1"l M _, J '7' eo 0« Sl- <n ~ lJ')CC ~ .u I - ....i CH RI STIA TODAY L~gl> \a:Y >-0"1 :'>­ Q-Ctilo:: II­ lI7>Q ... ~ 0« ~ ~:::j:Co. A PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL DEVOTED TO STATING, DEFENDING 0: III AND FURTHERING THE GOSPEL IN THE MODERN WORLD III SAMUEL G. CRAIG, Editor H. McALLISTER GRIFFITHS, Managing Editor Published monthly by THE PRESBYTERIAN AND MID-DECEMBER, 1932 $1.00 A YEAR EVERYWHERE REFORMED PUBLISHING CO., Entered a•• econd-da;. matt.r May 11,1931, al Vol. 3 No.8 the Post Ollice 01 Philadelphia, Pa., under the 501 Witherspoon Bldg., Phila., Pa. Act 01 March 3, 1879. THE PASSING OF DR. PATTON Editorial Notes and Comments r-----,HE death of FRANCIS LANDEY PATTON, at his home in Bermuda, on November 25th, marked the passing A WORD OF APPRECIATION of one of the most notable figures of recent times. ,-.---...,E have been greatly cheered ll,nd encouraged by the Distinguished alike as a theologian, philosopher, expressions of approval we 4ave received relative educator and preacher, he would have been ninety to our November issue, if for:no other reason than years of age had he lived until January 22nd. that they evidence not only Ii, widespread interest Dr. PATTON first came into national prominence' in in Westminster Seminary but widespread opposition' connection with the prosecution of Dr. DAVID SWING to the baSis of the proposed union with the United '-___.....Jfor heresy in 1874. Though Dr. SWING was acquitted, Presbyterian Church. We regret that our facilities Dr. PATTON was elected Moderator of the General do not permit us to make individual acknowledg· Assembly in 1878-a fact that bears witness to the change, in ment of all these and other expressions of sympathy temper that has come over the church since that day. In fact it and good will. We therefore take this means or would appear that his connection with a heresy trial not only expressing our appreciation. led to his election to the moderatorship but to the establishment by ROBERT L. STUART of a chair at Princeton Seminary devoted REORGANIZATION OF THE FEDERAL COUNCIL to the study of the relation of philosophy and science to Chrij5, tianity in order that Dr. PATTON'S gifts might be employed in HE long awaited quadrennial meeting of the Federal that connection. Dr. PATTON assumed this professorship in 1881 Council of Churches has come and gone. At this and held it until 1888 when he was elected to the presidency of writing information is not yet definite and explicit Princeton University. In 1902 Dr. PATTON reSigned as Presideilt as to the completed details of the promised "re· of the University and shortly after was chosen to fill the newly organization." Regardless, however, of the me­ created office of President of Princeton Theological Seminary-'­ chanics of the reorganization we wish to make it an office from which he resigned in 1913. Since that date--apart clear that the council needs more than a coat of from occasional trips to this country to deliver lectures in e'x' reorganizational whitewash. No matter how its position and defense of the Christian religion-he has been living structure may be modified, we are more concerned in retirement in Bermuda. with the question of who shall dominate its policies While Dr. PATTON was not a great theologian in the sense in and pronouncements,-whether these shall be in the interest of which his long·time colleague, the late Professor B. B. WARFIELD, modernism as heretofore, or of Evangelical ':,Christianity. The selection of Dr. ADBERT W. BEAVEN, President of the modernist was a great theologian; yet with no small theological learning Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, to be President of the Council, he combined keenness of insight, philosophic grasp and a re­ the appearance of modernist speakers and emphases on the pro­ markable facility for expressing abstruse subject in language gram are hardly calculated to assure us that the modernist understandable of the people in a manner that made him the leopard has now shed its spots. outstanding theologian-preacher of his generation. Dr. PATTON left relatively little in the way of writing, his most considerable THE "MARRIAGE OVERTURE" writing being the publication of his lectures on "Fundamental Christianity" in 1926. He, like so many great men, had the HE overture now before the Presbyteries, relating defects of his virtues, in the sphere both of thought and action, to a change in Chapter XII of the Directory for but that he was a truly great man and that his influence was Worship is unnecessary, concessive to a modernist overwhelmingly on the side of the angels is beyond question. view of human nature, and should be defeated. The Church has suffered long enough from the ac· Dr. PATTON'S predominantly apologetical approach to his sub· tivities of those who continually itch to write new jects led him at time to use language that was eagerlY seized laws. Chapter XII as it stands is perfectly intelli­ upon by the liberals to make it appear thl!-t he was in sympathy gible, and is consistent with the other standards, with their group. Nothing could be more absurd. Dr. PATTON '-___....J ' notably the Confession of Faith. If the new over· remained, ,to the last, as far as we have knowledge-and we think ture is adopted, as seems likely unless sensible we have read all his writings-a firm believer not only in the people bestir themselves and vote it down in the Presbyteries, Bible as the infallible Word of GOD but in the Westminster Con­ the church will offer the spectacle to the world of possessing fession of Faith as setting forth the system of doctrine taught in standards which contradict each other in letter and in spirit. Holy Scripture. (A Table of Contents will be fottnd on Page 24) 2 CHRISTIANITY -TODAY December, 1932 "CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEOLOGY" liRE-THINKING MISSIONS" .-----..... NDER this title the Round Table Press has published N our last issue we offered certain "tentative" com­ ~, a collection of theological autobiographies in which ments on the report of the Appraisal Commission . twelve "leaders of religious thought in America" of the "Laymen's Foreign Mission Inquiry." Since trace the influences that have led them to the theo­ that issue went to press, its report has been pub­ logical position they now occupy. The autobiog­ ···~-'\" lished in full by Harper & Brothers under the title raphies included-a second volume is to follow­ " . "Re-Thinking Missions." Our examination of the are those by B. W. BACON and D. C. MACINTOSH of complete report has confirmed the judgment ex­ Yale University, E. S. BRIGHTMAN and A. C. KNUD­ pressed in our last issue to the effect that "its main SON of Boston University, S. J. CASE and W. E. f criticisms and recommendations can be approved GARRISON and H. N. WIEMAN of Chicago University, and adopted only as the tap-root of all genuine J. W. BUCKHAM of the Pacific School of Religion, W. M. HORTON missionary effort is cut." of Oberlin College, R. M. JONES of Haverford College, E. F. SCOTT of Union Theological Seminary and J. G. MACHEN of Westminster When we wrote what appeared in our last issue, we lacked Theological Seminary. The volume is edited and its introduc­ positive assurance that the Boards of the churches were in no tion written by VERGlLIUS FERM of Wooster College. wise responsible for this report. Hence we contented ourselves with saying that "it appears that the 'Laymen's Foreign Mission It is both interesting and informing to read the autobiographies Inquiry' is a self-appointed organization." We are glad to be of these men and thus to be advised of the views they hold ex­ able to say that fuller information makes it certain that the pressed in terms of the influences and processes by which they· Boards are free of responsibility in this connection. The In­ had reached them. Its chief value, however, it seems to us lies quiry, to cite the official statement of our own Board of Foreign in the. light it throws on the theological views of those who are Missions, "has been a voluntary and unofficial movement on the "reputed to be pillars" in the Christian church of today. It is part of a· few laymen in some of our denominations, to which only by employing the word, theologian, in an exceedingly loose the Boards have made no financial contribution and for which sense that many of these men can be called theologians at all. they have no responsibility. Their only relationship had been Probably a considerable number of them are disposed to say to request their missionaries to welcome the Commission and with Dr. BRIGHTMAN that "to be regarded as a theologian arouses to facilitate their work." In judging this report, therefore, it my sinful, Adamic nature to no slight extent." What is much should be kept in mind that it is entitled to only such weight more significant, however, is the fact that it is only by employing and authority as attaches to the opinion of the group of men the word, Christian, in an exceedingly loose sense-a sense for and women who composed the Commission of Appraisal ap­ which there is no historical warrant-that most of these men pointed by the self-appointed organization known as "The Lay­ can even be called Christians. In fact if we agree with the late men's Foreign Mission Inquiry." Dr. W ARFlELD that "He is a Christian, in the sense of the founders In judging this report, it is of first importance to keep in mind of Christianity, and in the sense of its whole historical manifes­ the distinction between the aims and purposes of the missionary tation as a world-phenomenon, who, conscious of his sin, and enterprise and the personnel and methods employed to carry it smitten by a sense of the wrath of GOD impending over him, on.