PRESBYTERIAN SYNOD. A TEMPERANCE DEPUTATION. DUNEDIN, NOV. 1.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 314, 7 November 1888, Page 4

PRESBYTERIAN SYNOD. A TEMPERANCE DEPUTATION. DUNEDIN, NOV. 1.

The Presbyterian .Synod to-day resumed the debate on the overture from the Dunedin Presbytery to declare the view which the Synod takes of the teaching of the Holy Scriptures in regard to some difficult and disputed passages in the Confession, and to define the sense in which individual ministers and other office-bearers may be permitted to regard such passages, consistently with their ordination vows, or otherwise to determine as the Synod shall think best for the gory of God and the good of the Churcb. After an animated discussion, Dr. Dunlop, Professor of Divinity, was challenged to speak on the point, and did so at length, pointing out that there had been several cases of libel founded on the points in dispute, the interpretation of which was claimed to be indisputable. He emphasised the point that the Church was not the Church of the creed, but the creed was the creed of the Church. The resolution put was, "That the overture be adopted, and a committee appointed to consider the question, and report to the next meeting." The motion was carried by 56 to 50, the division showing that 36 ministers and 20 elders voted for it, and 19 ministers and 31 elders against. A protest was entered on the ground that the resolution involved an abandonment of the constitution of the Church. A deputation from the Grand Lodge of Good Templars waited on the Presbyterian Synod to-day, to ask their co-operation with the Alliance in putting down the liquor traffic, by setting apart one Sunday m the year on which ministers should preach specially on the temperance question. A vote of thanks was passed to the deputation, and cordial sympathy expreseed with their object. A temperance report was then considered, aijd a motion carried fixing the last Sunday in November as a day on which to preach temperance sermons,