Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-05-24
PRESBYTERIANISM


tory of Professionalism in the United
States. The assembly itself is the su-
preme governing power of the church
which enjoys the distinction of having
been the pioneer of Protestant worship
on the American continent, Presby-
terrain Huguenots having held their
first services in the wilds of the new
world half a century before the little
band of English Independents estab-
lished their first congregation at Ply
mouth, and twenty years before the inn
pressive services of the English Epis-
copal church were first witnessed on
Roanoke island. But it was not until
a century and half later that the real
history, not merely of Presbyteranism
in America but of distinctive Ameri-
can Presbyterianism began with the
establishment of the first church in
Philadelphia, Of which English, Scotch,
Irish, Huguenot and Holland Presby-
terians were communicates, and which
first undertook the task of adapting
the Calvanistic system of church gov
eminent to the civil institutions Of a
federal republic. 1t is not necessary
that one be believer in the
stern doctrines Of Calvin, or that he be
a subscriber to the Westminster Con-
fession, to be able to appreciate the fact
that Presbyterianism, in spite of its old
intolerance, has been a mighty agency
in the greatest political and social re-
forms of modern times. The men who
signed the old league and covenant
with their blood in Greyfriars' church.
yard, after the tremendous outburst i'm
the High church of Edinburgh against
the clerical outrages of Charles the First
and Archbishop Laud, were Presbyte-
rians, and in the work of the followers
of Calvin and Knox it is easy to trace
the beginnings of that mighty revolu-
ton which demonstrated, for the first
time, the power of the common peo-
pie" of England by establishing the
Cromwellian commonwealth upon the
ruins of the profigate despotism of
Charles the First, and giving to the
people finally the writ of habeas corpus,
a free parliament and freedom of re-
ligious worship.
As to our revolution, Bancroft truly
says: "The first voice publicly raised
in America to dissolve all connection
with Great Britain came, not from the
Puritans of New England, not from
the Dutch of New York, not from the
planters of Virginia, but from the
Scotch and Irish Presbyterians."
And not only were Presbyterians in
the front rank of those who took the
great stand for liberty which delivered
the American colonies from Great
Britain's yoke, but after independ-
ence had been achieved and the weak
ness of the civil government of the
continental congress demonstrated,
they were also in the front rank of the
patriots and statesmen who composed
the memorable convention that pro-
mulgated the constitution of the
United States, the most remarkable
collection of fundamental laws for the
protection of the rights of free people
which the history of the world affords.
A church which has accomplished so
much for the betterment of the human
race, which can point to so many noble
achievements in politics, in literature
and in art, should open to the people
wider doors f r entrance to its affairs
than the declared principles of its faith
as embodied the rigid Westminster
Confession afford. Its creed is
too narrow, too dark, too forbidding to
commend itself to the thoughtful
seeker for truth in this age of light and
reason. Looking at it from layman's
standpoint IL seems to us that it should
be the policy of every church to make
the conditions of entrance to its men,
bership as simple and bright as posi-
bic, I'm order that those who are weak
in the faith may be prompted to enter
The Westminster Confession is full of
stumbling blocks with which none but
theoIogians should be asked to grapple.
This view Is entertained by many of
the ablest clergymen of the church,
some Of whom believe in abolishing it
entirely and substituting in its stead
shorter, simpler and palmer creed, not
less in keeping with Christ's teachings
but more In accord with the broader
spirit Of liberation which characterizes
the religious thought of our time.