The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-10-08
THE ELDER.
An Address Before the Elders IL stitute
of MeckIenburg County.
BY JOS Z RANKIN.

Inc SuOJoCG now Do1CE6 US LOT COuSlu
GRAFTON is one of such gravity and i'm
portance as to battle the most strenuous
efforts of this convention to do it jus
tice in the short space of one hour allot
ted to it. Properly viewed, even in it,
lesser matters, might prove bonanzt
enough for an occasion like this. Al
your ~forerunner, therefore, on this sub
Ject, | stand before you so thoroughly
<imbued with it's Importance as to ask
you TO spend this whole hour in consid
eriDg what has for centuries been treat
ed a., perhaps it's least important
phase, viz Comparative authority, OF
Parity of Elders" Before proceeding,
however, with the subject, and by way
of paving the way therefore, let us
take a comprehensive glance at eccle-
siastical history, and see it we nave
gotten hold of the divinely constituted
run of thiogs.
Three d-ispensations have brought
their virtne to bear upon the develop
Enent of the Church, but only one Prln
geipIe of government runs like a
golden thread through them all. Eli
dership authority absolute was undls-
puted and intact during the Patrlar
chial d~ispensation. The Mosaic dispen-
sation was propitiously inaugurated
under its auspices. Israel stumbled
and fell when they demanded a king.
Theocracy was decapitated politically.
Church and State severed. Israel's
national development ultimately came
so naught, and her ecclesiastical devel-
opment was finally switched into cap
tive reformatories. Reformation took
place, and Israel r~eappeared, in their
synagogical form of government, un
der the old fogy Theocratic government
Of Elders, denOminated Rules of the
Synagogue, just in time to deliver the
Church officially into the hands of a
Christian dispensation. In progress
of the first fifteen centuries of the
Christian era, the golden wand of eccie-
siasticaI authority fell into the hands
of clerical usurpation and LIther's
reformation of four hundred years
standing has nev yet avaiied to the
full recovery of that authority, and l
conceive it to be-ehe of the sovereign
S1r time to consummate the
Reformation of 1917.
Such being the sum of things, as
drmly believe, Presbyterian, in so far
as it is P~resbyterial, is a tap rooted
principle of government laying valid
claim, not only to Apostolic, but Patri
archal succession, and however inter
aesting and profitable it might be to
trace it's meanderinga, and note its
trials and conflicts minutely through
more than a hundred generations from
Egyptian bondage to the awakening
dawn of a millenial era. Parity of Ell
ders raps imperatively at the door of
our attention, and threatens to be a
disturbing element until its demand is
needed and justice accorded.
The property of the Church in pass
ing from one dispeDsation into another,
according to general prir cjples of he
redity. consists of it's patrimony and
lawful occasions thereto, and just here
- "OOAA S2g LIZ GA40ACA SOODS w. LIZ
passed naturally and almost imperCep-
zsibly from one d~ispensati0n into an
other, and there was none Of that
abrupt tearing down of the old and
building of the new, that one might
naturally look for, neither was a new
order of things recognized as being es-
5ablished at the time.
The jewish ~synagogical form of gov.
eminent and worship therefore natu
ally became the Christian form, and
Gn+ Jewish bench of Rulers of the Syna
gogue became the Christian bench OF
Elders or Presbyters. The Office OF
-zAposdeship was al extraordinary ex
pedient in establishing the Christian
4aiths and passed entirely away with
-Ahe expiration of the original thirteen
apostles. the legitimate successor OF
's1he original Court of Apostles and Ell
sders, or P~resbyters of Acts is, then, a
Court Of E ders, or Presbyters pure aud
~EmPle-tO-day, parity absolute among
. : Rulers of the synagogue, except the
simple contingent of one being Chief
ARuLeE OF "ON"A' IL unOlSpuGeO, /
~s,eEeve, by Presbyterians at least. The
parity that then and there existed is,
IT.3.o,1t evidences Of Apostolic inter
vensfon, the selfsame parity that wend
ed its way into the Christian church
a1nder Apostolic sanction. Now Apos
..4osie narity of E ders. all must admit
IS the identical parity that should OF
cain among Elders or Presbyters now
The question then naturally arises