The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-02-24

Rev Dr. Henry c. Minton,' of San
Francisco, moderator of the Presby-
terian general assembly, and conse-
quently one of the most widely known
Protestant clergymen in the United
states, was in this city yesterday, and
addressed three large congregations in
as many churches on the twentieth
century movement in the Presbyterian
church.
DR.. Minton is a comparatively young
man. being considerably this side OF
fifty, but he occupies a position which
is the highest honor in the gift of his
denomination. He is professor of the
ology in the San Francisco Theological
seminary and the chairman of the COM
mittee on the revision of the Presby-
terian creed. Eloquent and forceful
preacher that he is, he made a deep i'm
preston on the congregations which
heard him speak yesterday.
In the morning he spoke in the First
Presbyterian church. At 4 o'clock in
the afternoon he addressed a gathering
in the Providence Presbyterian church,
while last night he spoke in the Green
Ridge Presbyterian church. His night
sermon was, in part, as follows
century, the Presbyterian church played
no unimportant part The Presbyterian
church occupies her own peculiar niche
in the sisterhood of churches and is
destined to do a particular kind of
work, a work which would remain
largely undone were she suddenly wiped
out of existence. The Presbyterian
church has her own vital truth to stand
f.,ns. tt,.l l.,
eth century let us consider for little
the Christian tasks which lie before
her.
CLOSER UNITY IN CHURCH LIFE.
Il propose to consider this question
in a threefold way and / desire to speak
first upon assimilation, the necessity of
closer unity in our church life. The
Presbyterian church is becoming a
great church. Some churches measure
their greatness by counting, but we
Presbyterians always measure ours by
weighing. And still we are large in
numbers, with over $4,000 members.
There are many ties that bind us
together as IL church, and perhaps the
greatest is the tie of doctrine. The
great truths for which the PRESBYTERIAN
into an organic unity, no matter how
vastly divergent may be their ancestry
their education or their social position
in the community. The doctrine of the
Presbyterian church doesn't change
every two or three years. She doesn t
hunt after new things, but is loyal to
the truth as she understands the truth.
She occupies Il safe middle ground be-
tween Roman Catholicism on the one
hand and Unitarianism on the other:
between Roman Catholicism eXalting
the Pope of Rome as Christ's vicar on
earth, placing him equal in authority
to the Bible and Unitarianism denying
the Bible to be the inspired word of
God.
standing between these. two eX-
tremes Presbyteriansm places her
hand upon the Bible and declares it
to be the great and only guide for
mans life here below. The fundamen-
tai note of Presbyterian doctrine is
the idea of God as a Sovereign Being.
sovereign not alone in power. but SOW
creiSn in wisdom, sovereign in love
and sovereign in mercy Presbyterian
ism writes God over all history; writes
God over the skies, writes God over
time. On this fundamental fact of an
all-sovereisn God the Presbyterian
church is built.
"Another bond that binds the church
together is the bond of church govern