"EXCOMMUNICATED."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 805, 30 April 1910, Page 6

"EXCOMMUNICATED."

NEW THEOLOGY'S AUTHOR. ASKS THE UNION WHETHER HE ' 'SHOULD RESIGN. By Teleffrapa—Pross Association—Oopyrirfit London, April 28. The Rev. R- J. Campbell (pastor of the City Temple, author .of tho New Theology, and a Socialist advocate) has asked the Congregational Union whether he should'resign. His reasons_for putting the question are that tho Union has virtually excommunicated him; also that his teachings have been- attacked by the Rev. G. Campbell Morgan (pastor of the Westminster Chapel, Buckingham Gato,'London), the Rev. P. T. Forsyth, D.D. (Principal of Hackney Theological College, Hampstcad), and the Rev. 0. H. .'Jowett (minister; of Carr's Lane Congregational Church, Birmingham), who accuse him of using the name, credit, and fundß of the denomination while denying its faith.

DRAMATIS PERSONS. Tho Rev. Reginald John Campbell, now 42 years of age, has a magnetic personality, and is regarded as one of the greatest forces in the public life of London. The son of a United Methodist minister, he entered Oxford as.an Anglican and left it as a Congregationalist., Now, apparently, he is near the parting of the, ways between Corr; gregationausm and New Theology. His book on the subject, published in 1907, had the largest circulation during the year among .serious literature, was issued simultaneously in America, and was translated into two or three Continental languages. Prior to succeeding to the pastorate of the City Temple, London, upon the death of Dr. Parker, he had had a brilliantly-suc-cessful ministry at Brighton. . He is an enthusiastic Socialist, and a speaker on Labour platforms. Last year he accepted the co-pastorate of thG_ Weigh House Chapel, in addition to his work at the City Temple. The Rev. Pete* Taylor Forsyth, aged 81, is Principal of the Hackney Theological College, H&mpstead, and in BOS was chairman of the Congregational Union, of whose principles ho is an able exponent. He is a pronounced opponent of the New Theology, and a champion of a Liberal-Conservative ovangalir cal faith. He has published "Religion in Recent Art." Tho Rev. G.. Campbell Morgan, Congregational minister at Westminster Chapel, is 45 years of age, and is in great request as a preacher both in the United Kingdom and in the. United States.. His success in resuscitating the Westminster Chapel, which formerly had only a small congregation, has proved one of the features of religious life in London during, recent years.'.". "A spiritual preacher, and one of the first in Nohoomformity,'' is a compressed description of the Rev. J. EL Jowett, pastor of.Carr's Lane Congregational Church in Birmingham. He also has been chairman of the Congregational Hpion. Dr. Jowett, who is 46 years of age, last year visited the United States. ■ '

, DR. FORSYTH'S "IFS." In Ms address at the meeting of the Freo. Church Council, at Hull, in March, on "The Attitude : of tho Church to the Present Unrest," Prinlipal Fftrsyth. said: ■ ' "Let ua be quite clear, both to infnirerS; ■ and doubters, that an cvanjelical Ohurch rests oh 'the New TestanontTfact of final redemption -. from ;uilt in. Christ's Cross, however it may anatruo theories of the atonement; ihat the matter of sin and its less, guilt.and is.the marow of Christianity.; that ' such exleriences.as these, which pervade the phole evangelical succession from Paul o Wesley, are not pathological to reigion, but are the true life' of the christian-Church. Let it, further, bo >art of row 'attitude to certain phases if the modern movement to say this— hat if any public teachers treat evan;elioal faith, with all its stress on sin, is a disease of healthy-minded "religion, md call. Christ 'jrist a man, but what i maul'; if they v treat Christ, even pken 4e is believed to be historical, nerery as a great quotation from the ast instead of the very life of'the >resent; if they say each man is a Jhristj'and that Chrat' made noatonenent in. any other sense than that, in! vhich each man has to make bis own; f they abjure historic and apostolic 3bristianrty as a rudimentary phase, md especially if they dismiss a historic Tesus —if- they do this while all the ime enjoying the name, the credit, and ihe fends of the evangelical faith, we ihink it dishonest and ignoble. It is ibtaining influence under false preiences, and eating the bread of a faith lenied. It is intellectual immorality, rablic malversation of trust, and. abuse if lawful freedom." Dr. Forsyth went, on to Bay'iJiat he Church's first duty was to provide lompetent expositors and apostles comnensurate with the great' world and vitk the greater Gospel. It must see ihat those who uttered it mado it a Jospel.a word of power and mastery, i word which brought the Christ and 'otmd the age, true to God' and real to nan. What was tho good-of going on vith the old rumble when God isteachng us every day the New Song? Why ihould they creak along with nothing lot but their axles, while- the world ipins down-'the ringing grooves oi shange'? Why could they offer no iltematrve to the old grind but new dunging, nothing bat ' shooting Nia;ara? Did they go back to the Bible ifter the critics only to recover itt ishes for burial? 'Why.did they not ireed more men who' could so interpret ;he new as to make -change a blessing, md so interpret the old as to make aradition' a power ? "WHOLLY UNJUSTIFIED:" Another eminent Nonconformist,' Dr. Syarschauer, commenting in an arfcick n the "Christian World" on Dr. Forlyth's address refers to the very lerious and wholly unjustified charges ffr. Forsyth brings against certain perions unnamed. 'Intellectual immoralW,'.'public malversation of the trust md abuse of lawful'freedom,' 'eating ;he bread of a faith. denied'—those are jrave accusations,, which, ought either o have been immediately .substantiated >r not to have been made, least of all n a vague and general fashion. So ar as Congregationalism is concerned, to can only take it that they spring jom Dr. Forsyth's. determination tc ■>nore the self-governing'character oi Jo churches; it is for the latter, and 'or- the latter alone, to say what kind if. teaching satisfies them.. ■"We agree with Dr. .'Forsyth in strongly dissontmg from many of tk particular theological opinions which h« singles out for condemnation; but w< must-record our belief that'his method jf attack strikes us as most unh'kelj to achieve its object. To quote his >wn word 3 again: 'All artificial detenecs of truth, such as the exclusior From communion of those who denj them, are ■ based on the latent scepticism of those truths. Men never protect doctrines of which they have n< loubt.' : Those words were true wrier, bo uttered hem at Loicesor in 1878; thev are still true, in spite of all thai bo has said at Hull in 1910. It is'ir tho nature of error t odio out; it L in tho nature of truth to prevail. You iced not penalise theological oxtravajunce; it Has not the roots of permanence m itself, and' if left alone wil Iwindle and disappear. We beliovt that at the present moment there is perhaps only one factor seriously fo menting 'unrest' in the churches; thai factor is Dr. Forsyth*"