The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-06-27
BOYCOTTED HIS SEMINARY.
CULMIS4TION OF TIE Dr..
WHITSIIT'S TROUBLES.

Hts Resignation ns President or the South.
ern baptist Theological Seminary Demands.
ed because He Maintains the Compares
tive Mod-rnity or baptism by Immersion.
Tho despatch in Tuesdays Sun from Louie
vile, Ky, to the effect that the Kentucky Bap-
list Association had formally requested the Rev.
DR.. William H. Whitsitt, President Of the
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. to TO
sign, and had threatened to boycott the semi.
nary in event oflis refusing to do so, gives a cleaf
insight into the rigid orthodoxy Of the Southern
Baptists as compared with those of the North,
and also marks another step in the controversy
which for a year has engrosscd the attention
OF Baptists in this country. DR.. Whitsitt is one
OF the ablest men in the Baptist Church, but for
the past year he has been subjected to attacks
from Baptist ministers and professors In the
South. Tho cause of the trouble is DR.. Whit
Sits declaration that immersion was not prac-
tiscd by tho Baptists prior TO 1641. and that
Roger Williams. who organized the first Baptist
church in Providence, baptized not by INNER
sion, but by sprinkling.
The Southern Baptist Is nothing IL not ortho-
dox, and one of the chiefest of his dogmatic b.
liefs is that tho custom of baptism by immersion
has descended to him straight from the apostles.
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Of
Louisville is the principal institution OF the kind
in the South. and 1t can readily be imag-
inca Wnut u sur tncTe was when ~
was learned that the President Of the
seminary had embodied vitality unortho-
dox views in an article on Baptists
in Johnson's Unirrrsni Encyclopedia, and
earlier had contributed q number OF anonymous
scmi.c iitorial articles to the Independent. In all
OF which he maintained the position that sprink-
ling was the usual form of baptism prior to
16il. The Southern Baptists did not discover
that DIR. Whitsitt was the author Of these
II ..-..1 -. f-- -st. l.
tho Examiner. the chief Baptist publication, he
acknowlcdr ed tho authorship and defended his
position. Then there was an outhurst Of disap-
prevail throughout the South. led by the Rev. T.
7. Eaton, editor of the Hesfern Recorder of
Louisville. Ministers attacked the Doctor right
and left. md demands were made that he bO
tried by the Southern Baptist Convention. held
in Wilmington. n. c., last May.
The articles for the Independent were written
ten or twelve years ago and the one for tho En-
cpclopedid about five years ago. 1t was the
latter that DR.. Whitsitt was called upon to
defend. In 1t he says:
in 1896 Roger Williams, who had been
banished from the colony of Massachusetts, Bay,
establls shed a community at Providence and set
up q church. He preached With zeal and regu;
to make a new departure. Williams. having
become convinced OF the error OF infant hap.
G Ssptised 49wiSifIfii a in t and i SisR; H Ffik,nl f baptiasa
most likely performed BY sprinkiins; the Bap.
fists q England had not yet adOPgtsd
them in that regard; 80. In 1914 Williams
ceiSngo' 1t trq IS b ahs'a@p that that Mr. fn' Mark Iusas
came on with him. Lucar had been a member
Of f1es he Ia EE, nsI.n pSr oh sapF. fsI iass Church organ
ain the year l04l when Mr.. Blount, returne4
thu pprsnns WIN rnIn we'd Enumeration. Innn hin
Use the breihren touching the change that had
appear SeG% SH to have II BEEN smf inot With D decided favor. fos
in the wear l.6t4 the church in Newport was
nrF mbersi VIII TIKI I'm !. believed II c ""S 81 10 ,n siR M N ' tRaPt tSsy
then received immersion at the hands OF Lucar
SR%rcn in the IS sense 81 now s1s Accepted. Probabiyy the
immersion Of tho Providence men followed In .
Around this question, which Is purely his
torical In It's signiilganco, The battle waged. DhS
attacks with %rnabHtea nrt9r. They went 50 fas
ms to say That DR.. Whitsitt had advised his sister
i i"n I%'ph d ,NS n r%n0. At T1hs so DO TsrGn B sSS5 Gsf G cSs.
v"ntion IN May I" concerted move was made to
he ne trustees q the seminary remGye him.
President made n statement of which the fol-
81. regard TO tho articles VT tten as edito-
rails for tho iudcuCadcnt. | have long felt that ID
was n mistake, and the generous action OF the
that oy were written with n view to stimulat-
ing historical research. with no thought that 10
would injurc the ia fist and with no inten-
ton TO hispnr re Baptist doc rincO or practice.
80. That the article in J0hnson's Encyclopedia
hns probably passed hey You'd my control, hut 10
will br very pleasing 10 me { can honorably
procure III" elimination of what is Offensive To
any OF N brethren.
-. In regard to the published statement about
my advising that II kinSwoman Of mine ought to
follow her husl nd inlo a PWdo-llhptlst church,
II was never my intention 10 Indicate n heliet
tint the fumily Outranks the ChurCh OF God. i
believe that ONciicn, - 10 its commands IL above
every other hGmun duty. ana thrt people In
every condition OF life ought to obey God rather
than an.
~. On Inc historical questions involved I find
myself out of agreement with some honored
com" y! patient and honest rcscRrch, and | cam
not do Otherwise than to rca Affirm my convictions
and M inlrin my conviction. But II IN the
future II should ever be made TO appear that
have erred IN my conclusions ! would promptly
and ChcrrlnliN say 80. ] am IA so ircher after
tr III, ant will GLADLY hail every hulDer."
This W.. Rcccp'c a. Sufficient Nv thctrustoea.
Hni they dropp"l ia. mittor. The kentucky
Church still fglls. and now asks that the semi,
nary hs n%oycoltcd until DR.. Whitsitt resigns.
ID, Nhilsiit is one uf the best known baptist
III ologiaAs, hl, specially hclnf church history.
II" was horn at Nashville, Tenn, in 1871. HS
went 20 Union University until the war began.
when he enlisted AS a private In the Confederate
army, Before tho war was over he became q
chaplain. lie WAS captured vice. and spent
twelve months IN Northern prisons. The Views
that have got him into trouble with his brethren
are held by some OF the ahlcSt theologians OF the
Northern church, but in tho North the questioa
y REGARDED as one OF historical interest rathsl