The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-04-16
He Would Send 1t to n Museum, for
He Does Not Believe Ii Can Be
Acceptably Amended.
NEW SIMPLE CREED NEEDED
BRIEF STATEMENT In PLAIN ANGLO
SAXON WOULD SUIT HIM.
Alleged Incongruities of the Third
Chapter of the Present Con-
fessiOn Pointed Out.

NEW YORK, April 15.-Rev. DR.. Charles
II. Parkhurst, speaking in his pulpit In
Madison-square Presbyterian Church, to-
day, made a vigorous assault on the West
minister Confession of Faith He said:
"We ought TO have new confession of
faith. 1t is surprising that the Presby-
terian Church is able to do as much as 1t
is doing with such an incubus strapped
upon us as we are tottering under in our
present confession. In the first place. the
thing needed Is not system of theology,
for that is what our present confession Is.
but a simple, BRIEF Saxon statement of a
half dozen or so of the vital ingredients of
Jesus Christ's message to the world. 1
could get along with confession of faith
containing but the little that Jesus said
when He was trying to make Christian
of Nicodemus:
"'God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whosoever be-
lieveth in Him should not perish but have
eternal life.'
"That gives to us the doctrine of God g
unlimited love, human guilt the divinity of
Christ, salvation through Christ. faith in
Christ, Immortality; every word Saxon,
three-quarters of the words monosyllables;
enough for any four-year-old.
eat any rate, we want a new creed.
Amending this one will not meet the ne
cessities Of the case. Better give it digni-
fed place in the museum for what it is,
than hack it to pieces and revamp it for
what 1t is net. And then, once more, If
there were among us the distinct feeling
which the gospel so wonderfully guaran-
Christian matter pivots on the absolute
and unconditional love of God. We should
be intolerant toward everything that states
or even suggests a partial or an arbitrary
love on Gods part-loving some because
He chose to. and damning the rest in order
to show what He could do and how just He
was.
Now, that is our book, the Presbyterian
Confession of Faith. in the third chapter.
If we are thorough Presbyterians and be-
lieve what our doctrinal prospectus adver-
tises US as believing. we believe 1T prob
able that some of the children in your
homes little children, perhaps the babe of
your bosom, is damned, already damned,
damned before it was born, damned from
everlasting to everlasting, and then you
are invited to come into church and say,
Our Father Why any man who should
become a father for the sake of joy and
| glory he would use in burning and rack
| ing his own offspring, deliberately creating
child with view to the agony into
which he was going to torture. would be
chased from the earth as a fiend and as an
| ebullition. 1t does not meet the case to
| say that 1T is only in the book and that
| nobody breaches 1t. 1t is true that nobody
breaches 1t, and equally true. doubt not
that nobody believes it. Nevertheless it is
printed on the flag beneath which the
Presbyterian army is marching. and ii
hurts us as denomination. Men are stay
| ing out because it is there, and men are
| going out because 1T is there"