POSITIONS DEFINED

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 42, 20 July 1878, Page 2

POSITIONS DEFINED

Mr. Henry Ward Beeoher, in n letter to the Rev. George Morrison, of Baltimore, Md., declares that he holda and has preached, "in every conceivable form, the truth of the Inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures, the Existence and Government of God, the Doctrines of the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ as very God, the Universal Sinfulness of Man, the Atonement of Chrißt, the Doctrine of a Change of Heart, the efficacious influence of the Holy Spirit in Regeneration, and the doctrine of Retribution, botk here and hereafter."

He adds that " it is true that tho question of the nature of suffering, the object of penalty, and tho question of its duration, I have discussed with such light as I had, denying that all the light had yet broken out of Holy Scripture on various points that it contained."

Mr. Canon Farrar steps forward also, to say that he has been misrepresented in the report constantly made that he boldly proclaimed himself a TJniversalist in Westminister Abbey. The full report ef his sermon contains the following statement of his views:

" Finding neither in Scripture nor anywhere anything to prove that the fate "of every man is at death irrevocably determined, I shake off the hideous incubus of atrocious conceptions attached by false theology to tho doctrine of final retribution. But neither can I dogmatize on the other side. I say nothing to uphold the Romish doctrine uf purgatory. L cannot accept the spreading belief in conditional immortality. I cannot preach the certainty of what is oalle.l Universulism—that is, the view that all will finally be saved." He sums all his knowledge up in the following negative judgment, " that God has given us no clear and decisive revelation on the final condition of those who have died in sin." Mr. Beecher, therefore is uncertain as to the nature, object, and duration of suttering—future suffering of course. Canou Farrar says " there is no clear anil decisive revelation on the final condition of those who have died in sin." Both of these gentlemen, in conspicuous places, in tho presence of a great company of men, deolare that as one of the integral parts of the great system of doctrine held by the Reformed and Catholic churches alike, they are in a state of complete bewilderment, knowing not what to affirm what to deny. And yet both these gentlemen do not soruple, almost in the same lines, to assail with all their skill in denunciation, and their apt selection of fiery words, to stigmatise all who cau read nothing but the certainty of future and endless retribution in tho awful words spoken by Christ and His apostles, as " hard and narrow biggots;" " Pharisees who have ever judged, their brethren since time began ;' r ignorant men and women who " make a fetish " of a doctrine, &c., &c.

So Canon Farrar speaks in the name of " God's exceeding and eternal love." Mr. Beecher, with a tremendous adjuration an oath by the Lord Jesus—declares that the " nightmare of a medieval theology " will " mako an infidel" of him. We submit that men who profess to be uncertain about the truth should at least be sparing in denunciation, and should be careful not to arraign those who are constrained to accept the awful revelations of God's word just as they read them, as " morcilessly ignorant," or as men who insist on " the perfection of their knowledge with the most ferocious confidence." —Presbyterian.