Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-11-18
BRIGGS MEN PROTEST.
THE LIBERAL CONFERENCE ENDED
AT CLEVELAND.
Don't Propose to BE Ousted From the
Church by Their Room For
Men of Liberal OplnIons-Demand Their
Ripbta

Don't Propose to Be Ousted From the
Church by Their Opponents Room For
Men of Liberal Oplnions-Demand Their
Rights.
CLEVELAND, Nov. 10.-The Presbyter-
ian conference has concluded its ses-
sions in Calvary chuch and the conclu-
sions reached have made this gathering
a historical one.
The liberal gentlemen who compose
the conference have taken belligerent
stand against their more orthodox
bethren and are determined to fight
for their rights in the church Of their
choice. The conference was surrounded
with the same air of mystery and Sc
crecy which pervaded the gathering at
the first day of its meeting. No one
seemed to be authorized to give out the
simplest routine features of the confer
ence.
The committee appointed by the Pres
byterian Liberals to draw up their proc
lamation consisted of Rev. DIR. Potter
of Chicago. Rev DR.. John Paul Egbert
of st. Paul, Mimi, Rev. DR.. Brown of
New York city, Rev. DIR. A. S. Fiske Of
Ithaca, N. Y. Mr.. E. S. White of Co
luinbus, Rev. DIR. Nelson Willard Of
Rochester, N. Y, and Rev DIR. H. G.
Haydn of this city. They handed the
following to the newspaper men:
We, the undersigned ministers and eld-
ers of the Presbyterian church in the
United States Of America, having seriously
considered in view of the certain facts and
tendencies in our church. hereby make the
following statement: First-We believe
that the general assembly has no right tc
impose upon the church new -doctrinal
statements under the guise of interpreta
ton, whether by deliverance or thorough
judicial process; ard further. that inter
probation OF doctrine by the courts of the
church ought always to be strictly within
the letter of standards and with sacred re
gard to the broad and generous terms of
the reunion of 1870
Second-We believe that the most
scrGpulous care should be used in all
trials for doctrinal divergences from the
standards, especially now, when a large
majority of the presbyterics have ey
pressed, after much deliberation, their
dissatisfaction with our confession of faith
as it stands, their desire for its revision,
and many of them their desire for a new
creed. We view with grave concern pro
ceedures at such time conducted to
severest sentence by what seems to us in
terpretations of our standards strained
beyond their later and far beyond any just
regard for the compact of the reunion.
Thrd-We believe that no court of our
church has a right, by deliverance or reso-
luton or rebuke or otherwise, to seek to
suppress respectful action by judicatories
below it expressive of their anxiety and
apprehension concerning anything in the
church which seems to them to imperil
the constitutional liberties of the church
or of any of its members. The right of
petition and remonstrance must not be
denied in the church of Christ
Fourth-We believe that the interpreta-
ton of one of the expressions in our book
of discipleine, as meaning that a prosecut-
ing committee should become. from the
moment it enters on its work. independent
of the court which appointed it, capable of
living on even after the Judiciary has died,
and of prosecuting after the judiciary has
acquitted, is a strained Interpretation,
leading logically to many absurdities and
easily possible miscarriages of justice. If
these phrases are fairly susceptible of such
Interpretation, they ought to be eliminated
from the book.
Fifth-We believe that it is no part of
the constitution of any court of the church
to warn honest and Godfearing men to
withdraw themselves from Its ministry or
eldership because they cannot accept as
trines which are outside the letter of the
confession, and which have never been set
tied by the sanction of the Presbyteres
in any legal way. This method of dieci-
pline. by withdrawal, enjoincd by resolu-
ton of a church court, is not provided for
in the book of discipline. Such warning
carries no obligation of obedience
SiXth-We believe that our church is
broad enough and strong enough to abide
by the spirit of the compact of reunion
and to embrace in its communion and its
ministry all forms and schools of reverent
scholarship which accept the essential and
necessary articles of our common faith,
acknowledging the Lord Jesus as Divine
Master and Savior and the Bible as the
only infallible rule of faith and practice
Seventh-We call upon all Presbyterians
to stand together in defense Of reasonable
liberty of opinion in the church and of the
constitutional rights of individual mem
bers wherever assailed, and we heartily ap-
prove of the protest of DR. Herrick John
son. DR. Nicols and others at the last
general assembly.
Eighth-We do most urgently counsel
our brethren who may he perplexed con-
corning their duty to abide in the com
munion and service of the church, assured
that in so doing they remain well within
their constitutional rights
Finally, only a profound sense of the
peril that now besets our church has led
US to make this declaration of what seems
to MS fundamental principles
In behalf of the conference held in Cal
vary Pres byterian church Cleveland, o.,
Nov. SO, 1893
(SigneD HIRAM C. HAYDN,
Chairman.
THOMAS G.. HALL,