New-York tribune., 1900-02-23
New-York, Feb. II, 1900.
DIR. SAVAGE AND CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
AN INQUIRY FOR THE EVIDENCE ON WHICH HE
BASES CHARGES OF ERROR
To the Editor of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune
Sir: Upon reading in this mornings issue Of The
Tribune the conspcuously placed report of the Rev
DIR. Savage's sermon on The Kind of Salvation the
World Needs am irresistiby reminded of the case
of "the eleven obstinate jurors" He states that;
The The J., belief that God came d9wn and was nqaTi car
TO is philosophical speculation first taking
shape in the Nicene Creed The Church fathers did
that many of them did not: there is no reason to
suppose that the Apostles themselves believed it.
Paul certainly did not.
wish call attention simply to the strange fact
that for eighteen and centuries the vast ma
jorty of Christians have obstinately insisted that
the Church fathers" the Apostles and Paul
did both believe and teach precisely these things
as of the very essence of revealed truth and his
toric actuality. and that long before the Nicene
Greed finally formulated the normal stand
ard Of the faith of Christianity each one of them
is to be found clearly forth by the fathers as
the teachings and truth of the Scriptures the Apos
Tics and Of our Lord. And even IN this age of en-
Hshtenment the same relative preponderance of
Ignorance. pride and prejudice persists among
the professed followers of Christ
OF course one rather wearies in thrashng over
the straws of controversy as to the great subject
OF Christology But even So if DR.. Savage, who is
perfectly conversant with the massive debate of
the Christian ages, has found out that we who
so obstinate in our convictions altogether astray
IN our verdict, he owes it to the of truth
and justice TO put us the track of the informa-
ton which has led him to believe that the fathers
and St Paul and the other Apostles never held nor
LtauSht the supposed truths on which the Nicene
Greed is based. have always been taught that the
very name Church fathers in contradstinction
nereucs; was given only TO those early writers
the faith L have also thought that whoever wrote
the Episte attributed to ST. Peter believed that he
meant Wnat he said when he wrote: Christ also
hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust
that he might bring to God, being put to death
in the fesh but quickened by the Spirit; by which
also He went and preached to the spirits in prison.
:. for which the Gospel preached TO
the dead" etc. And even if this writer be not St
Peter. he certainly must have supposed that he was
writing the truth as he thought st. Peter had con-
Sistently taught.
suppose even to-day | am justified in acceDting
ST PauPs statement that in Christ "dwelIeth ali
the fulness Of the Godhead bodily" and that is
r6asondbly absolute evidence that he believed that
1nr1st was in fact the incarnation of the Godhead
All the fulness" is extremely exhaustive state
Inent III words mean anything that statement
aEes no room for only OF the attributes of the
been full and perfect incarnation of God. That
ST Paul likewise teaches the humiliation and suffer-
ing and death of Christ, well his literal resur-
rectlon from the dead the ground of salvation
because he distinctly afirms these facts in a num-
Der or places. But now it seems that all along I
nave been reading some other than the real teach
lgS or the fathers some other opinions than those
or St Peter and st. Paul, and that DIR. Savage is
IN possession of remarkable discoveries which
VIII JUSTIFY his public announcement that all this
Willingly FALLEN has other basis than a meta
physleal statement of later age of philosophy.
Perhaps, however, ii is DR.. Savage whose verdict
Is against the evidence, and that of the eleven
obstinate jurors" On the whole it might he GOOD
common sense to wait until we have a fair chance
10 examine the unknown evidence in the doctors
decision. w NJ IJTSC. IIr re, t5"l
Morristown, n. j., Feb. 49, 1900 --4N