The record-union., 1898-06-19

be the vote of several hundred minis
ters and laymen that such a man is a
hereto! The assembly has declared its
emphatic disapproval of all utterancea
IN his book not in accord with the
standards of the Presbyterian Church;
and asks him, if he cannot conform to
these standards, to leave the Presbyte-
rlan ministry. The Assembly has thus
again avowed its loyalty to it's creed,
and Professor McGiffert will probably
say, II he says anything, that he is
not disloyal to it,
yet II is quite possible the Profess
OF McGlHert may think it wiser to go
INTO some other denomination, say Con-
gregatlonal or Episcopal than to be
inaoe the center of another theologi-
cal Storm" says the New York Inde-
pehuehl. he can go out and pursue
his studies in peace in some denomina-
tlon that understands better than a
majority or the Presbyterian Church
uoes that IL has no binding creed. and
that the fellowship Of Christian hearts
ana the present guidance of the Holy
spirit are better than the decisions
terably two hundred and fifty wears
ago to biCd the consciences of men
or greater learning and no less faith
'o-oay. 1nese questions of scholarship
are not suited for ecclesiastical courts.
1hey belong to the forum of honest
scholars, the final judge and Jury in
such matters. That is a court which
can open and renew the trial every
year; ana no other court is competent
to tell US who wrote an epistla or
"hether there was any difference Of
Dellef in the college of the Apostles or
whether the Lords Supper was pri-
marty memorial act, or a sacrificial
meal, or an expression of fellowship
with the suffering Lord. Only let us
nave no more heresy trials that do
more hurt than good Faith is not
helped by them. The Church is not
made more lovely by them. nor more
pure. Ihey SOW more heresy than they
dig up
1T must be sufficiently apparent, /"
says the Church Standard" P Ed of
Philadelphia. that we appreciate the
value OF what would now be called the
Broad Church influence as highly as the
representatives
and it is just because we do appreciat te
lts Value as an influence that we de-
plore its recent evolution as a distinc-
i've school IN the church, and still more
| earnestly deprecate it's present tendency
10 FORM itself into an aggressive party.
SO long as it was an influence in both
parties, 1t was wholly good: when it
began to show itself as a distinctive
CT
loss was compensated by no equal gain.
Now that its would-be leaders are eag-
erly arraying themselves as a party,
they are simply, though perhaps un-
Willingly, renouncing their peculiar and
most salutary function, and incurring
all the dangers for themselves which
they were once so nobly powerful to
correct in others. All the truth which
mas ever been committed to the church
IS adequately, if also, perhaps, some
what partially, represented by the old
Evangelical and High Church parties
What, then has a Broad Church Party to
represent? Absolutely nothing: it must
be essentially negative and essentially
destructive. In renouncing the infiu-
ence which its members had within
the other parties, they became aggres-
sive combatants; and since they neither
have, nor profess to have, any new
truth that is not represented or can
not be better promoted, by or through
the other schools of thought, a Broad
Church party must, perforce, become
an Ishmael in the Church, with its
hand against every mans hand"
I'VE cannot recall a modern higher
+! critic of the Scriptures who has given
much evidence of literary perception
or appreciation" remarks the Watch
man" (Bapt) of Boston. Taking the
higher critics as a whole, they are
simply grammarians, philologists.
There is not one of them with whom
we are acquainted whose judgment
about Wordsworth or Shakespeare or
Tennyson would carry with it any spe-
cial weight And yet these are the
men who assume to split up the sub
lime poetry of Isaiah into fragments
composed, as they assert. by different
authors. What we would like to see
is not less but more literary criticism
of the Scriptures, but it should be real
literary criticism by men who have
| the capacity to appreciate poetry and
eloqUence. Much of what passes fer
literary criticism or the scriptures is by
men who would be unable to detect
poetry if it We're not arranged in
metrical form. And for trustworthy
literary criticism of the Scriptures 4
high degree of spiritual insight is requi-
site. The critic must be able to enter
into the spiritual atmosphere of his au-
thor. occupy his point of view. and
grasp his purpose. II is marvellous
how much a good interpreter of one
OF Shakespeare's plays enables you to
see in it that you have never dis
cerned before. The Bible remains q
curious compilation of various litera :
ture. to be appreciated by knowledge
; of grammar, history and archaeology,
until spiritual insight is broughr 10 its
pages; then its power and authority
are revealed. The dry-as-d dust critic
talks patronizingly of the devout man
who finds in the word that which feeds
his soul Such study Of the Scripture,
j he says is not scientific On the con-
trary, we should hold that it is pre-
eminently scientific"
>c<c<><c<c>o~c<c >c><