The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-25

 kirk, and even their traditional obstinacy may come from the hard doctrines of their faith. McCauly attributes the rap idity with which a Scotch boy rises from a menial position to one of importance to their Calvinstlc training. Let the life and work of John Knox stand for what Calvinism will produce.
 In America.
 "It would be strange if Calvinism had not played a large part in American his- tory. Our earliest immigrants were large ly of that faith. The Puritans landed on New England's rock bound coast: the Huguenots peopled the South Atlantic and the valleys of New York; the Dutch settled on Manhattan island, the Hudson and later in Pennsylvania New Jersey was wholly Presbyterian; the Scotch and Scotch-1rish were in all the middle states. These were all Calvinists and nearly all Presbyterlans. Says Joseph Cook: When New England was in griste she fed on what? On the Westminster Confession of Faith, which, in spite of it's defects, scared according to Dean Stanley to heights further aloft and struck down to depths nearer the centers of religious thought than has ever been reached by any other English symbol of religious ldlln. AneIltdn llDtTlN ONtS ilS t<A-
 stence to Presbyterianism.
 "To Presbyterians is due the first Decla- ration of Independence. This was solemn ly promulgated in MeclSlenburg. N. C., in May, 1875, over year before the one that Thomas Jefferson wrote. by convention of which one third were Presbyterian el- ders and nearly all were members Of that faith. Adam Brevard, author of the Plan of Government. adopted near the same Sta Iat vsaS wholly 1r1 from the Westminster deliveranecs. George Bancroft says "the first voice raised in America to destroy all conpee- tions with Great Britain came not from the Puritans of New England, nor the Dutch of New York. nor the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-lrtsn Presbyterians. At the close of the revolu- tion came a necessity for a more intimate connection between the colonies. Preshy- teriauism was again of service In the constitutional convention were nine grad uates of Princeton, it's president. pr. John Witherspoon and other Presbyterians.
 Presbyterianism Today.
 "A word about the Presbyterians of to- day. Ours is a liberal church. bitterly ac- cused of intolerance and bigotry, the ac- cusation is most unjust. No church so explicitly as ours recognizes in formal phrase the existence of other Christian bodies, home has a simpler test of menl- hership. The requisite for enterance into heaven admits to the Presbyterian church. belief in the Lord Jesus Christ
 'We believe in an educated ministry, an intelligent people To be a thorough Presbyterian. one must be an intelligent man" said Dr. Leyburn. We boast or our common schools. John Calvin was the father of popular education, the inventor of free schools, wrote Bancroft.
 'Presbyterians have ever pleaded for q Christian Sabbath. The Westminster as- sembly was the first great synod to issue deliverance upon Sunday observance, and l submit that when the old fashioned Pres byterian Sunday dinner it is preferable to the Sabbath dissertation. the unrest and anarchy that the continental Sunday brings
 "Presbyterianism has ever held to the faith once delivered to the saints. The assaults of infidels have been the hardest upon the point in the Christian battle line where our church stands guard. The attacks of higher criticism. of agnosti- cism of so called liberality. have wrecked other creeds and crippled other churches but Presbyterianism despite foes without, and false friends within, has stood firm as the eternal hills. from whence cometh our help. and today Presbyterians num- Der nearly half of the Protestant world.
 'I must sayaa few words about the pos slble changes that may be demanded Tn the letter of the standards. It Is dlfhcult to resist the feeling that there was in PauTs mind the contrast between the rigid fxity of the letter on the one hand and the plastic spontaneity of the spirit of the other, Litira scripta manet, me written word does not change, but ilVlhg organism is constantly adjusting itself to new conditions and changing to suit them We have the fixed and variable, law and changing life lhe history of the world, of society of reiig- ious opinion, is to large extent the his tory of these two factors in their relation to each other. The legal code becomes too narrow to suit the exigencies of an expanding life, and it changes in fact, but not in form. The needed work IS done, but the forms of law are saved by legal fiction. Ubi jus ibi remendium; but there is no remedy at common law and equity finds one through the edict or the praetor or the decisions of the chan collor We have a written constitution as the basis of government, and the powers of the coordinate branches of govern ment are defined. But time developes the old conflict between the unyielding letter and the living organism with the odds in favor of the organism. We formulate our faith in creed statements and after century or two find that the church and the creed are not in exact accord. It is the old question of the letter and the spirit. There is nothing to wonder at The letter has controlled the life. It has given the law to it's variations. Politi- cal development in this land will follow the lines of the constitution. The theo- logical development will follow the lines of the creed that controls it.
 "The Christian consciousness can no more change the meaning of a Greek word than it can upset the multiplication table. When men say that the old con ception of a sovereign God does not suit our republican ideas, they only bas- pheme. The spirit of Calvanism has pro- duced it's effects the eXigencies of the times may change it's letter, but the spirit abldeth ever. When Jeffreys watched to see what the clergy of Scot land would do in the days of his estab- lishment, he said to a friend They will not leave the established church, their living Is there. their homes are there, it is a question of life but there was also a principle there, and headed by Thomas Chalmers they marched out leaving all behind, Lord Jeffrey threw his hat in the air and exclaimed I am proud of my countrvmen The spirit Of CaIviuisrn