A QUESTION OF ORTHODOXY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 275, 13 August 1908, Page 8

A QUESTION OF ORTHODOXY.

AN OTACO CRITIC. "TIME TO BLOW THE TRUMPET." The Rev. R. R. M. Sutherland (Kaikorai), who moved the liostilo overture in the Duncdin Presbytery regarding tho Rev. J. Gibson Smith's book, road to his congregation on Sunday last tho following vigorous statement of his position, which- wo print in abbreviated form from the " Otago Daily Times ":—

"You liavo doubtless seen from the newspapers that at tho last meeting of tho Duncdin Presbytery I put -my hand to a very unpleasant piece of work. I think it is only fair to you, to myself, and to tho causo of truth and righteousness that I should tell you why I did so. You will doubtless bo told that I am a very disagroeablo person, with ..a very keen scent for heresy, given to opening up old sores, and fond of stirring up strife, and so on, and so on. You, who have known me for nearly thirty years, know that all that ■ is tho opposite of tho truth as to my character. Lot mo tell you why I felt constrained to enter upon this disagreeablo undertaking, and why 1 mean, witlr God's help, to pursue it 'to a proper issue. I did so — The Church Herself on Trial. "Because I want to know for myself, and I want the whole Church to know, 'What is what and who is who' in connection with tho doctrine and 1 discipline of the Church. This undertaking of mino will not only put an offending brother minister on his trial, but it will also put the Church herself, and especially tho leaders of the Church, on their trial, and bring out whether.or not she and they aro true and honest in their relation to tho faith professed by them. Tho eagerness with which some leading men in tho Church hastened to throw the mantje of their sympathy and defence over a minister who assails the doctrine of his Church with furious vehemence, and to attack through tho Press and pulpit, other men who, in fulfilment of their vows, call tho attention of the Church to the oonduct of such ministers is to mo an ominous sign that things are not just what they ought to be in a Christian ' Church. , The wrongdoer is hailed as a moral hero, thoso who call , attention to his wrongdoing aro called inquisitors and assassins of character.' It is surely not desirablo that this Presbyterian Church of ours should be allowed to live any longer in a fool's paradise. I did so— ,

ResQonslbilltv of Vows. " Because I took my ordination, vows seriously. I believed, the Church meant them to bo taken seriously when, nearly 30 years ago, she laid thorn on mo through tho Presbytery of Dunedin. I then solemnly promised to tho Church,, through the Presbytery, that I. would, 'to tho utmost of my power, assist, maintain, and defend the doctrinc of tho Church and the purity of her worship.' Every minister of tho Church has made tho same solemn promise, some of them repeatedly. Tho Rev. J. Gibson Smith, of St. Andrew's Church, Wellington, made it to tho Presbytery of Dunedin in ISB7, to the Presbytery of Southland in 1894, and to tho Presbytery of Wellington in 1904. I leave you to say if his way of fulfilling it is not very extraordinary. . The doctrine of the Church on one all-important subject—namely, tho death of our' Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ —is as follows' The Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience and sacrifice of Himself, which Ho, through tho Eternal Spirit, once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice or His Father.' 'Christ, by His obedience .and death,_ did make a proper, real, ■and full satisfaction to God's justice in tho behalf of them that are' justified.' Three times over tho Rev. J. Gibson Smith declared, with all tho solemnity of an oath, that ho sincerely owned and believed, this doctrine to bo founded upon the Word of God and acknowledged it as an article in his faith. Three times over he. solemnly promised that ho would, to tho -utmost of his power, assist, maintain, and defend it. This is how ho writes about it in his book, 'The Christ of tho Cross.' " ■ Mr. Sutherland hero quoted tho same passages as were quoted in the overture laid before tho Wellington Presbytery! Change' of Views. "What do you think of that in tho way of carrying out the vow to assist, maintain, and defend the doctrino of the Church to tho utmost of his power? < But- you may think that Mr. Smith has changed his views of doctrino in very recent days.' He tells us in his book that this is not so, for in the 'Prefaco' wo read tho following: 'An over deepening sense Of the truthfulness and value of that view of the Cross of Christ to which I 'have been led constrained. me first of all to doliver the essential ideas of this book in a series of lectures to tho congregation with which I was then, aiitl, secondly, to mould them into • what is, I trust, tho more coherent and intelligible form which they have attained in this volumo. The same standpoint, however, .has been maintained in tho book as in the lectures.' The standpoint of the book is that of strong and bitter hostility to tho creeds of Christendom on tho doctrine in question. Mr. Smith has explained since_ his book was published that his changed views had their origin in a vision which ho had before eoiniDg to Now Zealand. The views which he propounds in his book are the truth revealed to him in tho spirit in that vision. That being so, ordinary mortals, who get no special revelations, have difficulty in understanding-how Mr. Smith felt himself at liberty to take the solemn vows required of a Presbyterian minister.

Soundinz ths Alarm. "When the leaders of the Church hasten eagerly to throw their mantle over a minister who makes vows and carries them out in this, extraordinary fashion, it is surely time that someone should blow the trumpet and give the alarm. That is what somo of us mean to do and to do without loss of time. We mean to sound it long and loud and with no uncertain sound, to rally tho friends of truth to the defence of the Gospel of tho Grace of God."