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 Presented b^V^ro- ?S~B . V^u<:Ar\\<9^\d ,"D.T. 
 
 Division 
 Section 
 
 Sec 
 

 WHITHER? WHITHER? 
 
 TELL ME WHERE 
 
 RY 
 
 V 
 
 JAMES McCOSH, Litt.D., LL.D., D.D. 
 
 ADTHOR OP "PSYCHOLOGY. THE COGNITIVE POWERS," "PSYCHOLOGY, THE HOTIVK 
 FOWBRS," " FIRST AND FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1889 
 
DR. MCCOSH'S WORKS. 
 
 FIRST AND FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS. Being a Treatise on Meta- 
 physics. 
 
 PSYCHOLOGY. The Cognitive Powers. 
 
 PSYCHOLOGY. The Motive Powers. 
 
 THE EMOTIONS. 
 
 REALISTIC PHILOSOPHY. Defended in a Philosophic Series. 2 vols.. 
 i2mo. Vol. I., Expository. Vol. II., Historical and Critical. 
 
 THE NEW DEPARTURE IN COLLEGE EDUCATION. 
 
 WHITHER' O WHITHER' 
 
 THE METHOD OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. Physical and 
 Moral. 
 
 TYPICAL FORMS AND SPECIAL ENDS IN CREATION. 
 
 THE INTUITIONS OF THE MIND. 
 
 A DEFENCE OF FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH. 
 
 SCOTTISH PHILOSOPHY. Biographical, Expository, and Critical. 
 
 LAWS OF DISCURSIVE THOUGHT, CHRISTIANITY, AND POSITIVISM. 
 
WHITHER? O WHITHER? 
 
 TELL ME WHERE 
 
WHITHER? WHITHER? 
 
 TELL ME WHERE 
 
 JAMES McCOSH, Litt.D., LL.D., D.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "PSYCHOLOGY, THE COGNITIVE POWERS," "PSYCHOLOGY, THE MOTIVE 
 POWERS," " FIRST AND FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 188U 
 
Copyright, 1889, by 
 CHAKLES SCRIBNEE'S SONS 
 
 I BOOKBINDING COMPAN 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 This is not so much a review of Dr. Briggs's 
 Whither ? as a defence of truth parallel and op- 
 posed to the line of attack. 
 
 The author acknowledges that the references 
 to himself are too frequent, but what lie states is 
 largely the result of his lengtliened ])ersonal ex- 
 perience. 
 
 riiiNCKTON, N. J., November, 1889. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PACE 
 
 I. "WmTHER? Are we drifting ? 1 
 
 II. Are our young men moving ? 4 
 
 III. To Germany? 5 
 
 IV. Vfhat are we to make of Creeds ? . . . . n 
 V. The drift of the Westminster Standards ? . 12 
 
 VI. The Revision of the Standards ? .... 11 
 
 \^L TJie Bible? 22 
 
 VIII. As to the poetical theory ? 29 
 
 IX. Whotheauthm-of? 32 
 
 X. What of the Christian Evidences ? ... 34 
 
 XI. Are we in this life under Probation ? . . . 38 
 
 XII. As to the Middle State ? 40 
 
 Xin. ^Vhatof the Unity of the Church? . . . . 4:^ 
 
 XrV. In respect of Public Worship ? 4.") 
 
 XV. To a close, 47 
 
WHITHER? O WHITHER? 
 
 TELL ME WHERE. 
 
 Whither ? Ever since this question was put by Di-. 
 Briggs, I have been anxious to have an answer clear and 
 explicit. I have become still more anxious for this since 
 his opening lecture on Biblical History has been pub- 
 lished. 
 
 Whither are we drifting f To answer this as to the 
 world at large, or as to the whole Church of Christ, would 
 require a sixteenth century folio, which we cannot bear 
 in these degenerate days. But the religious public are 
 earnestly, and the secular public curiously, looking for 
 an answer to the more narrow and practicable question, 
 What is to be the effect of Dr. Briggs's book and lecture 
 on young men generally, and on students in particular, 
 who admire his courage and his smartness, and especially 
 on those who are troubled with religious doubts, or who 
 wish or expect our Bible to be disintegrated that they 
 may be free from its restraints ? I have a great regard for 
 the professor, and should like to have him answer his own 
 question in the definite form in which I have stated it. 
 
 For the greater part of my life my main intercourse has 
 
2 WHITHER ? O WHITHEE ? 
 
 been with young men in Scotland, in Ireland, and now in 
 America. In the two last countries I have had thousands 
 of students under me. I confess that I am sensitively 
 anxious as to whatever might undermine the principles of 
 inquiring youth. My aim has been to establish them in 
 the faith of the realities of nature and revelation. To- 
 ward this all my philosophy and all my teaching have 
 tended. As I read the book and the lecture, I was 
 ever asking, IIow are they to influence the rising genera- 
 tion ? I know the excellencies and I know the temptations 
 of young men. Young men have been the originators of 
 nearly every great reforming movement. It is equally 
 well known that ever since they adhered to Jeroboam tlie 
 son of I^ebat, " who made Israel to sin," they have been 
 dissatisfied with the old, and asking with the Athenians, 
 What new thing ? 
 
 We have all seen the notice put up in a house which is 
 being built, " ]^o smoking allowed on the premises." On 
 reading Dr. Briggs's papers, I felt as if this warning had 
 been disregarded, and as if I saw sparks as from a cigar 
 flying among inflammable materials. Dr. Briggs has 
 taken a step beyond his American, and gone on with his 
 German, teachers. People are asking whetlier his pupils 
 may not logically take a step beyond him, and give him 
 the credit of it. We know that Robertson Smith, of 
 Scotland, who caused such trouble in the Church, placed 
 his heresy to the account of one of his Free Church pro- 
 fessors. The ablest man cannot always guide the move- 
 ments which he starts. There is a risk in opening flood- 
 gates. The tourist on the mountain top may loose a stone, 
 and be amazed at the havoc which it makes as it de- 
 scends. I know an able retired professor in America 
 whose heart is almost broken as he looks at the departure 
 from the truth of his pupils, whose early faith he had un- 
 
WHITHER ? O AVIIITHER ? 3 
 
 dermined, without meaning it, by using startling phrase- 
 ology and raising questions which he could not answer, 
 and stirring up doubts which he could not allay. 
 
 We must have liberty — by all means have liberty. 
 Christianity was liberty to those who felt the burdens of 
 Judaism and the superstitions of heathenism. Protestant- 
 ism was a fight for deliverance from the corruptions of 
 Popery. Our young men insist on freedom of thought 
 and action. If I have had any success as a teacher, I owe 
 it in some measure to my having taken great care to allow 
 liberty of thought to my pupils ; I stand up for full liberty 
 of inquiry and discussion, for liberty to discover the truth, 
 to abide by it, to proclaim it, and defend it. 
 
 But while I allowed this, I never failed at the same 
 time to enunciate the truth, to set it in the proper light, 
 to give the history of opinions in regard to it, to explain, 
 define, and defend it, and, if need be, answer objections. 
 I am happy to find that my pupils, almost without excep- 
 tion, have adhered to the great principles (all I sought) 
 of religion and morality. There are seven young men in 
 Ireland and eighty in America who studied under me who 
 are now professors; and, so far as I know, they are all 
 clinging to the Word of God. I thank God and man for 
 this. Meanwhile, I read Dr. Briggs's two clever works, 
 and inquire what positive truths he has laid down to se- 
 cure that his admiring pupils stand by the faith once de- 
 livered to the saints. lie has set aside, under the dispar- 
 aging name of "traditional theology," some doctrines 
 most firmly believed by educated men in our country. 
 Has he set forth clearly and unequivocally truths which 
 will keep young men stable in these unstable times i No 
 man expresses himself more clearly in exposing errors. Is 
 he equally careful in building up truth ? Thoughtful men 
 have often called attention to the perilousness of a transi- 
 
4 WHITHER ? WHITHER ? 
 
 tion period when young men have to pass from one plane 
 to another — they often fall in sliding from the one to the 
 other. Herbert Spencer has expressed his anxiety on this 
 subject. In tearing up the tares the wheat may be torn 
 up also. 
 
 II. 
 
 Whither are our young men moving ? Some are al- 
 ready answering. Our professor says, " The time has 
 come for the reconstruction of theology, of polity of wor- 
 ship, and of Christian life " \^Pref.']. " A new reformation 
 is necessary " [p. 21], as if pointing to a reformation like 
 that of the sixteenth century. " The ultimate Christianity 
 that will suit our race will be as much higher than Protes- 
 tantism, as Protestantism is higher than Komanism" [p. 
 16]. The hearts of our young men are beating responsively 
 to these statements. A few are boldly expressing their feel- 
 ings. We have come to a new era in the history of theo- 
 logical opinion. Germany is supplying us with a New Ref- 
 ormation. We are free from the bonds which have con- 
 tracted the minds and oppressed the hearts of our fathers. 
 We feel as if a new country were opened to us. A long 
 vista is before us. The old is passing away like the night ; 
 a morning full of promise is dawning. We are about to 
 pass out of the wilderness into Canaan, with its trees and 
 flowers, its hills and streams. We have a smaller Bible, 
 and a more generous method of interpreting it ; a large 
 portion is found to be poetry. We have a freer gospel to 
 listen to, a more liberal gospel to preach. We have a heau 
 sabreur, a dashing hussar, to lead us on. 
 
 Older and graver men are looking on doubtingly and 
 anxiously. They say : We have heard how the Presby- 
 
■WHITHER ? O WHITHER ? 6 
 
 terian Churclies in England became Rationalists and Socin- 
 ians in the last century. We have read how the blight of 
 moderatism spread over the Church of Scotland and ex- 
 tinguished, as by a chaff bed, all religious fervor. "We 
 are familiar with the story of Unitarianism coming over 
 from Old England into Kew England and Harvard Col- 
 lege, and how it has caked into a crystallized deism, or 
 died down into the ashes of agnosticism. There are 
 thoughtful fathers and mothers asking whether the new 
 movement started is to be of a like nature and equally 
 lethal. I say of a like nature, for it will not be the same. 
 The old will coane in new forms. The Old Serpent is too 
 cunning to bring forth the old breed whose poison has 
 been detected ; a new species will be gendered in these 
 daj'S of evolution with very specious colors, as a means, to 
 use an evolutionary phrase, of protection. Any new her- 
 esy which may arise will not take the old type, which 
 every Christian now abhors as having had so deadly an 
 influence. We are not likely to be troubled with a cold 
 and clear rationalism of the Latin or French school ; the 
 new heresy will take a Teutonic form, as being born in 
 Germany, and will be rich and showy as the child and 
 heir of the Higher Criticism married to the Ideal Phi- 
 losophy — now changing into a Sceptical Philosophy. 
 
 m. 
 
 Whtthek ? To Oermany ? Theologians in the pres- 
 ent day cannot do without Germany. Hundreds of stu- 
 dents, many of them theologians, are studying in the 
 universities of that country because they get there a schol- 
 arship which they cannot find in the four hundred col- 
 leges of America ; not even from the leisured divines of the 
 
6 WHITHER ? O WHITHER ? 
 
 Church of England in Oxford and Cambridge. We can- 
 not hinder our young men from visiting Germany ; the 
 steamboats and railways are ready to carry them. The 
 question is pressed upon us, IIow are we to get the good 
 without the evil ? 
 
 When I was in Germany I was not satisfied, as most 
 American students are, with what the professoi^ sitting 
 in their studies are thinking and writing. I studiously 
 conversed with people of all sorts, from Earl Goltz, Sec- 
 retary of the King, Baron von Humboldt, and Chevalier 
 von Bunsen, down through the merchants, farmers, me- 
 chanics, to the beer-drinking classes in the saloons. Of 
 all countries in w^iicli I have travelled, Germany seems to 
 have the least religion. Not that the people are in gen- 
 eral undevout. Their religious hymns, so deep and tender, 
 have kept alive a natural piety even when it does not ex- 
 press itself in formal acts. When I asked the common 
 people about what they believed, w^hich I always did in a 
 delicate way, they often answered me. We make a religion 
 for ourselves which suits us. The churches are not at- 
 tended by the great body of respectable people. I have 
 gone on the Sabbath to a large number of the churches in 
 Hamburg and Berlin. These are few in number in pro- 
 portion to the population ; tliey are very large, and in most 
 of them I found an attendance of only a few hundreds. 
 On one of these Sabbaths there were thirty thousand 
 people of good social standing at a masked ball. I con- 
 versed with the prof essors, other than the theological ones, 
 on religion ; with a German shrug of the shoulders, they 
 said, We have not studied these subjects, we leave them to 
 the theologians over the way. One of these said : " They do 
 not believe their Bible, they have hewed it in pieces like 
 Agag — I have gathered up some of the fragments, and I 
 like them." 
 
WHITHER ? O WHITHER ? 7 
 
 I charge the theologians with having produced this state 
 of things. They sent out ministers wlio had no faith in 
 the inspiration of the Bible. The people were shrewd 
 enough to see this — it came out incidentally in a number 
 of ways — and they ceased to read their Bibles and to at- 
 tend church with regularity, as they do in this country. 
 I confess that in passing out of Protestant Prussia into 
 Catholic Austria I felt as if I were passing out of an arc- 
 tic into a tropical zone, with no temperate region between. 
 
 But we nuistgo down deeper. Ilow comes it that there 
 are such theologians, so unlike those we have in this 
 country ? All thinking people will give the same answer. 
 It is because the theological professors are appointed 
 and ruled by the State. Ilerr Kuntze, pastor of one of 
 the large churches, which he kept filled because he was 
 a fervent evangelical, told me a characteristic incident. 
 There was a deep religious interest in his parish, the peo- 
 ple wished to have prayer-meetings, and he applied to 
 what he thought to be the proper authority. Ilis paper 
 was sent back, and he was told to apply in another quarter. 
 He did so, and the paper was returned to be amended, and 
 it passed from official to ofiicial till he obtained liberty to 
 meet for prayer exactly one year after he made the first 
 application. 
 
 Tills state of things will continue till the Church secures 
 complete freedom from State interference, and especially 
 from the control of the Iron Prince, who is a great ruler 
 in civil affairs, but who is cramping the energies of the 
 Church. AVlien the command goes forth as to the Cliurcli, 
 Loose it and let it go free, then we shall liave a different 
 set of pastors and teachers and a different kind of pi-eacli- 
 ing — and, I may add, of theological professors. The great- 
 est good which any man could do for the religion of the 
 Continent of Europe would be to set the Churches free. 
 
8 WHITHER? O WHITHER? 
 
 In this my old age, I rejoice that in my youth I had the 
 grace given me to bear my testimony in behalf of the free- 
 dom of the Church, even though I had thereby to give up 
 one of the most enviable livings in the Church of Scotland, 
 without knowing at the time where I was to get another. 
 My hope is that this our testimony may yet bear fruit in 
 breakins: the shackles which bind the old State Churches 
 of Europe, and let the Christian people have their heaven- 
 born privileges. This would produce a new kind of min- 
 istry and a ne\y kind of theological teachers — I hope, with 
 the old learning, but with a new faith. 
 
 We run no risk in America of the Churches submitting 
 to the rule of the Congress or of the Law Courts. But 
 the American Churches must take care that their belief in 
 the Bible be not undermined by an agnostic philosophy 
 and an unhallowed criticism proceeding from the Erastian 
 teachers of Germany. As a most important duty, the 
 Churches must provide theological professors with an 
 erudition equal to that of Germany. Till this is done our 
 young men will flock like birds in autumn to the superior 
 erudition of Europe. When our candidates for the min- 
 istry do go to Germany, it should not be till they are 
 trained in good principles at home and ready to sift the 
 philosophy and theology of that country. 
 
 Of late there has been such an immigration of German 
 theories that even those of us most disposed toward free- 
 dom of thought may have to take measures for protec- 
 tion. Andover lives mainly on German thinking, and if 
 Union joins Andover — not in formal covenant but in a 
 common belief and unbelief — we may M-ell be anxious 
 about the teaching and preaching of the rising ministry. 
 When some young minister boldly tells his hearers from 
 the pulpit of an Old Liglit Church in New York or 
 Philadelphia, what he himself has been taught in his sem- 
 
WHITHER? O WHITHER? 9 
 
 inary, tliat tlie Five Books of Moses were not written by 
 Moses, and that Genesis and the early Scriptures are not 
 history but collected poems, then the Church courts will 
 be aroused and the crisis has come. 
 
 IV. 
 
 WuiTUEK ? What are we to make of creeds f These 
 are set for the defence of the truth. They do not con- 
 stitute our valued property, they are simply fences to keep 
 off intruders. " Without are dogs." The tendency of 
 landscape gardening in the present day is to remove fences, 
 in order to give more of the appearance and air of free- 
 dom. There is a like disposition to remove old fences in 
 religion. Still, we need such demarcations to protect our 
 cherished faith. We have to secure that we do not send 
 forth preachers to proclaim to our people a gospel which 
 is not the gospel of Christ and salvation, but another gos- 
 pel. This is done, by some religious bodies, by a Council 
 examining candidates for the ministry. But it is most 
 effectively done by a printed document which anyone 
 may read and know what our Church believes, and pro- 
 bationers may study and know what is required of them. 
 
 But in the formation of, and subscription to, a new 
 creed, there is need of great carefulness, delicacy, and ten- 
 derness. There arc two all-important points to be at- 
 tended to. 
 
 First, excessive care must be taken that every article 
 in thought and language be founded on the Word of 
 God, and be in strict accordance with it. We must not 
 lower the standard to suit it to the sentiment of the day. 
 The Word of God was given us to elevate public opinion, 
 and not to be lowered by it. On the other hand, we must 
 
10 WHITHEE? O WHITHER? 
 
 avoid harsh expressions (we have a few such in the West- 
 minster Standards) which are supposed to be drawn from 
 Scripture, but may not be so. I might reverently accept 
 from God, in the Bible, language which I would not take 
 from fallible man. 
 
 We must be especially on our guard against the use of 
 what I call Inferential Theology. The deepest law in 
 physics is that there is nothing in the effect which was 
 not potentially in the cause ; and the fundamental law in 
 logic is that there be nothing in the conclusion which is 
 not contained in the premises. We must be very careful 
 in drawing conclusions in the higher regions of theology — 
 so far above the earth — where the sovereignty of God, 
 preordination, election, reprobation, and the salvation of 
 infants, and heathens to whom Christ has not been 
 preached, are discussed. Divines at times rashly rush 
 into the holiest of all, where angels would veil their faces 
 with their wings. Dr. Briggs says that we must have 
 speculation in theology. The individual thinker may in- 
 dulge in this as he pleases, as Origen and the mediaeval 
 mystics did, but as he performs his gymnastics on these 
 heights he is apt to falter and fall, amid the laughter 
 of wiser men ; it was Luther who said that angels amuse 
 themselves with the theological speculations of men — how 
 he knew this, without speculating himself, I cannot tell. 
 To carry up human theories into high heavenly truths is 
 like constructing walls and planning railways in the em- 
 pyrean above the clouds. I believe most devoutly in the 
 good sovereignty of God, but I refuse to let human logic 
 draw conclusions which would strip man of his freedom 
 and thereby free him from responsibility. 
 
 Secondly, those who subscribe the creed have to do it 
 in good faith. I am afraid that there is too much of 
 loose signatures in the Churches. There is a temptation 
 
WHITHER? O WHITHER? 11 
 
 here to which office-bearers in State endowed Churches 
 are especially exposed. Ministers cannot get their livings, 
 and they and their elders cannot enter upon their spheres 
 of usefulness, till they sign a creed, perhaps a very com- 
 plicated one. In consequence, they are very apt to attach 
 their signatures, following, without perceiving it, the prin- 
 ciple that the end justifies the means. The issue is that 
 ever and anon the idea comes upon them that this is 
 wrong, is seen by God, and may come to be seen by men ; 
 and this rankles in their bosom to make them unhappy, 
 at times wretched. I£ they crush it, as it is possible to 
 do, the conscience is deadened and their zeal for the faith 
 is hindered. 
 
 I have come in contact with many such cases. In my 
 younger years, when good men were seeking to throw off 
 the incubus of moderatism which was still lying on the 
 church, I knew ministers who had signed the Westminster 
 Standards, with all their articles, without believing thein. 
 Their unbelief came out to view by what they said in the 
 freedom of conversation, at times in their sermons and pub- 
 lic addresses. As I rode round in my probationer's days, 
 preaching for them, they not infrequently confessed that 
 they were not prepared to stand by all that is in the Confes- 
 sion, and suggested to me, as a young man, that I need not 
 be very particular or precise about what I signed. I was 
 baptized by an accomplished parish minister, afterward a 
 professor, who was believed, on good grounds, to be a Socin- 
 ian. I have preserved a volume of his sermons in which 
 there is not one word of gospel from beginning to end. I 
 have before me a volume of Scotch Sermons^ as they are 
 called, issued a few years ago by ministers of high literary 
 attainment, but who show that they do not hold by the 
 doctrines of the creed which they have signed. The suspi- 
 cion of this gets abroad among the shrewdest of the people. 
 
12 WHITHER ? WHITHER ? 
 
 and they cannot listen with patience to the ministrations 
 of those who preach what (it is so alleged) they do not be- 
 lieve. In my younger years I had to argue with hard- 
 headed mechanics who would not be convinced that their 
 parish clergy were not hypocrites. Such scenes as these 
 provoked and moved me till I threw myself, body, soul, 
 and spirit, into that movement which blasted for the time 
 my earthly prospects, but gained a victory for the free- 
 dom of the Church of Christ. 
 
 In my intercourse with German peasants and store- 
 keepers, I tried to find how it was that while they did not 
 profess to be infidels they did not go to the house of God 
 on the Sabbath ; and the answer commonly given, when I 
 could gain their confidence, was that their parish pastors 
 had evidently no faith in the Bible from which they 
 preached. I cannot conceive a Church to be in a more de- 
 plorable state than one in which there is an evident incon- 
 sistency between the professed creed and the actual belief 
 of those who minister in the Word. I do hope that as the 
 issue of this discussion about the revision of the West- 
 minster Standards we shall all, old men and young, have a 
 more sensitive apprehension of the responsibility involved 
 in the formation of creeds and the subscription to them. 
 
 WnrrHER ? The drift of the Westminster Standards ? 
 Dr. Briggs is well acquainted with their history. He 
 has a large library of books bearing on this subject. He 
 has given us many extracts from these. Let us look at 
 the conclusions which he has reached. " We must recog- 
 nize that there are inadequate statements, and even errors 
 of doctrine [mark, even of doctrine] in the Westminster 
 
WHITHER? O WHITHER? 13 
 
 standards and the great creeds of the Reformation " [p. 274], 
 If this be so, it is surely the immediate duty of the Tres- 
 byteriau and the other Churches springing from the llef- 
 ormation to supply these inadequacies, to correct these 
 errors, and to avoid pressing them on our young candidates 
 for the ministry. 
 
 The burden of Dr. Briggs's book is to show that the 
 Presbyteiian Church has departed from its creed ; that, in 
 fact, all the Protestant Churches have done so. It is hu- 
 miliating and painful to read his charges, clearly, unmis- 
 takably, and emphatically made. " The "Westminster sys- 
 tem has been virtually displaced by the teaching of the 
 dogmatic divines. It is no longer practically the standard 
 of the faith of the Presbyterian Church, The Catechisms 
 are not taught in our churches, the Confession is not ex- 
 pounded in our theological seminaries. The Presbyterian 
 Church is not orthodox judged by its own standards. It 
 has neither the old orthodoxy nor the new orthodoxy. 
 It is in perplexity. It is drifting toward an unknown and 
 mysterious future " [p, 223] , On hearing these charges, 
 our old men who have been upholding the Presbyterian 
 Church will stand aghast. Our young men, especially 
 those intending for the ministry, will widen their eyes in 
 wonder. But they must listen to more. " Modern Pres- 
 byterianisni has departed from the Westminster Standards 
 all along the line" [/Ve/l viii.]. The young man asks. 
 Can I conscientiously or comfortably join the Presbyterian 
 Church ? But he has to read on. " In the manner of 
 w^orship the tendency of the Presbyterian Church has 
 been from bad to worse since the Westminster Assem- 
 bly " [p. 49]. But this is not all. "The modern Presby- 
 terian Church has departed from the Westminster tiivines 
 in its standards of morals and good works, and there i.s a 
 lack of definite views among the ministry and the theo- 
 
14 WHITHER ? O WHITHER ? 
 
 logians in the whole department of Christian ethics. The 
 whole doctrine of sanctification is in confusion" [p. 157]. 
 
 The Episcopalians, the Methodists, the Baptists, the 
 Congregationalists ask our youth what he thinks. He 
 concludes that he must abandon the Church of his fathers. 
 However, there are other Churches. But the charge be- 
 comes more sweeping. " The traditional theology of the 
 Presbyterian Church is not in harmony with the West- 
 minster symbols. If we should take the Articles of the 
 Church of England, we should find that the Episcopal 
 Churches are in a similar situation. We should find that 
 the Methodist, the Baptist, the Lutheran, indeed, all de- 
 nominations of Christians, have departed from their stand- 
 ards and are in the drift of the nineteenth century " [p. 
 225]. Whither ? the youth asks. I may devote my life to 
 the work of clearing the Ciiurcli from this corrupt mass 
 of inconsistency, hypocrisy, and treachery. But the work 
 is an Herculean one, it is the cleansins: of an Augean 
 stable ; I, who am no Hercules, cannot abide in this offen- 
 sive atmosphere. Anywhere rather than to the Church ; 
 to law, to medicine, to business, to store-keeping, to the 
 honest trade of a shoemaker, or tailor. I loved the 
 Church, I meant to make her my bride. I shed a tear as 
 I part from her ; but there is no help for it, she is fallen 
 and disgraced. 
 
 What can be the meaning of the professor of theology 
 in bringing all these charges against his Church, ^o 
 doubt he believes them. I am sure he is sincere. I can- 
 not look into the heart and judge of his motives. 1 must 
 believe them to be good. _ But I am entitled to look to 
 the whither of his views and proposals. He tells us : " The 
 statements of the Westminster symbols are by no means 
 perfect, they are capable of revision and improvement." 
 Does he, then, propose to revise and amend ? He tells us. 
 
WHITHER? O WHITHER? 15 
 
 emphaticallj, ^^ Progress is not in that direction." In 
 what direction, then ? The young men will carry out his 
 principles, and answer that question. 
 
 He gives us a great many quotations from the other 
 works of the Westminster divines and their contempo- 
 raries. It was scarcely necessuiy for him to do this. They 
 are so clear and plain that they do not need othei- works 
 to elucidate them. The great body of the great Puritan 
 preachers inculcate the same truths in much the same 
 language, which is that of the Confession of Faith. Here 
 I am tempted to express a wish that the professor had 
 given the same recommendation as Clialmers did ever and 
 anon to us his pupils, to fill their hearts with the practi- 
 cal writings of the great Puritan divines, such as Baxter, 
 Howe, Marshal, Owen, and Charnock. Ko appeals so 
 direct and searching as theirs, so faithful and so loving. 
 I am sure I got immeasurable good from following the 
 counsel of my great master. 
 
 Without claiming any great shrewdness, I think I see 
 the loliither of these attacks on the creeds. A full ac- 
 count is given of their variations, from age to age. Their 
 defects and mistakes are carefully specified. Ko proposal 
 is made, so far as I can see, to bring back students, minis- 
 ters, and divines to the standards pure and simple. Prog- 
 ress is not made in that direction. I fear the impression 
 left is that in the subscription to the symbols there is 
 great liberty allowed ; that there is very little binding obli- 
 gation in the Standards of the Church ; that we may make 
 of them what we please, choosing this and avoiding 
 that ; that we may look upon them as a precious relic of 
 a by-gone day ; as an instructive fossil telling us of the 
 imperfect formations of earlier ages ; and that meanwhile 
 we must have the truth advance and become more attrac- 
 tive and, therefore, more effective. iS'o attempt is nuide 
 
16 WHITHER ? WHITHER ? 
 
 to counteract this bj showing, what it would not be diffi- 
 cult to do, the substantial sameness, with very slight diver- 
 sities, of the doctrine of all the Churches of the Reforma- 
 tion, and the identity of this doctrine with that which has 
 been held all along by the American Presbyterian Church 
 down to the present day. 
 
 The professor of the Union Theological Seminary 
 seems to be particularly anxious about the orthodoxy of 
 Princeton Theological Seminary. As these two institu- 
 tions are rivals, people think that the charges against Dr. 
 Charles Hodge and his son. Dr. Alexander A. Ilodge, are far 
 from being gracious or becoming. My conviction was, until 
 now, that the same doctrine is taught in both seminaries. 
 It would be a most unhappy thing to find a different im- 
 pression getting abroad. Charles Hodge is referred to 
 sixteen times in Whither, and Alexander Hodge twenty- 
 eight times, in most cases to be found fault with. Both 
 are charged with departing from tlie Standai-ds. On first 
 reading this I felt the accusation to be simply ridiculous, 
 and this feeling deepened when I found the charges re- 
 peated again and again. It would be equally ridiculous to 
 attempt to prove the orthodoxy of the great Princeton di- 
 vines. Both father and son express their views so clearly 
 and so fully that he who runs may read. When they 
 need a defence a thousand swords will be drawn from 
 their scabbards by pupils and followers. 
 
 The two modern divines pi-esent the truth under a 
 somewhat different aspect and in somewhat different lan- 
 guage from those in which it appears in the seventeenth 
 century symbols. But the truth is one and the same. It 
 is the same body in a somewhat different dress ; it is the 
 same proclamation in different tongues. I was trained in a 
 school somewhat different from either the Westminster or 
 the Princeton schools, under the eloquent and philosophic 
 
WIIITnER ? O WniTHER ? 17 
 
 Chalmers. But I am happy to find that the truth set forth 
 in each of these schools — if, indeed, they can be so called — 
 are the same, the very same. I regard this as a very satis- 
 factory evidence of the unity of the Protestant faith. Bat- 
 ino- a few statements and expressions, not sanctioned, as it 
 appears to me, in Scripture, I could sign each of the three 
 theological systems and not be guilty of even apparent in- 
 consistency. I am not so sure tliat I could sign the creed 
 of Dr. Briggs, if he and his followers succeed in estab- 
 lishing one. It is a very dexterous move to attack the 
 orthodoxy of the Princeton divines.* For if the Old 
 School men are not meddled with in departing from the 
 Confession, we Xew Light men may do the same, though 
 in a different direction, without being disturbed. If any 
 Old School man charges us with departing from the Stand- 
 ards, we can reply, by a powerful argwnentum ad horii'nicm^ 
 You are not entitled to attack us, for you are guilty of tlie 
 same offence. In short, we have all departed from what 
 we have subscribed, and the sooner some of us younger 
 men unite to fashion a new and more liberal creed the 
 better ; a creed that will admit the German neology which 
 interprets the Bible more accurately. All this is very dex- 
 terous, I say, but it may turn out that the weapon which 
 is used with such agility may be turned against him who 
 employs it. 
 
 YI. 
 
 "WniTHER ? The Revision of the Standards ? I have 
 announced to the presbytery to Avhich I belong the posi- 
 tion which I have definitely taken. I am anxious it should 
 
 * It is what is vulgarly called, The advantage of having the first word 
 of scolding. 
 
 2 
 
18 WHITHER ? WHITHER ? 
 
 be known, and so I insert it here, that I may not be identi- 
 fied with those who hope in the revision to leave out or to 
 alter the grand old doctrines of our Church clearly con- 
 tained in the Word of God : 
 
 Ever since I became a teacher of the science of mind I 
 have given more attention to philosophy than theology. 
 In doing this, I have been able to serve religion more ef- 
 fectively than by any other course which 1 could take. My 
 philosophy is realistic, being an exposition of the facts of 
 our nature, and being so, it must be favorable to the Script- 
 ures, which reveal to us what we are as no other work 
 has done. But I have been watching all along the signs 
 of the times, and feel it to be honest to make known my 
 views in every crisis of opinion in the Church. Hitherto 
 I have not favored a revision of our Standards, but tlie 
 time has come when we must face the question which is 
 now being put in the Presbyterian Churches all over the 
 world. I know there is some risk in stirring up the in- 
 quiry, but there is more danger in trying to ignore or sup- 
 press it — which, in fact, cannot now be done. Our stu- 
 dents, our 3'oung men generally, and our laity, are raising 
 the question, and it is the plain duty of the Church to 
 face it boldly and to guide the movement in the right di- 
 rection. There are some passages in the Confession of 
 Faith and in the Larger Catechism of which it may be 
 doubted whether they are founded on the Word of God 
 and which ai-e offensive in their expression. Further, 
 there is a want of a clear and prominent utterance, such 
 as we have in the Scriptures, of the love of God, as shown 
 in the redemption of Christ, which is sufficient for all men, 
 and in the free and honest offer of salvation to all men, non- 
 elect as well as elect. For the last thirty -nine j^ears of my 
 life my intercourse has been chiefly with young men who 
 are apt to open their hearts to me as knowing that I sym- 
 
WHITHER? O WHITHER? 19 
 
 patliize with them. Most of our young men have not 
 paid much attention to the Confession, but they will now 
 do so, and as they do so they will find certain passages 
 Icnotty, crabbed, and hard to digest. 1 do fear that some 
 of onr best young men who meant to become ministers 
 may be allured away to other professions, and that those 
 who go on to preach the gospel will find themselves an- 
 noyed and hindered by unwarranted expressions staring 
 tliein in the face. In these circumstances, I am of opinion 
 that the Church should as speedily as possible leave out a 
 few obnoxious passages not at all needful to the complete- 
 ness of the expression of the system of doctrine, and put 
 in the very front a full declaration of God's love to men 
 and a free offer of salvation. This being done for the 
 present, the Church should hold itself ready to meet the 
 wants of the years and ages as they roll on. I am not 
 sure whether the present terms of subscription to the 
 Standards will be sufficient in the distant or even in the 
 near f utui-e. Some of our younger men are saying : " No- 
 body believes all the Confession, everybody rejects some 
 parts, I may reject what displeases me." At this present 
 time we get more than half our erudition from Germany, 
 but also more than one-half of our heresies. Our Con- 
 fession meets the heresies of the seventeenth, but not 
 the more insidious ones of the nineteenth century. The 
 Church has now to see that it has professors in our semi- 
 naries equal in learning to those in Germany. Ever since 
 the Reformation, the Church lias been amending its Con- 
 fession. I confess that I should like to have in the Pres- 
 byterian Church a shorter and simpler creed than the 
 Westminster Confession. At the same time our creed, 
 be it shorter or be it longer, must contain all the saving 
 truths embraced in the consensus of the Churches. I be- 
 lieve that in the acre on which we have now entered the 
 
20 WHITHER ? O WHITHER ? 
 
 Church will have to engage in a fight for " the faith once 
 delivered to the saints." I hold that the Presbyterian 
 Church is quite fit for that work. I deny that the great 
 body of its ministers are Arrainian or half-Arminian. I 
 deny that Charles Hodge or Alexander Hodge have de- 
 parted from the Confession of Faith. They may differ 
 at times in the aspect they present and the phrases they 
 use, but the truths are the same — those of the old Pauline 
 theology. It was my privilege some years ago to bring 
 all the evangelical Presbyterian Churches throughout the 
 world into an Alliance. To accomplish this, I crossed the 
 Atlantic Ocean three or four times, corresponded with 
 hundreds of individuals, and with dozens of Churches. In 
 drawing out the Constitution of the Alliance, I took pains 
 to let each Church have its own creed. In the agitation 
 now raised each Church will have to consider what is to be 
 its Confession. Meanwhile I trust the Churches will cor- 
 respond with one another, and each help the other. This 
 will not be done this year or next year, but will be the 
 work of years to come. As the issue, there will be a closer 
 union and a wider extension of the Presbyterian Churches 
 all over the world. 
 
 It will be observed that I have proposed an omission of 
 some statements and phrases in our Confession and Cate- 
 chisms. I have done so because, in the course which we 
 should pursue in defending the truth, we should not be 
 burdened with baggage, which the Romans called invpedi- 
 menta. 
 
 But, it is urged by some, we are not required to accept 
 the ipsisshna verba, or all the statements, of the Standards, 
 Why need we trouble ourselves with the amendment of 
 our symbols ? To this I have to answer, first, that we have 
 to be troubled with them whether we wish it or not. The 
 movement in a number of Churches all over the world. 
 
WHITHER? O WHITHER? 21 
 
 and the overwhelming majority in the New York Presby- 
 tery, show this clearly. But, as far more important, we 
 should see that our Standards are made as perfect as possi- 
 ble ; this we owe to the Church and the world. If in our 
 personal conduct we have made a rash statement, we hasten 
 to correct it ; if we have done an unworthy deed, we hasten 
 to make reparation. We should act on the same principle in 
 dealing with our visible creed. If the divines of the seven- 
 teenth century have used an unguarded expression', if they 
 have sanctioned a doubtful doctrine or stated a truth im- 
 perfectly, let ns correct it as speedily as possible. I know 
 that, when any Presbyterian threatens to leave our Church 
 and join the Episcopal or Methodist Church, there are 
 people who show him certain obnoxious passages in our 
 symbolic books to draw him away from us. If these are 
 not necessary to our faith and salvation — and, still more, 
 if they be not found expressly in the "Word — it is surely 
 wise to remove them. Till this is done there is no pros- 
 pect of union with other evangelical denominations. As 
 I am writing this sentence, I receive a letter from a Metho- 
 dist minister, president of a college, saying that if my plan 
 is carried out he will be ready at once to sign our Confes- 
 sion. 
 
 Dr. Cunningham, the great logical theologian of Scot- 
 land, used to say : " I have no objection to a revision of the 
 Confession, provided it is done by one who believes in the 
 Confession." If revision be carried, I have no doubt that 
 there will be a hard contest about what the amended creed 
 should contain. If it be a duty to amend our Confession, 
 it is a still more important duty to see that it contains all 
 the great truths of salvation. If I am spared a few years 
 longer, which, however, I have no reason to expect, I may 
 be found contending for the sanctioning of such truths as 
 the sovereignty of God, authority of Scripture, the deity of 
 
22 WHITHER ? O WHITHER ? 
 
 Christ, and the atonement for sin, should there be any at- 
 tempt to displace them. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Whither ? The Bible f We are now on holy ground. 
 " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where- 
 on thou standest is holy ground." We have to put off all 
 levity. We have to inquire, What is really the Word of 
 God ? Having found this, we dare not add to it nor take 
 from it. There are positions here which we cannot sur- 
 render without being traitors to our Great King. It is 
 this tliought which has led me to leave my usual studies 
 for a time, in order to give my feeble testimony to what 
 God has been pleased to reveal to us. 
 
 I have before my mind's eye a young man of bright 
 parts and intelligence. He has been trained by his father 
 and mother, by his Sabbath-school teachers, and by his 
 minister, in the common American faith as to the Bible, 
 and is confirmed in it by finding all his associates cher- 
 ishing the same belief. A student of theology lends him 
 Whither ? and the Lecture on Biblical History, and 
 tells him they are written by his able and learned pro- 
 fessor of theology. He sets himself to read them with 
 high expectation, and we watch him as he proceeds. 
 
 He has been told that the Pentateuch was written by 
 Moses under the inspiration of God, and he believes that 
 the events recorded there, such as the Creation of the 
 World and the Fall of Man, are realities. The preaching 
 of his minister, and his doctrine, all proceed on the belief 
 that the narrative is true. But the new Book tells him 
 that " recent criticisms have shown that the Pentateuch 
 is composed of four parallel narratives with four codes 
 
WHITHER ? O WHITHER ? 23 
 
 of legislation" [p. 283]. By a searching criticism the 
 German critics have found what parts were written by 
 each of the four different w^riters. " We have by care- 
 ful induction gathered the theology of each of the docu- 
 ments by itself and then compared them, and have found 
 such a thorough-going difference that it is simply impossi- 
 ble that they should have come from the same original 
 author." The youth sees that if there bo thorough-going 
 differences, there will be the same whether the book was 
 written by one man or by four. lie wonders how the 
 inspired writers, and our Lord Himself, should have as- 
 scribed the work with such thorough-going differences to 
 one man, Moses. But he is told that many statements 
 that were "inconsistent and contradictory are complement- 
 ary and supplementary in different authors" [p. 15]. He 
 hastens to get further information. " Scholars are not 
 agreed in the names they give to the four documents. 
 The priestly narrator is the Q. of Wellhausen, is the A. 
 of the first Elohist of Dollmann. The prophetic narrator 
 is the Jahvist. The theocratic narrator is the second 
 Elohist. The Deuteronomist is agreed by all " {^Bih. TRst.^ 
 p. 34]. " Higher Criticism has traced these four narra- 
 tives in the Hexateuch, and has for the most part separated 
 them so that we can place them in parallelism just as we 
 do the four Gospels in our harmonies " [Blh. Hist., p. 13]. 
 The youth remarks, Fortunately the four Gospels are al- 
 ready separated for us, which makes a diffei-ence. It is 
 shown that the four narratives correspond to the four Gos- 
 pels. An original view is added. " Both correspond with 
 the four great temperaments of mankind and the four 
 great types of character that reappear throughout human 
 history." The youth has read a good deal, and does not 
 find these four types acknowledged by students of the 
 human mind or by historians. He is beginning to suspect 
 
24 WHITHER? O WHITHER? 
 
 that fancies instead of facts are being introduced. But 
 the book announces to him tliat after the captivity, that is, 
 one thousand years after the supposed time of Moses, an 
 unknown editor " compacted them together, as Tatian did 
 the Gospels in the second Christian century." 
 
 The reader had gone through Whithee ?, when tlie Sab- 
 bath interposed, and he had to teach a class. The lesson 
 for the day was John i. 45 : " We have found him of 
 whom Moses did write." To instruct his pupils he had 
 collected parallel passages, such as Luke xvi. 29 ; the words 
 of Jesus, " They have Moses and the prophets ; " and v. 
 31, " If they hear not Moses and the prophets " — passages 
 w^hich clearly announce that Moses is sanctioned by Jesus 
 as the author of the earlier books of Scripture. AVhat is 
 our youth to make of these conflicting statements before 
 him. His conscience is tender and sensitive. He is not 
 prepared to tell his pupils that Moses did not write that 
 part of Scripture which it is said " he did write." He is 
 stao-o-ered and cannot go to his Sabbath-class, and he can- 
 not even send a substitute, for he is determined that noth- 
 ins: shall be taught to his class of which he is not fully 
 persuaded that it is true. 
 
 But he is fascinated, he fears, as the bird is by a ser- 
 pent's eye. He must have the question settled. He finds 
 that the opening of his Bible is " a poem," is an '' epic," 
 is a " lyric," " a drama." It is " an ancient epic describ- 
 ing the creation of the world " [p. 26] . It is "a stately 
 lyric in six pentameter strophes " [p. 26]. " It paints the 
 wondrous drama of the six days' work " [p. 26]. It is " a 
 lyric of wonderful power and beauty." The youth has 
 read, in a translation, ^Eschylus' "Prometheus Bound," and 
 Dante's " Divine Comedy ; " he has read Milton's " Para- 
 dise Lost " and Young's " Night Thoughts," and Pollock's 
 " Course of Time," and he is told to look on Genesis as a 
 
WHITHER ? WHITHER ? 25 
 
 poem, like them, full of life and grandeur. In the appen- 
 dix ho finds a paper designated " The Epic of the Fall of 
 Man," in which it is said: "The earher chapters of Gen- 
 esis contain brief, simple, and charming stories of the ori- 
 gin and early history of mankind, and bear traces of great 
 autiqnity. They were doubtless handed down for many 
 generations in unwritten tradition ere they were com- 
 mitted to writing by the sacred writers. They passed 
 through a series of editions, until at last they were com- 
 pacted in that unique collection of inspired scripture which 
 we call the book of Genesis " [Bib. Hist., p. 39]. They are 
 a series of real poems. " It was the good fortune of the 
 author to make this discovery. Annual work upon these 
 passages with his classes led him gradually toward it. He 
 first noted a number of striking instances of parallelism 
 of lines here and there, and thus detected snatches of 
 poetry in several passages.'' "All the characteristic 
 features of Hebrew poetry are clearly manifested in the 
 poem. This led us to examine the Elohistic narrative of 
 the flood, and it proved to be a poem of the same Elohis- 
 tic story of the creation. We next examined the Jehovis- 
 tic narrative of the temptation and fall, and found it to 
 be a poem of an entirely different structure from the 
 poems of the Elohist." " The poems of the Fall of Man 
 exhibit the several features of Hebrew poetry." " The 
 stories of Cain and Abel and the dispersion of the na- 
 tions from Babel resolved themselves into the same poet- 
 ical structure. And thus it has become manifest that 
 " the earlier chapters of Genesis are a series of real po- 
 ems " [Bib. Hist., pp. 39-40]. 
 
 The young man is now perplexed beyond measure. He 
 shows the passages to his mother, and finds that slic can- 
 not help him. He can find nothing in the book or lecture 
 to counteract these statements and allay liis doubts and 
 
26 WHITHER? O WHITHER? 
 
 fears. He wishes to know how far down in the Scriptures 
 of the Old and New Testament these principles go logi- 
 cally. He sees at once that the two first chapters of Luke, 
 treating of the birth of our Lord, of the time and manner 
 of it, and of his early life, must be removed from the 
 region of historical narrative to that of poetry. The 
 youth finds the marks of poetry, the parallelisms and cor- 
 respondences in the discourses of onr Lord, and even in the 
 Epistles of Paul and John. He cries out : " If the foun- 
 dations be destroyed, what can the righteous do ? " He was 
 to haV'O spoken on the Sabbath of Christ in the Old Testa- 
 ment and the Xew, but he has to exclaim : " They have 
 taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we know not 
 where they have laid him.'' 
 
 I have to meet such cases. Young men unbosom them- 
 selves to me, and I never betray their confidence. But 
 what ground am I to take ? Am I to allow that it has 
 been proved that Moses did not write the Pentateuch, that 
 it is the work of a number of writers combined by an un- 
 known editor who lived a thousand years after them, that 
 a large portion of the earlier books are poems though they 
 seem to be history, that we have to draw the fall of man 
 from a drama, that we have no history of the creation out 
 of nothing? If scholars have to answer this in the afiirm- 
 ative, it will soon become known ; the journalists, whose 
 conscience has been hardened by their being obliged to 
 work on Sabbath, will eagerly publish it, the clubs wiW 
 talk of it, there will be old men and young ready to prop- 
 agate it. The truth, as the saying is, can injure nobody ; 
 and our ministers will not be able to keep it secret — they 
 will have to notice it and publish it. When this comes 
 to pass, the defenders of the faith, especially those who 
 have adopted the new view of Scripture, will have a work 
 to do of enormous magnitude. They will have to prepare 
 
WHITHER? O WHITHER? 27 
 
 the public mind for this new state of things ; they will have 
 to reason with and convince intelligent men ; they will 
 have to soothe fathers and mothers anxious to know how 
 to educate their children ; and they will have to instruct 
 young men to keep them from breaking away from the 
 Bible altogether ; they will have to modify our Sabbath- 
 school, and our whole religious literature ; the people will 
 have to be taught a new way of interpreting Scripture, 
 and to encourage all their religious thoughts and belief to 
 take a new form. 
 
 I know that in Germany, with its hymns, there are 
 many who admit all that the professor has advocated, and 
 who yet retain an ardent piety. But America is not ready 
 for this. Those who take away the evil must, as a more 
 important duty, be prepared to supply the good. This is 
 a greater work than Christians in America have been re- 
 quired to engage in since the days of the Revolution. It 
 is a Bevolution — let it be made a Reformation. 
 
 I am not worthy, I am not competent, to engage in this 
 work. I take a different stand. I am not amazed at the 
 objections taken by those who would disintegrate the re- 
 ceived Bible. 1 have heard them stated and repeated for 
 the last forty years. I believe they have been answered in 
 Germany and in England, and are now being answered in 
 this country. 
 
 I have always understood that Moses may have got the 
 materials of his history from various quarters ; perhaps a 
 little from Egypt, but more, as is now being shown, from 
 Chaldea — whence the race were scattered — this being 
 handed down in the families of Abrahain and Jacob. But 
 these were brought into a unity by Moses under the in- 
 spiration of God. 
 
 The German philosophers, especially those of the school 
 of Kant, are ever finding antinomies, that is, contradictions, 
 
28 WHITHER ? O WHITHEE ? 
 
 in our nature. I have been laboring, in my philosophic 
 works, to show that the supposed contradictions are not in 
 our minds but merely in the accounts given by the philoso- 
 phers. In like manner, the Bible critics are seeking to 
 discover antinomies in the Bible. I have not been able to 
 find them. There are some apparent discrepancies which 
 I may not be able, from my limited knowledge, to recon- 
 cile, but there are no positive contradictions. 
 
 There are different modes of expression in different parts 
 of the Pentateuch. We may observe that in the pres- 
 ent day there are diverse phrases to designate the Divine 
 Being, such as Lord, God, Jehovah, Almighty, Deity. In 
 our common speech and writing they are sometimes used in- 
 discriminately, and sometimes a special phrase is employed, 
 such as Jehovah, Almighty, to call attention to a special as- 
 pect. But we cannot argue from these a difference of char- 
 acter or belief on the part of those who employ them. 
 Just as little from the various phrases and combination of 
 phrases in Genesis can we place verses and paragraphs into 
 four separate compartments. It is quite possible that in 
 some of the narratives handed down through the family of 
 Abraham one phrase, say Eloliim, was used in one ; and a 
 different phrase, Jahveh, in another. But the truth set 
 forth is the same in all, and the history is continuous and 
 consistent. But it is not possible, without twisting and 
 torturing, to place the chapters and verses into the divi- 
 sions of the critics. In fact, the critics are not agreed as 
 to the number of narratives or the divisions which require 
 to be made. Some call in two writers, the Elohist and Je- 
 hovist ; some, three ; the majority, four ; but some have to 
 call in five or six in order to get all the passages allocated. 
 Dr. Briggs has not spread out any such scheme before us. 
 If it were drawn out in details and laid before us, every 
 man would see the paddings at the junctions. The theory 
 
WHITHER ? O WHITHER ? 29 
 
 is too far-fetched, is too ingenious and artificial, to be 
 true. 
 
 I find Moses referred to or quoted upward of one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five times in the Old and Kew Testa- 
 ments, thirty-six times in the four Gospels, in the major- 
 ity of the books of the Bible, in the Acts, in the Epistles 
 of Paul, in Jude and Revelation. In all the places, he is 
 spoken of as speaking or acting with authority. The belief 
 of the Jews was that the earlier portion of the Bible — 
 the hxw as opposed to the prophets — is sanctioned by our 
 Lord as being by Moses. " If they hear not Moses and 
 the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one 
 rose from the dead " (Luke xvi. 31). These authoritative 
 declarations carry far more weight with me than the sliarp 
 dissections by which they would divide the Lord's raiment 
 instead of accepting it as an inheritance. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 AYniTiiER ? As to the poetical theory f I acknowledge 
 that there are parallelism and counterparts in Genes'S, as 
 there are through most parts of Scripture, as may be seen 
 in the lines which are drawn out in the revised version of 
 the Bible. The fact is, the poetry and the prose of the 
 Hebrews do not differ so widely as those of the Western 
 languages. When I had to read and examine the essays 
 of students, I found that those whose reading had been 
 chiefly in the Scriptures were apt to compose in couplets 
 and antitheses, which I corrected, in order that a truly 
 Englisli style might be formed. Whether the writings be 
 in poetry or prose, whether they be balanced or unbal- 
 anced, we must reach the assurance tliat tliey are true. I 
 feel that the unity and consistency of the whole is an evi- 
 
30 WHITHER ? WHITHEE ? 
 
 dence of its being constructed by one Divine Mind bring- 
 ing all the parts together, as the builder combines the 
 separate stones into one edifice. 
 
 I remember that when I was a student there was a vig- 
 orous attempt by some great scholars to divide Homer 
 into a number of personalities. I was an enthusiastic ad- 
 mirer and lover of Homer, and I resented the attempt to 
 dissect him, which seemed to me to imply the killing of 
 the living man. I felt sure that the whole, with the excep- 
 tion of a few links of junction, M'as the product of one great 
 genius. I rather think that the critics have now ceased to 
 anatomize the great bard of Greece, and that he has been 
 left a living man. I am convinced that in like manner 
 the attempt to turn the Pentateuch into an anatomy will 
 be seen to be a failure by all men of good sense — a qual- 
 ity not always possessed by the higher critics. 
 
 I have seen a good deal of these German professors. 
 They live in their studies, they are most industrious and 
 full of book-learning, but they often know little of the 
 world beyond, and they construct theories utterly incon- 
 sistent with what we know of human character. They 
 could tell you what was the price of grain brought from 
 Egypt to Eome on the day on which Julius Csesar was 
 assassinated, but they know nothing of the price of the 
 food in their kitchen — that they leave very wisely to their 
 wives. To keep up their high reputation, they have to 
 bring out some discovery or theory every year. Of Eich- 
 horn, the father of the dissecting biblical critics. Dr. 
 Briggs allows : " He did not always grasp the truth. He 
 sometimes chased shadows and framed visionary theories, 
 both in relation to the Old and Xew Testaments " [Bih. 
 Hist., p. 35]. The same may be said of his successors. 
 
 Our professor does not set a high value on the labors 
 of Mr. Moody. " Mr. Moody and his followers are crude 
 
WHITHER? O WniTHER? 31 
 
 in tlieir theology ; they pursue false methods in the inter- 
 pretation of Scripture, and therefore they spread abroad 
 not a few serious errors, and, on the whole, work disorgan- 
 ization and confusion" [p. 3]. Though Mr. Moody may, 
 on very rare occasions, misunderstand a passage, as not 
 knowing Hebrew or Greek, yet from his thorough oneness 
 and sympathy with the inspired writers, with Jesus, and 
 with Paul, he preaches far deeper and richer truth than I 
 have ever heard from German critics or their American 
 disciples, and which comes home with power to the hearts 
 both of sinners and of saints, and determines the whole 
 future life and conduct. 
 
 Whether Ihe thoughtless perceive it or not, these asser- 
 tions as to the authenticity and integrity of Scripture are 
 playing into the hands of Professor Huxley, who is lead- 
 ing us into the bogs of agnosticism, and there leaving us. 
 I know a sophomore who has just finished Formal Logic, 
 who is vain of his attainments and has constructed a di- 
 lemma : " If the inspired writers and Jesus did not know 
 that Moses was not the author of the Pentateuch [as has 
 been shown by the critics], then they arc ignorant and 
 we cannot believe them. Or, if they knew that he was 
 not the author of the Pentateuch, and yet said that he 
 was, then the}' were dishonest and we cannot believe them. 
 The conclusion is, that we cannot believe them." Of 
 course, the answer is, that they did know that Moses 
 wrote the Pentateuch and proclaimed it. 
 
 But the objectors will here insinuate that I am not so 
 good a Hebraist as to perceive the four different styles of 
 the authors of the Pentateuch. I answer that, though I 
 was at one time called to a theological chair in Edinburgh, 
 my later studies have been in a different direction. Put 1 
 have beside me our Dr. Green, who knows Hebrew as 
 thoroughly as the critics, who has a fine literary discern- 
 
32 WHITHEK ? O WHITHER ? 
 
 ment, and he assures us that he cannot discern a differ- 
 ence of style sufficient to show a difference of authorship. 
 I acknowledge at once that I am not the person to carry 
 on this controversy. But I can refer to a discussion be- 
 tween Dr. Green, of Princeton, and Dr. Harper, of Yale, 
 where both sides of the subject are fully set before us. 
 
 But before closing this section, I have to call attention 
 to what, I am sure, is the great theological want of the 
 age. Have we a learned and satisfactory work on the In- 
 spiration of the Bible ? We have some good orthodox 
 books on the subject, but are they up to the scholarship 
 of the day, and fitted to meet the difficulties of young 
 men ? It seems to me that we need a thoroughly erudite 
 and comprehensive work : on the one hand, holding that 
 " all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is prof- 
 itable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc- 
 tion in righteousness ; " and, on the other hand, specifying 
 the principles on which we are to proceed in denying that 
 certain things recorded in Scripture, such as Solomon's 
 harem, are to be accepted as they have not the sanction of 
 God. This we owe to our young men in their present 
 position, and is the most important work in which any 
 theologian can be engaged. 
 
 Meanwhile, our logical sophomore produces a reductio 
 ad ahsurduin which settles the whole subject by a parallel 
 case. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Whither ? Who the author off The book is before 
 me. I have to examine it by the principles laid down in 
 it. It professes to be written by one accomplished man, 
 just as the Pentateuch is spoken of as being written by 
 
WHITHER? O WHITHER? 33 
 
 Moses. But the Higher Criticism searches it, and proves 
 that it is the work of four (or five) men, who have been 
 compacted by a very skilful editor. 
 
 a. There is an orthodox writer (" orthodox ortliodox wha 
 believe in John Knox"), who has evidently been trained in 
 the old faith, who believes the Bible to be literally and not 
 loosely inspired, and who speaks in the highest terras of 
 the Westminster Standards and the system of doctrine 
 therein contained. 
 
 1). A Higher Critic, who has been trained under Dr. 
 Dorner and the critics of Germany, who does not believe 
 the Bible to be impeccable or without error, who has 
 dissected it with a sharp knife, who is not favorable to 
 the Princeton theology, and has detected the errors in 
 the symbols of the Presbyterian Church and all other 
 Churches. 
 
 c. A Charitable Man, who is not disposed to put man 
 under rigid probation, who is willing to give a sinner who 
 has not become perfect at death a chance in Hades, which 
 Christ visited between his death and his resurrection. 
 
 d. An Esthetic who is fond of large chu\-ches, of a large 
 communion and a liturgical service, and who is anxious to 
 bring about an acknowledged union of all the Churches, in- 
 cluding the Roman Catholic. 
 
 It would not be very difiicult to put each sentence of 
 the book into its proper compartment. By a little pressing, 
 squeezing, and stretching, and leaving a few rifts at the 
 junctions, it could be shown that the four authors repre- 
 sent the four diverse characters of man and correspond to 
 the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 
 
 It is vain to try to make the book appear to be written 
 by one man, however accomplished. On the supposition 
 of there being only one autlior, contradictions would ap- 
 pear everywhere : — Between the laudations of the Bible 
 3 
 
34 WHITHER? O WHITHER? 
 
 and the doubts about it ; between the eulogiums of the 
 Confession of Faith and Catechisms and the exposure of 
 the errors in them ; between the Presbyterian profession 
 and the desire for read prayers and a liturgy ; between tlie 
 evident aversion to Popery.and the willingness to form an 
 alliance with it. Adopt the theory of the fourfold au- 
 thorship and one editorship, and all disagreements disap- 
 pear. The remarkable unity has been given by the varied 
 accomplishments of the compiler. 
 
 P.S. As another exercise, the sophomore is ready to 
 show that there is a fourfold authorship in this pamphlet. 
 
 X. 
 
 Whither ? What of the Christian Evidences f 
 In the now extensive English-speaking countries the 
 evidences of Christianity are drawn from two quarters : 
 one External, the other Internal. The External include 
 what are now called Miracles, among which are to be 
 placed Prophecies. Dr. Briggs is not satisfied with the 
 way in which Dr. Hodge and modern theologians prove 
 the truth of the Christian religion. He seems to fall 
 in with the modern notion that miracles are diflSculties in 
 the way of belief rather than arguments for it. 
 
 But it is a fact that the inspired writers do appeal to 
 occurrences which show "powers" above the ordinary 
 agency of man and nature. They are called " wonders," 
 inasmuch as they call attention to the powers and signs. 
 They are called " signs," in that they attest truth usually 
 moral and spiritual. (Acts ii. 22 : Miracles, wonders, and 
 signs.) It is clearly maintained in Scripture that there were 
 such miracles wrought in the curing of organic diseases, 
 in the raising of the dead, and the prediction of coming 
 
WHITHER ? O WHITHEll ? 35 
 
 events. They so run through the Word, that to cut them 
 out, as the Arnold family would do, leaves the body torn 
 and lifeless. The miracles can be substantiated so that 
 they become one part of the evidences of the truth of 
 Christianity. 
 
 In order to justify this argument, it may be noticed 
 that there are two kinds of laws in nature. There is, first, 
 the Laio of Cause and Effect y as that matter attracts 
 other matter, that fire burns, and the sun shines. If mir- 
 acles were contrary to this law, we could not believe them. 
 Though some of the German thinkers so represent them, 
 they are not so ; they have in God a cause adequate to 
 produce them. 
 
 But there is another set of laws in nature, the Laws of 
 Uniformity. The agencies working in nature are so ar- 
 ranged that they produce regularities such as the succes- 
 sion of day and night, the length oi the year, the rotation 
 of the seasons, the ages of the plant and animal. These 
 are the product of arranged causes, but are not causes. 
 Day does not produce night, nor night day. Spring does 
 not produce summer, nor youth old age. Now miracles 
 are not contrary to the law of cause and effect, which has 
 no exceptions, but simply to the uniformity of nature, which 
 may be shifted by higher agency.* They imply a divine 
 power acting in a different way from that in which it act.s 
 in producing day and night. They are not contrary to 
 any intuitive or universally established law. They can 
 ho, proven by evidence, and, being so proven, they estab- 
 lish the truth of Christianity. 
 
 But we have, secondly, Internal Evidence. Especially, 
 there is thorough adaptation of Christianity to man's nat- 
 
 * It would be out of place to explain the nature of these two kinds of 
 laws here ; but I may be allowed to say that this is done in my little 
 work on Tlie Tents of Various Kinds of lYuth. 
 
36 WHITHEK ? O WHITHER ? 
 
 ure — to his moral nature — and his wants. This is by 
 far the most convincing and the most persuasive of evi- 
 dences ; it comes home to every heart. I know that I am 
 a sinner, and here is a Saviour provided. I feel that I am 
 weak, but here I have strength. As we realize this, we 
 say : Here is a man who told me all things that ever I did, 
 who revealed to me all my nature ; is not this the Christ ? 
 Both of these kinds of proof should be included in Apolo- 
 getics, now held to be so important a part of a theological 
 course. But Dr. Briggs is not sure that this is the method 
 of the Westminster Standards, or that sanctioned by Script- 
 ure. Pie finds fault with the Princeton divines for fol- 
 lowing this plan. It is his principal charge against the 
 two Hodges, that in doing so they have departed from the 
 Standards. 
 
 The Reformers and the Westminster divines, in stand- 
 ing up for the Divinft authority of Scripture, were par- 
 ticularly anxious to show that it did not depend on the 
 Komish Church. " The authority of the Holy Scripture 
 depends wholly on God." But God says: "Prove all 
 things; hold fast that which is good." In seeking to 
 obey this command they had not such a body of evidences 
 as we now have from our moral nature, which has been 
 carefully defined by such men as Butler, Kant, and Chal- 
 mers, and in innumerable works treating of the historical 
 proof. It appears evident to me that they meant to ap- 
 peal to what we now call the internal or subjective proof. 
 " The full discovery it makes of the only way of man's 
 salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and 
 the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it 
 doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God." 
 West. Co7i., I. 5. The Confession then calls in " the 
 Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our 
 hearts." 
 
WHITHER ? O WHITHER ? 37 
 
 Dr. Briggs affirms that the Reformers and Westminster 
 divines built on thejides divina, the divine evidence, of 
 the testimony of the Spirit, and those who do not build 
 with them abandon the work of the Reformation (p. 81); 
 and Dr. A. Alexander and the Princeton divines are so 
 charged. It is true that the end to be reached is 21. fides 
 divina, wliich can be obtained only by the inward work- 
 ing of the power of the Spirit. But it is admitted that 
 the Spirit does not now reveal to us any new truth. We 
 need to have the truth presented to us and the evidence 
 tliat it is the truth, according to the rules of evidence ; 
 and in answer to pra3'er the Spirit seals and makes it fides 
 divina. To reverse this order is to fall in with Quaker- 
 ism and Mysticism. He has fallen into confusion at this 
 point, and blames the theologians for not doing the same. 
 
 I do not think that our professor has thrown any light 
 on the evidences of Christianity, but I am pleased and 
 elevated by what he says of Theophanies or God-Mani- 
 festations. We have such in nature. " The heavens de- 
 clare the glory of God." " God left not liimself without 
 witness, in that he did good and gave us rain from heav- 
 CTi and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and 
 gladness." We have such a theophany every morning as 
 the sun rises, every spring as the plants burst out. These 
 are natural manifestations. But we have also supernatu- 
 ral ones, as in the creation of man, the prophecy of the 
 seed of the woman, the call of Abraham, the birth and 
 death of the Son of God. These are just the higher mir- 
 acles, the powers and signs and wonders, indicating 
 clearly a power working above the uniformities of nat- 
 ure. Among the highest of these theosophics we have 
 tlie volume of the Book relating and infallibly sanction- 
 ing the whole. 
 
38 WHITHER ? O WHITHER ? 
 
 XL 
 
 Whither ? Are we in this life under Probation f Ke- 
 sponsibility and Probation are two, or, when combined, 
 tliey are one, of the great truths of the Religion of Nature. 
 They are guaranteed by the conscience or moral reason. 
 This truth is one of the most essential doctrines announced 
 or implied in the volume of the Book from Genesis to Rev- 
 elation, from the dealings of God with our first parents 
 down to the judgment day. God " will render to every 
 man according to his deeds," Rom. ii. 6. " For we must 
 all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every- 
 one may receive the things done in his body, according to 
 that he hath done, whether it be good or bad," 1 Cor. v. 
 11. I could show that it has a place in the writings of 
 the fathers, of the deeper mediaeval theologians, and the 
 reformers. It was expressed more fully when the Cam- 
 bridge School unfolded the great principles of morality. 
 It was enunciated more definitely by Butler and others, 
 when deism appeared in the last century. It has now a 
 fundamental position both in ethics and religion. It is 
 by this truth that men are shut up into Christ. 
 
 But the professor in Union Theological Seminary tells 
 us : " The doctrine that this life is a probation was not 
 known to the Reformers or the "Westminster divines. It 
 is a doctrine that is inconsistent with Calvinistic prin- 
 ciples. These represent that our race had a probation 
 once for all in Adam at the beginning of human historj^ 
 and were condemned for failure in that probation, so that 
 we are a lost race, not under a probation, but under a 
 curse, and needing above all things redemption through 
 Jesus Christ" [p. 217]. If this is part of the system of 
 doctrine in the Confession, it is time to add a supplement. 
 
WHITHER ? O WHITHER ? 39 
 
 But Dr. Briggs might have seen that the Confession of 
 Faith gives us the supplement : " All persons that have 
 lived upon the earth shall appear before the tribunal of 
 Christ to give an account of their thoughts, words, and 
 deeds, and to receive according to what they have done in 
 the body, whether good or evil." — Con., XXXIII. 
 
 Paul does speak in one passage of our connection with 
 Adam and of hereditary sinfulness, Rom. v. 12-27. Au- 
 gustine, with his great speculative genius, has drawn out 
 of it a comprehensive theory which is not all sanctioned 
 by Scripture. Our sinful nature may have come down 
 to us from Adam, but it is our sinful nature and our sin. 
 '• Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and 
 death by sin, and so death passed on all men for that all 
 have sinned," v. 12. These two statements should never be 
 separated. I have inherited my sin from Adam — modern 
 science attaches great importance to inheritance— but I 
 have sinned myself. I do not know that I am required 
 to repent of and confess the sin of Adam ; I confess my 
 own sin. 
 
 I can show that this doctrine of man's personal proba- 
 tion was the universal Puritan doctrine. Baxter and all 
 of them speak thus : " AVe assure them that God will 
 never say, Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, 
 if they do not first by iniquity depart from God, and that 
 God will not damn them, except they first damn them- 
 selves by the obstinate final refusing and resisting of his 
 mercy." — Reasons foi' Ministers' using the Greatest Plain- 
 ness. 
 
40 WHITHER 'I O WHITHER ? 
 
 XII. 
 
 Whither ? As to the Middle State ? Dr. Brigga dwells 
 on this subject more fully than on any other Scripture 
 doctrine. I fear that he has got into difficulties. The 
 Reformers and the Westminster divines had seen and 
 been deeply impressed with the soul-ruining corruptions 
 which had sprung from the Romish doctrine of Purga- 
 tory, and they uttered clear and decisive language as to 
 what becomes of the soul at death, "The souls of be- 
 lievers, being then made perfect in holiness, are received 
 into the highest heavens." " The souls of the wicked are 
 cast into hell." " Besides these two places for souls sepa- 
 rated from their bodies the Scripture acknowledgeth none." 
 — Con.^ XXXIII. In like manner, the Larger Catechism 
 says of the members of the invisible Church that imme- 
 diately after death " their souls are then made perfect in 
 holiness and received into the highest heavens," Q. 86. 
 The same statement is made in the Shorter Catechism : 
 " The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in 
 holiness and do immediately pass into glory," Q. 37. Dr. 
 Briggs has declared : " I solemnly and sincerely receive and 
 adopt the Westminster Confession of Faith as containing 
 the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures." 
 He is not bound to every statement of the Confession, 
 but he is bound to " the system of doctrine." But that 
 the souls of believers are at their death made " perfect 
 in holiness " is clearly a part of the " system of doc- 
 trine," as essential a part as any other doctrinal statement 
 in the Confession. 
 
 Dr. Dorner had stated in regard to those who had died 
 unbelieving : " If instead of repenting and being con- 
 verted, instead of growing in knowledge of God as holy 
 
WIIITIIEK? O WHITHER? 41 
 
 and yet gracious in Christ, they prefer to continue in 
 evil, then the form of their sin becomes more spiritual, 
 more deinoniacal in accordance with their state from 
 whicli this world recedes farther and farther, and thus 
 it ripens into judgment " [p. 211]. Our professor adopts 
 this doctrine, but not altogether. He does not say that 
 there is conversion after death. " It may be that there is 
 no hope of regeneration after death or of the initiation of 
 the order of salvation in the middle state " [p. 219]. On 
 this point he has kept clear of the Andover heresy, whicli 
 has so troubled the Congregational churches. Otherwise 
 he has followed his German master. We feel it to be 
 strange, when we read the passages quoted above from the 
 Confession, to find him declaring that, " The Confession 
 makes no such statement as this," that " sanctification be- 
 comes immediate at death ; " " it does not say that man is 
 made perfect at the moment of death" [p. 147]. 
 
 It is important that we should know his doctrine, which 
 is not that of " the system of doctrine." lie opens : *■• Tlu; 
 middle state must be opened up in the discussions that 
 are in progress. There must be the fullest liberty in this 
 debate" [p. 222]. "The question we have to determine 
 as Calvinists is whether the divine grace is limited in its 
 operation to this world of ours, whether the divine act of 
 regeneration may take place in the middle state or not, 
 whether any part of the order of salvation is carried on 
 there or not, and if any part, what part" [p. 221]. In 
 answering this question he comes to the conclusion : 
 " Among infra-confessional errors the most serious is the 
 neglect of the doctrine of the Middle State. The Confes- 
 sion of Faith and the Catechisms are meagre enough 
 here" [p. 206]. lie condemns the Protestant dogmatic 
 divines who insist "on determining the fate of men im- 
 mediately after death without regard to the doctrine of 
 
42 WHITHER? O WHITHER? 
 
 the middle state" [p. 196]. He would have "an exten- 
 sion of the gracious operations of God into the Middle 
 State, between death and the resurrection, where the order 
 of salvation begun for infants and others in regeneration 
 may be conducted through all the processes of justifica- 
 tion by faith, adoption, and sanctification by repentance, 
 and glorification in love and holiness in the communion 
 of God and the Messiah" [p. 137]. He assures us that 
 recent study " has held up the light of Christian ethics 
 and shown that the doctrine of immediate sanctification 
 at death is contrary to the Scriptures and the Creeds, and 
 has filled the middle state with ethical contents as a place 
 for Christian sanctification" [p. 286]. 
 
 His doctrine is clearly before us. People must judge 
 whether it is consistent wdth the system of doctrine con- 
 tained in the Scriptures. For myself, I believe that there 
 is very little said in Scripture about Hades. It is clear, 
 however, that at death the soul is made perfect in the 
 sense of being free from all sin. Without this holy sepa- 
 ration it could not see God. Without holiness no man 
 can see the Lord. But I am also inclined to believe that in 
 the intermediate state, and throughout eternity, there will 
 be a growth in the graces that abide, especially these 
 three — faith, hope, and charity. 
 
 Objections may be taken to the doctrine elaborated by 
 Dorner, virtually accepted by Andover, and followed out 
 in part by our theological professor. So far as I see, it 
 allows the possibility of the souls which believed on earth 
 falling away and being lost in Hades. Protestant preach- 
 ers exhort their hearers to repent and believe, and become 
 holy and perfect, as there is no provision for this in the 
 world to come. But they can do this no longer, as their 
 hearers are told that there is some kind of probation being 
 prolonged till the final judgment. Logically and, I fear, 
 
WHITHER? O WHITHER? 43 
 
 practically, it must issue in some of the evils of Purgatory, 
 which, always along with the priestly power of forgiving 
 sins, is the most perilous tenet of the Church of Konie. It 
 leads, I know that in fact it does, to prayers for the dead, 
 for those who are not yet sanctified. It would go on, con- 
 sequently, to a continuance of such prayers indefinitely, 
 and to a provision being made by persons when living, or 
 by their friends when they are dead, to secure, by pecun- 
 iary gifts to the Church, the continuance of these peti- 
 tions till the judgment day, when the soul is made perfect. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Whither ? What of the Unity of the Church ? Our 
 Lord's prayer was, " That they all may be one, as thou. 
 Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one 
 in us ; that the world may believe that thou hast sent 
 me." The Romish Church, and perhaps, also, the Churcli 
 of England, set too high a value comparatively on the doc- 
 trine of the Visible Church, and Protestants who have 
 seceded from other Churches are inclined to attach too 
 little importance to it. " I believe in the Holy Catholic 
 Church." The Church that does not believe this is, so 
 far, departing from the faith. The Church which so shuts 
 itself up within itself that it does not acknowledge other 
 Evangelical Churches is guilty of positive sin for which it 
 will somehow or other be punished in this world. 
 
 Dr. Briggs is sincerely and hopefully anxious for a 
 manifestation of the visible and real union of all tlu- 
 Churches of Christ. He would have an alliance with the 
 Roman Catholics, though not with the Popish Church- 
 he tries to distinguish between the two. There is no 
 immediate prospect of this end being accomplished. The 
 
44 WHITHER ? O WHITHER ? 
 
 Roman Catholic Church cannot separate itself from its 
 popish head without disclaiming its infallibility and losing 
 its succession. The Episcopal stands b}^ its apostolic suc- 
 cession — through the Romish Church — and is willing to ab- 
 sorb other Churches but not to unite with them on a foot- 
 ing of equality. It is only by the mighty power of God 
 that these difficulties can be removed. But there is a 
 more practicable plan tending toward the higher final end. 
 I could prove that the Constitution of the United States 
 is so far formed on the Presbyterian models ; in every 
 sentence of the Mecklenburg Declaration, which helped to 
 unite the United States, I hear the ring of the Solemn 
 League and Covenant. We Presbyterians may now take 
 a lesson from the American Constitution. If we cannot 
 liave a union, let us have a Confederation, 
 
 Let each Church retain its power of independent ac- 
 tion. One Church must not be allowed to limit the use- 
 fulness of another. But each minister of a Church should 
 have his special field, which he is required carefully to look 
 after and to cultivate by all the proper Christian agen- 
 cies. There is to be no such restriction as to forbid any 
 minister from visiting his neighbor's field. But let each 
 minister have a field for which he is responsible, that the 
 gospel be preached in it to every creature, young and old. 
 There is an awful responsibility lying on the Churches 
 for not fulfilling the command to preach the gospel to 
 every creature. Thousands are dying every day, not only 
 in Heathen but in Christian countries, to whom the gos- 
 pel has not been preached. Lest the judgments of 
 heaven come upon them, let the Churches so understand 
 each other and so arrange that the evangelical forces be 
 not wasted by petty villages having each five or six 
 churches working against each other rather than for 
 Christ ; and so that the joyful sound be heard by every 
 
WHITHER? O WHITHER? 46 
 
 man, woman, and child, in the shims of our great cities, 
 and over all the wide wastes of heathenism. Wore I ten 
 years jonnger I would join others in seeking to start such 
 a Federation. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Whither ? In respect of Public Woi'ship ? I am 
 sorry that, with all his catholicity, Dr. Briggs, a teacher 
 in the Presbyterian Church, should have so little of the 
 old Presbyterian spirit. He is for a partial and volun- 
 tary Liturg}'. He says : " I would prefer the use of a 
 prayer-book for all the parts of common prayer at the 
 Sabbath services with the exception of a brief prayer at 
 the close of the services expressing the special needs of 
 the congregation and the day" [p. 253]. But we all 
 know the danger of formalism in worship. I should have 
 no objection to one carefully prepared prayer in every 
 service, to keep up the unity of the worship. But I believe 
 that great advantage arises from the minister's expressing 
 the common feelings of himself and his people in ordinary 
 as well as in extraordinary circumstances. 
 
 He thinks that " the Presbyterian Churches of Amer- 
 ica should follow the Presbyterian Churches of Europe, 
 and keep the Christian year" [p. 56]. He must be 
 aware that in countries in which they observe days not 
 prescribed in Scripture they are apt to neglect the Sab- 
 bath which is ordained of God. 
 
 " We must follow the example of the old world and the 
 experience of centuries, and build great buildings that will 
 hold several thousand worshippers, and furnish these 
 churches with several ministers, distributing the work 
 among them according to their several gifts " [p. 40]. 
 
46 WHITHER ? O WHITHER ? 
 
 This system of large churches is a good one in Romish 
 countries, where the instruction of the people is very much 
 addressed to the senses. It is the one adopted in Berlin, 
 where its working is not effective. My landlady in Ber- 
 lin went to one of the churches, I asked her if her minis- 
 ter ever visited her ; "she opened her eyes in astonishment, 
 and said, " I am not a Catholic." I am quite willing that a 
 minister with large preaching gifts should draw together 
 as many as he can, but these people would not always care 
 about attending the preaching of his colleagues. There is 
 a better system. It was the one adopted in the ancient 
 Church as soon as it was organized. They divided town 
 and country into workable parishes. It is the parochial 
 system of Scotland. I was able so to work it that in a 
 population of upward of six thousand there were not a 
 dozen people who did not go to the house of God. We 
 must come back to this parochial method. Let there 
 be a church capable of holding six or eight hundred, 
 not more, in every parish in our cities. Let there be a 
 minister for each, chosen by the people. Let him have 
 elders, and deacons, and trained Sabbath-school teachers. 
 Let him visit his people regularly, and pay special atten- 
 tion to the sick and the aged. Let him have an agency, 
 male and female, for drawing in the careless and the out- 
 cast. The Episcopalians are carrying on tliis system 
 more effectively than the Presbyterians. The Presbyter- 
 ians of Philadelphia are doing it more successfully than 
 those of New York. The spiritual wastes of our country 
 will never be reclaimed till we carry out this system all 
 over the land. 
 
WHITHEli ? O WHITHER ? 47 
 
 XV. 
 
 Whither ? To a close. I liave answered the question 
 put, and yet I have not answered it. I have done little 
 more than show that it should be answered. It must be 
 answered by the rising generation — by the professors in 
 our hundred theological seminaries at home and abroad ; 
 by our theological students ; by our Sabbath-school teach- 
 ers ; by our people, generally, in the kind of preaching 
 they demand and encourage. 
 
 I have pointed out the need. Our theologians who are 
 training our probationers must give the full answer ; not 
 in a reply to Dr. Briggs, but in establishing the truths 
 which are being nndermined in our day. It must be an- 
 swered not by 2i.jeu cC esprit., such as this pamphlet is, but 
 by comprehensive learning, spiritual insight, and good 
 sense. We do not need a refutation of old and effete 
 heresies. There are errors that are deceased, and should 
 not be raised from their graves. I have said that IJnitai-- 
 ianism is dead, and is laid out for decent burial. Ihit 
 there are living heresies which must be met. I wish the 
 professor would answer his own question, would resolve 
 his own riddle, by doing as much for the establishment of 
 truth as he has done for the exposure of error. 
 
 In this duel my opponent had the right to choose the 
 weapons, and they have been rather light ones. When I 
 see him settling the young in the faith I will throw away 
 my weapons, never to take them up again, and will cheer 
 him in what must be, with his talents, a successful and 
 brilliant career. Tlie Wliere? will then give a satisfac- 
 tory answer to the Whither ? 
 
^^^HITHER? 
 
 A THEOLOGICAL QUESTION FOR THE TIMES. 
 
 By CHARLES AUGUSTUS BRIGGS, D.D.. 
 Professor in the Union Theological Seminary, AVw York City. 
 
 1 VOLUME, CBOWN 8vo. PEICE, $1.76. 
 
 contents. 
 Drifting — Orthodoxy— Mistaken Attitudes— Change of 
 Base — Excesses — Failures — Departures— Perplexities 
 — Progress in Theology— Christian Union. 
 
 Dr. Briggs' book is bold, radical, almost startling. It is the product 
 of more than twenty years of study in the history of Puritan theology 
 and especially of the authors of the Westminster Standards. The work 
 is written and published in view of the agitation in the Presbyterian 
 Church regarding the revision of the Confession of Faith, and presents 
 facts and arguments which every one interested in this question must 
 heed. The work, however, has a far wider scope. The author's main 
 contention is that all Christian denominations have drifted from their 
 moorings. " The process of dissolution," he says, " has gone on long 
 enough. The time has come for the reconstruction of theology, of 
 polity, of worship, and of Christian life and work. The drift in the 
 Church ought to stop. The barriers between the Protestant denomina- 
 tions should be removed and an organic union formed. An Alliance 
 should be made between Protestantism and Romanism and all other 
 branches of Christendom." 
 
 "The book comes to us fulfilling all anticipations. Interesting as a 
 novel, almost elegant in its language, clear in its expression, marvel- 
 lous in showing research, the book will pay largely for its reading." — 
 The Christian Inqitirer. 
 
 "A work that should be read by all who are interested in religious 
 discussions. Dr. Briggs' researches have been pursued in a catholic 
 spirit, and the result of his labors should have a place in every theolog- 
 ical library." — Boston Saturday Evening Gazette. 
 
 "It is a remarkable work and is sure to receive attention." — The 
 
 Nation. 
 
 SUPPLIED TO CLERGYMEN AT SPECIAL NET RATES. 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers. 
 
 743-745 Brondtva)-, New York. 
 
Dr. McCOSH'S WORKS 
 
 By JAMES McCOSH, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 Kx-Prtsident of Princeton College. 
 
 PSYCHOLOGY. 
 
 I.— The Cognitive Powers. II.— The Motive Powers. 
 
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 priate cuts. The second volume treats of the Motive Powers, as they 
 are called, the Orective, the Appetent, the Impulsive Powers ; including 
 the Conscience, Emotions, and Will. 
 
 FIRST AND FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS. 
 
 BEING A TREATISE ON METAPHYSICS. 
 
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 Extract from the Preface. — "Every thinking mind has occasion at 
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 reached a Realistic Philosophy, opposed alike to the Sceptical Philos- 
 ophy, which has proceeded from Hume, in England, and the Idealistic 
 Philosophy, which has ramified from Kant, in Germany ; while I have 
 also departed from the Scottish and higher French Schools, as I hold 
 resolutely that the mind, in its intelligent acts, begins with, and pro- 
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 REALISTIC PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Defended in a Philosophic Series. 
 
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