The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-03-24
rs HEREsY SPREADING ?

Connecticut a trial which will attract
attention all over this country and per-
haps throughout Christendom viii be-
gin. 1t will be the trial of the Rev.
William Thurston Brown, a Congrega-
tional preacher who has been denounc-
ed as hereto. Among those who will
sit in Judgment on him will be Judge
Simeon z. Baldwin Of this city, who
himself appears to be in no small dam
ger Of being denounced as a hereto. If
he is SO denounced and If he is found
guilty we may have two autos de fe on
the New Haven Green. If the Rev. Mr..
Brown and Judge Baldwin are both
burned at the stake at one burning It
will be a great, a warning and an i'm
proving sight.
We shall not denounce Judge Bald
win as hereto, not being in the he
retic-d enouncing business, but we must
call special attention to the insouciance
with which he brushed aside the Old
Testament. We quote a part OF what
he said, as follows: And here let me
frankly say that 1t seems to me one of
the essentials of Christianity is TO re-
jeot the Old Testament as a teacher to
us OF the nature of God, or of His will
as to the conduct Of men. The best OF
the Old Testament writers sees, as
through a glass, darkly. We seize Gag
erly on the few lofty expressions we can
find on their pages, that speak in uni
son with the teachings Of Christ. But
how inconsistent are they with the gen
eral trend of thought from Genesis to
Malachi. Until within century Chris
| tianity went stumbling along, dragging
| the Old Testament behind it, as a con-
| vict draws his ball and chain.
| If Judge Baldwin Is as good authority
| in theology as he Is recognized to be in
law there will be a. good many who will
be astonished at his doctrine" for, SO
far as the orthodox world is concerned,
he has spoken as never man spake.
| Great lberality and great breadth of
view were Of course to be expected, but
that the Old Testament, including the
| Ten Commandments, the Psalms, the
Book of Job, and the Prophecies of the
coming Messiah, should have been
swept by wholesale out Of the canoni-
cal record will astonish everybody who
hears about it.
It is well known that the OLD Tesla
ment in these later days, has been sub
jected to special criticism and study
and the result of this criticism and
study has been to strengthen its claims
to inspiration rather than to weaken
them. Thus the Rev. DR.. Newman
Smyth of this city says of the new bibli-
cal science in a recent article entitled
'The New Old Testament" TT may
| indeed measure more accurately and
| leave US more familiar with the breaks
and the flaws, the assures and the
chasms in the formation Of the Old
Testament, but it causes the higher or
| der of the whole Bible to stand out be-
fore us more impressively, like noun
| tain range which has been lifted up by
one and the same great power-height
of this revelation answering to height,
and glory to glory, in the one supernal
Light The laborious Investigations and
critical work of modern scholars are
enabling us to perceive still more clear
ly what mankind has long believed,
that the history which produced the
worlds Bible. and which eliminated in
the worlds Christ, was not q series of
| isolated wonders or detached events,
but a progressive course of revelation,
a highway for the coming of the Lord. s.
Those less grounded in the faith than
Judge Baldwin may perhaps naturally
inquire, if the Old Testament can be
summarily disposed of as uninspired
how are we to be sure about the New
Testament? If the Commandments, the