Doctrines and genius of the Cumberland Presbyterian church...

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Introduction

"He that entertains himself with moral or religious treatises will imperceptibly advance in goodness." — Samuel Johnson.

" I have gained the most profit, and the most pleasure also, from the books which have made me think the most." — Guesses at Truth.

To one of the world's great reformers, equally eminent as a preacher and as a theologian, is attributed a frequent repetition of the obvious truth that " only a reading people can be a growing people." The Board of Publication of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church has acted wisely in proposing to publish and place in the hands of our people a series of good books. Of a denomination of Christians it is true, as of the individual Christian, that in the measure in which it reads will it be intelligent, free, liberal, and progressive. There may not be too much reading of newspapers and other transient and fragmentary matter, but there is certainly a pernicious tendency among Church members to neglect the reading of good books ; and it is the writer's ardent wish that the special work undertaken by our board may have a salutary influence in correcting this tendency.

Though this work has been furnished in response to a request from the Board of Publication, the author was left free in the selection of a subject, and the selection was determined by a desire to produce, if possible, a plain and thoughtful book that would interest and profit the reader. To promote growth in grace, to enlarge our views of religious life and duty, and to broaden and strengthen the foundations of our Christian character, patient reflection on the great Bible themes discussed in this book have a potency that is known only to those who have experienced it. "All graces," says a thoughtful writer, "begin

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in knowledge and are increased by knowledge." By that patient reflection which brings truth into contact with the soul., and by that obedience which accepts truth as the law of our lives, are we transformed "from glory to glory."

To some of our readers it may seem that too little attention has been given to the support of our positions by Scripture references, but it has been our aim rather to show the reasonableness of the fundamental doctrines accepted by all Christians, and of the doctrines which distinguish us as a denomination. Theology as a science must be, if true, a reasoned correlation of the teachings of the Bible in a system harmonious in all its parts. A system in opposition to man's reason can not be from Him who made man, and such a S}^stem man must ultimately reject. For the Cumberland Presb3^terian system we claim this high and final sanction of reasonableness. In the mother Church, because of a S3'Stem at war with man's consciousness and reason, there is unrest from center to circumference.

To "search the Scriptures" is the surest way to a satisfying faith in the Scriptures as a rule of moral and religious practice whereby human life may realize the highest possible good, and it is hoped that, on this broader plane, the chapters which follow may stimulate to more extended research on a subject so vitally related to our present and eternal welfare.

" The Christian faith,

Unlike the timorous creeds of pagan priest, Is frank, stands forth to view, inviting all To prove, examine, search, investigate, And gives, herself, a light to see her by."

The author aimed at a faithful statement of the historical and current sense in which the Church interprets its Confession on the subjects herein treated. In view of the recent discussions as to the accepted doctrine of the Church touching the Atonement, he has been at pains to ascertain the views of a number of the older ministers of the body, which he would gladly have

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cited had space permitted. The brief chapter on that subject, which is rather a simple statement of the prevailing view of our theologians than an attempt at an argument in support of the view itself, accords thoroughly with the views collated in the manner above named.

It is due the Board of Publication that it be here stated that the responsibility for the delay of the appearance of this work rests wholly with the writer, and he takes occasion to acknowledge the patient forbearance of the board. The work has been written in such brief intervals as could be so appropriated amid the labors incident to the author's relation to Waynesburg College. As it was begun, so it is now finished and sent forth in hope that it may be in some measure a useful and acceptable offering to the Church to which the author has devoted many years of labor. A. B. MII^ER.

Waynesburg, Pa., July 16, 1892.

Chapter I. Reasons For The Volume Herein Offered To The

READING PUBLIC.

The inquiry after truth and the belief of truth is the sovereign good of human nature. — Bacon.

^npHB Cumberland Presbyterian Church, like the spiritual kingdom of which it is a humble branch, came not with imposing display. In the year 1810, in a plain rural dwelling in Dickson county, Tennessee, it was instrumentally set up by three devoted and godly ministers. From its inception until the present, its course has been a remarkable progress ; but it has gone forward with silent rather than with resounding steps. Its ministers have been laborious toilers in the field, not makers of books. Our literature is notably meager, and has no circulation beyond our own people. Hence it is not a just ground of wonder or complaint that, while God is doubtless our father, other branches of Abraham's great family are ignorant of us, and that the writers of histories in Israel acknowledge us not. As a denomination we have been singularly, if not culpably, indifferent to the obligation to bring our doctrines and our work more fully before the Christian public, and to this conviction, deep, long cherished, and intensified by many facts which have come to the personal knowledge of the author, the pages which follow are to be attributed.

" I suppose your Church is very numerous about Cumberland?"

"Not at all," I replied. " In fact, I do not know that we have a congregation in the State of Maryland."

" Is it possible ! Why, did your Church not originate about Cumberland?"

''By no means — we originated in Tennessee."

" How, then, did you get your name? "

This fragment of a conversation with a minister to whom I was introduced in my first field of labor indicates not only that even ministers in other great communions know but little of us, but also that it is a disadvantage to wear a name entirely devoid of significance as to doctrine, and to only a few persons indicative of even our geographical origin.

In illustration of the erroneous opinions prevalent in respect to our doctrinal views, it is in place to cite a passage from the Philosophy of Sectarianism, by Rev. Alexander Blaikie, of Boston. As the imprint of the book is 1855, it might be difficult at this date to ascertain the sources of his information — if he had any. Having noticed other Presbyterian Churches, he proceeds to say: " We have then the Cumberland Presbyterians, originating from the irregular conduct of a Presbytery of that name, which, in 1803, introduced some fatal doctrinal errors ; and appealing from the Synod of Kentucky, to which it had been subordinate, its doings were condemned in 18 10, when it proclaimed itself an independent Church. Not only holding some tenets gratifying to natural men, but also employing in its ministry men of a less acquaintance with science, the languages, and theology, than other portions of the Presbyterian Church, it has grown rapidly."

This language seems to indicate that its author believed our rapid growth attributable to " some fatal doctrinal errors," " some tenets gratifying to natural men," and an illiterate ministry, while we have been wont to attribute it to the L,ord's blessing upon a faithful exhibition of the word he has ordained as the " infallible rule of faith and practice ; " and if the chapters that follow contribute to a better understanding, on the part of members of other denominations, of our faith and spirit, one of the aims in their preparation will have been secured.

Unity of faith is at once a powerful bond, a condition of peace,

CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. n

and a source of denominational strength. If our membership, now exceeding one hundred and sixty thousand, can be more generally enlisted in reading plain expositions of the fundamental principles of our holy religion, most valuable results will be realized in a higher type of individual Christian life, and in our enlarged usefulness as a Church. To this end it is desirable that the number of our books be multiplied as speedily as possible, and all the more so because the pulpit ministrations of to-day are, as a rule, quite barren of doctrinal exposition.

There is among the Churches of this country a growing disposition to lay aside those strifes over doctrinal differences which in the past have occasioned much waste of energy and provoked feelings quite at war with a true Christian spirit. If now these Churches will sit down to the task of an impartial examination of one another's standards, it may result that the differences will be seen to be so much fewer, and of so much less importance than they were hitherto thought, as to bring about kinder fraternal sympathy, and helpful adjustment and co-operation in work, among numerous branches that in all essential doctrines have a like precious faith. The vast work now challenging the utmost energies of the Churches of America seems to demand such a movement as will most efficiently mass their forces against the common foe, and we are confident that, in the event of such a movement, Cumberland Presbyterians will be ready for what seems for the glory of the Master and the promotion of his kingdom.

It is with no purpose of an uncharitable attack upon other creeds that this exposition of our own is sent forth. Comparisons will be made, to show differences as well as agreements ; and as the Confession of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church — as indeed the Church itself — is a protest against what are called the severer features of Calvinism, to note specially our departures from the Westminster Confession will be helpful in defining our doctrinal system. The earnest debate over those stern features of Calvinism— at this very hour engaging the profoundest learning and logic of the mother Church— seems to render the present a time peculiarly suitable for such a publication as is proposed, since, as the sequel will show, the vicious theology now so perplexing the mother Church our fathers saw and purged away at the beginning of the century.

Our Church owes to itself and the public a manifest obligation to aid in the production of a healthful current literature. With its 2,776 congregations, its 1,646 ordained ministers, its membership of 163,216, its numerous literary institutions, and its theological seminary, the Church has done and is doing comparatively little to furnish the periodicals and books demanded by the great reading public, and thus comparatively little to shape the great currents of contemporary thought. From the whole body, therefore, should come a cordial and liberal response to the important step on the part of our Board of Publication to throw upon the mind of the Church and upon the reading public generally a series of books setting forth the system of doctrine through which as a denomination we have received singular blessing and enlargement.

For reasons herein given, and for more general ones to be stated in the next chapter, when recently the writer was requested by the Board of Publication of his Church to contribute a volume to a series it is now issuing, the subject of this effort at once occurred to him as the one he could discuss with the most hope of some useful service to the cause of truth.

CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

Chapter II. Relation Of Doctrine To Duty And Destiny

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. — John viii. 32.

No error can be more pernicious or more absurd than that which represents it as a matter of but little consequence what a man's opinions are ; for there is an inseparable connection between faith and practice, truth and holiness ; otherwise it would be of no consequence to discover truth or to embrace it. Our Savior has said, "A corrupt tree can not bring forth good fruit." — Introduction to Cumberland Presbyterian Confession of Faith.

God and truth are always on the same side. — Theo. Parker.

TN strict use of language, one's creed is that which he believes; his doctrine, that which he teaches. As a candid man's teaching is also his belief, "creed" and ''doctrine" are with him one and the same thing. In a technical sense a creed is a summary of Christian belief. The creed, or confession of faith, of a Church embodies the summary of principles the Church professes to believe and to teach ; and hence creed and doctrine may be used as synonyms, as hereafter in these pages. Zoroaster, the Persian philosopher and the founder of Parseeism, is credited with sa}dng: "Taking the first footstep with a good thought, the second with a good word, and the third with a good deed, I entered Paradise." The beginning of his career was a good thought, its end Paradise. It was because the beginning was a good thought that the end was Paradise. The inseparable connection between creed and conduct, principle and practice, doctrine and destiny is solemnly affirmed by consciousness, observation, and the word of God. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," declared the Great Teacher who came to speak to the world the words which the Father gave to him. So far as a creed embodies error, be it a social, political, moral, or religious creed, it will be vicious in its issues. Only upon truth can rest the well-being of rational creatures. Only out of truth can come the harmony of the universe. Hence the vast importance and the responsibility, whether it pertain to an individual or a Church, of formulating a summary of principles to be believed, practiced, and taught. Believers are " chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." What God hath joined together in the process of the soul's salvation let us be careful that our "creeds" do not put asunder.

In every soul there is capacity for a true life — a life that opens godward, that fits its possessor for the presence in which there is fullness of joy. How is that susceptibility awakened into activity in the true spiritual evolution ? Through the quickening power of the Spirit it is made capable of upward impulses from the apprehension of the truth, but these initial processes and the subsequent daily renewal of the inner man are in harmony with psychological laws. The soul, spiritually quickened, holding under survey the various impulses to action, chooses as its supreme end, because of a perceived obligation, the law and the service of its God. Truth believed begets sense of obligation, obligation felt begets volition, volition issues in action, action repeated begets habit, habits aggregated constitute character, character determines destiny.

But the soul which has chosen salvation through Christ, and the commandments of Christ as the law of its conduct, starts upon its career but a babe in Christ, and hence needs the means of developing, strengthening, training, perfecting its powers. To such the direction is, " Desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby." For such Christ prays the Father, "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." It is truth apprehended, truth received by faith, truth digested by reflection, and assimilated by daily observance as a principle of action, that is " profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," so that thereby "the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Simply to believe the truth is not enough. Devils believe, but are devils still. It is by embracing the truth as good, by doing it, by looking into it as into a mirror, that, " beholding therein the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." " Divine truth exerts upon the mind," says Caird, "at once a restorative and a self-manifesting power. As light opens the close-shut flower-bud to receive light, so the truth of God, shining on the soul, quickens and stirs into activity the faculty by which that very truth is perceived."

In the introduction to his valuable compend, Theology Condensed, Rev. T. C. Blake, D.D., well urges that theology should be taught as any other science is taught, and that " parents owe it to themselves and to their children to have in their own houses such helps as will enable them and their offspring to form correct conceptions of God and of the plan of salvation which he has revealed." In this effort to present briefly the relation of doctrinal soundness to a life of godliness here, and to man's eternal well-being hereafter, the writer must record his regret that on the part of professing Christians generally there seems to be so little disposition to read and ponder works setting forth the vital truths of our holy religion. Not only does the study of moral and spiritual truth lay the granite foundation for that character which infinitely outvalues all perishable treasure, it also imparts the strength, piety, stability, and vigorous activity which should characterize the Church of Jesus Christ. If "ignorance is the curse of God," indifference to the truth is a paralysis of our moral and spiritual powers. In this realm of knowledge especially "God and truth are always on the same side," and that truth is the strait gate into the narrow way leading up to heaven, and immortality, and God.

Having penned the paragraphs of this chapter in hope of contributing something to awaken interest in the study of those words which are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, and purified seven times, the writer can be pardoned for recording his grateful recollection that in his youthful days Abbott's Corner Stone of Religious Truth, The Pilgrim 's Progress, The Saints' Rest, Nelson's Cause a?id Cure of Infidelity, and other religious works, afforded mental food which he devoured with eager relish, when " sensational literature," which had already begun to teem from the press, and has since become multitudinous as the locusts of Egypt, was either unknown to him or beyond his ability to procure.

If our people will encourage the present effort of the Board of Publication to engage the pens of the Church for the production of a sound theological literature, the result will be most fruitful of good. It has been well said that religion is subjective theology — the exemplification in the experience and the life of the light and power of the truths of religion clearly apprehended, believed, and obeyed. To all the other methods of work of the Christian Church, books are an aid of the greatest value, in their religious bearing as well as in other respects justifying the sentiment of Bartholin, that " without books God is silent, justice dormant, science at a stand, philosophy lame, letters dumb, and all things involved in Cimmerian darkness."

Chapter III. Of The Scriptures And The Progressive Development

OF THEIR MEANING, AND THE USE AND

ABUSE OF CREEDS.

Truth is the daughter of time. — Aulus Gellius.

* J ^HK volume received as the word of God is made up of sixty-six distinct books, and its authorship is attributed to over thirty writers. From the production of the first to the production of the last of these books there intervenes a period of nearly two thousand years. Some of the books are historical, some devotional, some prophetic. Though all are inspired, yet each receives a coloring from its author's mental peculiarities, and from the customs of the people, from the morals, the civil institutions, and the philosophy of its own age. Some of the subjects discussed are of .such a character that their complete comprehension transcends the human mind, and the entire course of events revealed therein stretches from the creation of the heavens and the earth to the end of man's probationary career. Besides, this book is God's revelation for all the ages, and many of the " things yet to come" of which it speaks will not be understood until the race shall look upon them in the light of their own unfolding.

Such being the character of the Bible, it is not remarkable that men of equal candor, erudition, and piety differ, and differ widely, in their interpretation of its teachings. It would be much more remarkable if they did not differ. This is apparent when we consider that we arrive at the meaning of the Script-

IO DOCTRINES AND GENIUS OF THE

tires as we arrive at the meaning of other books, by faithful study and the comparison of part with part. The Great Teacher commanded, "Search the Scriptures," and the inspired word itself declares that in Paul's Epistles " are some things hard to be understood," and that these difficult passages the unlearned and unstable not only do not understand, but "wrest unto their own destruction." One can so interpret the world about him as to be a morose pessimist ; and one may so wrest the teachings of the word of God as to justify a wicked life — as we have known men to do. Whoever will read the Bible with a reverent mind, seeking the Spirit's guidance, will undoubtedly so far understand it that it will be made to him the power of God unto salvation. Utterly unreasonable are those who put aside the whole question as to the claims of the Bible by saying to Christians, " Why, you can not yourselves agree what it means ! " In all the sciences and in all the arts men differ in their views ; and yet the sciences contain truth, and the arts are useful. The Bible is not contradictory in its teachings ; but man's judgment is fallible. In the study of the Bible we see what we bring the power to see, and no more. As constitutional peculiarities and the customs of his times give coloring to the writings of every inspired author, it is likewise true that every individual student of the word will see it, in a greater or less degree, in coloring reflected upon its pages from his own mental idiosyncrasies, the education he has received, his system of metaphysics, and the preconceived theological views with which he sits down to the study of the word. In every department of study men differ, and none differ more widely than those justly esteemed the world's great thinkers. It is related that an Englishman desired to introduce his son, then an Oxford student, to the two greatest living thinkers, as he esteemed them — Carlyle and Herbert Spencer. Upon the close of the interview with Spencer the father remarked that it was his purpose to take his son to see Carlyle also, whereupon Mr. Spencer exclaimed : "Ah, Mr. Carlyle ! I am afraid he has done more to propagate error than any other writer of the century." Upon the close of the interview with Carlyle the father remarked : " This will be a day for my hoy to look back upon, Mr. Carlyle, for in it he has been introduced to two great men — yourself and Herbert Spencer;" whereupon Carlyle exclaimed : " Herbert Spencer ! Herbert Spencer! an im-measur-able fool!" Yet were both these men great thinkers, each, in his sphere, seeing some truths more clearly than any predecessor had seen them, each contributing something to the general stock of knowledge.

The interpretation of the word of God, equally with the interpretation of the works of God, has been progressive. Newton knew more about the heavens than did Galileo, and the astronomers of to-day know vastly more than Newton knew ; and we are constrained to believe that the sum of astronomical knowledge will yet be vastly increased. Similarly, we must believe that the concurrent theological thought of to-day more nearly represents the true meaning of the Bible than did the thought of any preceding age. And the advance in biblical interpretation comes much as does the advance of our knowledge of the world in which we live, in the science of government or of morals, and that is through the service rendered by those superior minds seemingly sent to guide the race up to greater heights of knowledge and improvement. To the interpretation of the Bible, the establishment of the Church, and the progress of Christian civilization, we may aptly apply the declaration of Carlyle, that " universal history, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at the bottom the history of the great men who have worked here ; " and that all " things we see standing in this world are, properly, the outward material result — the practical realization and embodiment of thoughts which dwelt in the great men sent into the world." The idea that these great leaders may be divinely sent, to be the guides of the race in its march through and out of the wilderness of ignorance, seemed to impress the mind of Carlyle even, for he said : " The great man is the ' creature of Time,' they say ; the Time called him forth ; the Time did every thing ; he nothing but what we, the little critic, could have done too!

This seems to me but melancholy work. The Time calls him forth ? Alas, we have known the Times call loudly enough for their great man, but not find him when they called I He was not there ! Providence had not sent him ; the Time calling its loudest had to go down to confusion and wreck, because he would not come when called." It is not more true in aught than in religion and in scriptural interpretation that one extreme begets another. A great mind set for the work of exposing and destro3'ing a doctrinal heresy is liable to run into an extreme opposite the one he fights, as the history of theological opinions will show. Yet, upon the whole, there is progress ; and we may not unreasonably indulge the belief that the great multiplication of facilities for the study of the sacred word, and the vastly increased number of competent critics now devotedly giving their erudition and their powers of logic to the investigation of that word, will gradually wear away the differences of doctrinal belief which now divide the Church into sects. The great work now before the Churches of this country, and their solemn responsibility in view of it, demand, as it seems to me, that they candidly consider, and at once, whether in many instances alleged doctrinal differences are not entirely too unimportant to justify the division they occasioned and still perpetuate, and whether because of these divisions there is not great waste of spiritual energ}^ and of material agencies, both so greatly needed in the solution of the problem of the evangelization of the rapidly increasing numbers who never enter our places of worship.

As declared in the introduction to the Confession of Faith of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, " the right of private judgment, in respect to religion, is inalienable." To search the Scriptures for himself is alike the right and the duty of every man who has the opportunity. No pope or council or creed can bind the conscience in this respect. Only the word of God is the rule of faith and practice, and it is such to every man in the sense in which he understands it through an honest effort to arrive at its meaning. This doctrine, common to Protestanism, is the key to progress in the interpretation of the Scriptures. To give it up is to go back to the spiritual bondage of the middle ages. The division and sub-division of Churches is preferable to the spiritual death in which men repose unquestioning faith in the opinions of a fallible man or a council of fallible men. A written creed, therefore, while it serves for a time a most important end, may become a most serious hindrance to the progress of truth, a very paralysis on the Church of which it is the bond of faith and practice. To say that any creed shall for all time express the faith of a Church is to claim that the creed is infallible, or that the Church holding it is incapable of progress. As a great thinker has said, if an oak be planted in an urn, the urn must break or the oak must die — a fact illustrated again and again in the history of the Christian Church. A creed is but a temporary halting place in the march of mind, indicating a position in advance of any previously reached ; but knowledge multiplies, and directly the creed is out of harmony with the current of advanced thought, and unrest and agitation result in the revision of the creed or a secession that sets up a new one. The truths here hinted at in an imperfect wa}^ seem to me of the utmost importance, and to justify the insertion of the following excellent passage from Bishop Butler :