Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-31
PREsBYTERIANIsM's PERIL
Tho Issue Involved in the Briggs Case
One of Great Gravity.

One OF Great Gravity.
New York Trlbune.I
As most people expected who have been
following the convolutions of the Briggs
case in the Presbyterian Church, the Gen.
eral Assembly has voted by u large majority
to sustain the appeal Of the New
York Prosecuting Committee from the
action of the New York Presbytery
in dismissins the charges against
Prof. Briggs last fall; and the Professor
will probably be put on trial for heresy.
That the result OF this trial, If it
takes place, will be his condemnation
can hardly be matter OF doubt;
for his opponents. by raising the cry
that the church and the Bible
are in danger, have rallied to their side
nearly all the moderates who would other
wise be disposed to give him the benefit of
the doubt Nor is the opposition to him
merely theological. No one who has fol-
lowed with any care the controversy raised
over his utterances can have failed to no.
t1ce that bitter personal hostility to him
exists in the Presbyterian Church. This
hostility has been reused, partly by the
radical character of his views OF the Bible,
partly by his aggressive and rasping way OF
stating these views, and partly by the some
what nformulated thonght that he had no
business to go ont OF his way to raise such
an unpleasant and puZzling issue in the
Church.
In every denomination there is large
and worthy class OF people who, while ap-
proving OF life and growth in a general way,
are ready to persecute the napless indivfd-
uals i'll the Church who promote its life and
growth by their fresh and novel ways OF
looking at old traditions and doctrines. The
Presbyterian Church is pre-emiuently
church i'll which the right OF private judg-
ment, as against ecclesiastical dogma tisn,
is vital principle. 1t grew into being out
OF a revolt against tradition, and the very
Confession which so many of its members
now regard as little less than divine is
simply the opinion of iallible men which
may or may not be true. And yet to-day the
men who would admit that the results of in
dependent and untrammelled thought were
good for the Church in the past are vehe-
mently denying that they are good to-day.
Such an attitude is one of the puzzlins
things about denominationa!ism; but puz-
Zling or not, it is Il factor that must De
reckoned with by all original thinkers like
Prof Briggs
There is large and influential minority
IN the church, however, which will not only
question the propriety OF trying Proi
Briggs at all, but will consider his trial be-
fore the General Assembly IFS contrary to
the spirit and letter of the law. For it in
wolves, among other things, recognition or
the New York Presbytery's Investigating
Committee, as an original party, no longer
the creature of the Presbytery, but the
mouthpiece of the whole Presbyterian
Church, u view which many good theo-
logians IN the church regard as untenable.
1t also ignores the generally accepted prin-
ciple that an appeal from the action OF the
Presbytery in the first instance should be
made to the next higher body, the Snyod,
instead of to the General Assembly. These
are purely technical points, of course, as to
which the outsider can have no opinion; but
if they have any validity, an appeal by
Prof. Briggs to the civil courts would result
in the setting aside OF the present proceed
ings against him, in which case the matter
would be further from settlement than ever.
But without anticipating the future, it may
be said that the present issue before the
church is one of great gravity. failure to
try the Professor would keep the church in
a continual state of ierment that would in
ierfere seriously with its growth, while, on
the other hand, his trial and probable con-
these circumstances, it is not surprising that
Presbyterians generally are deeply anxious
over the outcome of the action which the
General Assembly has instituted.