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Published monthly by THE PRESBYTERIAN AND OCTOBER, 1934 $1.00 A YEAR EVERYWHERE REFORMED PUBLISHING CO •• Inc. Entered a s second-class mailer May t 1. Vol. 5 No. 5 1931. a t the Post Office at Philadelphia . Pa. • 501 Witherspoon Bldg. • Phila .• Pa. under the Act of March 3. 1879.

Editorial Notes and Comments "THE REFORMED FAITH IN THE MODERN WORLD" ROFESSOR FLOYD E. HAMILTON, of Union Christian THE MINUTES OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ~ College, Pyengyang, Korea, to whom we are indebted -.-;;~g HE Minutes of the 1934 General Assembly have the ex­ for two such excellent books as "The Basis of Christian cellencies of their immediate predecessors-but also their m,. Faith" and "The Basis of Evolutionary Faith" has defects. As regards their format they could hardly be placed us under his indebtedness still further by making available improved upon. It still seems to us, however, that the what is perhaps the best brief discussion (pp. 37) of the distinctive Stated Clerk, in obedience to the instructions given him by the doctrines of the Reformed Faith, to wit-divine sovereignty, hu­ General Assembly, could have given us a more helpful volume. man inability, unconditional election, definite atonement, efficacious grace and final perseverance. The following extract indicates "To the Stated Clerk," we read in the Preface to the volume, PROFESSOR HAMILTON'S point of view: "Nothing is more needful "was committed the responsibility of selecting and arranging the at the present time than a rediscovery of the doctrines of free contents ... as to provide 'a full, accurate, and usable record of and sovereign grace, which lie at the center of the Calvinistic the year's history of the Assembly.''' In view of these instruc­ system. The Church today needs more than anything else a new tions, it might be expected that the Minutes of the General As­ Reformation, which will sweep away the tawdry schemes of self­ sembly would provide a record of its proceedings such as would salvation, and get back to the Biblical teaching concerning the enable the 9500 ministers (not to mention the 50,000 elders) who Almighty grace of God. Not only is Calvinism true; it is the only did not the Assembly to .obtain from a reading of its att~nd effective defense against modern paganism. In discarding Cal­ pages something like an adequate knowledge of what happened. vinism the Church is neglecting the only weapon which can give It does not seem to us that these Minutes make such knowledge it the victory in the conflict with the forces of unbelief. There is available and hence that it is hardly proper to call them a "J our­ no rational defense against paganism except Calvinism, and no nal of the 146th General Assembly." For instance, while we may logical position which can be successfully defended if that be learn from the Minutes that the action against the Independent abandoned; for once the Church starts attributing the tiniest Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions recommended by the portion of our salvation to man, it has started down an inclined General Council was adopted, there is nothing to indicate that plane on which there is no stable equilibrium this side of thor­ there was any debate over the matter. This is also true of the ough-going Pelagianism or paganism ... It is with t he purpose of action taken relative to the proposed uuion with the United showing the reasonableness of that position, as well as its scrip­ Presbyterians, not to mention other matters. A particularly fla­ tural basis, that this pamphlet has been written." Unfortunately grant instance of inadequate reporting is what is told us conce:-n­ for us this pamphlet is published only by the Sovereign Grace ing the Protests occasioned by the action of the Assembly relatIve Union of London. Copies, however, may be ordered through this to the Independent Board. On page 236 a Protest against this office. Single copies, 15c. Ten or more copies, 10c each. action, signed by 15 commissioners, with eight reasons therefor, is r ecorded. Again on page 285 there is record of a Protest, signed by two commissioners, against the action of the Assembly in FAIR TRIAL striking out section 9 of the former Protest with no intimation of the contents of said section. Such a record certainly leaves much NDICATIONS of the kind of "fair trial" to be expected to be desired. by the member s of the Independent Board for Presby­ One can hardly read these Minutes without realizing the large­ terian F oreign Missions are supplied by an illuminating altogether too large, it seems to us-place that the General letter received by President J. OLIVER BUSWELL of Council plays in the life of the Church. If we deduct the pages Wheaton College (a member of the Board) from the Stated Clerk devoted to recording the names of the commissioners, the over­ of the Presbytery of Chicago. The Clerk, none other than Dr. tures and the Revised Book of Discipline we find that more than A. C. ZENOS, professer emeritus in McCormick Theological Semi­ .one-third and nearly one-half of the Minutes proper are taken nar y, and noted liberal, is the chairman of a committee appointed up with the report of the General Council. Just why so much by the Presbytery of Chicago to deal with Dr. BUSWELL. The good paper and ink should have been used to preserve the letter is as follows: articles on "The plan of Union" by DRS. STEVENSON, SPEER, "August 4, 1934. DEWITT, MUDGE, KERR, VANCE and COVERT we are somewhat "President J . Oliver Buswell, at a loss to know-in view of the action of the United Presby­ My Dear Dr. Buswell : terian General Assembly. Yours of JUly 19 informing m~ of your determination to con-

(A ') ~ ble of Contents will be found on page 128) 106 CHRISTIANITY TODA Y October, 1934

tinue your connection with and support of the Independent Board It is refreshing to read President BUSWELL'S telegraphic ac­ for Presbyterian Foreign Missions came duly. knowledgment of the letter and his reply to its request for a Of course, you know that the resolution of the General Assem­ "fraternal conference." bly, which met at Cleveland last May, calls on the Presbytery for "YOUR LETTER OF AUGUST FOURTH IN WHICH FOR further action, and you will not be surprised to hear again from THE FIRST TIME YOU ASK ME FOR A CONFERENCE me on the subject. WITH YOUR COMMITTEE IS JUST RECEIVED IN ASHE­ The object of my writing is to project a method of procedure VILLE STOP I AM INSTRUCTING MY SE!CRETARY TO which will terminate your connection with the Presbytery of TELEPHONE YOU AND ARRANGE TIME AND PLACE FOR Chicago, as required by the action of the General Assembly. SUCH CONFERENCE STOP I SHALL NOT WITHDRAW Let me say parenthetically at this point, that I am doing this FROM THE PRESBYTERIAN DENOMINATION VOLUN­ with deep regret which I am sure is shared by all the brethren T ARILY STOP I AM IN SUBJECTION TO MY BRETHREN of the Presbytery. If possible within the time limit set by the IN THE LORD AND AM ALSO LOYAL TO MY OTHER SIX General Assembly our committee greatly desires a fraternal con­ ORDINATION VOWS." ference with you before your final decision. Will the rank and file of loyal Presbyterians stand idly by The following are in my judgment some of tl;e most natural while Protestant and Christian liberties are being destroyed? methods of reaching the above mentioned end. Today, the liberty of someone else is taken away; tomorrow it is FiTst: A simple renunciation on your part of the jurisdiction your own. Tyrany never comes all at once. of the Presbytery and request to have your name dropped from the roll of the Presbytery. DR. MACARTNEY AN APOSTATE? Second: A request from you for a letter of dismissal to another ECENT issues of The P?·esbytm·ia.n have contained a denomination in fraternal relation with Presbyterian Church in lengthy (some 9,000 words) and more or less intem­ the U. S. A. . perate and ill-considered attack on Dr. CLARENCE E. ThiTd: A request to be heard before Presbytery in defense of MACARTNEY by Dr. W. B. PUGFI in which he is pictured your announced determination to remain a member of the Inde­ m as an apostat~ from Presbyterianism and denounced as one who on pendent Board, with the understanding that if the Presbytery the basis of "incorrect statements, unsupported assumptions, un­ persists in requiring you to withdraw from the Board you will warranted inferences, false interpretations" and such like is follow one of the two courses above outlined. instigating a campaign of ecclesiastical rebellion against the gov­ Fourth and last: A trial for violation of your ordination vows ernment and authority of the Presbyterian Church-the occasion which among other things include the promise "to be in subjection of this attack being an article entitled "Presbyterians, Awake!" to your brethren in the Lord." This, permit me to remind you, which Dr. MACARTNEY wrote about the action of the last Assembly would involve many tedious and practically useless formalities. relative to the Independent Board and which The Pt'esbyterian If you can think of any other way of ending your connection published some weeks previous. Dr. PUGH'S article possesses a with the Presbytery, please let me know. If not I shall, of course, significance that would not otherwise attach to it by reason of the expect to hear from you as to which of those presented above will fact he is reputed to be the author of the "Studies in The Consti­ be the most satisfactory one from your point of view. tution" and of the "Proposed Action" which the General Council Sincerely yours, submitted to the last Assembly-a fact, if fact it be, that gives the (signed) ANDREW C. ZENOS, article the standing, in some degree at least, of a reply by the PER F. MOORE, General Council itself to Dr. MACARTNEY'S strictures on its doings. Stated CleTk." Whether Dr. Macartney will feel impelled to reply to this diatribe remains to be seen. If he chooses to reply we do not anticipate Comment seems almost superfluous, although pages might be that he will have much difficulty in making clear that Dr. PUGH in written. The calm assurance that the action of the last Assembly attempting to defend the action of the last Assembly relative to requires "your connection with the Presbytery of Chicago" to be the Independent Board as being in accord with the spirit and terminated, the naive proposal that Dr. BUSWELL will be given a principles of Presbyterianism took upon himself the task of de­ letter to another Church declaring him to be in good and regular fending the indefensible. standing but that he will not be allowed to remain in good and In estimating Dr. PUGH'S classification of himself with those regular standing if he elects to stay, and the farcical third who "believe sincerely in both the doctrine and polity of the alternative, while revealing new facets of the machine mind, yet Presbyterian Church," as well as his allegation that the Inde­ pale into insignificance compared with the "Fourth and last" pendent Board has made "false cl,larges" against the authorized alternative. The trial, which is supposed to be Dr. BUSWELL'S day Board of Foreign Missions, it should be remembered that he is a in court, when he is to have his opportunity to defend the doc­ member of Princeton Seminary's present Board of Control and trines of the Word of God that are so dear to him, is, he is bluntly that he is on record as holding that Auburn Affirmationists are infotmed by one who should know, to be a process that "would deserving of the "high regard and confidence of the Presbyterian involve many tedious and practically useless formalities." And Church." It is hardly to be supposed, therefore, that any assur­ this in the same letter in which he is candidly told that "The ance he may give us as to the soundness of the official Board of object of my writing is to project a method of procedure which Foreign Missions will carry much weight with Bible-believing will terminate your connection with the Presbytery of Chicago Christians who hold that the system of doctrine set forth in the ..." To paraphrase Dr. ZENOS: We have to find a way of getting Westminster Standards is one with that taught in the Bible. rid of you. Here are four alternatives. Take your choice. The last way, a trial, you can have if you will, but we are telling you in advance that it would involve many tedious and practically use­ THE GENERAL COUNCIL AND THE INDEPENDENT less formalities. You will have to walk the plank anyway, so why BOARD bother with them? In other words, you can have a trial if you our last issue we stated, (1) that the General Council want to, but I want to warn you that the result of the trial is acted without constitutional authority when it presumed determined before the evidence is heard. If you can think of any to interpret the Constitution of the Church for the bene­ other way of ending your connection with the Presbytery, please fit of the commissioners to the last Assembly, and (2) let me know.... that it acted contrary to the Constitution of the Church when it Odober. 1934 CHRISTIANITY TODAY 107 urged said Assembly to take disciplinary action against the mem­ of acting contrary to the Constitution of the Church. We are told bers of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions. that this section refers exclusively to General Councils of synods Since that time zealots for the General Council have taken excep­ and presbyteries, not at all to the General Council of the General tion to both of these statements. Assembly. As proof of our ignorance we are referred to the 1930 The authority alleged for this action on the part of the Gen­ Digest, pp. 488-490, where we have the record of a resolution eral Council is the fact that among the duties assigned the Gen­ that was adopted by the 1930 Assembly at the suggestion of the eral Council is the following: "To consider between annual meet­ General Council (Minutes, pp. 189-192) . The occasion of this ings of the General Assembly cases of serious embarrassment or resolution was a previous resolution adopted by the 1929 Assembly emergency concerning the benevolent and missionary work of the (at the instigation of the Presbytery of Detroit) bearing upon the Church, and to provide direct methods of relief" (Form of Gov­ rights and duties' of the General Council. The resolution adopted ernment, Chap. 26, sec. 2) . Obviously the words, just cited, justi­ by the 1929 Assembly had been drawn on the assumption-a well­ fied any action on the part of the General Council only if as a grounded assumption we believe, the General Council to the con­ matter of fact the establishment of the Independent Board had trary nohvithstanding-that Section 12 applied to the General created a "serious embarrassment or emergency" in the mission­ Council of the General Assembly as well as to the General Coun­ ary work of the Church. DR. W. B. PUGH, reputed to have been cils of Synods and Pl:esbyteries. Such limitation of its authority, the author of "Studies of the Constitution" which was sent to however, did not meet with the approval of that body. As a result the commissioners to the last Assembly in the name of the Gen­ it proposed to the 1930 Assembly that it adopt the following eral Council, has stated that "no one can deny" that the organiza­ resolution: _ tion of the Independent Board had created such an embarrassment or emergency-a statement that is contradicted by the fact that "That this General Assembly declare it to be its judgment: DR. CLELAND B. McAFEE, the representative of the Board of (1) that Form of Government, Chapter 26, Sections 12 and 16 Foreign Missions on the General Council itself, has been reliably refer only to General Councils of Synods and Presbyteries; and reported in the newspapers as having recently said that "the (2) that business of a doctrinal or judicial character shall not so-called Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions be originated or referred to the General Council of the General has as yet failed to embarrass the official Board" and as "conclu­ Assembly, and that all amendments to the Constitution pro­ sive proof" of this DR. McAFEE pointed to the fact that the posed by the General Council shall be submitted to the General receipts for Foreign Missions for the four months ending August Assembly through the appropriate Standing Committee." 1, 1934, had totalled $389,128 as compared with $363,967 for the It is the resolution, just cited, that is advanced as evidence that same period in 1933. Are we to infer that when DR. PUGH stated Sec. 12 of Chap. 26 of the Form of Government does not apply that "no one can deny" that the Independent Board had seriously to the General Council of the General Assembly. This evidence embarrassed the missionary work of the Church he meant to proves nothing of the sort. It is a mere Assembly deliverance and imply that DR. McAFEE is a nobody? Are we also to infer that even a tyro knows, or at least ought to know, that an ASlsembly the representative of the Board of Foreign Missions was absent deliverance does not have the binding force of a constitutional from the meeting when the General Council "unanimously de­ enactment. Obviously the Ass'embly of 1930 had no authority to cided" that an emergency existed? However, even if it were true, declare that Sec. 12 of Chap. 26 of the Form of Government does that the establishment of the Independent Board had seriously embarrassed the official Board that fact would not have justified, not apply to the General Council of the Assembly. What the still less obHgated, the General ' Council to take up itself the task Assembly of 1930 should have done, if it wanted to create a situa­ of interpreting the Constitution of the Church for the benefit tion wherein this section would not apply to the General Council of the commissioners. It would, no doubt, have imposed upon it of the Assembly, was to send down an overture to the presbyteries the task of devising ways and means of relieving the financial to discover whether they were willing to amend the Constitution embarrassment or emergency-there is no reason to suppose that in such a way that this section would apply only to the General any of the money received by the Independent Board would have Councils of Synods and Presbyteries. It is equally pertinent to gone to the official Board if the former had not been organized­ note that even if the resolution adopted by the 1930 Assembly but one looks in vain in the Constitution for anything that author­ (at the suggestion of the General Council itself) be looked upon izes the General Council either to interpret the Constitution or as an authoritative declaration that said section applies only to to initiate disciplinary action aganst any who in its judgment may General Councils of Synods and Presbyteries it would still be have acted unconstitutionally. :r'o allege, as the General Council true that the General Council exceeded its powers when it pro­ has done, that the Constitution "compelled" it to take the action posed and in effect initiated disciplinary action against the mem­ it did is absurd. At the most the constitutional authority alleged bers of the Independent Boal·d. And that because the resolution is an excuse, not a reason, for the action taken by the General itself explicitly states that "business of a doctrinal or judicial Council. character shall not be originated by or referred to the General We have also alleged that the General Council acted contrary Council of the General Assembly." Surely it is as clear as day to the Constitution when it proposed and in effect initiated dis­ that the General Council did originate business of a judicial ciplinary action against the members of the Independent Board. character in the action it took relative to the members of the In support of this contention we cited Sec. 12 of Chap. 26 of the Independent Board. Surely if the 1930 resolution has any authori­ Form of Government, "General Coundls shall handle and con­ tative bearing on the case at hand (we do not think it has) its sider only such administrative business as may be referred to second section is just as binding as its first. It might have been them by the electing judiciaries, as indicated in the succeeding expected that the General Council would at least respect its own sections, and shall have no power of initiating action except as privately-prepared resolution, whatever degree of respect it has hereafter provided. No judicial business shall be referred to a for the Constitution of the Church itself. General Council," as there is nothing in the "succeeding sections" We repeat that "all real Presbyterians, regardless of what they referred to that gives the General Council any authority to pro­ think of the Independent Board, ought to be united in condemning pose or initiate disciplinary action of any sort. It is maintained by the part that the General Council played in securing its con­ DR. PUGH and others that Sec. 12 of Chap. 26 of the Form of demnation by the last Assembly." The Church is confronted with Government has no bearing whatever upon the matter before us the spectacle of a group of law-breakers initiating disciplinary and that we displayed gross ignorance when we cited it in sup­ action against another group for an alleged infraction of its port of our contention that the General Council has been guilty laws. 108 CHRISTIANITY TODAY October, 1934

Westminster Seminary and the Reformed Faith The Rev. Samuel G. Craig. D.D. [An address delivered in Witherspoon Hall, Philadelphia, May 8 th, 1934, on the occasion of the fifth Co=encement of Westminster Theological Seminary. The text follows that of the prepared manuscript as the exigencies of the occasion necessitated some abridge­ ment in the process of its delivery.J

TWAS zeal for the Reformed Faith that brought nourishment from its new environment and, please God, Westminster Seminary into existence. It is for it will not be long until it will have fully regained its for­ the preservation of the Reformed Faith and its mer vigor. transmission undiminished to those who shall come after In further explanation of my referen~e to its Faculty us that Westminster Seminary exists. It is these facts as well as of my reference to its background, attention may that• have determined my choice of subject tonight. It has be directed to the fact that all the members of its Faculty seemed to me not merely fitting but imperative that on this to date have been Princeton trained and that five of the anniversary occasion I take as my subject, "Westminster nine professors who have occupied its chairs have actually Seminary and the Reformed Faith." taught at Princeton-one of them, the late Robert Dick Lest any suppose that in speaking on this subject I am Wilson (of blessed memory) for nearly thirty years and making an official pronouncement as to the aim and pur, two others, J . Gresham Machen and Oswald T . Allis for pose of Westminster Seminary I should perhaps say at the about twenty years. What is more, I am Slll'e that there is outset that no one of my colleagues on its Board of Trus­ no body of men living today better qualified and mOI'ie tees or any member of its Faculty has any knowledge of desirous to carryon and perpetuate the policies and tradi­ what I propose to say. I hope that they will approve, as tions of old Princeton than the existing Faculty of West­ I hope you will, but be that as it may, they are hereby minster Seminary. They have all drank from the waters absolved from all responsibility for what I may say. and fed upon the fruits that grow along the banks of that When Westminster Theological Seminary was estab­ ancient stream and have no higher academic ambition lished it was freely predicted that its first year would be than to show themselves workmen worthy of being ac­ its last. That prophecy has not been justified by the event. counted true successors of that long line of scholars that Disappointing as it may be to many, Westminster still made Princeton for upward of one hundred years famous exists. What is more, to an extent that is true of but few as a center of sound Theological learning-the Alexanders, seminaries, no matter what their age or the size of their the Hodges, William Henry Green, Benjamin Breckin­ endowments, its line has gone out through all the earth ridge Warfield and Robert Dick Wilson, not to mention and its words to the end of the world. others of equal or near equal distinction. Here is something that calls for explanation. Why is it I am not ignorant of the fact that there are those who that Westminster Seminary though probably the young­ contend that Princeton Seminary, in the present as in the est Theological school in America, certainly the youngest past, is loyal to the aims and ideals of its Founders. The of the Presbyterian type, is one of the most widely recog­ Princeton Seminary Bullet 'i1~, published by the Trustees nized? The answer is not difficult. It is because it was of the Institution, in its issue .of November, 1929', stated: established to carryon and perpetuate the policies and "The reorganization of the Seminary undertaken and traditions of Princeton Theological Seminary as that Insti­ completed by the General Assembly was concerned only tution existed prior to its reorgani",ation by the General with the reorganization of the administration of the Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in U. S. A. in 1929. Seminary. It had nothing to do with its theological That is why, unlike most educational institutions, it had position, except to strengthen the safeguards whereby no period of infancy and youth. In its case, there was it should be held to the teaching of the Reformed Theol­ not first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ogy in accordance with the standards of the Presbyterian ear. Minerva-like it was born fully grown and fully Church in the U. S. A." armed. As evidence of the correctness of this representation, This means that Westminster Seminary is a new Sem­ the same issue of the Pri1weton Seminary Bulleti~~ cited inary in name only, that in reality it is one of the oldest the fact that the new Board of Control at its first meeting Theological Institutions in America. What happened in made the following corporate declaration: effect-we are thinking now only of things spiritual and "In the one hundred and seventeen years of its his­ intellectual-is that the giant tree that had been maturing tory, Princeton Seminary has stood with firm stead­ for upward of one hundred years in Princeton was trans­ fastness for the propagation at home and abroad, and ferred to Philadelphia. Naturally this action somewhat for the scholarly defense of Evangelical Christianity as retarded its growth but fortunately the tr>ansplanting was formulated in the standards of the Presbyterian church. done so well that its roots immediately began to draw In taking up the duties assigned to it by the General October, 1934 CHR I STIANITY TOD AY 109

Assembly, ... the Board ... feels that it has a solemn thorough-going naturalism, the resolute manner in which mandate from the Assembly to continue unchanged the it turns its back on all supernaturalism and supposes itself historic policy of the Seminary and to do nothing what· able to find in this world all that thought and life is war­ ever to alter the distinctive traditional position which ranted in asking. It is this naturalism in which modern­ the Seminary has maintained throughout its entire ism has its roots and of which it is a more or les& con­ history." sistent manifestation in an its forms of expression. If the statement and the declaration I have just cited I do not mean nece sarily to imply that there are any stood alone, they would be fitted to provoke a question as thorough-going modernists in the Pl'esbytel"ia.n Church in to what sort of mental aberration the Founders of West­ the U. S. A., but whether there are any thorough-going minster Seminary were suffering when they judged it ones there are a great mauy half-way ones. This is evi­ necessary to establish an institution to carryon and per­ denced by the fact, among others, that in 1924 nearly 1300 petuate the historic policies and traditions of Princeton ministers signed the so-called Auburn Affirmation which Seminary. This statement and this declaration, however, attacked the pronouncement of the previous Assembly in do not stand alone even in the issue of the Se1n'iJnatry a way that detracted from its supernaturalism in regard Bulletin from which I have quoted. In this sa.me issue to its doctrines of the Bible, of the Virgin Birth of Christ, may be found a letter from the Board of Control to the of His labors of love, of His work of Redemption and of His Alumni, signed by both its President and the President Resurrection. The promulgation of this document was in of the Seminary, in which it is not only asserted that its effect a declaration of war by the advocates of this reduced thirty-three members-two of whom are signers of the snpernaturalism against the advocates of the full super­ Auburn Affirmation, according to which belief in the full naturalism of the Assembly's pronouncement. In the war truthfulness of the Bible, the Snbstitutionary Atonement, that immediately began, the majority of the Board of the miracles of our Lord, ilis Virgin Birth and bodily Directors and of the Faculty of Princeton Seminary with Resurrection, need not be believed even by ministers of the a small minority of its Board of Trustees took their stand Presbyterian Church-"have the high rega I'd and confi­ ill favor of the full supernaturalism of the Assembly's pro­ dence of the Presbyterian Church," but in which a lengthy nouncement, but a minority of both its Board of Directors paragraph is devoted to an attempt to show that the pres­ and of its Faculty, including the President of the Semi­ ence of these two Auburn Affirmationists on the Board, nary, and a large majority of its Board of Tmstees without with the approval of its other members, has no signifi­ expressly approving the reduced snpernaturalism of the cance for the doctrinal position of the Seminary. The Auhul'n Affirmation-except in oue iustance-took a posi­ conclusion is inescapable that the doctrinal position of tion that met with the approval of its advocates. -When Princeton Seminary, as long as it is under the control the latter became condnced that it was impossible to of its present Board, will be one that has the assent if not fl('cnre a majority in the Seminary's Board of Directors the approval of Auburn Affirmationists. If that does not they appealed to the General Assembly, meeting at Balti­ involve a departure from its historic doctrinal position, more in 1926 and thus precipi tated a conflict in the Chnrch it is difficult to say what would. at large that was not concluded until the Assembly of It is impossible, it seems to me, to justify the establish­ 1929. ment of Westminster Seminary if it be true, as was alleged, The lines of this "Battle of Princeton" were drawn by in the issue of the Princeton S emin(J)/"y Bulletin, from President Stevenson when speaking before the Bnltimore which I have quoted, that the Assembly in reorganizing Assembly he said: "We are the agency of the Old School Princeton Seminary "not only presened the old safeguards and the New School, and my ambition as President of the of conservative doctrinal teaching devised when the Sem­ Seminary is to have it represent the whole Presbyterian inary was organized, but enlarged and strengthened them_" Church and not any particular faction of it"-a statement It seems necessary therefore for me to say something in that he further explicated a few months later, in a written this connection about the controversy that preceded the statement, by saying that "Princeton i , according to its reorganization of Princeton Seminary and that resulted title, the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church in the establishment of Westminster Seminary. That con­ in the U. S. A ., and therefore should be inclusive not merely troversy, in my opinion, had its origin in that naturalism of- the Old School, but of the New School descendants." of thought and life that began with the so-called "Enlight­ This declaration for an "inclusive" Seminary won for the enment" of the Eighteenth Century. Previous to that minority of the Faculty and Directors and the majority of time, all life and world views, whether within or without the Trustees the support of the Auburn Affirmationists and the Christian Church, had been supernaturalistic to the their sympathizers, with the result that the effort to re­ core. To quote Herman Bavinck: "The religious super­ organize Princeton Seminary was successful. naturalistic world-view has universally prevailed among In the light of what has been related it is vain and futile all people and all ages down to the present day, and only to allege that the issue at stake in the Princeton contro­ in the last hundred and fifty years has given way in some versy was administrative, not doctrinal. As a matter of circles to the empirico-scientific" (the Philosophy ot Rev­ fact it was doctrinal to the core and the administrative elation, p. 1) . The outstanding characteristic of the life issue was introduced solely in the interest of tIle doctl'iJla 1 and world-view which then made its appearance is its issue. I question whether anyone seriou ly believed, as 110 CHRISTIANITY TODAY October, 1934

the Assembly's 'Committee affirmed, that "the root and Wistar Hodge-whose knowledge of the doctrinal history source of serious difficulties at Princeton and the greatest of Princeton Seminary is ummrpassed-had made perfectly obstacle to the removal of these difficulties was its plan clear that "the Faculty of Princeton Seminary always has of government by two Boards." As a matter of f;act, been whole heartedly attached to the pure Gospel of God's Princeton Seminary as an educational institution did not sovereign grace or the principles of pure and consistent have "two Boards of Control," in the sense implied, for eYangelical religion as held by the Old School type of Cal­ while Princeton Seminary had two Boards of Control, vinism, and that after the Reunion of 1870 Princeton they controlled different things, the Directors being in Seminary continued to maintain the same doctrinal prin­ control of things educational and the Trustees of things ciples" (Report of the Special Committee to Visit Prince­ financial. But whatever may be thought of the old plan of ton Theological Seminary to the General Assembly, May, governing Princeton, from a purely administrative point 1927, pp. 75-80). of view, it cannot be denied that it worked successfully. The friends and supporters of Princeton Seminary were For it was under that so-called divided control that it long of the opinion that the right to maintain their dis­ waxed great. If Princeton Seminary had been on the wane tinctive doctrinal position within the larger unity of the there might have been some seeming wal'rant for blaming Ohurch had been guaranteed to them by the terms of the its plan of government. As a matter of fact, however, Reunion of 1870. It was that Reunion that Dr. Patton when the effort to reorganize it was launched it was at had more particularly in mind when in "Fundamental the height of its infiuence as a center of sound Theological Christianity," he wrote: "Two unions of the Presbyterian learning. Beyond reasonable question the reorganization Church have made the recognition of a certain area of tol­ of Princeton Seminary under a single Board of Control, erated difference of opinion a moral obligation" (p. 140). was sought not because the Seminary was unsuccessful Had the Princeton Fathers of 1870 not been of that opin­ but because it was successful-successful, however, in fur­ ion, we may be sure the Reunion of the Old and New thering the supernaturalism of the Bible and the West­ Schools would not have taken place, as one of the chief minster standards rather than that measure of supernat­ obstacles in the way of that Reunion was the fact that uralism for which the Modernist-Indifferentist party in while all the Old School Seminaries were under the control the church was willing to stand. The one controlling rea­ of the Assembly, the New School Seminaries like Auburn son, in fact, for advocating a single Board of Control was and Union enjoyed a relative autonomy or independence. that it offered the only feasible method of ousting the old Naturally the friends and supporters of Princeton Sem­ Board of Directors and of putting in their place a Board inary, whose infiuence was more or less dominant in Old that would favor an inclusive Seminary. School circles, were much concerned over what might be The issue at stake in the Princeton controversy involved the effect of having the institution placed under the con­ the question whether a Seminary of the Princeton type trol of an Assembly having a large element of New School would be tolerated by the Presbyterian Church in the members. The result was the so-called "Compact of 1870" U. S. A. Princeton Seminary, previous to 1929', did not in which the Assembly's method of control over Prince­ claim to represent the whole church doctrinally, any more ton Seminary was modified in important respects. While than Auburn or Union Seminaries. All it claimed was the this "Compact" was not regarded as a legal contract, right to maintain its distinctive doctrinal position within enforceable in the courts, yet it was generally recognized the larger unity of the church. Its historic attitude had that it created a situation in which it would be a breach been one of strict adherence to its distinctive doctrinal of faith on the part of the Assembly if it should take any position with'in the Semi'lWh'y itself combined with a tol­ action that, directly or indirectly, nullified the right of erance witlvin the ChtIJroh a,t large of any and all views con­ Princeton Seminary to maintain its distinctive doctrinal sistent with belief in the Bible as the Word of God and position within the larger unity of the Church. The friends acceptance of the system of doctrine set forth in the West­ and supporters of Princeton also thought that this right minster standards. President Stevenson once defined the was gnaranteed to them by Article VIII, Section 4, of the historic doctrinal position of Princeton Seminary as "sim­ Plan of the Seminary which read: "The intentions and ply one of unquestioned loyalty to the Standards of the directions of testators and donors, in regard to moneys Presbyterian Church." While this definition contained or other property left or gh-en to the Seminary shall, at nothing but truth it did not contain the whole truth. It all times, be sacredly regarded"-an article that in the quite ignored the fact that Princeton's doctrinal position, nature of the case they interpreted in the light of the fact both before and after the Reunion of 1870, had been that of that a large part of the funds given the Seminary during the Old School-a position to which it was committed the disruption period had been given under the condition morally by the intention of its founders and legally by tile that "if at any future time the leading doctrines of the trust funds which it held subject to the condition that cer­ Confession of Faith and catechisms of the Presbyterian tain specified doctrines (to which reference will be made Church such as the doch'ine of universal and total deprav­ later) be taught as "understood and explained by the Old ity, the doctrine of election, the doctrine of the atonement, School General Assembly." This representation would have the doctrine of the imputation of Adam's sin to all his been more excusable on President Stevenson's part had it posterity and the imputation of Christ's righteousness to not been for the fact that his colleague, Professor Caspar all His people for their justification, the doctrine of human October, 1934 CHRISTIANITY TODAY 111 inability, the doctrine of the necessity of the influences of Seminary was the one outstanding Seminary in the Church the Holy Spirit in the regeneration, conversion and sancti­ that had stood four square and without equivocation for fication of sinners, as these doctrilnes wre now understood the Bible as the Word of God, and as such infallible, and and eX1Jlained by the ajore8aid Old School Geneml As­ for the system of doctrine set forth in the Westminster sembly) shall cease to be taught in said Seminary" these standards as the one and only system taught in God's funds should no longer be retained by the Seminary. With word, this meant that its historic viewpoint no longer had these two guarantees-one moral and the other both legal anything like adequate representation in the educational and moral-it is not surprising that whatever fears the life of the Church, and that a new Seminary was needed Princeton Fathers of that period cherished as to the wis­ if the policies and traditions of old Princeton were to be dom of the Reunion itself, they felt perfectly confident that carried on and perpetuated. Hence the founding of West­ they would be permitted to maintain their distinctive minster Seminary. doctrinal position within the larger unity of the Church. In pointing out what led to the establishment of West­ Wise as the Princeton Fathers of that day were, how­ minster Seminary, I have been pointing out at the same ever, they did not foresee what would happen when a gen­ time why Westminster Seminary did not seek ecclesiastical eration that "knew not Joseph" should appear. At that approval. It was ecclesiastical control that had led to the time though Modernism was in process of incubation it undoing of Princeton Seminary. Surely an Institution had not yet burst its shell, as far as appearance within that sought to carryon and pel'petllate the aims and ideals the Presbyterian Church was concerned. Twenty years of an Institution that had been suppressed by ecclesiastical later, we may be SlU'e the Princeton Fathers would have authority could not be expected to seek such approval­ demanded stronger safeguards before they would have even if there had been -reason to suppose that such ap­ agreed to Reunion with the New School branch of Presby­ proval would be given. It is not impossible that West­ terianism, especially as it was among the descendants of minster Seminary, provided it be content to be and remain the New School that the de-supernaturalizing tendencies a small and insignificant institution would be tolerated of modernism found their most ready acceptance, as far as by the Presbyterian Church as it now is; but I am sure Presbyterians were concerned. For it was in 1891, that that it could not be as influential as it is, still less as it Dr. Francis Landey Patton speaking at the death of Dr. hopes to be, without finding itself "cabined, cribbed, con­ Caspar Hodge, after mentioning the fact that Dr. Hodge's fined and bound," if not rendered absolutely helpless, if it closing years had been saddened by the blindness of the were to allow itself to be brought under Assembly control. church and its leaders to the dangers of the "New The­ I have sought to make clear the nature of the Princeton ology" that had already begun to flaunt its face within the controversy and so the occasion and purpose of the estab­ Presbyterian Church, uttered the prophetic words: lishment of Westminster Seminary. I have done so not "I cannot think of him today without feeling that by only that I might justify its establishment but that I might his death he has been spared a great sorrow. I may be indicate why it appeals for support not merely to maintain wrong, but it seems to me that American Christianity its existence but to "lengthen its cords and strengthen its is about to pass through a severe ordeal. It may be a stakes," despite the fact that there are apparently already ten-year conflict. It may be a thirty years' war; but it too many Seminaries in the Church. If Westminster Sem­ is a conflict in which all Christian Churches are con­ inary were merely "another" Seminary of the type of cel'ned. The war will come, the Presbyterian Church which there were perhaps too many before Westminster must take part in it, and Princeton, unless her glory is was started, I for one would not be interested in its wel­ departed, must lead the van in the great fight for funda­ fare. Westminster Seminary, however, is not merely "an­ mental Christianity. It is not amendment; it is not other" Seminary. It is a Seminary with a task to perform revision; it is not restatement; it is a revolution that that is not being adequately performed by other Theologi­ we shall have to face. The issue will be joined by and cal Schools-a task moreover that, in the judgment of its by on the essential truth of a miraculous and God-given Trustees and Faculty, is of such importance that it must revelation, and then we must be ready to fight, and, if not be left undone if Christianity is to renew its strength need be, to die, in defense of the blood-bought truths of and thus maintain the validity of its claim to dominate the the common salvation." culture and civilization of the world. The occasion of the Unfortunately, however, when Princeton Seminary establishment of Westminster Seminary belongs, of course, under the control of its old Board of Directors was still to the past but the purpose that led to its establishment leading the van in this great fight for fundamental Chris­ is still, and please God will continue to be, its dOrrUnant tianity, the General Assembly of 1929, dominated by a purpose until He whose right it is to rule and reign shall combination of Modernists and Indifferentists, approved appear. That task is the exposition, defense and propa­ the plan of reorganization that had been proposed to the gation of the Reformed Faith in its purity and integrity. previous Assembly and thereby not only ousted the old As it was zeal for the Reformed Faith that brought West­ Board of Directors but placed the Seminary under a Board minster Seminary into existence, so it is zeal for the Re­ of Control that favored an "inclusive" Seminary-so inclu­ formed Faith that urges it to the performance of what it sive in fact as to include those reduced supernaturalists conceives to be its God-given task. known as Auburn Affirmationists. Inasmuch as Princeton Westminster Seminary is bound to the Reformed Faith, 112 CHRISTIANITY TODA Y October, 1934 both by the charter granted it by the Commonwealth of terian Church in the . S. A. are incapable of improve­ Pennsylvania and by the Constitution adopted by its ment, or that there are not confessions of Faith other than Board of Trustees, in the form in which it has found the Westminster that set forth the Reformed Faith. ,Vhat expression in the 'Westminster Confession of Faith. It is it means is that, in the judgment of Westminster Semi­ specifically stated moreover that it i bound to the -West­ nary, the Westminster Confession of Faith is the clearest, minster Confession of Faith in the form which it possessed the most adequate and mo t carefully guarded statement in 1929. Hence even if the Presbyterian Church should of the Reformed Faith that has as yet been penned by the alter or amend its Confession of Faith, that would have no hand of man and that until that statement has been im­ effect on the doctrinal standard of Westminster Seminary. proved it will remain the doctrinal standard of the Insti­ That does not mean that in the judgment of Westminster tution. Seminary the existing doctrinal standards of the Presby- (To be COnCl1.bdecZ in ow' next issue)

The Genius of Supernaturalism in Religion By the Rev. William H. Topping

HE genius of supernaturalism in any field, science, foolishness 10 hi m: neither can he know them because they philosophy, medicine, religion, may be said to are spiritually discemed," or re,ealed to one by the Spirit be a mind or aptitude for the supernatural. It of God. This i true of many of the finest minds in the essential principle is a world-view which regards God as intellectnal world, notably cientists, philo ophers, artists, immanent and active in His world. In the Christian physicians and surgeons. Whether the nature of their pro­ religion this presence and control of the Deity manifest fessional studies and pur.suits contributes a naturalistic themselves in the form of prophet, miracle and incarIlate mental atmosphere or sceptical attitude toward the snper­ word, three elements that distinguish revelation from the natural we are not prepared to say, but the fact remains physical sciences. This mind or genius for the supernatural that the natural mind challenges the miraculous and super­ may be said to be a native endowment of soul disposing natural in e\-ery field, and finds no pIa ce for God in the the individual more readily to the supernatural phenomena world of nature, science or religion. of conversion, rather than a product of education or the The modernists in religion are simply men of' the nat­ refinements of the art . nral, fleshly mind, who, influenced by one motive or another, Some individuals appear to have a mind much more ha,-e strayed into the field of religion. Religion is one open to the concept of the snpernatural than others, and thing, howe\1er, and Christianity is quite another. The with whom the approach is made quite naturally and religions of the world are very largely if not altogether easily. Others again experience great difficulty in grasping naturalistic in their world-view. llumanism, ethical cul­ the idea of the snpernatural, while multitudes of people ture, Unitarianism a11d a thousand others are merely re­ seem quite unable to receive it at all. How are these facts ligions of the flesh and of the mind, haYing a form of to be explained, for facts they are, as every worker familiar godliness, but denying the power thereof. Christianity on with dealing with the uusaved, knows. the other hand is essentially supernatural in character and The ancient Hebrews thought in terms of the super­ form, having its tap-root in the life and passion of the Son natural. Their history as the chosen people of the Lord of God, and the dynamic ministry of His Spirit. is replete with theophanies, miracles, personal manifes­ There are all degrees of model'l1istic unbelief from the tations of the Deity, and revelations of the divine will to extJ'eme type ' exemplified by some of our leading metro­ the prophets. llence their history as recorded in the Scrip­ politan Modernists, who have little or nothing left of tlle tures is one of the supernatural leadership and interposi­ supernatnralof Christianity in their faith or preachments" tion of the Deity in every phase of their national life. This to less radical types who recognize something morp than element of the supernatural perists in the Jew Testament. human or moral in the cripture and til e person of Christ. Christ Himself, and every phase of His life and teachings Many of these men of the natural mind in rdigion are were altogether supernatural, and could not be understood men of culture, gentility and scholarly attainments; are apart from it. This same genius of the miracnlous is to be gifted with channing personalities, and attain f'm illPnCl' found in the church letters, and naturally so for the reaSOll in the social, intellectnal and literal'Y worlds. Bllt the fact that they are bllt the de\-elopment and interpretation of remains, aJ)d we say it kindly, that OH'Y seem to be utterly the supernatural acts and facts of the life and passion bereft of n sense of the supel'llatural. of Jesus Christ. They are "good fellows," with an abundnnce of the milk The amazing thing to be noted in connection \yith this of human kindness; interested in ocin I bettcl'J1J('nt and mind for the snpernatnral is that the "natural man," or political reform ; u 'e the .symbols and Hpeak the hlll~nage the mind of the fle'h unenlightened by the Spirit of God, of Christianity, but "deny the power thel·cof." 'fhey can can not see or understand it. "For the nn,.tu ral man re­ not be said to ha\-e the mind of Chrh;t be-rilJlf,e they do ceiveth not the thino's of the Spirit of God, for t hey are not speak the language of Christ 0[' of IIis Word. In theit· October, 1934 CHRISTIANITY TODAY 11 3 preachments they concern themselves solely with the task science" to believe and preach what they please. This of making this world a better place in which to live by boasted liberty of conscience, however, proves itself to be slicking over its plague spots of human sin, and essaying but a compromising mental gesture by which they assume to clean up its festering corruption by means of an appli­ license to violate their sacred ordination vows, and betray cation of smelling salts and a feather duster. No power their constitutional standards, to the support of which under heaven C(ll/1, change the hewrts of men bttt the spi1"it they are sworn with an oath more solemn and sacred than of God with the Word of God and the Blood of Jesus the oath of any earthly court, a holy covenant between Christ as H 'is instmments of rebirth and cleansing. Obvi­ their Lord, their church courts and themselves, to "receive ously, a social gospel has neither need nor place for the and adopt the confession of faith," and not to reject and blood or cross of Christ. We search in vain for them in disparage it. Subsequently they scrap it as so much dog­ their preachments. matic junk. The Modernists in ' religion constitute their reason the These facts can not be denied or evaded. Furthermore, criterion of truth. They oppose and deny what they can they may be safely set down as the sole and direct cause not see or understand with their natural, fleshly minds. of the present unrest among the churches. Many of our Miracles never occur in nature, and hence are to be re­ congregations are not being fed with the soul-nourishing jected. The virgin birth of Christ is contrary to reason food of the Word of God because their faithless, disloyal and nature, and therefore is to be rejected. Men are as priests have forsaken the altars of the supernatural, and much inspired to write books on practical ethics today as are giving the people for the words of eternal life the cOlll:­ were the prophets of old. Hence, the verbal inspiration of mandments of men-social betterment and political re­ the Scriptures is a mere myth to the modern mind. form. And where the Word of God is not honored or be­ These two minds, the natural and the supernatural, are lieved by the officiating priests, the Spirit of God does not diametrically opposed. They have nothing in common, and bless the people. Hear the words of Hosea concerning the stand at the antipodes in their relation to Jesus Christ impiety and idolatry of God's people uttered under identi­ and the Christian Scriptures as a supernatural revelation cal conditions : "My people are destroyed for lack of knowl­ from God. They will never mix or mingle in fellowship edge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also or doctrine in our churches or church courts. The antag­ reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me : seeing thou onism between them is violent, deadly and utterly irrecon­ hast forgotten the law of thy God, I WILL ALSO FOR­ cilable, as much so as the necessary and inescapable anti­ GET THY CHILDREN." nomies of love and hate, truth and error, life and death, God is today "forgetting" the congregations of disloyal heaven and hell. A great gulf is fixed between them so that priests of the holy oracles of God's Word who are com­ the one can not pass over to the other until his natural, promising with modern rationalism, and temporizing with fleshly mind is illumined by the Spirit of God. current social and educational philosophies. Their gospel is The Evangelicals in theology, who have a mind for the one of mere ethical culture, which is not the Gospel of supernatural, and love it and preach it, are regarded by Christ, and in their desire to be popular they study to the Modernists as fanatics, mystics, obscurants. Hence, the please and entertain the people with current social phe­ genius of supernaturalism, provocative of their position in nomena, political horoscopes, kaleidoscopic bits of travel, the present controversy, is necessarily divisive in its in­ literature or the latest scientific extravaganza. This may fluence upon men and mea ures, polity and creed. It is not entertain, but it can not bring repentance and conviction any group of Evangelicals as such that is divisive, but it of sin to the soul. Jesus said, "My words are spirit and is the principle of unswerving loyalty to the Word of God they are life." "Being born again, not of corruptible seed as the only supernaturally inspired, inerrant, and authori­ but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which liveth and tative revelation from God to men, and which they hold abideth forever." dearer than life, that is divisive. They would gladly give That these naturalistic religionists do not preach the their bodies to be burned before they would yield one iota Word of God needs but a cursory glance at their sermons to the dictates of the naturalistic, unbelieying mind of to convince the most sceptical. Clever moralizings from men whose compromising, temporizing attitude to the artfully adapted texts are served equally well by fact, Word of God is a shame and a disgrace to their profession, legend or tradition, and whether Jesus really lived or not, and an apology to the constitution of their great church or whether He descended by natural generation from the which they have in honor vowed to support.lJ'he essentially blood stream of the brute little matters so long as a moral divisive factor, we repeat, is not any particular group, but lesson is substituted for the staff of bread. Sin, with the the ability to disoe?"n the supe1"1U1tural as the essential, oon­ Modernist, is merely faulty habits of living to be corrected trolling genifus of Cll/I"istianity as a revealed 1-eligi01~. by education. Hence, the emphasis is being laid today by Let it be said to the everlasting shame of the Auburn our denominational publications upon modern educational Affirmationists and the many others with them whose methods and material to the neglect- at least if not the names are not inscribed upon that palladium of infidelity utter evasion or abando?ment of the blood and cross of that they affirm loyalty to our doctrinal standards in their a crucified Redeemer. As Dr. Clarence E. Macartney said sacred ordination vows. and declare in the same breath in a recent sel"mon, "The redemptive note is dying out of with a studied mental reservation their ."liberty of con- the Protestant faith." 114 CHRISTIANITY TODAY October, 1934

It was this naturalistic mind that inspired and framed further to support such Christ-dishonoring infidelity, and the Laymen's Foreign Missions Appraisal. The Com­ seek new channels for their gifts. The need for a new mittee's review of the foreign field was kaleidoscopic, and Board was imperative. Repeated pl'otests and demands extremely superficial. Having no eyes for the supernatural for a cleansing of the A sembly's Board were answered by they missed entirely the work of saving grace because of an official whitewa h by the Assembly. No alternative the quietness of the Holy Ghost, and noted only the remained but a new Board. absence of trumpet blares, brass bands, sociological fan­ The happie t issue for the Assembly out of an unhappy fares, and bull fights with the red rag of rationalism situation is to recognize the Independent Board as an ally flaunting the saints of the Most High God. rathe~' than a competitor. There is room in the denomina­ Dr. E. P. Whallon has this to say in the issue of The tion for two Boards. Failing this alternative let the As­ P?'esbytC'rian of july 12th apropo of "Evangelism," "But sembly purge its Board of rationalism, and restore it to its we do believe that one of the surest ways out (of the pres­ doctrinal and constitutional integrity. The confidence of ent distress in the churches), and the supremely sure way, the people of the Churches in the Board will be restored, is for our whole church to engage in a tremendous work and peace and harmony will again pre\-ail. The attempt of evangelism for Christ's sake and for souls." To this of the Assembly at Cleveland, howC\'er, to crush the Inde­ we add a hearty amen with this single observation, that the pendent Board was ill-advi ed, and can issue only in strife evangelism of the churches will avail nothing so long as and division. modern rationalism continues to dishonor God's VV'orcl The Presbytery of Baltimore recently refused to ordain in her pulpits and church courts. The Spirit of God is a student from Westminster Theological Seminary because aggrieved, and will never manifest Ilis power until mini - he would not declare hi unequi,-ocal support of the A - tel'S and people reerect the altars of the supernatural, and sembly's Board. The Presbytery of ,Vest Jersey deferred honor God's Word as the "sword of the Spirit." It is little balloting on the examination of two students from the wonder that the United Presbyterians declined to soil same Seminary at a recent meeting until the September their standards in the mire of our unbelief. meeting upon identically the same ground. 'rhey declared If there has been doctrinal corruption in the Board of that they would support the Assembly's Board "as long Foreign Missions it has been due to the substitution of a as it was true to the constitution of the Church and the gospel of the natural man, which is not a gospel, for tbe Word of God." Could anything be fairer than that? What supernatural Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. minister of the go pel of Christ, if trne to the principles The Independent Board was organized to receive the gifts of honor and integrity implied in his vows of loyalty to of individual givers throughout the churches who decline the constitution of his Church at his ordination, would be further to contribute their funds through the Assembly's willing to pledge support to a corrupt Board, if corrupt? Board to the support of rationalistic unbelief on the foreign There is not a man of us that would do it. field. The new Board is not competitive for the reason 'l'he writer holds no brief for any student or group, but that it simply receives funds for foreign mi sions which he claims to have some degree at least of a sense of right­ would not otherwise be given to missions, but diverted to eousness, and stands upon hi liberty a a minister of the other objects, and possibly not through Presbyterian chan­ Gospel of Christ to protest the attempt of the General nels at all. It becomes an adjunct thereby of the As­ Council and the Assembly to crush a group of students and sembly's Board in promoting and fostering constitutional theologians devoted to the Word of God and the Gospel of and evangelical foreign missions, and as such should be Jesus Christ because they regard them as fanatical, schis­ welcomed by the Assembly and its Board. matic and obscurant. It smacks of the "blood purge" of The fact on the contrary that tbe General Council one Herr Ilitler, a revival of medieval despotism. Such through the Assembly is seeking to crush the School of persecution has rent denominations asunder, and caused Bible believing Christianity sponsoring the Independent the blood of martyrs to flow. Board betrays its rationalistic sympathy and animus. Is it not inconsistent for the General Assembly to throw Otherwise wby should the Assembly oppose the organiza­ obstacles in the way of candidates for the Gospel ministry tion of an Independent Board if it augments the gifts of so splendidly trained as these several young men who haye the people to foreign missions by the reclamation of gifts prepared themselves by years of education for the Lord's which would otherwise be lost? service; who love His Word as a plenarily inspired, super­ That there has been doctrinal corruption in the Foreign natural revelation from God to sinner , and who are loyal Board is attested by the presence of numbers of rational­ to the con titution of their church; to say to them upon istic missionaries on our foreign fields today, and the the threshold of their ministry, with the bloom of youth retention of Mrs. Pearl Buck, whose religious beliefs were upon their cheeks, and the fire of hope and holy purpose nothing short of sheer apostacy, a stench in the nostrils of in their eyes, "We are not willing for you to preach the Almighty God, long -after her presence in China was pro­ gospel of Christ to perishing sinner unless you support tested by the Church at large. This blot upon the As­ unequivocally the appointed Boards and Agencies of the sembly's Board can never be erased. It has shaken the General Assembly whether they be corrupted with false confidence of the entire Church in its doctl'inal integrity. doctt"ine or not," and allow the compromising, temporiz­ Little wonder that large numbers in the Churches decline ing AUQIH'n Affirrnationists to remain in the churches and October, 1934 CH RI STIANITY T ODAY 115

bore from within, corrupting the doctrine and destroying concedes the priority of the conscience over church synods the peace and unity of the churches? Is this righteous? or councils, (Conf. XX, II), "God alone is Lord of the Is it constitutional? conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and Is ~t righteous for the Presbyteries to refuse ordination commandments of men which are in anything contrary to to young candidates so splendidly evangelical and magnifi­ His Word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship." cently equipped to preach the gospel of Christ? If they The action of the Assembly reflects the eternal antago­ failed to fulfill the requirements of 0UI' doctrinal stand­ nism of the natural man to the supernatural, and marks ards, it would be quite another matter. But here they the attempt of the rationalists of the Church to crush the stand, splendidly orthodox, creditably versed in their aca­ evangelicals and their School of the Prophets. If the demic and theological parts, with a passion for the 'Word Presbyteries and General Assembly wish to debar true, of God dearer than life, and a passion for souls, seeking loyal, evangelical men from preaching the gospel of Christ the authority of their brethren of the Presbyteries to in their pulpits, let them put the Auburn Affirmationists . preach the gospel of the Lord of Life to perishing sinners. out of the;,r' pulpits as an evidence of good faith. Shall any minister of Christ, in the presence of his Lord, Here is the whole tt'ouble with the oll1Urches and fot'eign standing with pleading eyes and outstretched hands with fields! Let the Presbyteries charge these disloyal minis­ the nail prints, and saying, "feed my sheep," say no! to ters of the gospel (spare the name) with heresy, and with these candidates becau e, forsooth, of a verbal technicality disturbing the peace and unity of the churches, and try by which the Assembly seeks to force them against their them on the charges. There is not one of them that could conscience to pledge support to a Board whose doctrinal stand up under an evangelical examination. A few good corruptions they can not approve? Does not loyalty of the old-fashioned heresy trials would be a wholesome means conscience to that great imperative, "feed my sheep," of purging the churches of the doctrinal corruption that supersede any ecclesiastical c(IJ()eat? The Constitution infests them today.

Professor Bryden's Apologia: A Review By John Murray [The Editors feel privileged to be able to publish this evaluation of the new book, entitled "Why I am a Presbyterian," by the Rev. Prof. W. W. Bryden, M.A., D.D., Professor of Church History and the History and Philosophy of Religion, Knox College, Toronto. Mr. Murray is instructor in Systematic Theology in Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.]

--;;:=~ HE aim of this volume as the name indicates is future is with that Church which will courageously take to vindicate the refusal on the part of the author her stand for a more positive and definitely theological to enter the union of Churches consummated in understanding of the Christian faith, and this in a re­ va,J.laua in 1925. A publication of this kind after nine years newed and vital understanding of doctrine along the tra­ of retrospect from the pen of one who can view the situa­ ditional lines." (p. 95.) Much more might be quoted to tion before and after the union with such intelligence and which we could give hearty endorsement. discrimination we welcome as calculated to throw a great It is disappointing, therefore, to have to proceed to dis­ deal of light on the history of the Church in Canada for agree so basically with Professor Bryden. We can, how­ the last few decades. ever, do no otherwise. We find ourselves, moreover, entirely sympathetic to the In chapter ii a reference is made to an episode in the main thesis of Professor Bryden's book, the justification early life of the continuing Presbyterian Church in Canada:. of the existence of a continuing Presbyterian Church in It is the resolution adopted by the continuing Presbyterian Canada. The Presbyterian Church in Canada has a great Assembly in 1925, giving enthusiastic reaffirmation of very tradition and we are opposed to a union that would strict adherence to the Standards of the Church. He recog­ sacrifice so great a heritage. This the recent union would nizes with sympathy that this resolution was largely due without question have done. to a feeling of resentment in the minds of many against It is gratifying to find Professor Bryden expose so what they believed to be an unfaithful ministry. "At the frankly "the highly disreputable propaganda" conducted same time," he proceeds, "we believe that the passing of by exponents of the union cause. Our agreement, however, that resolution was most unfortunate from any angle we goes much deeper than opposition to many of the methods care to consider it, and particularly for the continuing and arguments used to make the union an accomplished Presbyterian Church" (p. 44). fact. Professor Bryden finds his main argument against It is quite possible that this action was ill-considered union in the realm of doctrine. "In any great movement," as to method and time. It may have been done as Professor he says, "we must first of all be able to perceive that at Bryden suggests in an atmosphere of passion and largely its heart there are powerful and urgent convictions" in ignorance. Such circumstances are, of course, to be (p. 70). "For it would appear almost certain that the deplored. But Professor Bryden's condemnation embraces 116 CHR I STI ANITY TOD AY October, 1934 not only conditions of this kind but the thing in itself. to her subordinate standard is necessitated in Professor This, in the judgment of the present writer, intimates a Bryden's case by what we believe to be his radical de­ clear-cut divergence on Professor Bryden's part from the parture at vital points from Reformed Theology. The cleav­ historic position of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. age becomes nowhere more vocal than in his doctrine of The very claim to be continuing implied in itself affirma­ Holy Scripture. By our doctrine of Scripture, after all, tion of adherence to these standards in accordance with will be determined our Theology. the "Basis of Union" of 1875 and the formula of subscrip­ There are two wholly different views of what constitutes tion for all officebearers of the Church as in vogue then the Word of God. One view is that the Word of God is and now. Otherwise the claim would be blatant hypocrisy. to be identified with Holy Scripture, that the Bible is Those refusing to enter the union of 1925 had, of course, "immediately inspired of God" and therefore in all its the opportunity to initiate in a constitutional way changes extent and in all its parts the Word of God inerrant and in the creed and constitution of the Church. They could infallible. This is the position of our Reformed Theology have altered their Standards or relaxed subscription to and is embodied in our Reformed creeds. The other view them. This, however, would have prevented them from the is that a distinction is to be made between the Word of right to use the word continuing though they might have God and Scripture, that the Word of God is not to be by so doing been accorded the right to assume the name identified with the letter of Scripture. On this position the Presbyterian. But this is the very thing that was not done. affirmation that the Bible is God's word in no way involves The contention was emphatically that the integrity of the an infallible Scripture and this because the Word of God position of the pre-union Presbyterian Church was fully is not to be identified with the letter of Scripture but, to preserved. Hence the reaffirmation of 1925 was simply the quote Prof. Bryden's words, ''With the witness of God con­ affirmation of what was according to their claim already tained in that Scriptme to men of faith." (p. 86.) This a fact. How can an affirmation of this kind then be an is the view given widespread currency today in the action to be deplored? Indeed, it would appear to have been Barthian Theology. It is the view Pro{essor Bryden a r-eculiarly appropriate time for the declaration of the avowedly and wholeheartedly adopts. A concrete example fact. appears on page 16. Referring to John xvii, 11, 21, 22 he The "Basis of Union" of 1875 says explicitly, "The says, "Scholars are well aware that there have been grave Westminster Confession of Faith shall form the subordi­ doubts as to whether this particular pra,yer of Jesus, in nate standard of this Church: the Larger and Shorter which the afore-mentioned verses are embodied, together Catechisms shall be adopted by the Church and appointed with many similar passages in this gospel, ai'e to be to be used for the instruction of the people; it being dis­ a ttributed directly to Jesus Himself. St. John's gospel tinctly understood that nothing contained in the aforesaid is not primarily a historic record of the life of Jesus; it Confession or Catechisms regarding the power and duty is rather an interpretation of that life and of the experi­ of the civil magistrate shall be held to sanction any prin­ ence of the Church." (cf. also p. 65.) ciples or views inconsistent with full liberty of conscience Which view is the Presbyterian Church in Canada to in matters of religion." The formula of subscription for hold, the view that allows of many errors, contradictions, ministers, elders and deacons on ordination Art. (2) unhistoricities in the very autographs of Holy Scripture, reads, "Do you believe the Westminster Confession of or the view that the Bible is from beginning to end "im­ Faith, as adopted by this Church in the Basis of Union to mediately inspired of God" and therefore inerrant? There be founded on and agreeable to the Word of God, and in can be no question as to what the confession of the Pres­ your preaching do you promise faithfully to adhere byterian Church in Canada has historically been and to thereto?" * what view by solemn subscription every officebearer is These have not changed their meaning and intent. The committed. latter is the solemn vow of every officebearer in the Church. But Professor Bryden (as al 0 many others) takes the It was surely to this well-defined position that the re­ position that the view he represents is the view of the affirmation of 1925 had reference. And yet Professor early Reformers and even of the Westminster Confession. Bryden says it is to be deplored from every angle we may "Moreover," he says referring to the original Reformed view it; to reaffirm, let it be remembered, that to which Church, "in consideration of their distinctive interpreta­ every officebearer had already solemnly pledged himself! tion of what the Word of God signified-many claims to The question here is not mainly one of theology; it is one the contrary-they did not, at first, mean to identify that of ethics. Underlying is an attempt by unconstitutional lV01-a with the mere letter of Scripture." (p. 46.) Again method to get away from the plain terms of solemn sub­ he says, "We should not however pass on without observ­ scription. iug 'What these R eformers meant by H o,ly Sm-ipt'Ulre. . .. This rather pronounced divergence of view from that Their writings everywhere imply that they were making which now in fact obtains of the relation of the Church a distinction between what they denominate at times as the 'Word of God' and Scripture, that is, as the latter * The General Assembly of 1889 with the approval of Presbyteries may be simply read and understood in an external way," passed a resolu tion allowing liberty of opinion in respect to the propo­ sition in the Westminster Confession; Chap. xxiv, section 4, "A man and finally quoting Professor Daniel Lamont's interpre­ may not marry any of his wife's kindred nearer in blood than he may of his own" (c.f. Book of Forms, p. 100). tation of the Westminster Confession, "The Scripture is October. 1934 CHRISTI AN ITY TO DAY 117 authoritative only as it is borne home to a man by the Scripture as a divine product quite objective to us and testimony of the Holy Spirit." (pp. 91-92.) antecedent in the nature of the case to any reaction on Neither Professor Bryden nor Professor Lamont is the our part. The source of our conviction or persuasion of first to make this contention. It is now becoming quite that divine character and authority is the "inward work ancient. But it is gross misunderstanding and mi repre­ of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word sentation. The Westminster Confession makes no such dis­ in our hearts,"-a subjective operation that ever continues tinction. In Chap. i, sect. ii, it says, "Under the name of with the Spirit's saving operations and the effect of which Holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now con­ is the fact of conviction in our consciousness. No further tained all the books of the Old and New Testaments, which explication of so elementary a distinction is necessary. are these ;-... All which are given by inspiration of God, Professor Bryden may disagree with the Oonfession but to be the rule of faith and life." As the late B. B. Warfield he has no right to misrepresent it and introduce confusion points out (cf. "The Westminster Assembly and its Work" where there is plainness.* Art. "The doctrine of Holy Scripture"), the Confession We have, however, touched upon what is in this regard defines Holy Scripture in this section both extensively and the central divergence of the Barthian Theology from intensively, quantitatively and qualitatively, as in section Reformed Theology . .According to the former, Holy Scrip­ iii it defines it exclusively. The peculiar quality of Scrip­ ture in its own right as the inspired Word of God does ture is that it is "given by inspiration of God" or as in not have objective authority. It could not have because, in section viii, "immediately inspired of God" and because its judgment, it is fallible. Consequently the inward testi­ so it is the Word of God and "infallible truth." Inspiration mony of the Holy Spirit involves at the outset a dis­ is not defined, but it is stated to be a fact and it is this tinguishing operation, distinguishing what in Scripture is fact that makes Scripture to be the Word of God. Holy the Word of God. It is only what He (the Holy Spirit) Scripture is the extent of inspiration and since inspiration distinguishes as God's Word that is authoritative. The is, as Warfield observes, asserted to be pervasive, "Holy effect of this is to get away entirely from what is an ob­ Scripture" and "the Word of God written" are synony­ jective absolute norm of faith. It is to remove the standard mous. In other words Holy Scripture is identified with of faith from the objective sphere of revealed fact norma­ the Word of God. We may say not only that the Bible is tive for and binding upon all irrespective of their attitude the Word of God but also-since former ways of God's to it, to something else. revealing his will unto his people are now ceased (cf., It was not thus that our Reformed Theologians con­ sect. I)-that the Word of God is the Bible. Confirmatory ceived of Scripture nor of the inward testimony' of the of this is what the Confession says in Chap. xiv, 2, "By Spirit in relation to it. They conceived of the inward testi­ this faith, a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is mony as having the effect of producing in our minds a revealed in the Word, for the authority of God himself full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth of speaking therein," etc. Scripture as in toto The Word of God. By reason of the per­ In Section iv of this same chapter the Confession deals fection and infallibility of Scripture the Holy Spirit did with the authority of Scripture. "The authority of the not need to distinguish. His function they conceived of as Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and regenerative and illuminative in the mind of man, so that obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or the darkening effects of sin being removed we might be Ohurch, but wholly upon God, (who is truth itself) the persuaded of the divine origin and authority of the whole author thereof; and therefore it is to be r eceived because of Scripture. it is the word of God." The ground of authority is the fact The Barthian Theology therefore differs from Reformed that God is its author. It is to be received simply because Theology on what are the two pillars of the latter, the it is the Word of God and it is the Word of God because doctrines of Holy Scripture and of the inward testimony given by inspiration of God. Let it then be distinctly of the Spirit. marked that the Oonfession does not rest the authority of It is the conviction of the present writer that the ulti­ Scripture upon the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit, mate tendency of such a position is just that subjectivism but upon the fact of inspiration (cf. also Sect. iii). which has been the bane of l\fodern Theology and which It is just here that Professor Bryden's interpretation is we generally associate with the name of Schleiermacher. fatally incorrect. He interprets the Confession as teaching If this movement of thought becomes dominant in the that Scripture is "authoritative only as it is borne home Presbyterian Church in Oanada, then a truly Reformed to a man by the testimony of the Holy Spirit." (p. 92.) He testimony will be just as effectively destroyed as it would has failed to grasp the simple distinction which the Oon­ * Dr. B. B. Warfield in two article" "The Westminster Doctrine of fession eloquently makes. It is the distinction between the Holy Scriptme" and "The Doctrine of Inspiration of the Westminster authority of Scripture and our "full persuasion and as­ Divines," published originally in "The Presbyterian and R eformed Re­ view" (1893) and "The Presbyterian Quarterly" (1894) respectively, surance of the infallible truth and divine authority and recently reprinted in the volume, "The Westminster Assembly and Its Work," shows conclusively by extended quotations that the high thereof." With the ground of authority it deals in sections doctrine of inspiration contained in the Westminster Confession was iii and iv; with our full apprehension of that authority the doctrine of the l'epresentative Theologians of the R eformed Church of the time. It is not difficult to show as Prof. T. C. Johnson of Union in section v. The ground of authority is the fact of inspira­ Seminary, Richmond, Va., bas done in "The Evangelical Qnarterly," July, 1932, that this is tbe doctrine of the theologian of the Reformed tion, of divine authorship-something characteristic of Church, John Calvin. 118 CHRISTIANITY TODAY October, 1934 be by what Professor Bryden assails as Modernism. May consistent witness to the Lord and SavioUl' Jesus Christ, we make om humble appeal to the mini try and people of to avoid such a catastrophe. this Church, which ha by the singular grace and provi­ Westminster Theological Seminary dence of God so marvelous an opportunity for true and Philadelphia, Pa., U. S. A.

disciple may not leave out of consideration Sunday School Lessons for October a man's relation to the love of Christ and (International Uniform Series) to the Word that He has spoken. Conse­ quently, the life of a Christian is not merely By the Rev. Prof. N. B. Stonehouse, Th.D. a life in conformity to Christ's example but also a life of obedience to His w07·d. It has Lesson for October 7, 1934 the teaching of Jesus, is not a kind of mys­ been the fashion in recent years for the tic experience which exists apart from what "leaders" of the church to formulate elabor­ FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST Christ did for the disciples in dying for ate programs of social reform which are said to be an expression of the spirit and (Lesson Text-John 15 :1-16. Golden Te xt them upon the cross. Abiding in Christ is principles of Jesus, but we lack evidence of -verse 4.) abiding in His love (9). The true disciple is the object of Christ's love, and this love of a concern to abide in the revealed word of N the background of the departure of Christ found expression in His laying down Christ. The fruits of the branches must be O Judas from the intimate fellowship of of His life for them (13 f.). No one can the fruits of the Vine, and the surest guar­ the inner ci.rcle, Jesus sets forth in these possibly understand or obey the exhorta­ antee that Christ will honor and claim our verses the character of true discipleship. tion to love as Christ loved unless he grasps efforts as His own is for us to order our The branch which fails to bear fruit, he the true character of Christ's redemptive life as individuals and as a church accord­ tells us, is cut off and is cast into the fire work on Calvary. And only the Scriptural ing to His Word, for it is through the of judgment, but the branches which have teaching of the substitutionary character of Word of God that He nourishes and cleanses been purified face the happy destiny of Christ's giving of Himself in death in the and sustains our relation to Him. bringing forth an abundance of fruit to the stead of His disciples adequately expresses delight of the Husbandman. the love of Christ. A true disciple, there­ How can those who have remained with fore, is one who continues as the object of Lesson for October 14, 1934 Him make sure of the fulfillment of the the love of Him who went "even to the cross THE CHRISTIAN AND HIS BIBLE purpose of their call to discipleship? The because He had set His love upon him. (Lesson Text-Acts 8 :26-39. Golden Text answer of Jesus in this discourse is that Nor does the experience of abiding in -Ps. 119 :97.) this purpose can be realized only if they Christ take its rise or sustain itself apart sustain a living relationship to Christ. They from what Christ has spoken. It was to The discussion of the lesson for October 7 are told that they are branches, and His disciples, who stand in so intimate a has shown how indispensable the Word is to branches do not bear fruit of themselves, relation to I:.Iim that He calls them the Christian disciple. It was through the but only as they retain their organic con­ "friends," that Jesus granted the privilege Word that Christ had spoken that they had nection with the vine itself. "Apart from of knowing all the things that He had heard been set apart for fruitful service, and this me ye can do nothing" (5); but abiding in from the Father (15; cf. Mt. 11:27), And service which was defined in terms of obedi­ Christ they shall be true disciples, and bear this revelation of Christ, His WORD, is ence to His words could be accomplished much fruit to the glory of the Father (8). the instrument by which the new life comes only if the disciples abode in what He had It is important to observe that abiding in to expression and reaches its true fruition. spoken. The story of Philip and the Ethi­ Christ is not represented as an act or proc­ The Word of Christ is the instrument opian illustrates the way in which one true ess which can be carried out by anyone at through which the disciples come to stand disciple, abiding in the Word, used it to the any time through one's own initiative and in a new, decisive relationship to Him who salvation of one to whom he was called to strength. The new relationship to which secures for them a future of fruit-bearing minister. Jesus calls His disciples does not find its to the glory of the Father. "Already ye are As a true servant of the Word Philip set origin in man but is God-centered from be­ clean through the word that I have spoken forth the teaching of the whole Word. He ginning to end. The whole enterprise in unto you" (3 ; cf. 6:68; 17:6). And having did not tell the Ethiopian that the Old which they are engaged is God's. It belongs become true disciples through the Word Testament could very well be dispensed with to Him, is planned by Him, and exists for that He has spoken, and their reception of in the Age of the Spirit and that its exter­ His glory. And Jesus presses home the it, they are subjected, as fruit-bearing nal authority would prove a hindrance to subordinate position which man occupies in branches, to a further cleansing process at his free spiritual development. But he took the endeavor when he reminds them that the hand of the Husbandman that they may his stand firmly upon these inspired Scrip­ their peculiar relation to Him, the true bear more fruit (2). And the continuous, tures, and beginning with the prophecies of Vine, is not of their own making but His: living relationship to Christ which results the Old Testament he went on to show how "Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and will necessarily involve an abiding in the they had been fulfilled in Christ. Only he appointed you that ye should go and bear words of Christ (7). who accepts the authority of the whole fruit, and that your fruit should abide, that Being a Christian is commonly defined Word of God and recognizes its wonderful whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my today too exclusively in terms of following unity in its divine authorship is fit to come name, he may give it you." To pray in the Christ's example. So The Westminste7' Adult to the help of those who are perplexed as name of Christ is not, as the treatment of Bible Class, commenting on this lesson, p. to its teaching. this lesson in The Westminster Inte1'1'1'Lediat'e­ 611, says: "To be a Christian in the twen­ And as a true servant of the Word Philip Senior Qua1·te1'Zy states, to pray "in his tieth century is to treat people as Christ set forth the central and unifying message spirit," that is, "for the kind of things that treated them in the first century, to love of the Word: he preached unto him Jesus. Christ wants," but is rather to come to God the things that he loved, to do such things Isaiah, he told the Ethiopian in answer to pleading one's unique relationship to Christ as he did." True, our passage sets forth his question, was not speaking concerning as a disciple. Jesus as an example in calling upon us to himself or any other mere man but concern­ And genuine discipleship, according to love as He loved. But a definition of a true ing the Lord's · Anointed. How different the October. 1934 C HRISTIANIT Y TODAY 11 9 message of many a modern! For him the this fundamental truth has led! If the feel this evidence of thy grace in us that it Bible is a great book of religious experience words of Jesus which make up our lesson is our firm resolution from t he heart to of such variety that every possible experi­ text were not really intended for Christians, forgive our neighbor." ence that we may have finds some parallel we should seek elsewhere an answer to the there. And all that we need to do is to re­ question how we as disciples should pray. cover the experience from the Bible and But the issue is decided not only from the Lesson for October 28. 1934 use it in our daily life (See The West­ specific address of the words of Jesus (see THE CHRISTIAN'S STANDARD OF LIFE minster Adult Bible Class, October, 1934, also Luke 11 :2), but as well from the con­ (Lesson Text-El)h, 4:17-27; 5:15-21. pp. 620 f.). And for the modernist even the tent of the prayer itself. Golden Text-Eph. 5 :18.) experience of Jesus does not go beyond the Who but a true child of God can address mer ely human. But Philip as a true Him as Father? As the Heidelberg Cate­ The branches of the true Vine have been preacher of the Gospel spoke concerning chism so beautifully answers the question made clean through the Word but they are "Another" who had suffered and died ac­ why Christ commanded us to address God in need of further pruning in order that cording to the Scriptures. The prophets had in this way: "That immediately, in the very they may bring forth more "fruit-this preached this Gospel beforehand (cf. beginning of our prayer, He might excite teaching of the first lesson of t he month is Romans 1: 2; 16: 26), and now it had been in us a childlike reverence and confidence developed here in more didactic form. The wrought out in Christ's life and death. in God, which are the foundation of our Christian disciple is a man who has learned And it was not accidental that Philip prayer; namely, that God is become our Christ, has heard Him and has been taught began at Isaiah 53. Some have suggested Father in Christ, and will much less deny the truth as it is in Jesus (4:20 f.), and the that the reading of this passage by the us what we ask of Him in true faith than living, personal relationship with Christ in­ Ethiopian may have been due to contact our parents will refuse us eal·thly things." to which the disciple has entered involves with the Christian movement in Jerusalem. At the same time the disciple is not allowed from the beginning a life of holiness and However that may be, there can be no to forget for even a moment that in prayer fruitfulness. But the Christian convert must doubt that the Spirit who guided Philip to he has to do with a holy and sovereign grow in sanctification. Sanctification is de­ him prepared the way by bringing to the Being. In the teaching of Jesus there is not fined by the Shorter Catechism, in close de­ attention of the Ethiopian this passage a trace of the modern notion of the univer­ pendence upon Eph. 4 :22-24, as ('the work which had been so much in the thoughts of sal Fatherhood of God nor of the senti­ of God's free grace, whereby we are re­ the early Christians and the early preachers mentality which is often attached to that newed in the whole man after the image of of the Gospel. For this great description of name. He is our Father which art in heaven. God, and are enabled more and more to die the Suffering Servant of Jehovah was effec­ His is the kingdom and the power and the unto sin, and live unto righteousness." tive at once for the propagation of the glory; and in earth as in heaven His name There must be a bl'eak with the old manner Gospel and for its defense against the must be hallowed, His kingdom must come of life which, not being under the control Jewish blasphemy of the Crucified One. and His will must be done. of t he Word and Spirit of Christ, was And finally there is a suggestion here The objection which is most often ad­ characterized by darkness of understanding that as a true servant of the Word Philip vanced by those who contend that the and hardness of heart, and resulted in all did not present an abbreviated message nor Lord's Prayer is not for Christians is manner of sin, The life of the Christian is an emaciated Gospel but the full counsel of raised in connection with the fifth petition: therefore a life of separation from the world God. For is it not evident from what fol­ Forgive us our debts as we forgive our because it is a life in union with Christ. The lowed that Philip had acquainted the Ethi­ debtors. If our forgiveness by God depends new life, because it has been created in opian with the ordinances of Christ so that upon our forgiveness of those who sin righteousness and holiness of truth, is a when conviction came the new convert him­ against us, it is said, what of the doctrines life of new interests and new affections. It is self raised the question why he should not of grace and of the blood of Christ as the a life which has no room for impurity or at once be baptized? A modernist preacher only ground of forgiveness of sin? But this falsehood but only for a love of goodness would look upon such pTocedure as giving objection errs in supposing that the prayer and truth so fervent that anger will not be too much prominence to the "externals" of mentions anything of the ground of forgive­ unknown to it, yet withal an anger that religion, or he might go further and con­ ness, which at all times and for all persons is not nursed until it gives the Devil an demn Philip for his "magic" and "sacra­ can be only the finished work of Christ. The opportunity to lead to sin (4 :25-27). It is mentarianism." But Philip who preached prayer teaches us how we should pray for a life of new opportunities and new en­ the Gospel so simply that even a pagan from forgiveness, as for everything else, and the deavor (5:16); of new exhilaration and new afar understood at the same time avoided man who turns to God with an unforgiving joy because one has so many new reasons to the fatal error of setting forth a reduced spirit in his heart and yet presumes to ask be thankful (5: 17-20) ; and of a new readi­ Christianity which ends up in not being for forgiveness is no more likely to have ness to wOl'k for the good of others (4: 25 ; Christianity at all. his petition answered than the hypocrites 5:21) , who pray to be approved of men or the But the call to live a life of separation heathen who try to worry t heir deities into because the days are evil is something other Lesson for October 21. 1934 a favorable attitude. Only the child of God, than a life of asceticism. Even the evil days THE CHRISTIAN AT PRAYER who has experienced the grace of God in his are under the control of the Almighty and heart, including the grace of a forgiving the earth remains the Lord's. The good gifts (Lesson Text-Matt. 6 :5-15. Golden Text spirit, can turn to his Father in the assur­ of God are to be received with humble grati­ -Romans 12:12.) ance of the forgiveness of his sins. Quoting tude. There is a right use of God's gifts and The Sermon on the Mount is not a mis­ again from the Heidelbe?'g Catechism the an abuse of them, and the abuse of them sionary address but a disclosure to Jesus' answer to the question as to the meaning should be corrected by instruction in the own disciples concerning the good news of of this petition: "Be pleased for the sake of right use of them in accordance with the the Kingdom (4 :23; 5:2). To what gross Christ's blood not to impute to us poor principles of God's Word. It is true that misunderstanding of the Sermon, including sinners our transgressions, nor that deprav­ there are times when our exercise of our the Lord's Pl'ayer, the failure to observe ity which always cleaves to us; even as we rights, even in a temperate fashion, may 120 CHRISTIANITY TODAY October. 1934 prove an occasion of stumbling for our credit to the work and cause of God among with the temptation also make a way to weaker brethren, and then we must be ready men! escape, that ye may be able to bear it." to give up our rights and be guided by love We should greatly fear lest we be a "In the hour of trial, alone. But the duty of controlling the exer­ shame to the godly. What man is not weak Jesus plead for me; cise of our Christian liberty by love may and ready to fall! This weakness so keenly Lest by base denial never be construed as the justification for felt by the Psalmist caused him to cry to the setting up of a system of asceticism God. The guarantee of our steadfastness I depart from Thee: which is imposed upon all. For such a pro­ rests in God. He is able to bear the weak­ When Thou seest me waver, cedure has no basis in the Word of God, est through the time of testing. "God is With a look recall, and would crush all liberty and suppress faithful, who will not suffer you to be N or for fear or favor the conscience. tempted above that ye are able; but will Suffer me to fall."

The Comfort of the Scriptures A DEVOTIONAL MEDITATION Two Open Letters to Dr. Covert By the Rev. David Freeman. Th.M. "Let not them that wwit on thee, 0 Lord and A Minister's Comment God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for California element of our Church had not already my sake, 0 God of Ismel." (Psalm 69:6.) seen Union Seminary and Auburn Seminary lost to the doctrinal standards of our Church be sure, the Lord knows those who SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA. o -and felt that Princeton Seminary was are His. But they bear about continu­ August 16th, 1934. T slipping. ally the marks of their sonship. Those who REV. DR. w. c. COVERT, Chairman, 4. So, too, the "Independent Board for are set apart to be holy must actually be Administmtive Committee of the General Presbyterian Foreign Missions" is a nat­ holy. Council, Presbyte?'ian Church in the ural, historic protest against the "modern­ The business of a merchant is known by U.S.A. istic" tendency of the regular Board for what he sells. A Christian's stock in trade GREETINGS: Presbyterian Foreign Missions. You who is not in what he has but in what he hopes should be able to "discern the face of the for. He sets in store by the promises of Your general letter of August bt, ad­ heavens"-politically and ecclesiastically­ God alone. He walks by faith not by sight. dressed to "Our Ministers and Church surely do not need to have all this explained His conversation centers about Him who is Sessions," is received and will be brought to in detail by "the men in the pew.'~ Tens of invisible. their attention in due course. thousands of us devoted laymen in the Men command and threaten but they who Having made careful study of the spirit Church understand the whole situation are the Lord's possession look only and and content of your official communication, thoroughly. Go slow in "cracking down" on have regard only to what God wills and I am moved to make the following observa­ the Independent Board, until you clean commands. The outcome of what men might tions regarding this whole affair. Remember house elsewhere. do, the godly are content to leave to the that I speak only as a fair-minded Christian righteous judgment of God. layman. Yours for a unified, purified Church, Whatever the judgment of men may be 1. In directing this broadside attack upon EDWIN B. TILTON, upon those who will obey only God's com­ the "Independent Board for Presbyterian Clerk of Session, Calvary P,·es. Church mandment and refuse to hearken to earthly Foreign Missions" the 1934 General As­ authorities, they are commended of God. sembly is undertaking to fight the symptoms God smiles upon those who do His will. instead of the disease. The causes for this New Jersey "divisive and schismatic influence" which The smile of God is precious to those who Rev. William C. Covert, D.D ., has arisen in our church lie far deeper than believe. For God's smile they readily ex­ Moderator of Genentl Assembly, the founding of any independent Church change every earthly favor. Philadelphia, Pa. The Psalmist in his cry to God prays to Board, whether with or without constitu­ be kept from ever listening to any but the tional authority. If unaware of this, per­ My Dear Sir: voice of God. For such yielding, such un­ haps you are too close to officialdom to sense A S a layman of the Presbyterian Church, faithfulness will bring not only shame upon what is really happening in our beloved .tl.it has been laid upon my heart to write himself but will also cast reproach upon the Presbyterian Church. with reference to certain statements that rest of the godly. To disown the Lord's way 2. This "divisive and schismatic influence" recently have appeared in print concerning affects the life of the whole body of Christ. which the last General Assembly seems the Independent Board for Presbyterian "Let not them that wait on thee, 0 Lord bent on stamping out had its inception in Foreign Missions. God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake." the signing of the Auburn Affirmation, A quotation from a letter which appeared By the unfaithfulness of one the testi­ years ago. Then was the time for our church in the press states that "These independent mony of the true and upright is weakened. councils to get busy and do some drastic organizations do not operate as antagonists Unfaithfulness spreads unfaithfulness and disciplining. Was anything done? and critics of our own Board of Foreign reproach lies at the feet of God's children. 3. In my solemn judgment, the "divisive Missions, and do not base their appeals When we are unsteadfast God's grace and movement in the Presbyterian Church which upon attacks upon its personnel and meth­ power is thought by men insufficient to hold five years ago resulted in the establishment ods ...." us. God receives not glory from men on of an independent Seminary" flowed inevi­ This seems to indicate that the main our account. If we cause not God to be tably from that Auburn defection which was reason for the denial of the right to exist­ glorified we have failed in that which should allowed to go unpunished, or even unre­ ence of the new Independent Board is based be our chief aim. To fail in this is surely buked. The Westminster Seminary would upon the alleged claim that the new Board something to answer for in the judgment. not have been established, five years ago, is a "critic" of the p1"eSent Board. What could be worse than to be a dis- if the forward-looking, soundly evangelistic (1) This demonstrates clearly that there October, 1934 CHRISTIANITY TODA Y 121 is, therefore, no basis whatever for a de­ that fails to prevent a Committee from directed to sit in judgment upon some of mand, upon the part of the General Assem­ recommending literature which accuses those brethren who are pronounced "dis­ bly, that the Independent Board shall dis­ Jesus of releasing "within himself the full orderly and disloyal and subject to the disci­ band. creative power of believing that God was pline of the church?" Tampering with jury­ his Father" (?) What shall we say of a (2) The Independent Board has a just men is an offence known to courts of justice. mission Board that fails to prevent a Com­ But I needed coaching lest I fail to "de­ right to criticize the present Board. mittee from recommending literature which tect errors in fact and inference which (3) When a person, or a group (such as accuses Jesus of having a "method of mak­ abound in articles and statements appearing a Board), seeks to stiffle criticism, the per­ ing himself divine" (?) in the 'Press' attacking the constitutional­ son or group becomes a CenS01"; and censor­ Again-the laymen of our Church surely ity" of the General Assembly's action, in ship leads to tyrann1/! should not, for one moment, tolerate the condemning without one process of trial N ow-consider the following quotation spirit of "crack-down-ism"-of religious dic­ ministers of the Presbyterian Church for from a book that I have read and which is tatorship-which is manifesting itself in the their conscientious loyalty to the W01'd of alleged to have been recommended for de­ actions of the General Assembly of our God and adherence to the standards of the votional use: Church! The spirit of General Assembly in Church. To threaten with discipline for strict adherence to the Word of God and the other "There has been only one human being this case is driving the Church not merely standards is something new and radical in brave enough to release within himself the to "divisiveness" but to-war within the the Presbyterian Church! Let us pray full creative power of believing that God Church! was his Father. But unless Jesus' method rather to be delivered from ungenerous We are commanded, by God's Word, to suspicions, evil surmisings, and uncharitable of making himself divine can be imitated, earnestly contend for the faith. To contend judgments. Even Roman courts refused to his achievement is a mockery rather than is to "combat." It is to "combat" all that condemn without a hearing. (Acts 25:16.) a challenge.... " departs from the faith "once delivered unto I was not consulted about organizing The words of that quotation constitute an the saints." either Westminster Seminary or the Inde­ insult to Jesus Christ! Jesus did not, and It is easily seen why there is a necessity pendent Board of Foreign Missions (my does not, stoop to "achievement"! "Method" for the Independent Board for Presbyterian obscurity exempted me). But now the more and "achievement" have to do with mere Foreign Missions. vital issue of obeying God and maintaining humanity. Sincerely, liberty of conscience compels me to heartily Here is another quotation: ROBERT T. LORE. approve of both: and as far as in me is, to "The greatest risk God ever took was support their cause now classed as one. COLLINGSWOOD, N. J. when he let Jesus, as an actual man, embody "The right of individual members to give his attributes." their money or efforts to such missionary These quotations are a plain denial of the Delaware objects as they may choose" being conceded, deity of Jesus Clwist. But Jesus Christ is how does it come about that I an individual To the Editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY: God! Here are three proofs: lose this right by becoming a member of a SIR: (1) Jesus declares: "for where two or session or Presbytery? Is not a session made three are gathered together in my name, Why did I (an obscure minister) have up of individuals? I rather thought my there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. to be instructed concerning a question liberty would be conserved by the session or 18:20.) so summarily settled "with great unanimity" Presbytery. Well, Mr. Editor, I am still a This is OMNIPRESENCE. by action of the General Assembly? Why Presbyterian, notwithstanding. these veiled threats of discipline? Was it T. S. ARMENTROUT. (2) J esus knows all men and He knows because I am a presbyter that may be all things. (John 2:24; 16:30.) Again-He WILMINGTON, DEL. searches the "reins and heads." (Rev. 2: 18, 23.) This is OMNISCIENCE. (3) Jesus is all powerful; His power is universal, for He has "power over all flesh." News of the Church (John 17:2.) This is OMNIPOTENCE. These ~IHee attributes belong to God, West Jersey Presbytery Takes After the report had been given, the Pres­ alone. As Jesus Christ is the only Person bytery by vote received it, filed it, and who has these attributes, therefore He is No Action on Independent Board passed on to its consideration of other busi­ God! Membership of the ness. It was privately reported that there It is easily seen that the quotations from was too much sentiment in the Presbytery the aforesaid booklet constitute non-Chris­ Rev. C. C. McIntire against disciplinary action. tian teaching. The denial of Jesus' deity is At the same session the Presbytery voted a denial of Jesus Himself. So, He h as pro­ EETING in regular session at Green­ to ordain and install two licentiates, Lorne nounced judgment against those who are M wich, N. J ., on September 11th, the H. Belden and William T. Strong. When guilty of such a state of mind, for He de­ Presbytery of West Jersey without a dis­ Mr. Belden replied, in answer to a categor­ clares: senting vote received a report containing no ical question whether his conscience would "But whosoever shall deny me before men, recommendations concerning the member­ be bound by the Word of God above the him shall I also deny before my Father ship of the Rev. C. C. Mcintire of Collings­ decision of the Assembly if there were a which is in heaven." (Matt. 10 :33.) wood, N. J ., on the Independent Board. The conflict between the two, that he would be Jesus decla1'ed Himself to be God, as is chairman of the committee to which the bound by the Bible, a spontaneous and seen in John 8 : 58, 59 and it was for that "instructions" of the General Assembly had thunderous volume of applause arose from reason, alone, that they took up stones to been referred reported that the committee the more than a hundred visitors and mem­ stone Him. felt unable to make any recommendation, bers of the Presbytery. The moderator, net­ What shall we say of a mission Board simply leaving it up to the Presbytery. tled, called for a vote to go into Executive 122 CHRISTIANITY TODAY October, 1934 session. The vote being carried by a major­ Schools. The writer knows of the following: The Reformed Church in ity, all visitors were expelled. Many of the First and Central, West, Westminster, and indignant people conducted a prayer meet­ Eastlake of Wilmington; Forest Church of America ing for the Presbytery on the lawn outside. Middletown, and Head of Christiana near By the Rev. Ge?'a1'd M. Van Pm'nis Newark. It is hoped that this ministry to the children will continue to grow in this A Revival of Calvinism? Dr. Will H. Houghton, Pastor section. Calvin and Calvinism. of Calvary Baptist Church, New Since the beginning of April the writer Little need to be said about the man John has been conducting a weekly program over Calvin. His biography as a Reformer of the York, to Become President of Station WDEL on Saturday at 5 P . M. for first rank, though not the first in point of Moody Bible Institute children. The program is called The Radio time, is so well known, that no detailed ac­ Bible School. count of his life and work are required. Born R. WILL H. HOUGHTON, pastor of the NEWARK, DEL. at Noyon, Picardy, in 1509, he lived and D Calvary Baptist Church, New York, labored until 1564. At the time of the Ref­ since 1930, announced his resignation on ormation which followed upon Luther's Sunday, September 9th, to become president Minnesota-Wisconsin Letter posting of.. the 95 thesis, Oct. 31st, 1517, of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. By the Rev. H. Warren Allen John Calvin was a mere lad. His conversion The resignation was tendered to the con­ to the "new learning" as the Reformation gregation at the Sunday morning sel'vice, ANNUAL reports show a marked gain movement was called, took place in the year after Dr. Houghton had spent a week in 1\.. over last year in the number of acces­ 1532. At that time Calvin was connected Chicago conferring with the Institute lead­ sions to the Church in the State of Minne­ with the Roman Church, having served for ers there. The call to the presidency was sota. The financial report is about the same. some time as chaplain of the church at extended unanimously by the Board of The increase of members received is no Noyon. He labored in turn at Paris, Basel Tl'ustees. He will succeed Dr. James M. doubt due in part to the Loyalty Crusade and Geneva. While in Basel (1536) he wrote Gray, who becomes president emeritus, but under the direction of Dr. Dowey, held last and issued his "Institutes of the Christian who will remain on the teaching faculty and November. Religion." He also wrote several tracts, and as editor of the Moody Bible Institute Goodrich Avenue Church of St. Paul, a commentary on the various Biblebooks of Monthly. Minnesota, observed its fiftieth anniversary the Old and New Testaments. At Geneva he The call to head the Moody Bible Institute on April 15th. The Rev. David V. Richard­ established a church government for the climaxes a religious career which has been son is the pastor. The Minnesota Pres­ municipality. After an illness of some two eminently successful. Dr. Houghton first byterian and Congregational Churches held years, he died in Geneva, May 27, 1564. commanded attention when as pastor of the an anniversary service in the chapel of Calvinism. Tabernacle in Atlanta, Georgia, he added Fort Snelling on Sunday, May 6th, in cele­ As a rule, Calvinism, is thought of as a 2000 members to the church rolls during a bration of the arrival of Samuel and Gideon system of religion, which places i~self over period of foul' years. From this unusual Pond to the Fort to do missionary work against Lutheranism, Anabaptism and So­ ministry he came to New York in January. among the Indians on May 6, 1834. Dr. J . T. cinianism. Among these various systems 1930, virtually unlmoWll in that section, to Bergen gave the address. These brothers Calvinism is distinctive as being diametri­ succeed the spectacular Dr. John Roach cally opposed to Arminianism. Again, Cal­ Straton in the Calvary Baptist Church. had a part in organizing the First Presby­ terian Church which celebrates its hun­ vinism is spoken of as being: Sectarian, dredth anniversary next year. Confessional, Ecclesiastical or even Scien­ Robert E. Speer is to be present at the tific. When spoken of as being sectarian, it Delaware-Maryland Letter is usually the enemies who do so, particularly June meeting of the Synod of Minnesota Rome who sees in Calvinism, the most By the Rev. Henry G. Welbon at Macalester Church, St. Paul. dang:l'ous form of Protestantism. Confes­ ABIBLE Conference was held July 26th to A Brotherhood Day service was held at sionally, Calvinism is usually referred to 1\.. 29th at the Forest Presbyterian Church, Westminster Presbyterian Church of Min­ as promoting the doctrine of "Election." Middletown, Del., the Rev. Robert H. Gra­ neapolis on April 29th, Dr. W. H. Boddy, The term is thus applied by those who op­ ham, pastor. The speakers were the Rev. pastor. George D. Dayton, prominent Pres­ pose the doctrine of Eternal Election. It Franklin W. Stevens, pastor of the Delaware byterian layman, presided, and two Jewish should be remembered however by those City Presbyterian Church; Ira V. Smith, rabbis took part in the service and gave who oppose Calvinism on that score, that the Rev. Charles J. Woodbridge, secretary addresses along y,'ith other prominent min­ Augustine antedated Calvin also with re­ of the Independent Board of Presbyterian isters of the city. This program, under the spect to this dogma. Foreign Missions, the Rev. John McComb, auspices of the Federation of Churches, was There have been Baptists and also Metho­ pastor of the Forest Park Church, Balti­ dists who prefixed their denominational more, Md., and Grace Livingston Hill. hailed as a great step forward in the move­ name with the word "Calvinistic," as a de­ At a pro l'e nata meeting of Presbytery ment for a world religion with brotherhood rivative from Calvinism. Spurgeon for one held July 27th, the pastoral relations exist­ as its creed. To be brotherly to our fellow­ called himself a "Calvinistic Baptist." The ing between the Rev. William W. Thompson men of whatever race or creed is nothing Whitefield Methodists of Wales call them­ of the Elkton Church, Md., and the Rev. new. Every sincere Christian has main­ selves "Calvinistic Methodists." The purpose AJbert E. Thomas of the Olivet Church, tained that attitude toward all men. But to of the use of the term in this "Ecclesiasti­ Wilmington, were dissolved. An exchange set Christ aside and engage in worship with cal" way, is no doubt to differentiate the par­ of pastors was effected by the Rev. William modernists and Jews who do not acknowl­ ticular confession of these groups. If truly W. Thompson being made stated supply of edge Christ as Saviour is an insult to the the Olivet Presbyterian Church until the . "Reformed," we shall not call the church of Son of God and instead of being modern Jesus Christ after any man. Then there is meeting of Presbytery to be held next is to move backward two thousand years. spring, and the Rev. Albert E. Thomas still a third use of the term "Calvinism." The cross of Christ is no longer a stumbling being made stated supply of the Elkton This use is still in vogue today. That is the block to the Jew, for the cross of Christ has Church until the same time. Scientific Method. Calvinism thus becomes A number of the churches of the Presby­ been set aside. a scientific term to be used partly in a tery have been conducting Summer Bible MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. historical,-ol' in a philosophical,-or in a October, 1934 CHRISTIANITY TODAY 123 political sense. Science speaks of Calvinism great central thoughts. Paganism, Moham­ as Calvinism opposed Arminianism, quick­ "Historically" to diffel'entiate the process of medanism, Roman Catholicism all present ened the churches and brought anew all Reformation, in so far as the form of this their views. Paganism brings God down to honor to the Sovereign God. The placing process was not Lutheran, neither Anabap­ the creature, by means of the creature. anew of emphasis upon this System, by tistic, nor yet Socinian. Calvinism is spoken Mohammedanism puts God at a great dis­ men like Dr. A. Kuyper and Dr. H. Bavinck of as a philosophy, in so far as it presents tance from the creature. Roman Catholi­ on yonder side of the Atlantic and a Dr. a system of ideas, concerning various cism brings God and man together by means Warfield on this side, has blessed the Re­ spheres of life, to which Calvin gave special of the Pope and the church. Calvinism formed Churches. Both its membership and emphasis. Politically Calvinism is spoken brings God and man together through Christ ministry have been established in the of as a movement in state economics, which, and the Creator and the creature can have truth. These men have been called to their in the constitutional life of the state, guar­ fellowship together by means of His Spirit. eternal l~eWa1'Cl. Once more the churches are anteed liberty to the nations. This liberty The conception of this threefold relation­ influenced by "del' Zeitgeist." A spiritual de­ was first enjoyed by Holland; after that "by ship determines what our individual life, England; and since 1776 also by the United our home, our common wealth shall be and pression is upon us in the sphere of special States. is directly responsible for conditions in the grace, and a material depression in the Calvinism, however, is not to be regarded world. The wrong conception shall lead to realm of common grace. True, progress is in the narrow sense of either sectarian, con­ a wrong life and to wrong conditions in life. being made along certain lines, but a retI·o­ fessional, or ecclesiastical. Calvinism indeed Paganism determines the life as also the gression along other, the more important, is to be regarded from a scientific stand­ conditions under which that life is lived. lines. Instead of Paganism we have Modem­ point. And then we see that Calvinism in­ Mohammedanism in turn shapes the lives of ism; instead of democracy, dictatorship is stead of being sectarian, confessional or its followers and creates a peculiar atmos­ the vogue. Instead of maintaining the doc­ merely ecclesiastical presents to us a "Life phere in which the Mohammedan moves. trine of creation, evolution has taken its and World View." And we further see, that Roman Catholicism also, witness those place and with it God is denied in part or this Life and World View, as presented by people and countries that are dominated "in toto." Calvinism, is the broadest, the profoundest, by Roman Catholicism, shapes the lives and We know the ends of the world are upon the noblest and the highest, any system ever forms the conditions of that life controlled us. We know also that Christ shall retum, has presented. by the same. So also, the l'ight conception yes! but to judgment. Shall it please God to of this threefold relationship shall regulate Calvinism is also the purest of all sys­ give us once more seasons of refreshing as tems. And when we say this, we take for and govern our life and conduct and bring in the days of the Reformation? We know our standard of comparison the Infallible about conditions which tend towards true not. But this we do know, namely, what Word of God. Compared by that Word we happiness. Undoubtedly Calvinism presents confess that Calvinism is in harmony with the true Life and World View. Time has God requires, to retu1"1t to Him and to His these Divine Scriptures. Hence in speaking tested it; history has proven it to be such. Wat·d. of Calvinism, we do not think of the man And that because Calvinism is God's revela­ Here and there a voice is hear'd which John Calvin, who, under God, was permitted tion. Long before Calvin, Augustine taught encourages the children of God. Not all are to present this Life and World View. He it. Before Augustine, Paul preached it. We bowing before Baal. God still has His watch­ was not the originator of this Life and find it in the prophets, by Moses, among the men on Zion's walls. We have had in the last World View, but an able exponent of the Patriarchs. It is of God. Hence there is no years a Hodge and a Warfield presenting same at a time, when it pleased God, to give "Neo-Calvinism," neither is there an "old­ this Life and World View. Rev. R. B. unto the church a season of refreshing in Calvinism." Had John Calvin thought it Kuiper (now of Westminster) wrote his: the Reformation. For that reason we said out and had it been improved upon by "As to Being Reformed," with its hope and others, we might then speak of an old and in the beginning of our article, that not opportunity for Calvinism. Dr. Valentine a new. Calvinism presents the truth of God much need to be said about the man John Hepp in his Stone Lectures spoke of "Cal­ Calvin. And while some may object: "but and seeks to apply it to all spheres and vinism and the Philosophy of Nature." Then since you do not favor calling the church w.alks of life. It begins with God in Eternity came along Prof. Boettner pointing to a after a man, why then call the system of in the Election and it ends with God in truth after a man?" We answer, that ne­ Eternity with its Soli Deo Gloria as its re­ "Five Pointed Calvinism." Of late, Rev. J. F. cessity demands this. The name "Protes­ sult and aim. Such then is Calvinism. Heemstra in our own circle has been bring­ ing us so faithfully and untiringly his lec­ tantism" is too vague, too meaningless. Even What a sad fact it is to observe that in ture on "One Pointed Calvinism." Rev. Atheists, Pantheists and Modernists call many circles historically Calvinistic, this Leonard De Moor of Central College (Pella, themselves by that name. We must have a Calvinism has been shelved, hence forgotten name which is specific. The name "Calvin­ and become unknown. Sadder still, Calvin­ Iowa), is now writing in The Leader on ism" fills that need, because Calvinism re­ ism, because it is unknown, is not loved. If, "Toward a Christian Philosophy of the turns to the Bible as being the Inspired however, as we believe it does, Calvinism Self." Word of God. Calvinism begins and ends alone presents the true Life and World Is there going to be a Revival of Cal­ with God. Thus Calvinism gives us a unique View, and conditions in the life of the indi­ vinism? Surely the world needs it! Surely and all inclusive concept of life and of the vidual, the home, the school, the church, the church needs it! For the world and world, as it concerns our relation to God, the church, yes and the individual need to man and to the cosmos. Thus we are led the state, the world, are what they are, God! Where must this revival begin? Well, back to the Origin of all life; we are shown then, so we ask very soberly: Should there the purpose and the manner of life; amI not be a Revival of Calvinism? The Refor­ where otherwise than there where Calvin­ also what is the true development of life. mation of the middle 'ages presented this ism is still known? Let us take it from the And in all these we center in God. The b'ue Life and World View. Its acceptance by the shelves there where it has been shelved. Let secret of life, or, let us say: life as such, masses brought a deepened spiritual life and all that which is truly Reformed awake and concentrates itself in these three principal a veritable awakening in industry, com­ co-operate, working while it is day, before relations: (1), to God; (2), to our fellow merce, art and discovery. Not only the intel­ the night cometh in which no man can work. man; (3), to the world. lectual, the resthetic, or merely the economic, The meanwhile praying: Oh Spirit of God, It is true that other complexes of human but the soul life revived. The reitterance of revive Thy work in the midst of the years! life concern themselvQs with these three this view a century after the Reformation, FULTON, ILL. 124 CHRISTIANITY TODAY October, 1934

The Southern Presbyterian the Deity of Jesus Christ; His sacrificial substitute which Dabney so vigorously vin­ death; His resurrection; and of the New dicated in his lectures at Davidson is dis­ Church Birth as an antecedent necessity to Chris­ missed by Dr. Page as "repugnant to ethi­ By the Rev. Prof. W1n. C. Robinson, Th.D. tian living formed the solid background for cal minds today." Presbyterian Committee of Publication his addresses." Since this statement con­ Dr. Page denies subjective soteriology in veys the impression that Page is theologi­ the sense of justification ("salvation is not Changes Personnel cally sound it is desirable to compare the an act; it is a process; we are not saved, HE last six months have witnessed teachings of Jesus 01' Christianity with the we are being saved. We grow into redemp­ Timportant changes in the personnel of teachings of the Westminster Standards. tion," p. 45); and also in the sense of glori­ the Executive Committee of Religious Edu­ (1) . In this volume Dr. Page rejects the fication ("salvation is not release from cation and Publication, located at Rich­ authority of the Old Testament, condemn­ future punishment or the enjoyment of mond, Virginia. Dr. Gilbert Glass and Dr. ing the doctrine of God there taught re­ eternal bliss") . His doctrine of the New R. A. Lapsley, of the editorial department, peatedly and going so far as to speak of the Bi ~ th is certainly not that of Paul, Augus­ have died. Mr. R. E. Magill was retired O. T. ideas of God as "savage concepts," tine, and Calvin, for he says : "Jesus can by the action of the last assembly, having pp. 16, 82, 171-172. Likewi.se he expressly never save us unless we are ready to co­ reached the age of retirement. Dr. Edward rejects the authority of the New Testament operate. Every person has the power to D. Grant is now Executive Secretary of in condemning its teachings on eternal pun­ shut Him out and to ignore His offer of sal­ Publication; and Dr. John L. Fairly, Execu­ ishment, pp. 17, 18, 173, 174. In other vation," p. 48. "Man is made in the spir­ tive Secretary of Religious Education. Dr. words, Mr. Page not only contrasts Jesus itual image of the Creator and is capable Grant was formerly Educational Secretal'y and Christianity ; he contrasts a Jesus of of rising Godward. By nature he is equipped of Foreign Missions and Secretary of Stew­ his own construction with both the Old to live in the home" (of which God is ardship. Dr. Fairly was formerly Coordi­ Testament and with the real J esus of the the Father), p. 50. nate SecrJ!tary of Religious Education. The Gospels. Space forbids further discussion. Page's prayers of the Church should go with Drs. (2) . His doctl'ine of God is utterly differ­ minimis tic treatment of doctrine is very ob­ Fairly and Grant, as they assume full ent from that taught in the Scriptures. As jectionable. He misstates, perhaps misun­ responsibility for this work, which is second stated he rejects the O. T. idea of God and derstands, the "five points" of the Northern to none in the life of the Church. fundamental elements of the N. T. doctrine Assembly, p. 269 . That body did not de­ of God. He equates God with man by de­ clare that these were "the five essential Shall We Lower the Standards? claring that God is a "person in exactly doctrines," but :five among the essential Under this caption Dr. S. A. Cartledge, the same sense" as man, p. 47. This allows doctrines. Apparently Page thinks the of Columbia Theological Seminary, has a no place for the distinction between the Arian controversy was of no moment. The vigorous defense of the continuance of He­ Creator and the creature, the Infinite and volume is so typically Modernistic that one brew as a requirement for a candidate for the finite, the Eternal and the temporal. fears that Dr. Page's doctrine of the Deity the Presbyterian ministry. The last As­ His denial of eternal punishment, capital of Christ and His resurrection 'are a La sembly sent down an overture to the presby­ punishment, and penal substitution shows Fosdick, The Modern Us e of The Bible. teries suggesting that Hebrew be made op­ that he does not hold that justice is a funda­ DECATUR, GA. tional. Dr. Cartledge shows that this is a mental attribute of God as is taught in our step in the wrong direction, both from the Standards and by such representative standpoint of scholarship and of inspira­ Presbyterian theologians as Dabney, Hodge, The Presbyterian Church tion. When so many are disavowing the Thornwell and Shedd. In denying that God in Canada authority of "the Old Bible," Presbyterians is in any sense the cause of epidemics and By T. G. M. B. should continue to require "the Old Testa­ pestilences he denies the sovereignty of God, HE week of July 2nd to 9th was an ment in Hebrew .. . and the New Testament p. 172; and naturally finds our emphasis on Timportant one in the Synod of Sas­ in Greek." Dr. Cartledge closes his able foreordination and predestination "exceed­ katchewan. For from all over the province, article in the CMistian Observer with the ingly distressing," p. 268. Following the from Meath Park in the north to Weyburn following from the inaugural address of real Jesus of the Gospels who said that not in the south, young people gathered in Sas­ Professor Donald Mackenzie : "I, therefore, a sparrow falleth to the ground without the katoon for the third annual Presbyterian hope that the day will never come when an Father, Calvinism teaches that there are no Summer School. Last year there were 28 impatient Church will lay itself open to events beyond the plan of God, and that He delegates; this year there were 85. The Tennyson's indignant reproach: 'Priests is the highest cause of everything that W. M. S. Residence for Girls was filled to who know not how to read their own sacred occurs. capacity. The Rev. W. A. Cameron was books.' " (3) . Page's doctrine of salvation is radi­ Dean and Mrs. Cameron House Mothel'. "Modernism at Massanetta" cally different from that of the Westminster Morning and evening prayers were con­ With the above title Rev. J . E. Cousar, Standards. He may have affirmed a belief ducted by the student missionaries and min­ Jr., of Covington, Va., offered an able ob­ in Jesus' sacrificial death. Horace Bushnell, isters, respectively. The addresses each jection to Dr. Kirby Page's being invited to who taught the moral influence theory, en­ morning were by Dr. Frank S. Morley, stu­ the conference for elders and deacons in titled his book "Vicarious Sacrifice." But dent at Biggar, whose subject was "The Virginia. Mr. Cousar shows from Dr. Page does not mean by these words what Kingdom of God," and by the Rev. Ronald Page's Jesus 01' Christianity, Doran, 1929, the Westminster Standards and Mr. Cousar Rowat of Tisdale and the Rev. W. Lyall that the author thereof is a typical Modern­ mean. Dr. Page says in his book: "It is DetIor of Melfort, who on alternate morn­ ist. Cousar particularly charges Page with blasphemy to say t)1at the death of Christ ings took the topic of "The Challenge of the Unitarian "Fatherhood-of-God-and-uni­ was necessary in order to appease the wrath Youth to the Church." Mr. Rowat and Mr. versal-brotherhood-of-man religion"; and of an angry deity," p. 46. Positively he Detlor graduated from the Presbyterian with repudiating "the vicarious sacrifice of affirms "the cross of Calvary represents the College, Montreal, in 1934, and took one our Lord." highest pinnacle of human achievement," year at Westminster Seminary, Philadel­ However, a news item in The Pt'esby­ p. 49 . Both the Larger and the Shorter phia, Mr. DeUor, when asked along with the te1'ian of the South (which also carried Mr. Catechisms of the Westminster Assembly other speakers to recommend some books, Cousar's article) declares of Dr. Page: affirm that Christ did undergo the wrath completed his list by mentioning CHRIS­ "His unqualified statements of his belief in of God . The doctrine of Christ as our penal TIANITY .TODAY and The Evangelical Chris- October, 1934 CHRISTIANITY TODAY 125

tian (Toronto). Each morning except Sat­ has just come to hand, tells of another year impossible to absorb. The difficulty is, how­ urday closed with the School divided into of progress. The income for the year ex­ ever, always one of finances. four discussion groups. Miss L. M. Mac­ ceeded £50,000 and there are now over Much has been written in the press about arthur of Regina was the leader of the one 200 missionaries and missionary candidates ways and means of utilizing these forces on Girls' Work; the Rev. J. A. Munro of in connection with the Society. The for the benefit of the Church. The fields Rosetown dealt with Boys' Work, and the B.C.M.S. now works in Morocco, Lake are indeed white unto harvest and the la­ Rev. D. K. Perrie of North Battleford with Rudolf District (Africa), The Arctic, Nor­ bourers are not few but many, and yet with­ the Sunday School; and the Rev. H. R. thern Canada, Burmah, China, India, and out funds there is no way of setting them Horne's subject was "Stewardship." On Persia. This Society was formed in 1922 to work to gather the harvest. More than Saturday morning this period was thrown following the rejection of proposals to ex­ one congregation lately acquired an assist­ open, and personal evangelism was the sub­ clude Modernism from the older Church ant minister and the Synod of the Dutch ject that aroused the most interest. A Missionary Society. Reformed Church in the Transvaal Province young lady from Regina told of her diffi­ The Minutes of the General Assembly has passed a resolution .educing the mini­ culties in winning a friend to Jesus Christ, have just been published. Ministers of the mum salary to be paid to a minister. This and many young people got up and spoke Irish Presbyterian Church on active serv­ will undoubtedly help to ease the situation from their own experience and made sug­ ice in 1933 numbered 453 with 86 on the as it sometimes happens that a new con­ gestions. Finally it was made a matter for retired list. There were 47 students for gregation could be formed on a smaller prayer. the Ministry as compared with 62 in 1932 guarantee of salary than the previous $2000 On Tuesday and Thursday evenings Miss and 58 in 1931. In 1933 communicants per annum. It has been thought that a pos­ Lily Simpson, on furlough from India, spoke numbered 112,700, as against 111,760 in sible solution for the whole problem would on that country and showed lantern views 1932 and 110,330 in 1931. The downward be to centralize all funds from which a uni­ of the work of our Church in the Jhansi tendency in Sunday School enrolments form salary could be paid to all ministers district. Another evening there was a lan­ seems to have been checked. 1933 shows with a local allowance in certain instances. tern lecture by Mr. James Duff on "The 81,026 compared with 79,659, 80,275 and Such a scheme may meet with much oppo­ Wonders of the Sky"; Friday evening there sition, as local bodies tend to guard their was a concert, and Saturday evening the 82,308 in 1932, 1931 and 1930 respectively. Young People's organizations also reported rights jealously. Rev. R. G. MacKay of Prince Albert spoke Recently the General Assemblies of the on "Our Work at Home." A Federation of a large increase. Miss Elise Sandes, C.B.E., founder and churches in the Transvaal and Free State Presbyterian Young People in Saskatchewan Provinces met and some important resolu­ was organized with the Rev. Ronald Rowat honorary superintendent of the Sandes' Soldiers Homes passed away on August tions were taken. In the past the only as president and the Rev. W. A. Cameron institution for the training of pastors for as honorary president. A constitution was 19th at Ballykinlar Camp (County Down), the four federated Dutch Reformed churches drawn up and the Aim was expressed, as at the advanced age of 83. Miss Sandes has been the Theological Seminary at being first and foremost, to win other young began this work at the age of 18 and. now people to a faith in Jesus Christ. And all there are numerous "Homes" in England, Stellerbosch. Years ago it was suggested through the week first things were put first. Ireland and India. The Sandes' Soldiers that the Transvaal should have its own The week came to an end with the School Homes have been carried on for over 60 seminary and now the Transvaal Synod has attending St. Andrew's Church Sunday years on sound Evangelical lines, and have decided to co-operate with the Theological morning, the Rev. W. G. Brown preaching, been the means of bringing many soldiers Faculty at the University of Pretona to and Parkview Church in the evening, the and others into the light of the Gospel. The train young men for the ministry of the Rev. W. J. Pellow preaching, after which remains were interred at Tyrella Military Dutch Reformed Church. there was a Consecration Service. Graveyard (County Down), with military In how far this decision will affect the DINSMORE, SASK. honors. Lord Craigavon (Premier of Nor­ cordial relations which exist between the thern Ireland) was present at the funeral. four federated churches is difficult to say. BELFAST. Irish Letter The Theological Seminary at Stellenbosch By S. W. Murray will certainly be affected. Union of South Africa Letter CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA N July 26th, Mr. John Sproule, B.A., O was ordained and installed as Minister By the Rev. P. S. Latsky of Donoughmore Presbyterian Church, A LTHOUGH the drought and financial Letter from Melbourne, County Donegal. Mr. Sproule was con­ .L-l. depression have lifted to a certain ex­ Australia verted through the ministry of W. P. Nichol­ tent, there is still a great deal of unemploy­ By The Rev. H. T. Rush son, the Irish Evangelist. After graduating ment in South Africa. This unemployment (Secretary, the Bible Union of Victoria) in Arts at Trinity College, Dublin, he naturally affects the Church, too. Not only studied theology at Princeton Seminary and do many congregations find it difficult to y last refen-ed to the stir created by Assembly's College, Belfast. make ends meet but there is also an increas­ M the case of Dr. Angus. The publica­ During the summer the Children's Spe­ ing number of young men who have taken tion of his book, "Truth and Tradition," in cial Service Mission held services in a num­ the full course at the Theological Seminary which, among other th1ngs, he remarks ber of seaside resorts, including: Porh'ush, of the Dutch Reformed Church but who touching the Deity of Christ, "Whence Portstewart, Castlerock, Bangor, Dona­ have no prospects of permanent work in arose this dogma? What does it mean? ghadee, Newcastle, and Greystones. The the immediate future. Does it mean that Christ was and is God? leaders of these missions included the Rev. About 14 years ago there was such a If so, who administered the functions of W. G. Ovens, M.A., LL.B.; Mr. R. Hudson dearth of candidates for the ministry that Pope, and Mr. T. B. Rees, all of the Godhead during the Incarnation of Jesus C.S.S.M. staff. The C.S.S.M. is a sprendid the number of students at the Theological and who suffered on the Cross, God or interdenominational organization, with head­ Seminary at Stellenbosch dwindled down Jesus?" It seems quite clear that the great quarters in London, which seeks to bring to 28; at the moment there are, however, issue is between a Christ who is Deity in the Gospel to the boys and girls. far over a hundred. For a Church which the sense which the Church has held it for The 1933 Report of the Bible Church­ has a membership of almost three-quarters centul"ies, and a Christ who is something men's Missionary Society (Anglican), which of a million, this number should not be less or something other than Deity (His 126 CHRISTIANITY TODA Y October, 1934 humanity is not in question). Does Profes­ is wide enough to hold men of different latter is an instrument in the hands of the sor Angus hold the former view? Evidently views and that while not accepting Dr. An­ living God. The human witness of Revela­ not. Dr. Macintyre has issued a book gus' views, it accepted his assurance that tion is said with good right to be inspired against Dr. Angus in which he quotes Dr. he was true to the faith. in its entirety, and it should be humbly R. H. Macintosh of Edinburgh and Dr. Notice of appeals to the judicial commit­ plumbed and explained. Faithfulness to Strachan of Cambridge. The former says: tee had been given by Rev. R. J. H. Mc­ God is likewise faithfulness to the Book. "By simple transcript of experience we Gowan, Rev. A. J. Carter and others. The Church will give to Caesar those predicate of Christ true Deity. Nothing MELBOURNE. things that are Caesar's, but she will not more high is possible, nothing lower is ver­ give an unconditional "Yes" to any form of acious." Karl Barth in Paris the state or of dontination, nor will she render herself to any such forms in order Rev. R. J. H. McGowan has a book giving By Pastor A. Cruvellier, of the substantially his speech in the Melbourne Eglise reformee evangelique to succeed or perish with it. The Church Federal Assembly. On the other side Dr. (A Translation) live!! only from what God says. She is not the Church of pious men, but the Church of Kenneth Edward!! has written a book in ~E mo~eme~t of doctrinal fidelity which Jesus Christ. She is the body of which He which he aims to show that the theology of IS makmg Itself felt in our French T is the head; she moves, her eyes toward the Profes or Angus is true in spirit to the doc­ churches by an ever more marked return eyes of the living God. trines of the church. This letter is neces­ to the sovereign authority of the Bible Theology. Theology derives all of its sarily a brief summary of the proceeding!! should be strengthened by the visit of Pro­ right, all of its legitimacy from the Church in the N. S. W. Assembly. From the first it fessor Karl Barth to Paris. The three lec­ and from Revelation. Its theme is the had been evident that there was on the part ture conferences which he held on the 10th Christ who came and who will return. of some a desire to find a way out. This 11th and 12th of April on the subjects; Theology must refuse not only to be a phil­ seemed to be favored by the appointment Revelation, The Church, and Theology, gave osophy, but also to attempt to demonstrate of the Rev. Joseph Lundie, a friend of Pro­ him an opportunity to recall to his large her existence alongside of philosophy. May fessor Angus, as Moderator. Early in the Parisian audiences, which have been long she dare to be herself and follow her own hearing of the case he created surprise by unaccustomed to hearing such things, some proper course. She is in the service of the asking the principals on both sides to meet essential truths of evangelical Christianity. Church which hears God. God has spoken: him, and he asked the house adjourn mean­ The ovation which he received shows how that is the only foundation of theology. while. The conference was fruitless. these truths find an echo in spirits and She cannot choose the truth which it is her Rev. D. F. Brandt was prominent in mov­ hearts eager for certitudes. From the un­ duty to affirm in the Church, for the truth ing that the charges against Dr. Angus usual account given by the journal, Le is already chosen, not by her but for her. respecting his teaching are apparently well Ch1'istianisme (in its issue of April 19th) Theology has nothing in common with gnosis substantiated, Dr. Macintyre seconded. Rev. we take some extracts which will certainly which has always believed itself to be an A. D. Marchant, Steele lecturer at Lind­ interest our readers: intermediary between Revelation and rea­ field College, moved an amendment to the Revelation. There are a multitude of re­ son. In theology Revelation speak~, human effect that the church was wide enough to ligions but only one Revelation; act of God and not idea of God; given once for all: reason listens, grace gives, and nature re­ hold men of different views, that Dr. Angus ceives. The theologian fulfills the function did not depart from the substance of the the Cross does not repeat itself.. And tIlls truth is not left in any degree to our choice . . of a watchman against ever-menacing error; faith, and expressing confidence in him. his science consists in the knowledge of the A number of amendments had been tabled Revelation is God Himself, present there where Jesus is, and the Holy Spirit, there text. He will make use, to be sure, of dog­ and as the Moderator refused a time limit matics but will preserve in doing so solid for speeches; after a conference of two also where we are. Out of our death, in Christ, He has made His death. He has contact with the sacred text without secretly hours all amendments were withdrawn in preoccupying himself with constructing a favor of a consolidated amendment by Rev. taken upon Himself our destiny, our hell, placing Himself in our place, turning aside system. He will need to make use of prac­ A. D. March.ant. The Moderator in spite tical theology which teaches us to preach of protest allo'wed Dr. Angus to state in the blow. And the Holy Spirit in His turn intervenes to pray for us. Revelation is the or to teach in such a way that God may be answer to a question the difference between heard and understood by the men of a his views and Unitarianism. Professor An­ divine act of creation, of pardon, of sancti­ fication, of pronllse, without which man has determined age. If theology fails here, it gus stressed the doctrine of Divine immi­ is because it has made a failure in its nence against Unitarian dualism. "God tran­ no merit, no capacity, no will. And this is not something which comes from God, it is exegesis and its dogmatics. scendent is also God immanent and the God (Extracts from Le Christianisme.) who was in Christ in that supreme degree God Himself. He has given us nothing less which made Him supreme Lord and Master than Himself. We have only to bless Him V AUVERT, GARD. was aloin them and that their lives were for what He has done for us. The Church. The Church is there where also in God." News from the Rainbow Empire man hears God. What the world is waiting Dr. Angus says that he does not deny the for is not to hear the Church, it is to hear By the Rev. Jas. L. Roh1-baugh Trinity. But his statements in regard to the God speaking. The Church appears to be divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit must ISSIONARIES in Kambatta, a pl'Ovince becoming somewhat fashionable again. May pioneered by the Rev. Clarence Duff be interpreted in the light of the stress he M she not forget that what is important for five years ago, are rejoicing in their first lays on the imminence of God. He claims her is to listen to God, lest the true victory baptism. Two weeks ago they baptized a to get his doctrine of the Trinity from the escape her. The world peoples nature with boy who had come to .attend their school New Testament in opposition to the dogmas its gods. But the true God is not a being and while doing so had learned to love the of the church. whom man can discover. It is He who Lord. In spite of the opposition of his fam­ An amendment by Rev. R. J. H. McGowan comes to meet man and finds him. The ily and friends he asked for baptism and t hat the church should proceed by judicial Church which hears God knows the secret in the presence of others who profess to pr ocess was lost. of the world. Although many books speak believe was baptized. The workers in that A number of speeches were recorded on to us of gods only one speaks to us of God, province are praying that the courage of one side or the other, and eventually by the Bible. Scripture is the rock upon which this one may lead others who profess to 174 votes to 83 an amendment was carried the Church is built. It is not the duty of believe to come forward openly and make to the effect that the Presbyterian Church the Church to adntinister the Scripture. The a profession and be baptized. October, 1934 CHRISTIANITY TODAY 127

In these days of missionary retrenchment ering has not coml! yet. I think the Moham­ a mass meeting and go with a request to we ar!'l glad to report that the Sudan Inte­ medans are difficult to win and the Hindus the. Deputy Commissioner who is the highest rior Mission is planning to open three new are about equal. We do praise God for British Civil authority here to have us put stations in the hitherto untouched northern the evidence of His working in the hearts out of Kohat, threatening that if we were half of Abyssinia. A party of missionaries of some and He has promised that His not put out they would riot. are leaving next week to open work in Lali­ Word will not return void. The Lord has undertaken in answer to balla, an old Coptic stronghold about two In March there was a United Evangel­ prayer and their various threats seem to hundred and fifty miles north of here. They istic Campaign of churches and missions have vanished. They called a Maulvi (Mok will trek by mule the entire distance and throughout Northern India and on the fron­ priest) over from Peshawar to preach when they arrive will be just two hundred tier. This campaign is held every year, the against us. He came to see us and told us and fifty miles from the nearest evangelical object being that every Christian will real­ this himself but said he thought he would white missionaries. Laliballa is famous for ize his responsibility by endeavoring to wit­ see what we were like first. We had some its old churches hewn out of solid rock and ness of his faith to non-Christians and good talks with him and gave him literature its baptistries, similarly hewn with steps distributing tracts and selling Gospel por­ to read. The first time he came he advised leading down and another set leading out. tions. us to stop our work here saying that all Thus the newly baptized cannot be accused Some Indian Christians here met with us the time and trouble we were taking was of of coming out the same way they went in. for prayer and to plan the campaign. We no avail, that we weren't making converts In the near future the Mission plans to got out sort of an announcement and had and that it was useless for us to continue! open stations by Lake Tsana, a circular 1500 copies printed on bright colored sheets I told him that God had called us here and lake thirty-five miles in diameter with of paper. Then on three different days four that we must obey Him rather than man. densely populated shores, and at Debra or five of us went out in a group to pro­ He came several times for talks and has Markos, another Coptic stronghold in the claim in public this announcement. No north country. been quite friendly. He told us that he public preaching is allowed out in the warned the people that they had better not The school season here is summer rather streets and moreover as there is no man do anything against us because they might than winter, due to the fact that the heavy here to do any preaching of this sort, we get into trouble. We don't know whether he rains all come in the summer, and other could not have any open air meetings. How­ is interested or whether he is playing a work is practically impossible. The Chris­ ever, we stopped at various street corners double game or trying to please all parties, tian schools in the country all opened within for a few minutes to give out this announce­ but please pray for him and for his disciples. the past two weeks and all report more ment. Miss Davidson gave it out in Urdu, KOHAT CITY N. W. F. P., INDIA students than they can handle. There is a one of the sweeper Christian men gave it growing desire on the part of natives to out in Punjabi, and Isaac, our man servant learn to read and many of them attend these and general helper who is a recent convert China Letter mission schools where the Bible is the main from Mohammedanism gave it out in Pushtu. By the Rev. Albert B. Dodd, D.D. text-book. Many, of course, attend govern­ Then when people gathered around, the ment schools, and for these it is imperative announcement printed in Urdu was distrib­ AUGUST 1, 1934, was the hundredth an­ that we get Scriptures a.nd Christian litera­ uted to them and w~ sold Gospels to those finiversary of the death of Robe~t Mor­ ture into their hands. By Christian litera­ who would buy. The announcement was as rison, the first Protestant missionary to ture I mean expositions of the Bible in lan­ follows: "Listen carefully!" China. We may be sure that the Church in guage that they can understand . . "1. Jesus Christ says, 'Oh ye that labor China has not allowed this occasion to slip Dr. R. V. Bingham, general director of and are heavy laden, come unto me, I will by unremembered. It is to be hoped that, the Sudan Interior Mission, is completing give you rest.' He was a perfect sacrifice in the coming weeks, the important lessons a four-month visit to the field, inspecting and bore the burden of our sins. Then he from the noble consecrated life of this good the work and examining possibilities of new arose from the dead and now is interceding soldier of Jesus Christ whom no hardship work. for us. could affright nor discouragement baffle His Majesty the King, whose official title 2. Jesus Christ says, 'I am the Way, the may be brought powerfully to bear upon the is "Power of the Trinity, Elect of God, the Truth and the Life, no man can come unto Church thl'oughout this land. May there be Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah," God but by me.' a return to his principles all over China, seems to be looking with increasing favor 3. Jesus Christ says, 'He that believeth especially on the part of many who have upon the missionary enterprises in the land, on me hath Everlasting life and shall not been led astray from his love of and loyalty a very significant thing in view of the fact come into condemnation but is passed from to God's Holy Word! Probably the most far­ that there is a large group of young radicals death into life.' reaching service this true-hearted Scotch in the country whose sole desire is the So then, oh people! How shall we escape Presbyterian rendered to the cause to which expulsion of every foreigner from the land. if we neglect so great salvation?" he so unreservedly devoted his life was his Humanly speaking, every advance depends Some of the plans we had made were translation of the New Testament into wholly on the favor of the King. Haille interrupted because of thl'ee days of heavy Chinese, the language of more people than Selassie I is undoubtedly the most enlight­ rain. However, the Lord blessed the small any other in the world. ened monarch Ethiopia has had and many efforts we made. All of the 1500 tracts were This centennial almost coincided with the who know him believe that at heart he is given out and altogether 280 Gospel por­ semi-centennial celebration of the entrance a true believer. tions were sold by various ones who took into Korea of the pioneer Protestant Mis­ ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA part. Others went out selling who did not sion, Which, by the way, also was Presby­ come around with us giving out the an­ terian. At this celebration, the Northern India Letter nouncements. Also Miss Davidson with Presbyterian Missions in China and their whom I am working made several trips to constituency were well represented. Rev. By MargUll'et W . Haines villages and sold a lot of Gospels. T. W. Mitchell, D.D., of Hunan, was the HE Lord has blessed and strengthened After the campaign was over there was delegate of the Church of Christ in China. T us through the various joys and disap­ quite a stir in the town. Men got up and Although the Presbyterian Church of Christ pointments that come into a missionary's preached in the Mohammedan mosques in China was not directly represented, at life. I wish I could tell of wonderful con­ against us, warning people to have nothing least three able minister s pelonging to or versions and many turning to Christ. That to do with us. Various rumors went around serving that Church were among the dele­ is what we would love to see but the ingath- the town that the people were going to have gates from thif; country and unofficially rep- 128 CHRISTIANITY TODAY October, 1934 resented that Church, which is one in heart will become more and more acute as the and doctrine with the sound and loyal Pres­ days go by. Two years ago a Roman Cath­ byterian Church in Korea. These three Westminster Seminary olic University was censored for not attend­ were the Rev. A. N. MacLeod, who as alter­ will hold its opening exercises on ing the ceremony of the Yasukuni Jinja, nate for Rev. C. E. Scott, D.D., officially the Shrine dedicated to all soldiers and sail­ bore the congratulations of the League of Wednesday, September 26, 1934, ors who have died in action. With the na­ Christian Churches, a truly evangelical fel­ at 3 P. M. in Witherspoon Audi­ tional spirit running high since the Shang­ lowship containing the entire Presbyterian torium, Walnut and Juniper Sts., hai and Manchurian Incidents every occa­ Church of Christ in China; Vice-President Philadelphia. The speaker will be sion is seized upon by the Army and Navy H. K. Chllong, who was especially sent to con­ President Joseph Dupuy Eggleston, authorities to impress on the minds of the vey the cordial greetings of the North nation, especially the students, the necessity China Theological Seminary of that Church, LL.D., of Hampden-Sydney Col­ of fostering the spirit of loyalty to the Im­ and the Rev. H. G. Romig, who represented lege, Virginia, who will speak on perial Family and National Heroes by at­ the Shantung Mission of the Northern Pres­ "Our Search for Truth: To What tending the Shrines. Now if they could byterian Church of the U. S. A. in the same is it Leading?" confine themselves to memorial services for way. Your prayers are asked that this The public is cordially invited. the heroes there could be little objection. fraternal contact with one of the most won­ But when the papers speak of (Admiral) derfully used Missions in the world may do "Togo to be Deified" and show pictures much to set the heart of the Chinese Church of "Priests praying to the departed spirit on fire with a new love to Christ and zeal of the veteran of the Russo-Japanese War," for the spread of His Gospel. "Fukuin Shinpo," official organ of the the enlightened conscience of the Christian The noted evangelist, Dr. French Oliver, Church of Christ in Japan (Presbyterian) begins to ask questions. The common has returned to China for another series takes occasion to welcome the translation people of Japan make no distinction be­ of evangelistic campaigns, one of the first and commends it to the Japanese public in tween Patriotic Shinto and Religious Shinto of which, it is understood, will be at Chi­ the interest of a thorough knowledge of the except to quote the words of the Minister kung Shan, a summer resort for mission­ Christian Religion as expounded by the of Education that Patriotic Shinto is not aries and a stronghold of fundamentalism. ablest of the Reformers. Professor Naka­ religious. Earnest prayers should ascend for Dr. yama has done extended work in translat­ The question was brought to the fore Oliver in these campaigns that he may be ing, having to his credit, Dante's "Inferno," again last year when an independent mis­ filled, guided and powerfully used by the Thomas a Kempis' "Imitation," Augustine's sionary in Ogaki, a small inland town, had Holy Spirit. "Confessions" and others. There is no her street meetings broken up. Her group TENGHSIEN, SHANTUNG PROVINCE, CHINA. doubt that a renewed interest is being taken was accused of treason due to a contro­ by Japanese Theologians in the work of versy with the principal of the Primary the Reformers, especially of Calvin. News Letter from Japan School as to the child of a Christian attend­ Less than three years ago a new Hymnal ing a National Shrine. There was much By the Rev. L. W. Moore was issued by a joint committee represent­ that was said and done on both sides which HE Christian Church in Japan and the ing five denominations. Special attention could have been left out, but the final out­ T W orId has lost another leader in the was paid to inserting hymns of different na­ come was that the Mission was deprived passing of Dr. Etsuji Mizoguchi, on May tional background as well as new hymns. of its license to run a kindergarten and for­ 31st, after an illness of over a year. Born Although there has been some objections bidden to hold any services of any kind in in Oita Prefecture, Dr. Mizoguch was edu­ to the changes made, especially in wording the Prefecture. cated at Steel Academy, a Middle School of as well as arrangement, the popularity of The question of Shrine W<>rship was be­ the Dutch Reformed Mission in Nagasaki the new Hymnal is manifest in the sale of fore the meeting of the Synod of the Church (now united with Meiji Gakuin of Tokyo). 290,000 copies since it first appeared. The of Christ in Japan last fall when a resolu­ After serving ten years in Kochi Prefecture committee also announced a net profit of tion was introduced to ask the government with the Southern Presbyterians he at­ 15,000 yen. Since the old Hymnal is no to either stop the acts of worship in connec­ tended Princeton Theological Seminary, longer published one had no other recourse tion with the Shrines or excuse from at­ graduating with the Class of 1907. On re­ than to buy the new. tendance those who object. A clear-cut turning to Japan he was called immediately The question of paying homage at Shrines stand was desirable no doubt, but a question to Kobe Theological Seminary (later united that can be shelved as not of a spiritual with the Osaka Theological Seminary to character is too soon dismissed as "not es­ form the Central Theological Seminary) IN THIS ISSUE: sential." However there are those who are which had just been established. For 25 alive to the issues, chief among them being years he served as professor of Apologetics EDITORIAL'S Rev. Rinzo Onomura, of Sapporo. As their and kindred subjects. For an equal length Westminster Seminary and the Re- numbers grow the Church and the State of time he served as pastor of the Shinko formed Faith ...... 108 will be compelled to face the issue squarely, Church of Kobe (Church of Christ in SAMUEL G. CRAIG for those who love the Lord will not be satis­ Japan). In 1913 he received the honorary The Genius of Supernaturalism in fied with indefinite evasions. And when the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Davidson Religion ...... 112 issue is drawn those Christians who have College, North Carolina. An ardent Cal­ WILLIAM H. TOPPING convictions on the sJlbject will be accused vinist, Dr. Mizoguchi preached and taught Professor Bryden's Apologia: A Re- of high t reason. Many Christian parents the doctrines of the Reformed Faith with view ...... 116 have told their children to simply break rank all his might. Also an ardent churchman JOHN MURRAY and come home when the school visited the he served on most of the important commit­ Sunday School Lessons for October . 118 Shrine, and nothing more was said. But tees of the Synod. His place will be hard NED B. STONEHOUSE when pastors, even, are known to feel that to fill. The Comfort of the Scriptures ...... 120 Shrine worship is necessary to the existence A new translation in Japanese of Calvin's DAVID FREEMAN of the nation, one wonders how the problem "Institutes of the Christian Religion" has Two Open Letters to Dr. Covert and will ever be settled without much bitterness appeared from the pen of Professor Yasuki A Minister's Comment ...... 120 and heart burning. Nakayama, of Meiji Gakuin, Tokyo. The News of the Church ...... 121 TOYOHASHI, JAPAN.

HATHAWAY a BROTHERS PHILADELPHIA