The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-09-03

,eehism has been prepared. But be-
cause the Baptist holds dear 10 his
heart immersion, that In no way inter-
feres with his accepting the Evangeli-
cal catechLsm, Is It right 10 ask him to
throw AWAY his belief In Immersion. II
he couscientiousiy believes in It and II
TO him the word Of God seems to war;
rant 1T? Just so with Presbyterians.
What right has anyone TO ask me to
throw away my belief in .-.the persever-,
ance OF the saints or ..foreordlna-
ton" when I know that Gods word
teaches them? Presbyterianism stands
for conviction as to truth and duty, To.
abandon its standards for any brief
statement OF things In common with
NIL other denominations would be to
deny the reason for Its UNCONVENTIONAL
existence. II would be to form sort
or religious trust In which mems reiig-
ious convictions would be swallowed up
In the whirlpool Of union. .E
Lords Prayer a Creed.
Numerous other creeds have been
suggested. One prssbytery proposed
that the Lords prayer be the only
creed. My. answers is that the Lords
prayerijs 4 prayer and there Is no EVIL
dencs that our Lord ever intended 1t
to be creed or system of doctrine
K a prominent New Yorker advocates;
that the text, God so loved the world
that he gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoeverl believes In Him should
not perish but have everlasting life,"' Is
sufficient. Another soberly afIlrms that
"our one confession be the fatherhoodi
of God and the brotherhood OF man..
These suggestions are samples OF your
Short creed. !" new creed 4 movement.
The GIohammedan.g the Mormon. be-
lieves in the "fatherhood OF Il God and
the brotherhood of man" about as much
as We Christians DO therefore they
could subscribe to. such n creed and be-
received Into the church. There is such
4 thing OF minimizing what a church
stands for. until It stands for nothing
and at the same time everything. The
staunch old Presbyterian church.
which has stood like rock for Its sys-.
tenn Of truth will not be guilty of this
minimizing foolishness. Every sensible
man knows that the object OF formulate,
ing creed is to reduce to concise.
systematic form the cardinal truths
taught in the Word OF God; not one
truth or two truths, but ALL of the
cardinal truths OF the Bible. That is
just what our confession OF faith is.
Three Parties in the Church.
Now with reference to the revision OF
the Westminster confession J. there
seems to be three parties in the church..
First, Those who desire no change. Sec
ond.s Those who desire moderate revis-
ion. Third, Those who want a new
creed.
For my part, l shall cast my lot with
those who favor moderate revision. Be-
cause some people want too much re-
vision Is that any reason why we
should not work for come modest and
reasonable changes? II some go to one
extreme, that Is no reason why we
should fly to the other extreme and OPP
pose all revision. There Is IN the
church 4 strong desire for some revis-
ion, but, believe, within CalvinistIc
lines. What we want IS the elimina-
ton of some unfortunate phrases and
a fuller statement OF some gracious
doctrines. To this end am inrfavor OF
resuhmitt!rg TO the presbyteries the %
overtures which. We're submitted In
1892. but which failed TO receive the en-
dorsement o. two-thlrds OF the presby..
terics. which was necessary for their
adoption. Had not unfortunate COM
pl!c1tions arisen in 1882 this question
would have baen settled ut that time
~ majority, approximating rwo-thisds
OF the presbyteries, voted In favor of Is
out Of the IS changes recommended. Let
this he the maximum Of revision. This
would be moderate revision. And It
would be beginning where we left off.
! feel sure that the attempt to secure
anything more than moderate revision
will only be waste OF time. 1t will
be out OF the question for me to discuss
these % overtures in this discourse, but
i hive carefully studied them with the
old confession OF faith in hand. and
am in favor OF the revision advocated
by them.
In addition TO this am In favor Of
short creed watch shall be in perfect
harmony With the confession so re-
Vlsed, to be used for devotional reading
in our churches, and for evangeiIstic
use. and for the reception OF members
into the church. Let the revised con-
fession together with the catechisms
still be the standards for Office bearers.
Let the new short creed be for devo-
tlonal and other purposes named above,
for all the people, both officers and
members of the church.
BELMONT TRADES ASSEMBLY,