Mr Spurgeon's Secession.

Evening Star, Issue 7363, 8 November 1887, Page 3

Mr Spurgeon's Secession.

A further London telegram informs us that " the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, the celebrated minister of the London Tabernacle, who has determined to withdraw from the Baptist Union in consequence of divergence of views in doctrinal questions, refuses to continue in the Union at the expense of eivinc up bis belief in the doctrine of the atonement of Christ and in the personality of the Holy Ghost. He justifies hia belief in salvation by faith and in the doctrine of eternal punishment, whioh some members deny." It seems that Mr Spurgeon s withdrawal from the Baptist Union is in reality, of much less moment than might at first be P TheUnion (says the 'Argus') is only a voluntary association, possessing no power oyer the congregations, and a minister who is dissatisfied can at once resign, even though his dissatisfaction may be based on mistaken grounds. Mr Spurgeon is disgusted, because the Baptist Union has not taken steps to rid itself of any member who may be infected with the newer views, or to raise a protest against the decline which he observes in the Congregational body. The Union may not have seen any development of heresy within its own ranks requiring a Coercion Act, and it was not called upon, at the mere bidding of Mr Spurgeon, and on the strength of his assertions, to hurl words of warning and rebuke at other denominations. It may be presumed that Mr Spurgeon's assertion of ministerial heterodoxy—notwithstanding his commanding position and powerful personal influence-would be repudiated by those preachers on whom he would fasten the aspersion. They would deny that any vital departure from tho faith has taken place in their teaching. The charige-and a change is now surely work-toe-is one rather of attitude and of dogma, 2d against this change which is wrought by tb! spirit of the age it is vain to contend The Baptist Union would have acted Sector',break, np.th* olinrsbes over Eor Lotrines simply to maintain the Spurgeon deShelley. Allan W. promtot pastor of a Melbourne Baptist Church, statedhis view? to a Melbourne 'Daily Telegraph.' He said his impression of Mr Spurgeon 1 * attitude was something like this: The meetingsdthe Baptist Union are now being he.d m Sheffield, and he expects Mr Spurgeon las sought to have some emphatw pronunciation

on the part of the Union which would exclude the few men who would depart from the tenets of the Evangelical religion. The Union had evidently declined to become rigid in it.-i rules in order to satisfy Mr Spurgeon, so he had withdrawn from it. The probable ultimate outcome of the secession will, it is feared, be the formation of a new denomination, and in that case the rev. gentleman would undoubtedly have many followers. It is stated that quite one-third of the Baptist ministers of England and Wales have been trained in his Pastors' College, and would naturally throw in their lot with him. As the churches of the Southern Hemisphere are presided over mainly by ministers from the same alma mater, it is presumed they would follow suit.