The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1893-11-22
From the Presbyterian Journal.
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy

The history of mankind is the
history of the contest between truth
and error. Unfallen Adam was
confronted with fallen Satan.
When God incarnate appeared, the
Tempter met him in the wilderness.
The holy supernaturalism of the
kingdom of Christ was beset by the
demOniacal upernaturalism of the
kingdom of evil in "signs and lying
wonders" and the Man of Sorrows.
through his whole life of benevo.
lence and love, was INSTRUCTED by
1.-The powars of dark ness" The re-
generate church, from the first, has
found an obstinate antagonist in the
unregenerated world. Each king
dom has had it's fluctuations, but
truth steadily grows stronger, and
evil weakes, in the lapse of time.
Orthodoxy is embodied in the
dogmatic systems of ancient, medi
eval, and modern Christendom,
which presents a massive BODY of
Biblical truth against which in
every generation the antagonistic
theories of the heterodox strike in
vain. And there is little original
ity in the sense of new discovery
upon either side. The conserva
tive only restates the old faith. The
radical only revamps the old error.
Each draws from his predecessors
the best part of his defence, or of
his attack. There is nothing new
IN the orthodoxy of to-day, and
nothing new in the newest hetero-
doxy. A scholar versed in ancient
learning can trace both alike in the
antagonisms of the past. Speaking
generally, the orthodox respects and
cultivates systematic theology, the
heterodox contemns and vilifies it.
The former maintains the carefully
stated creeds of the evangelical de-
nominations; the latter seeks to re-
wise, relax, and nullify them. Or
thodoxy defines Christianity to be
an exclusive religion, distinct from
all others, and intended to convert
them heterodoxy explains it to be
a conglomerate of all religions, and
destined to be merged and lost in
them.
A healthy and vigorous state of
religion In all the churches requires
that the solemn and retributive at.
titude of incarnate God towards err
ror and unbelief emerge again into
luminous view, as 1t always has in
the heroic and powerful ages of
Christianity. All true religions re-
presents the Supreme Being as ethi-
cally strict and holy, and all false
religion as ethically easy and indul-
gent. The revelation which God
made to Moses, when He established
the Jewish Church, announced both
his goodness" and his severity"
from. xi:22) in combination On
the entrance of the Israelltes into
the promised land Jehovah pro-
claimed both his mercy and his
justice in the blessings of Gerizim
and the curses of Ebal. And with
the Second Person of the Trinity
laid the legal foundations of the
Christian Church in his Sermon on
the Mount, the Divine emotions to-
ward righteousness and upright
.eousness were reaffirmed. The two
explain each other, and one is I'M
Ineligible without the other. The
mercy of God is cheap and un-
meaning thing for the self. indul-
gent man who thinks his Maker to
be altogether such an one as him
self" The love Of God needs the
foil of the wrath of God to set it off,
and make it bright and effulgent.
A foil is a leaf of metal placed I'M
der jewels to increase their brilli-
ancy. If takeL away they are dim
med. A generation that denies or
ignores The Divine displeasure
against wrong doctrine and wrong
living cannot have q vivid sense of
the divine compassion. No man
knows how absolutely infinite is the
mercy of God unless he first per-
ceives what God might in Justice do
to him. The dazzling light of the
Heavenly Pity is flashed only from
the back ground of the Heavenly
Purity.
Heterodoxy is, perhaps, more VIC.
lent and resolute at the close of this
century than ever before, and it is
favored by the comparative apathy
of orthodoxy In the previous con
flicts the church had stood alone by
itself, holding it's creed determined
ly and fghtlngly its foe unHinch-
ingly. There has been no admix-
ture Of truth and error. Now, the
danger is that the orthodox shall