The Saint Paul globe., 1899-03-27
WHY A PRESBYTERIAN
REV. JOHN SINCLAIR breaches
ANOTHER IN THE SERIES OF
DOCTRINAL SERMONS
THE BASIS Of HIS RELIGION


Says, Grew Out pa the Very Nature
Of Things and Had Gods Impri-
matur Put Upon 1t Was
Laid Down as Early as the Time
In the Peoples church last evening
heV John SinclaiE of the First Presby
terrain church. delivered the fourth of the
series of lectures on ''DeneminationaI
beheIs. The subject was ''Presbyte
r1anism There was a very large audi
ence and great many questions were
handed in at the close. The speaker
handled the questions with considerable
Scotch tact, and answered them all point
edly and ood-humoredly
Most of the questions had a bearing on
Presbyterianism, such as: do you ap-
prove OF John Calvin burning Servtus?"
The answer was, "The municipal author
tiles OF Geneva burned Servitus. "Who
created the devil?" Answer, THE devil
created himself"
Mr.. Sinclair in his address said:
Scotland has been regarded, and right
ly regarded. as the nursing mother of
| other country, has given birth to men
who have distinguished themselves as
expositors of the principles of Presbyte-
| r1anism, and who have distinguished
| themselves In girding on the sword to
| light for the liberties for which Presby-
| ter1anlsm has striven so hard.
Ihe material surroundings of a man
nave much to do with the cast of his re-
ilglous thought. The impregnable rocks
| with which Scotland is bound; the ever
| lasting hills which look down upon her
from the heavens; the beautiful valleys
| which lntersect her at every turning,
| nave helped to give her men and women
| system of theology which. for strength
| and beauty, is not excelled by that of
any other denominations in the world AS
| the people grew up, gazing on those rocks
| every day they learned to plant their
| feet firmly on the impregnable rock of
| Scripture; as they looked upward to the
| eternal hills. their thoughts centered on
| the everlasting God of the hills, and as
| they looked abroad on the fragrant
| heather-covered valleys, with the soaring
| lark above 1t singing Its free heaven born
| song, they dreamed of the free eternal
love OF Christ; and around those three
! thoughts cluster all that is dear to the
Presbyterian heart in Presbyterian theol-
ogy.
The word Presbyterian has nothing
| to do with the doctrine Of the church. and
| nothing necessarily to do with the form
| Of government. 1t indicates the principle
| of the government the representative
| government of the; church. 1t is derived
| from the Greek word presbyteros, signi-
| Tying Older or elder, and has come to be
! used In virtue of the primitive church Sc
| lectlng the older or elder men as rulers
| to govern the affairs of the church In
| early times the church existed in the
| family, the father being the
HEAD OF THE CHURCH.
| "As families multiplied, their several
heads or elders naturally formed a rul-
| ing court; but as the community became
more extensive the whole number of the
heads, or elder members was found too
| large for general efficiency, and the peo-
! pie elected from the number of older or
elder men certain men conspicuous for
their wisdom and piety to be their repre-
| sentative rulers, and in these the pres
| bytery found it's inception
| When Abraham Lincoln enunciated
! epigrammatically. on the field of 4Gettys-
burg the principle of American civil gov
| ernment as a government of the people.
! for the people and by the people, Lin
| cioln, as a Presbyterian, enunciated the
Old old principle of government, whether
| OF. church or of state, promulgated by
| God, to Moses 1000 years ago. What we
| say in this free country is, that the peo-
J pie are supreme, and the makers, through
| their representatives, of their own laws.
] The people, at the hands of tyrant kings
| and potentates, have often, in the his
| tory of the world, been crushed; but the
| Presbyterian principle Of the supremity
| of the people, shadowed only by the su-
premity of God, has been the principles
| of the divine mind since the foundation
| of the world That is the first thing
hot y,,a1x o1o
| church-her divine principles of govern
| ment.
| 'The principle of Presbyterian polity,
! which is representative government, or &C.
| clesiastical republicanism, grew out of
| the very nature of things, and had Gods
| imprimatur put upon 1t. Nay, the Pres
| byterian principle was definitely laid
down by God asr early as the time of
| Moses.
IN THE TIME OF MOSES.
'When Moses was sent to deliver Israel
| from Egypt we find Presbyterian gov
| ernment in operation among the children
| OF Israel there. God commanded Moses
to call together the elders of Israel to
| explain Gods purposes to them, and the
| presbytery of elders OF rulers sat in con-
| sultation on thei plans of God. Moses
| afterwards organized higher court or
| assembly of those who were elders to pre-
| side over the government of the whole
! church. This body was composed of sew
| enty elders, in later times called the san
| hedrim The duties of those elders of
| Mosaic time were the same a the duties
! of the elders now, administrative and ju-
! dicial And when the Mosaic economy,
| through the advent of Christ, ceased to
| be, there still remained unbroken the old
| government Of elders; for in each syna-
! gogue there was bench of ruling elders
| and minister, or teaching elder selected
| because of. his fitness for teaching more
| than the others, to whom it is said Of
| Christ while teaching in the synagogue:
| He gave the book to the minister and
| sat down. and Josephus tells us that the
! synagogue elders were responsible to the
! sanhedrim at Jerusalem. This was
I government of Presbyterianism on the
| great principle of representative assem-
| blieS.
I'm apostolic times, likewise, when the
| apostles went out to Christianize the
world, they organized congregations of
| converts and ordained them elders in
every church, They did not organize a
| new church, but only
EXTENDED THE OLD CHURCH
| of God and proclaimed that Christ had
| come In these apostolic times we find
ofN for If oh,