The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-05-26
EFFORT TO REFORM
AN ANCIENT CREED
Southern PreSbyterianS Take
Steps Toward Revision of
Confession of Faith.
ALL INFANTS ARE SAVED
AMENDMENT SUBMITTED TO
PRESBYTERIES FOR ACTION.

AeWlSDurS, w. fa.s May -"
prohibitionists won a decided victory
when the general assembly today ap-
proved the report of the commission
that investigated the complaint OF
Rev. w. I Sinnott against the north
presbytery of Alabama for sanction
ing the recently proposed prohibition
amendment to the Alabama constitu-
ton. The committee did not sustain
the complaint, and censured Rev. Mr..
Sinnott
The committee found that Rev. Mr..
Sinnott had been represented in the
daily press of Alabama during polit-
ical campaign as an opponent of pro-
hibition, and that the presbytery, be-
lieving it was greatly prejudiced
thereby. made an announcement IA
yoring the prohibition amendment.
The Judgment Of the majority reads:
seYour committee in voting not to
sustain. did not mean to recede from
or COMPROMISE the principle of non
intrusion into civil affairs or affairs
which concern the commonwealth,
but to leave the courts free as TO the
mode of dealing with glganuc
moral evil which mode in this case
was the urging of our people IN Ala
bama to vote for constitutional pro-
hibiIiOn.
Used Legitimate Means.
'aThe presbytery Of north Alabama
did not originate or advise the state
to adopt this mode, but in accordance
with the oft-repeated instruction or
our. general assembly to use all leSitl-
mate means to Danish the liquor traf-
fc, after the state had provided this
means, urged it upon its constituency
expressly on moral and political
grounds"
The commission condemned the ''ac-
ton, language and spirit Of the com
plant as highly unbecoming IN
minister of the gospel"
The minority disapprOved the posi-
ton taken by the complainant but
held that the presbytery should have
been content merely to disavow his
views.
After standing for two centuries
and a half rs a doctrine of the church,
the "eIect infant clause of the con-
fession OF faith came up for revision
today in the general assembly here.
The church is divided into several
parties on the question, and the fight
for and against it has been waged for
years.
ELECT Infants"
The question arose from the COM
rnent being made that if ''elect in
fants" are saved, there must be some
infants that are not ''elect." How to
say, in churchly language, that the
church holds that all inanfts are
elect is the problem.
At the last assembly an ad interim
committee, headed by DR.. A. NJ Fra
ser, was appointed to propose to this
assembly a proper wording of the pro-
posed amendment It was this report
that was set for action today.
Those who favor action by the
church on the subject are subdivided
into two classes. One would tack a.
footnote TO the confessional; the other
advocates boldly changing the word
ing of the elect infant clause itself.
Report of Committee.
The ad interim committee reported
its first recommendation as a foot
note reading: This paragraph (the
elect infant clause cannot, by a -ir
Interpretation Of the language, be con-
strued as teaching that any of those
who die in infancy are lost, and it is
not the belief OF the Presbyterian
church in the United States that any
lnfants dying in infancy are lost"
As a second choice, the committee
recommended that the present clause
be superseded by the following:
IF those whom God hath given to
the Lord Jesus to be His seed, such as
are incapable of being outwardly
called by the ministry of the word,
are regenerated and saved by Christ
through the spirit who worketh when
and where and how he pleaseth-"
This was drawn to protect the doc
trine of election, to avoid implying
that any dying infants are lost, and TO
preserve the theoretical style Of the
confession.
The report of the committee gave
rise to a short, sharp debate. A mo-
ton to send the proposed footnote to
the presbyteries for their approval
was voted down overwhelmingly, and
the assembly then voted without di-
vision TO send down the amendment
embodied in the committees second
recOmne ndation.