New Series, Vol. V, No. 52.
Strictly in Advance $2.50, Otherwise $3. I
Postage 20cts, to be paid where delivered. f
gintritan Ittz4ttrialt.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1868.
ENLARGEMENT OF THE EDITORIAL
CORPS.
Among the measures designed to increase the effi
ciency and attractiveness of our paper at this time,
our readers will welcome the new arrangement by
which a large and distinguished corps of writers is added
to the Editorial Department. As the designation of these
brethren has met the cordial approval of the Pastors'
Association of this city, they will be known as
THE EDITORIAL COMMITTEE.
Their contributions will be generally accompanied
with the initials of the writers'. Their names are as
follows:
Rev. Z. M. Humphrey, D.D., Pastor of Calvary
Church.
Rev. nerrlek Johnson, D.D., Pastor of the First
Church.
Rev. Danl. March. D.D., Pastor of Clinton St.
Church.
Rev. Peter Stryker, D.D., Pastor of N. Broad
St. Moran.
Rev. George F. Wlswell, D.D., Pastor of Green
Kill Church.
Rev. E. E. Adams, D. D., Prof. in Lincoln 'Uni
versity.
Rev. Samuel W. Duffield, Special Cor
respondent.
Mr. Robert E. Thompson will continue to
act as Editor of the News Department.
Correspondents in every Presbytery and Sy
nod will promptly furnish us' with fresh items of
news from their respective fields.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
BY REV. PETER STRYKER, D.D.
Sweet carols let us sing
Rich offerings let us bring
To our Redeemer King
Who reigns in glory.
From Heaven to earth He came
Praise to His holy name!
Let all redeemed from shame
Rehearse the story. ,
Above angelic lays
Our Christmas hymns we raise;
With heart and voice we praise
The infant Jesus. .
The song ascends on high,
It soars above the sky,
And echo gives reply
"From, sin he frees us."
For He, the humble born
In poverty forlorn ,
Subject to bitter scorn
And vile behavior;
The great and holy One
Was God's anointed Son
Who by His deeds hath won
The name of Saviour.
Then on this natal day
Our tribute let us pay,
And in a joyful lay
Unite our voices.
Loud will we raise the song
Still the sweet strain prolong.
Thy Church in one vast throng
0 Lord, rejoices.
THE GREAT MYSTERY OF GODLINESS.
The century long disputes of critics and theo
logians over the exact reading in 1 Tim. iii. 16,
Great is the mystery of godliness; God [who,
which] was manifest in the flesh" are pretty much
ended by the verdict of the Sinnitie Manuscript.
in that, the relative masculine or: is the plain un
questioned reading, and even orthodox critics
agree that 19.50 c, God, is an alteration of the or
iginal text. So Ellicott, so Van Oosterzee in
Lange. But whether we read " God," who, or
which, the force of the passage as a statement of
the incarnation is not impaired. The abrupt com
mencement, Who was manifest in the flesh, at
once takes us back to John i. 14, " And the
Word was made flesh," of which it seems to be
the echo. And if we seek for an antecedent to
the relative, which from its masculine gender is
plainly personal, we find the person last named,
and twice named in the immediately preceding;
context, to be God, the living God: " The house
of God," " the church of the living God." It
is in immediate connection with God, and the
living God, that mention is made of the mys
tery of godliness, who was manifest in the
flesh. It is as if Paul had said : Great is the
mystery of godliness, since Ile of whom and of
whose Church I have been speaking—God, the
living God—was manifest in the flesh. Van
Oosterzee, indeed, proposes to alter the pointing,
so that "the living God" may appear the direct
antecedent of "who," Putting a dash or pa
renthesis after the words,•be would read " Church
of the living God—a pillar and ground of the
truth and confessedly great, is the mystery of
godliness—who was manifested in the flesh."
But this is not a natural construction, and it is
sufficient, we think, to regard 15 1 ens as present in
the mind of Paul, as involved in the preceding
propositions, and as the only word corresponding to
the gender of the relative "who," and so, plainly;
if not in strict grammar, explaining the signifi
cance of the relative. At least this much is
clear, the direct antecedent of the relative can
not be found either in " mystery "-or " godliness,"
one of which is neuter and the other feminine;
the relative being masculine; it is not the war
tery, nor the godliness which the Apostle wishes
to say was manifest in the flesh; but a being, a
person, and that in the immediate context is
God.
So we retain our old understanding of the pas
sage, as the only one appropriate and the most
nearly grammatical : Great is the mystery of
godliness; God was manifest , in the flesh. It is
not that the mystery is taken away or disclosed
in the Incarnation ; that itself is the mystery,
the great mystery, and remains such to this day.
That the infinite God should link Himself to hu
manity, and identify Himself with a single indi
vidual of our race, that He should be . born a
poor babe in a manger, is one of the amazing
mysteries of religion, of godliness. All whose
spiritual natures are not sufficiently unfolded to
feel their need of just such an act of divine con
descension, are offended by it, and class the story
among fables. It was "seen of angels;" they
desired to look into these things, and by their
glorious presence on the Night of the Nativity
testified to the blessed reality of the event, as
well as their own sense of its , extraordinary char
acter.
"Justified (or vindicated) in the Spirit;
preached unto the Gentiles; believed on in, the
world." Yes, in spite of the impenetrable, depth
of the mystery, no fact is more heartily believed,
no memory more fondly cherished, no event is
more gladly commemorated among the most ad
vanced intelligent nations of the world, than this
of the Incarnation—the Nativity. It is the
turning point of history, the mark, on the, dial
plate of time from which all eras and all the
flight of time is calculated. 'The times of super
stition have gone by. Nq one now believes in
the adventures of a Thor, of a Jupiter, of a
Hercules, of a Zeus or an Apollo among men.
The avatars or incarnations of Vishnu belong to
the effete faith of a semi barbarian people; but
the idea of the true God becoming flesh for
man's redemption is grasped by men with such
an eagerness; and made so much of ,in their so-
Jixes4Y6.Xixt-the—mest..--ativaneed_stame
civilization as to,ahow how radical is the need of
it, how near to the core of our hearts that great
mystery of godliness can come.
God has come near to , man ; as near as any
man or poet ever dreamed or fabled of His coming;
as near as He could come. Near to the child,
near to the poor, near to the lowliest and most ne
glected classes. And once in the • year, man
breaks out into rejoicing, often scarcely - Conscious
of the meaning of his joy, yet with some sense,
more or less clear, of the great foutulation fact
of Christianity : the Incarnation. A fact so
glorious that it should overspread the whole
round year with joy, and yet which we may not
inappropriately make the occasion of a special
annual festival. There can be no higher spiritual
emotions than those which should mingle with
the festivities of Christmas week. Let our cele
bration be a devout, grateful and happy welcome
to God manifest 'in the flesh, who, having as such,
been received up into heaven, continues to be the
glorified, but yet the incarnate, personal, living
Saviour, having never laid aside the nature He
had newly taken on Him, as He lay the Babe of
Bethlehem, and who, therefore, can receive our
adoration to-day, as literally as He received that
of the shepherds or of the magi nearly nineteen
hundred years ago. And let us sing our Christ
mas hymn and make our profession of faith in
language which probably served that -double
purpose among the Primitive confessors of Chris
tianity as'early as the days of Paul.
"Who—great is the mystery—k
Was manifested- in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen of angels,
Preached to the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up into glory."
gar ME SUNDAY AFTERNOON recitations at
Princeton College of three chapters in the Bible,
which have beet!, customary since the days of
President Ashbel Green, have been discontinued
by President McCosh, who, in place of them, is
giving a series of lectures on the life of Christ,
the students being required to take notes and
subniit to a sub equent examination. These lec
tures are quite popular, and are attended by the
Theological Seminary sudents also, who crowd
the college chapel every Sunday afternoon. Among
them came recently an intelligent black man,
who is preparing for the ministry in the South:
To remedy this outrage upon Caucasian honor,
some sixty or seventy students drew up and
signed a petition to the Faculty, asking his ex
clusion for all time to come. The paper originated
with some who fought in the rebel army. Bome
of the signers have had the - wisdom to withdraw
their names. Dr. McCosh will now have a chance
.
to carry , out ; ; the high purpose, and impartiality,
avowed in his Inaugural Address, and quoted in
our columns last week.
PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1868.
THE LEGITIM%CY OF PRESBYTERIAN
LIBERALITY.
The Presbyterian Church in America is in the
midst of a crisis fraught with the most momen
tous consequences to her future. Our own, branch
has entered into negotiations for union with. the
other principal branch, after a thirty years' separa
den. Acknowledged to be soundly I Caliinistic
in all these negotiations, and holding, fast with
steady constancy in all her independent history
to the fundamentals of the Confession, she
has refused to be bound by the unwholesome and
unscriptural rigour which makes the dietnm pf a
single, school of theology the rule for 44, *tole
Church, or which guards with a j ealous. ege, eyery
part of, the system of Calvinism as egsttiel,,te
orthodpxy. This spirit of liberty-in-orthodoxy,
like the spirit of liberty-in-law, is the ►ore pre
cious and the more worthy of honour, ;I►ecause it
is the inheritance of the fathers, the legitimate
spirit of American Presbyterianism, thltie which'
brightly links us in historic successten to,the
wise and large-minded Calvinists who L fo:unded
the Presbyterian Church in America ; in 1,729.
The rigour, the tenacity and the jealousy, in doc
trine which mark so many in the othet branch,
and which may be considered characteristic;are
an' innovation, a modernising of our American
Zion. They are a wrong and a violence., done to
its liberal-orthodox spirit, which was ney 3 ermnant
to run in old-world ruts, to perpetuate the stiff•
ness, the sombre hue, and the want of qyMpatby,
with humanity, which were all chargenhle upon
the older Calvinism. .
Legitimacy aud„historic continuity are always
of 'vastly more consequence to High-Qhurchmen
than to liberals, simply because their life, is in the
past, and it is one'of - their axioms - that children
can never become wiser than their fathers, even
after they are grown. But when thabeginnings
of history are like living fountains, bubbling up
with the freshness of a Scriptural - when
they are theinseives a rebuke iJo the - liz4 formal
shibes;_by. whicli,4Aater,-;euertitiCnwerciMcinirne
the whelo Work 6T the theological mind ; when
they have 'been forsaken for artificial cisterns,
broken at that, and holding no water ; when the
effort is actually made to choke them up, or to
represent lhein as shallow channelsuf no account
in themselves, but serving only as connections
with the past, then liberal-minded men have
duty to perform, of far greater importance than
usually'pertains to these questions of legitimacy,
from their own point of view.
Was our American Preabyterian Church found
ed in such 'a wise, Scriptural and liberal spirit as
to distinguish it from all' other truly Calvinistic
and Presbyterian' organizations; and is not a very
large' portion of the body gone astray from this
intention; and are not their leaders guilty of a
grave mistake in claiming legitimacy;and in styl
ing themselves " Old " School -y
The diligent researches of Dr. Gillett on this
subject, and his luminous vindication of the facts,
as we have been used to view them, printed in
advance of their appearance in the forthcoming
number of the AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN RE
VIEW, are worthy of general notice. They are
like the digging out and restoring of a limpid
spring which narrow-minded men had been try
ing to fill up and efface as a blemish, and a re
proach to themselves. Dr. Baird, of the other
branch, who assails Dr. Gillett's positions, in a
recent number of the Princeton Review, says
frankly, that if Dr. Gillett is correct, "we of the
Old School must confess our position to be an in
novation on the established principles of our .
Church." And so, to save the, legitimacy of his
church, and the " Old" in its name, Dr , Baird
attempts to prove that "the liberal principles of
Dr. Gillett find no shadow of countenance in the
Adopting Act of 1729, nor the reunion of 1758,
nor anywhere else in the history of our fathers."
Dr. Gillett makes good his own position, as to
the liberality of the Adopting Act, in various
ways. Ile shows that Jonathan Dickinson, the
leading spirit, the first moderator of the Synod
that passed it, and a member of the •Committee
that framed it, was, both before and after its pass
age, a man of the most positive liberal views,
teaching among other things, that "the enjoining
terms of communion which God has not enjoined,
and the imposing any terms of communion by
penal sanctions, is teaching for doctrines the com
mandments of men." He shows that thi`Old
side, as it assumed to call itself, in the , early days
of the Church, suspected and impeached the or
thodoxy of the others, on the score of their ad
herence to the liberal terms of subscription, as
provided in the Adopting Act, and that these
terms of subscription were made the pretext for
most of the secessions from the Church which
occurred subsequently. He shows that the refer
'ence of the clause aboat scruples in subscribing
was plainly to doctrines of the Confession, and
not merely to artieles which might not have had
a doctrinal bearing.
But most interesting is the view given by Dr.
Gilletf;.-of the state of parties in the Irish Pres
byterian. Chili-Oh at that day, from which the
rigidly inclined members' of the nascent Church
in America, if any 'Sidi: there were, must have
come. The New Englaiid element is conceded
to have been liberal. ' 'Tfireeparties divided the
Irish Church- at that-lajr: Pint, Extremists who
contended` "against' ant serfptibn to any human
formula; Oil any terms, even if they agreed with
it i m thelnaiti, and - iiere'it!llowed to express some
measure of" dissent; -Second, -An opposing party,
who required- subscription , to the Westminster
Confession, but allowed`snbscribers who scrupled
any phrase or phrases, nit, to state their views
in their ow,n,c r latiguage, and Presbytery,should
accept them ! if ,I.,hey judged the explanations
agreeable to the substance-of the doctrine t
ex
plained. , This was the politien of the rigid [!]
party in the Irish Synod of- 1 1720. The third, or
moderate:party; represented.' by the . Dublin min
isters,. to which X.r. Dickinson belonged, desired
the admission, not t ,;ozkly,of ministers and candi
dates who would subscribe, but , also of each as
scrupled ; to sign on ,any terms, provided they
would make en oral, profession of their faith
which should pro.ve_satisfactory.. If the more
rigid, elements going to ferm the American Pres
byterian, Church came fronii one or the other of
these, partiesmost probably, thinks- Dr. Gillett,
from that of the - Dublin i ministors,—how could
there fail to be incorpoßated in the.terms:of sub
acription some clause, Outing the- stringency of
the act, and allowing a liberty , which -flthe stand
ards pure and simple," do not contemplate, and
cannot guarantee ? Suck , a chtuse there is, intro
duced four times ,over in the A4op4pg Act, in o ,
the well : known phrase "essential and necessary
articles", tts distinguished from non-essential and
unnecessary, ‘,‘ln doctrine, worship or :govern
ment." and the attempt to explain away their
=wino: Aga make the Adopting...J*o- an,Old
&tool Document becomes simply desperate in
view of the antecedents, and associations of its
framers. It would lead -us to infer, in the lan
guage of Dr. Gillett, "that this American Synod
—composed ; of Irish ministers who according to
Woodrow, scarcely came up to the standard of
Scotch aubscription,, add of ministers from New
England, some of whom come near rejecting sub
scription altogether, at once went beyond all the
precedents of the mother Church, beyond any
thing which, as far as we know, any member of
the Synod desired. &eclat Judaeus Apella."
The natural interpretation of the Adopting
Act as a liberal-orthodox document, is in accord.
ance with the actual sentiment of large portions
of the Church at that day and afterwards.
Among the members of New Castle Presbytery
in 1749 was Samuel Delap, who vigorously
defended the liberal principles and policy of the
Synod of the Irish Church, and whose sentiments,
Dr. Gillett tells us, were expressly approved by
the New Castle Presbytery. And that body took
action upon an errorist in 1754, in words so guard
ed that they are a testimony alike to the li
berality and the orthodoxy of the body. We
cannot forbear a quotation :
"If they are for holding fast every truth and duty,
let them hold these among the rest, viz., that every
truth and duty is not equally great, and may not
be made equal terms of communion ; that brotherly
love and the communion of saints are more excel
lent than many other duties in religion; that we
ought to bear with some mistakes and weaknesses
in our brethren, and not unchurch them for some
different sentiments and practices. Now if such
great things as these are cast out of religion for the
sake of purity, what kind of purity is it? It is a
kind of strictness beyond what our Lord and his
apostles taught, therefore let it be Anathema."
"The Presbytery of New Castle" pronounc
ing an official Anathema on doctrinal rigour !
Wbo could have believed it? The venerable body
which now bears that name, and which is one of
the strongholds of Old School doctrine and spirit,
ought, as an act of, charity, to be tenderly pre
pared, before this astounding piece of news is
broken to them. For news it will be to most of
the members; and we think after hearing it they
will speak of historical continuity and " Old"
Schoolism, with bated breath.
Seen through the strict Calvinistic spectacles
of the Scotch Woodrow, the language' of our
Adopting Act was puzzling : We know not well
what to make of it, says he. Seen through the
0. S. glasses of Ashbel Green, it " gave and
took, bound and loosed in the same breath." Seen
in the Constitutional reflections of Dr. lodge,
" its language leaves the intention of its authors a
matter of doubt." Only Dr. Baird is reckless
enough to assert that there is no shadow of coun
tenance for the liberal principles of Dr. Gillett in
the Adopting Act of 1729. While common sense,
the laws of language, the verdict of cotemporary
and subsequent history, no less than the antece
dents of its authors combine to establish Dr.
Genesee Evangelist, No. 1179.
Home & Foreign Miss. $2.00.
Address:—l.334 Chestnut Street
Gillett's position and that of our own branch
generally, as to the liberality of its spirit and in-
ten tion
Our own branch of the Church claims to re
present the policy of the fathers as embodied in
the plainmeaning,of this Act. So preoions do
we regard, this policy, that rather than aban
don it ; we have undergone ,no small amount of
hardship,fromthose.pprtions of the Church who
question, suspect or repudiate this policy. For
this they cast, us out. And. now they ask us to
reunite with them. In the proposed reunion shall
this wise, generous, safe, liberal-orthodox policy
be quite igunred? ,Is there to be no honorable
mention or recognition of it, in the terms of the
new union? If not, the reason for it should be
fully understood and frankly stated.
TO TOUR ALTARS, 0 ISRAEL.
We are OlosOlupon , - - the -Week of Prayer. It
has come to &van event in 'the Christian world.
It has been 'the inatigural of great works of God.
But, alas, in -whittcountless instances, churches and
Christians havemaine to its close with disappoint
ed exPectatitat;' they ;have thought seven snc
cessive•days'orpetitiOn could not fail of bringing
rain to their barrenness; but Saturday has found
their.spiritual-sky with not a cloud in it even as
big as a man's hand.
It is the old story. " Surely the Lord will
bless me; seeingl have a Levite to my priest."
Surely, the Lord-will bless our Church, seeing we
hold this protracted Prayer Meeting. Not so.
'ln all probability; the. Lord will do no such thing.
As long as that :view of the matter is held, he
cannot. The trouble isjust hare. Christians tk o
often look at the "Week," and not at themselves.
They wait for .the " Week," as if there were a
kind of heavenly magic in it, and meanwhie
make no preparation for it. They expect the
" Week" to d'o for them, what ought to be done ,
of themselveitbe'ldre they- theweek's thres
hold. They'ard hoping toy 'through the fur
ther door of the "Week " with an awakened
spiritual life and a clinging grasp of the promis
es, and an obtained power with God, when that
life and that grasp and that power should be theirs
before .they step through, the Week's opening
morning gates..
There is a preparation to be had for the Week
of Prayer. There is a baptism to be baptized
with. There is a discovery of God and a discov
ery of ourselves to be made. There are stays and
helps to be gotten. If we are to do any Jacob
like wrestling in those seven successive days of
petition we must get ready for it. What athlete
ever won laurels who gave no heed to his condi
tion till he entered the arena ? Tenacity, fixed
ness, energy, importunity, the fervor and ardor
of most intense desire, a great want pressing us
to our altars and keeping us there, an I-will-not
let-thee-go-except-thou-bless-me spirit—these are
not born in a day. And very little effectual pray
ing is done without them.
It is true, we ought always to be in condition
for prevailing petition. The lamentable fact is,
we are not. Our spiritual muscles get relaxed.
We loSe the, wrestling energy that makes our
altars thrones of power. We come to be satisfied
with tame and spiritless prayers. We repeat the
" huge indecency " of the Pharisee who " went
up to the temple to pray," when he had nothing
to pray for. He wanted nothing, and got it. And
here is the secret of our emptiness.
Now to get out of this state of formality and
spiritual la.4litude, to take on the vigor of the
practiced athlete, and to condition ourselves in
something of the energy and the importunity of
those holy, courageous pleaders who have wres
tled with God and prevailed, is the very business
unto which we should be resolutely set in the few
days that remain to us before the Week of Pray
er. The man or the church expeceng to go fresh
from the whirl of the holidays i Ito the sol
emnities of that week, with no thoughtful pre
paration for it, will be very likely to go down
from, the seventh day's praying, wondering if God
has forgOtten to be gracious; or, like the phylac
teried Pharisee and the church of the Laodi
ceans, thanking God that they are not as other 4
To your altars, then, Christians ! To your
hearts and Bibles and altars ! Look to your
hearts, study your Bibles, frequent your altars.
Arm yourselves with better and better weapons
Fill your mouths with arguments. Walk out on
the promises. Stir yourselves up to take hold on
God. " Enter into thy closet and shut thy door."
Take time to get ready for the World's Prayer
Meeting. Attend at once to the personal, private,
closet, "secret"- duties. And when we all come
together on the ,first. ,week of, the new year, we
may be sure the God„who seeth in " secret " will
reward, us openly. H. J.