New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-05-22
DR.. MOFFAT breaches.
Negro Union 5cith United Presby-
teliGns Before General assembly.

lBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.l
Winona Lake, Ind. May 21.-As to-day is the
4O0th anniversary of the birth Of John Knox the
General Assembly celebrated the day by having
its moderator, the son of Scotch parents, preach
sermon on Lessons from the Life Of John
Knox" DR.. Moffat mentioned four contribu-
tons which the great Scotch reformer had made
to the progress of the kingdom of God: First,
a creed: second, forms OF worship; third. a form
Of government, and fourth. system of public
popular education.
At the command Of Parliament, Dr. Moffat
said, Knox formed a creed. polemc in its char
acter. for the sixteenth century in Scotland was
the day of battle. The Lord God was a man Of
at that time he said. and preachers could
not enter the pulpit wearing kid gloves; a
Luther could accomplish more than a Meianc-
thon. John Knox more than a John Calvin;
later, Melancthon and Calvin were needed, but
not just then. In his creed Knox expressed the
adherence of the vice then prevalent in Scot
land. The creed was adapted to the pulpit, not
to the study and it answered its purpose for a
century before the Westminster Confession was
framed. Turning from the past to the present.
DR.. Moffat said:
Sometimes we hear now demand for a brief
creed. one which we use in our evangelistio
campaigns which distribute TO the
people, one which will be really a popular creed
Well, let US have it. But have not 1t already
in our own brief statement? What feeling ami
mated the General Assembly, which ordered It's
preparation and adopted it, except the one which
animated Knox when he issued his creed for
the people?
"One which could be used in the pulpit and
given to the people" does not mean that we are
to abandon the creed which we already have
We have the larger, philosophical statement In
our Westminster Confession, and the world will
need it for its theological seminaries and for the
study of its scholars. but in all the ages the
great creed makers have felt the need of two
classes of creed. one the philosophical and the
other the simpler and more evangelical state
ment. The Westminster Assembly felt that need
and prepared the larger and shorter catechisms
for the use of the people. We have felt that
need in these days and have prepared the brief
statement.
DR.. Mofat expressed the hope that the Pres
byterian Church would make effort TO
unite with the United Presbyterian Church,
which has brought down from Knox's time tho
singing of the Psalms.
In the afternoon Dr. Moffat spoke again at
the daily board and began his address by say
ing that Presbyterians had never believed IN
backsliding, but they had practised it. He ex-
planned this startling paragraph by showing
that the Presbyterians had had hand in found
ing harvard; that PresbyterianS in Connecticut
| had helped in founding Yale; that others had
founded Princeton, William and Mary in Viz
ginia, Dickinson and the academies which a
few years later became Washington and Jeffer-
son colleges in Pennsylvania all in the eight
zenith century Then, having made this strong
record for that century, they had a period Of
packsHdlng in the nineteenth century
Dickinson College starved TO death and
It's doors closed. TO be opened by Methodist peo-
pie: princeton was allowed to reach it's Centen-
NAL with only few professors In it's faculty,
while Washington and Jefferson colleges, one
founded in 1902 and the other four years later.
became rivals in poverty. while the Presbyte-
rians stood watching the struggle. Now that
the combined institution has sent forth from its
alumni 1850 ministers, the Presbyterians re-
Jolce IN its prosperity and share its glory.
John H. Converse. of Philadelphia and Dr.
James S Dickson. the new secretary of the col
| Iege board followed DR.. Mofat in encouraging
addresses.