the committee
is probably the best possible in the present
state of reli gious opinion in the Church. While
offering highway to the modern spirit of re-
| igiouS thought It's abutments rest firmly on the
Old faith of the Church. Its makers are not in
fallible any more than were the revered authors
of the Confession but as the Westminster di
vines substantially expressed the Church's be-
lief in their age so the report OF the committee,
if finally adopted, will substantially express the
belief of the Church to-day.
IL will be said, of course, by both conserva-
tives and liberals, that the difference between
the old Confession and the Confession as re-
vised is very slight; and in a sense this is true
Many Of the distinctions are exceedingly fine
and the result as whole will fail to meet the
views of the liberals in the Church, who will
see in the work OF the committee a timid re-
vision of words rather than a bold restatement
of doctrines But when all that is admitted
it still remains true that if it adopts this report
the Church will take long step forward For
it will thereby assert the fallibility of the Con-
fession, which so many Presbyterians have re-
garded as a divine, and therefore final, state
nent of Christian truth. When some OF the
most eminent clergymen and laymen of the
Church formally assert that certain sections of
the Confession are not true TO fact and are not
in keeping with the teachings of Gods word,
step has been taken that must color and modify
the whole future Of the Church. The assertion