The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-11-02

requested that my name be dropped
from the presbytery's list of licentiates.
The request was granted in the spirit
lin which it was made-one Of perfect
goodwill and sincere regret. It seems,
therefore, a fitting time to contribute
Ito The Messenger the article that I
promised some time ago, and to correct
two or three Misrepresentation that
II have hitherto allowed to go unno
lticed.
To have published this article before
now would have put a needless strain
on the relations between Orange pres
lbytery and myself, inasmuch as I may
lexpress in it views diverging more or
less from those that ministers in the
ISouthern Presbyterian church are sup
posed to hold.
The Misrepresentation referred to
above appeared in an. article which
came out some time ago in The Char
Ilotte Observer. 1 wish to say a few
words concerning these, while of one
of the statements in that article 1 de-
sire to speak somewhat at length.
% 1.-THE present agitation in the
Presbyterian church, north, and which
SO far has infected only one minister
Iof the Southern church. is of such a
nature as to lead the public to think
the matter more serious than it really
lis"
1t appears from wha follows that
the author of this article has me in
mind as the one infected minister
lof the Southern church. 1t is a matter
Iof no Importance, to be sure, except as
the statement illustrates the disregard
Iof fact that characterizes almost the
Ientire article. Before the first note Of
this agitation had been sounded, GER
ltainly before it had come to my ears,
Il had not only decided not to apply
for ordination in the Southern church,
but a made known my decision to
friends in North Carolina and in Little
Rock.
(2) I'VE learn, with some regret,
that Rev. Hay Watson Smith, a young
minister of the Southern church, has
declared his intention of going into
the Congregational church in order to
make a protest against the Confession
|of Faith"
The writer's authority. for this state
ment was, I suppose, the following
Associated Press dispatch:
Little Rock, Ark.-Rev. Hay Wat
son Smith, lately called from Green's
|boro, N. c., to the pastorate of the
Second Presbyterian church here, an
|nounces his withdrawal from the Pres
Ibyterian ministry, as a protest against
the Westminster Confession of Faith.
He will probably poin the Congrega-
ItionaliSts."
This dispatch was fabricated by a
sensational reporter in Little Rock,
was wholly unauthorized by me, and
lis, except in the last sentence, a COM
ln1Qfa fo1Cifoafinn of INV nnCitinn IF T
had made protest against the Confess
sion of Faith, or intended ever to max
such protest, / would not have contin-
lued supplying the pulpit of a Presby-
lterian church.; nor is it at all likely
that the session of such a church would
have requested me to do SO.
If the writer's statement, thai I had
declared an intention of going into
the Congregational church in order to
make a protest against the Confession
Iof Faith" is his reproduction of the
dispatch quoted above, it is evidence
that he sometimes mistakes his imagi-
nation for his memory.
There is not a minister in the South
lern church who is more DESTROYS than
1 of seeing every atom of living truth
in the Westminster .Standars preserved,
and made potent in the life of the
lchurch. 1t is impossible, however, for
to believe, as does an able minister
IlO WIOIu Il Nave TedSOn W nc very
grateful, that we may dismiss the
thought that there is anything the
matter with the Confession which is
mot also the matter with the Bible"
If this be true, then one must believe
leither that the Confession of Faith is
unique and final, differing in kind from
Jail other human productions; or else
that there is something the matter
with the Bible, of a kind hat reduces
lit to the level of an uninSpired docu-
lment.
60 The next quotation from the
Iwriter in The Observer, and especially
his subsequent remarks, have occa-'
STONED some controversy; n l may
SAY that to express myself fully on
1.-THE question involved in this quotation
lis the chief aso why 1 have pre-
lpared this article.
Zone of the most intelligent hearers
lin Mr.. Smiths present charge, a stu
dent of affairs ecclesiastical, stated a
few days ago, that MI. Smith at a re-
lcent Sunday morning service declared
from the pulpit that it was his belief
THAT a man could be a sincere Christian
land not believe in the divinity Of
Christ"
One might imagine after reading this
sentence, that / had gone into the pulpit
that morning for the express purpose
lof delivering myself of this opinion.
II ASeNS a LdhoC -
sion, both from what it says, and from
what it leaves unsaid. Two things in
connection with my Sunday mornings
statement seem to AVE escaped the
notice of the student of ecclesiastical
affairs as we'll as of his ecclesiastical
reporter:
First, this statement of mine was
predatory to the strongest sermon on
the divinity of Christ that I know how
Ito preach; a sermon that a " salts
faction, apparently at least, to all who
heard it, elders ard ieacons included,
Except the intelligent nearer ond eccle-
lsiastical watchdog. He saw in my
remark the opportunity of his life. and
began to gap before he was well out
Iof the church. Every one knew that
ibis real motive was not solicitude for
what he pompously called ''the apos-
Itolic doctrine" and treated his per-
lformance accordingly.
Secondly, the purpose of my remark
twas to caution those who should hear
me h a morning against s~upposing
that assent to theological dogma is
AMY sure indication Of a Christ-like
life. ] quoted James: Thor beliey-