The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-07-11
INFIDELS AS MINISTERS.

INFIDELs AS MINISTERS.
Certainly IL seems queer that an in
fidcl could be ordained as Presby
teriau minister, and yet, according 10
the telcgraphlc dispatches, that is pre-.
cisely what has occurred George As
moro Fitch, one of three graduates OF
the Union Theological seminary of New
! York, a Presbyterian educational insti.
tuition, lIkc.mindcd with himself, in Il
recent examination for the ministry and
for his ordination expressed disbelief
in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, in
tho historical identity Of Adam and
Eve, in tho raising of Lazarus from the
dead, and in the resurrection Of the
body of the Savior of Mankind And
yet by a vote of ten 10 seven, the New
York Presbytery decided to ordaiu him
a minister, and serd him as missionary
to China.
The years are not so many in the
past when Il man processing such dis.
belief as this would have been counted
n rank infidel, and denied fellowship
in any orthodox church. And of all the
churches, the Presbyterian church was
in those years not long gone by, sup
posed 10 he the most rigid in the re.
quircments of faith and submission TO
doctrine And yet the bars are down.
so that even the ministers now arc not
required to believe in what was once
70 hn %bp rurJiTNa1
and facts Of Christianity. Along with
the disbelicfs so distinctly pronounced,
! it is likely that the Rev. George AS.
more Fitch, who was ordained as a
| PRESBYTERIAN minister by a vote of ten
to seven, would deny also the other
miracles as recorded in the New Testa-
ment, the feeding of the multitude, Ger.
tain Of the healings, the possession by
the afflicted of devils and the casting
out Of those devils, the entrance of the
devils into herd of swine, and, in gen
craI, pretty much of all the miracles
that are recorded 1t is not easy TO see
the binding authority of the Scriptures
upon persons who profess disbebefs so
wide so extensive, and so radical as
these.
BY reason OF the critical investiga-
tion of the history and canons of the
Scriptures. n number Of the ministers
of the Church of England arrived at
some verv radical conclusions quite
number of years ago. and they rejected
the writings along very much the
same lines as they are rejected by this
new Presbyterian minister. First
Bishop Colenso, then Canon Hansen,
Canon Cheyne, DR.. Driver, and others
of the Church of England, have been
conspicuous in radical criticism Of the
Scripture canons; so much so that
GOOD many wondered that they could
retain their ecclesiastical standing and
positions in the church. But so TAR
from those reicctions Of accepted au"
tborjty telling against those distin-
guishcd ecclcsiasts, they not only hold
their own, but they bring their new
light to the students OF other denoml-
nations as well. and the same conclu-
sions are reached by them. 1t is surely
n transition in religious thought, senti-
ment, TO see the rejection of what of
old was supposed to be essential, but
is now considered rs non essential and
is rejected as not only unhistorical. but
and unnecessary.
In religious thought it appears, there
fore. that "thc world do move and
religion is throwing of traditionallsm
ot
a rate that must be quite alarming. and
that is shocking to the old school minis
tiers, as was so evident in the Baptist
in Chicago recently, where
Dr. Foster, who is another of the ad-
vanced school of thcologians, was dis
for his heresies, but
could not be deposed as a teacher in
the great Baptist school, where he holds
his position Independent Of the conven
tion that censurcd him, The fact Of it
is that there is so much Of the old that
was mere myth and tradition, and that
has not stood the critical investigation
which modern science and modern |
thought insists upon applying, that the |
revolution has not only been thorough |
in the minds of the best equipped stu.
dents, but is becoming general and must
prevail throughout all the denomina.
tions. The Scriptures are not lost to
The churches, but they are subjected
to the sitting of reason and Of intelli-
gent, trained investigation. The droes
is purged out and the spirit. that which