Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-01-28

20 which the revisers have addressed
themselves was trivial as compared
with the amendment of the Confessions
articles touching election and preteri-
ton, or the passing by of those whom
Cod did not choose to elect to salvation.
To keep Calvinism, and yet to destroy
its corner stone and the pillar on which
it rests, was therefore the superhuman
and impossible labor imposed on these
unhappy theologians.
The Calvinistic theory of election is
simply that as God knows all things, as
for Him there is neither past nor pres
ent, as whatever happens was decreed
by Him before all time, and as some of
mankind are to be saved aud some lost,
He must have known from the BEGIN
ming and decreed from the beginning.
exactly and particularly, the number
of the redeemed and of the damned.
After stating this doctrine, so far
as it applies to the elect, the Con-
fession proceeds to define thus the
consequent doctrine of preterition, as
it is called by theologians:
The rest of mankind, God was
pleased, according to the unsearchable
counsel OF His own will whereby He
extendeth or withholdeth mercy as He
pleaseth, for the glory of His sovereign
power over His creatures, to pass by,
and to ordain them to dishonor and
wrath for their sin, to the praise of His
glorious JUSTICE
That is clear enough to be compre-
hensible by the simplest intelligence;
but it is an uncomfortable doctrine for
many of the Presbyterians of our day
They do not like to believe that God
ordained anybody to ''dishonor and
wrath merely ''for the glory of His
sovereign power over His creatures
1t seems to them cruel, monstrous: and
yet very few of them have the courage
to get rid of it wholly by declaring their
belief that God did not number the
damned and ordain their damnatior,
for the reason that there is no damna-
ton. They prefer to omit all reference
TO the disagreeable subject in the Con-
| fession, as it is now omitted in almost
every polite pulpit. But the Commit
tee of Revision could not satisfy their
desire and yet fulfil the command of
| the General Assembly to leave the
| Calvinism of the Confession unim-
paired.
Accordingly, last Tuesday, after long
consideration, they adopted this as an
amended form of the article:
The rest of mankind, God saw fit,
according to the unsearchable counsel
of His will, whereby He extendeth or
withholdeth mercy as He pleaseth,
not to elect to eternal life, and them
He ordained to dishonor and wrath for
their sin, to the praise of His glorious
justice; yet hath He no pleasure in the
death of the wicked, nor is it His decree,
| but the wickedneSs of their own hearts,
which restraineth and hindereth them
from accepting the offer of His grace
made in the Gospel"
Thus we are told that, instead of
| passing by those not elected, God
did not elect them. But what is the
difference in meaning? The objection,
too. was not to the form of words, but
| to the fact. If he ssordained" the
NON aloo+ ~ :,dicbo,,o,.ff o,1 ..u-rofb -
ito the praise of His glorious justice"
| how can it be that it was not His pleas
ure so TO do, and not His decree" that
| they should be damned? If He or
daineth them to wrath, did He not fore
see 1.-The wickedness of their own
hearts?h
Assuming election, it is, of course,
foolish to attempt thus to escape from
it's consequences. It is absurd to say
in one breath that God s'extendeth Or
withholdeth mercy as he pleaseth. -
and in the next to declare that He
has no pleasure" in withholding il. Yet
these unhappy revisers are not iucapa-
BILE of reasoning. Poor men, they are
simply floundering about in the hope
that the Presbyterian Church will have
pity and rescue them from the difficulty
into which it has flung them. They are
showing the General Assembly how i'm
possible is the task committed TO them.
-NeU York Sun.