The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1906-11-13
ACCOUNTS SOLICITED, CORRESPONDENCE CONSULTATION INVITED
REV. DR.. CARRIERS DEFENCE.
Declares the True God Is Not That
of the Confession.

of the Confession.
The Rev. DR.. Samuel 7. Carter, a
retired clergyman of the Presbyterian
Church, who has been a year in Eu-
rope recuperating with his family, re-
turned Saturday aboard the Cunarder
Carmania. He vigorously attacked
the Westminster confession while in
active service, but the Presbytery of
Nassau, with which he was then con-
nected, took no action against him.
He said Saturday night:
spoke my conviction that the
God of the Confession is an idol like
any other, and that the Assembly is
false to its highest duty of being
true witness for God to men so long as
she retains the Confession. The AS
sembly dropped the letter into the
pocket of a committee and there it
still remains. leave it to the judg-
ment Of the people whether that was
honest and manly.
Ii the Church is enamored of her
creed | cannot help it, but high duty
remains TO make clear and very clear
to vast company Of people who fear
that religion is the sad thing the
Confession makes it to be, and that
God is the hard and severe Being the
Confession sets Him forth TO be-to
make clear, If possible, to these that
God is a great deal better than we
have ever conceived, that religion S
much more beautiful and delightful
than we have eyer known.
| 1t seems to me there can hardly be
too radical a change from the view Of
the character of God given in the
! Westminster Confession. / believe
mothers love in its most exquisite
touch is GOODNESS compared with the
love Of God lovers love in its fullest
abandon and rapture is distance and
alienation compared with the love Of
God.
The Westminster Confession God
and the New Testament God are the
whole heavens apart. The old theolo-
gy would be news, indeed, to the Lord
Jesus, and the Westminster Confess
sion is to Him an alter with the in
scription To the unknown Cod
believe the love of God, rightly
received, would make final end Of
the sad preSSimism that we see In life
and literature. III such sun shines
above us, every cloud must go at last.
A proper sense of the love of God
would mOke life most sweet and de-
sirable would make every common
relation of life, parentage and child
hood, birth, marriage and death,
youth, manhood and old age, a great
gift OF God full of all brightness and
blessing.
9" We have been long engaged in
modifying and diminishing our pun
| iShmentS with only the most happy
results; the theologians might credit
4 the good Lord with fully understand
| ing this. He would greatly appre-
ciate it. 1t would be intolerably grie-
Gus to spend eternity praising ard
blessing God who was tOrturing for
ever millions Of our brothers and sis
tiers.
The doctrine is to me axiomatical-
i ly impossible. could more easily be-
| lieve that the whole is not equal to
the sum OF its parts, that things that
4 are equal to the same thing are not
4 equal to each other, that straight
lile Is the greatest distance between
Two points, than that the God who is
love will torment forever His erring
children. 1t is a moral impossibili6y
most absolute.
"A world Of intelligent men has W.
terly rejected the idea of endless tor
m mt. Why should not the Church
free itself from the shame of perpet-
uating this remOrSeleSS crueltyY The
dogma of endless torment is an old
rotten derelict that has rolled on the
ocean of time far too long, leaving a
track of disaster and death behind it.
The Church owes 1t to itself to dyna-
mite this miserable hulk and sink il
out of sight forever.
"These views have been Of slow
growth with me, but have become as
my very life. Let no man object to
my prOclaiming them. Believing
them as | do, should be the most
contempitable coward ii did not pro-
claim them, and as long as life
lasts and my reason remains, my voice,
however feeble, shall be lifted against
the horrors of the old theology and fol
the infinite love of God IN. Y, Sun,