The age-herald., 1899-09-28
PRESBYTERIANO
 IN CONVENTION The Sessions Commenced Yesterday in
 Washington. lINC0LN'S CHURCH IN USE Delegates Representing 26,OtO,OOr pre.-
 byterialS Present.
LINC0LN'S CHURCH IN USE
OPENING SERMON BY DR. DEWITT
The Session of the Alliance Will Last Ten Days-The Roly is Purely Deliberative and Not
 Legislative

Washington, September E.-Delegates representing 25,000,000 Presbyterians throughout the world assembled at 10:So o'clock in the New York Avenue Presbyte- ran church to attend the first session of the Pan Presbyterian Alliance.
 The church auditorium is of the most commodious in the city and has been beautifully decorated for the occasion.
 The New York Avenue church, in which the session of the alliance will be held, is one of the most notable in the capital. It is the church which Lincoln attended when he was president, and the pew which he and his family occupied was object of particular interest to the delegates when they assembled.
 When the first session of the alliance convened today about twenty-five delegates had reported their arrival It is expected by tomorrow 250 will have arrived.
 The session of the alliance will last ten days. The body is purely deiberatve and not in any sense legislative. Its capacity Is entirely advisory
 The first session today was devotional in character, the services being in charge of the Rev. pr. Wallace Radcliffe, pastor of the church in which the sessions are held
 The opening sermon was preached by the Rev. John Dewitt, D. D., professor of church history at Princeton Theological Seminary, his subject being "The Attitude of the Reformed Churthes Towards the Bible"
 The subject of higher criticism, so-ealled, promises to be one of the seriously mooted subjects of the present congress. It was directly advocated both in the sermon of Dr. Dewitt and subsequently, in the formal address of the president of the council, Rev Dr. J. Marshall Lang of Scotland
 Referring to the attitude of the churches represented by the council toward the Bible Dr. Dewitt said:
 Dr. Dewitt's Views
 This attitude is embodied in the well known phrase of William Chilling Worth, the Bible and the Bible alone is the re- ligion of the Protestants It involves tine two propositions that the holy scriptures are the supreme rule of religious faith and conduct, and that being sufficient and perspicuous they don't need for religious purposes the mediation of the church as either witness or interpreter. Of course, this is the attitude of all the Protes tant churches. But while other churches have emphasized the catholcity of their apos- tolicity, the reformed churches have em- phaszed their loyalty to her scriptures They have believed that they themselves would stand or fall with the Bible
 Reform Churches Not Alone
 ''It would be far from the truth to say that the reformed churches stand alone in the attachment and independence on tqle Holy Scriptures. The great Roman church, in which medieval Christianity still sur wives, asserts not less clearly and strenu- ously than ourselves their divine inspira- tion and authority. But It places tradition side by side with scripture, and of both scripture and tradition it makes the teach ing church both the authoritative witness and the interpreter. The reformed churches contend that the Bible alone is the rule of religious faith. Claiming neither priestly character for their clergy nor anything like magical virtue for their sacraments, and setting no high value, indeed, no religious value at all on the actual suecessions in ordination, the peculiarity of their ministry mas been that, relying on nothing else, they have held up the Bible as the word of God, the revelation of His will, to be believed and studied and obeyed."
 This excerpt seems to indicate the posi- tion taken by the members of the council, as the address received the cordial ap- proval of the members.
 hs fvsnss ss ses ion
 At o'clock this afternoon the first busi-
 
 showed 164 delegates present from all parts Of the world. Two members in whom their associates have particular interest are Dr. James Stewart, of Lovedale South Africa, and H. s. Bosnian, of Pretoria. The former is strongly pro-British in his sympathies in the present crisis in the Transvaal, while the latter just as strongly uphods the Boers Dr. Stewart was a personal friends of Dr. Livingston, the fa- nous African explorer. The feature of the afternoon session was the address of the president of the council, the Rev. pr. Lang, pastor of the famous Barony church, of Glasgow, Scotland.
 Rev. Dr. Lang Speaks Referring to the position of the church | until the "higher criticism" Dr. Lang said: | '"rhe churches which this council repre- sents will command the attention of the | age only in the measure which, without lowering either their testimony their | ideals, they recognize and make room for | it's trends and habit of thought and its l expansions and complexities of life. We are not worshippers of the past. But if 1t | is false liberalism which ruthlessly tears | the present from the past, it is an equally l false conservatism which insists that the | moulds into which the conclusions of a bygone period were cast shall remain fixed | and rigid for all further periods. Tn Christian theology there is the word l which enduerth forever Christendom eastern and western, Greek, Latin and re- l formed, stands on the great verities de- | clared in the New Testament and embodied | in the apostles and Nicene creeds These | verites are the context of the faith, only | for all delivered to the saints and in the | end of the nineteenth century, as in the | end of the first, the church faces the world | with the protest: If any man preach any | ether gospel unto you than that ye have | received let him be anathemat tized.' But | urhi the Is today and forever, the circumference is | ever extending. Let there be growth to the greatest ex- | tent but not change of the faith. Should Not Part With Historical ( on tinuities | 'We all wish to progress, but we don't | wish to rush down steep planes into con fusions in which the integrity of the faith |