The record-union., 1893-06-03
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions From the Various Re
ligiOus Newspapers
The Religious Thought of the Day as
Expressed in the Sectarian Press
Some Matters of Interest to Both
Ministers and Laymen.

! Speaking of the Thirty-nine Articles
the Li0tng Church Up. e. of Chicago
says: sit is, of course, mistake to
speak of the articles as creed They
do not stand to the church in the same
I relation as a creed. A creed is summa-
ry OF those doctrines of Christianity
which must be believed unto salvation,
nothing Of which can be altered or abol-
lshed. OF course the fact that the creed
is summary implies that there was
llrst something to be summed up. Some
OF the articles are fuller statements Of the
truth involved in the brIefer expressions
OF the creed. These are no coinage of a
single branch of the church, but are dog
hatlc statements having ecumenical au-
thorlty. They bear, therefore, the same
force as the briefer expressions of which
they are the expansion and explanation.
10 deny them is to deny the faith, for it
Is 10 deny the meaning in which the
| whole church has always held the faith
| Such articles are of the same nature with
| the creed, and are necessarily binding
! upon the conscience. There are, how
| ever, other articles which, as it is gener-
| ally conceded, were not intended for dog
matte purposes, but are of the nature Of
! compromises. Others, again were framed
/
| Win reference to controversies of the
reformation period. These are often of
a somewhat scrappy and unsystematic
character, and are sometimes obscure.
But IN most of these there is somewhere
a principle which touches the faith. For
instance, there may be different expla-
nations OF the meaning OF Transubstan-
! IlatlOn, but IN Article AANIlI. the Drin-
ciple is laid down that no doctrine which
! 'oNerthroWs the nature Of a sacrament
can be received. No churchman can have
any real difficulty with the articles. Their
| positive, dOgmatic assertions, their au-
thorltatlve eXplications of the Christian
lalth he accepts as giving the true sense
! OF the creed. But if churchman is
asked for his creed he will cite the
Apostles and Nicene formularies. 1t
will never occur to him to think of the
lhlrty-nine Articles as creed"
The Presbyterian General Assembly.
| which meets at Washington this week
faces grave issues" says the New York
| independent. I'VE do not refer to Con-
! leSSlonaI matters. Revision has failed;
! but not many tears will be shed over the
| defeat OF the twenty seven overtures
! There Is strong feeling in favor OF Il
| new creed; but that need give the Assem-
| bly, little concern. \ new creed will
come; but there is no haste about it, The
| serious business Of the Assembly has to
do with the case of Professor Briggs. An
| appeal from the action of the New York
Presbytery acquitting him is on the
| docket and must be disposed of. In do
| ing TINS the Assembly can hardly avoid
| declaring the attitude OF the church to-
wards certain results of the Higher Crit
icism. This will be a most difficult and
| delicate matter. Professor Briggs has
been acquitted. To reverse the finding
in his case would be obnoxious to the
general sense Of justice, though perfectly
regular according to Presbyterian proce-
dure. 1t would beget sympathy for him
and create and foster prejudice against
7 the church. There is no need, it seems
to us, OF making martyr Of him. He
| has done harm enough already. Put
him in the attitude of a prosecuted man.
| rlsklng his all in a battle for liberty, and
many Will be inclined to follow him and
| share his fate. In dealing with his case
the Assembly cannot be too cautious. On
the one hand, it must not bitterly pursue
an acquitted man; on the other, it must
not approve the reckless methods which
he has made his own"
1.-The Presbyterian Church." according
| to the COngregdtiOn0HSt of Boston. has
| before 1t tar more serious problem than
| the cases OF Professors Briggs and Smith
or the relation OF the presbyteries and
synods to the General Assembly, It's
chief problem at present and for some
time to come will be how to maintain the
! belief of its members in its theological
standards. 1t is already plain that the
attempt to revise these standards without
| impairing the integrity of the Calvinistic
| system has failed. The real object of the
revision is to set aside the severer feat
ures of that system. The demand for
! this is taking form i'll the call for a short
creed. 1t asks not only for a new creed.
but for new theology. = Calvin
ism is logical, consistent system, and
those VINO accept it must take it as a
whole. For more than four years the
! Presbyterian Church has been struggling
to revise its confession Of faith 50 as 10
! bring its spirit into harmony with the
spirit OF the church of the present day.
while not impairing the integrity of the
| Calvinistic system. What the outcome
will be we do not attempt to predict But
we do not believe it is possible to retain
the essential features of the system and
at the same time so to reshape the West
| minister Confession as to make it ac-
| ceptable to those who reject it in its pres
| ent FORM"
''The Presbyterian Church" says the
| New York Christian Cttioa, has stood,
| historically, in Switzerland, in France.
/ in England, and in Scotland for religious
| liberty, and for the doctrine that the
| Bible is the final arbiter in all religious
| questions. 1t has Respondent history
| behind it, and an organization and a
spirit too valuable to be cast away. If
now temporary majority reverse its
! history, declare that there is not freedom
/ within 1t, affirm that not the Bible but
| the creed, not even the creed but the
! partisan Interpretation of that creed is
the final arbiter of religious questions,
the minority ought not to abandon the
church of their fathers to those who thus
reverse its history and deny its tunda-
mental principles. They should not go
out one by one into other communions,
abandoning Presbyterianism in America
to the party who have violated the fun
damental principles both OF its creed and
of its traditions. They should emphasize
| their protest by going out in body and
maintaining the principles, the organiZa-
ton and the traditions of their fathers
i'll a. Presbyterian Church of the United
| States, whose windows are open TO the
| light OF heaven and the air OF freedom.
| They should do as those who constituted
the Free Church of Scotland did in the
time OF Dr. Chalmers, and as those who
constituted the New School PRESBYTERIAN
Church Gid in the time of Albert Barnes
and Lyman Beecher. The Presbyterian
Church is too noble an organization, and
has too grand history, to be abandoned
in such a critical hour as though it were a
waterlogged and sinking ship"
zone of the most unseemly features of
the controversy which has arisen around
the Briggs case" says the New York Err
dnliner Press, sis the manner in which
some ministers have threatened to leave
the Presbyterian Church if the decision
of the General Assembly be against the
Union Seminary Professor. Ii he goes
we 60, they have virtually said, and they
have intimated that many more are of a
like mind. Such threats are entirely out
of place and while all due effort should