DR MACGREGOR'S REPLY TO PROFESSOR SALMOND.

Evening Star, Issue 7624, 29 May 1888, Page 4

DR MACGREGOR'S REPLY TO PROFESSOR SALMOND.

TO THE FDITOB. Sir, —Having already referred to Dr Macgregor's strictures on Professor Salmond'a alleged delinquencies, I shall now shortly notice their divergent views. Dr Salmond's view is simply this : That atonement having been provided for the human race, of which tlic overwhelming majority have received no iutimation in this life, it seems reasonable and consistent with the divine fatherhood to hope that this privilege will yet be extended to them in the future; and that just as, without any Scripture intimation to this effect, we hope for the salvation of deceased infants, so in like manner we need not despair of the millions past, present, and future of the heathen. This statement does not rise to the dignity of a pronounced doctrine. It is of the nature of a hope, and it is this which Dr Macgregor caricatures and ridicules as a vain sentiment, calculated to give joy to the "infidels of Otago." In making his attack, Dr Macgregor's purpose is to draw us away from the divine attributes love and fatherhood—which he treats as mere weaknesses, to the one all-controlling thing in the divine character—sovereignty or sovereign will. There is in reality no trace of incompatibility between the sovereign will and sovereign love of the God of the Bible ; but Dr Macgregor has shown that they differ by the whole hemisphere of faith in the Calvinistic God in whom he believes. 'Tis true this also is the God of the Westminster Confession, as it is also of Calvin and of (Dr Macgregor's favorite saint) Augustine, and other old fossils, from whom Dr Macgregor draws all his supplies. The world is getting sick of these old Fathers. Eminent for learning ? Yes ; Augustine also eminent for filthy immoralities. Athanasius was a tiger, and Urigen a distinguished and bona fide member of the Holy Order of Eunuchs. Dr Macgregor is welcome to the hard-shell theology of the Fathers, but it is not equal to that of the Grandfathers of the New Testament.

What, then, is Dr Macgregor's theology as distinct from "love, benevolence, and fatherhood " ? I shall briefly define it, for it is rarely, if ever, presented from any of our Presbyterian pulpits, and that for reasons sufficiently understood. Augustine (Dr Macgregor's authority in theology) was brought up under a semi-pagan dispensation, when Saturn and Jupiter, etc., still held sway. Saturn, who cooked and breakfasted on his own children—Jove, the cloudcompeller, who kicked his own son out of Olympus and sent him with a broken leg as apprentice to a blacksmith—was a capricious tyrant. With a mind thus colored Augustine seems to have transferred to the Supreme Being qualities akin to the caprices of the pagan gods, for he represents him as disposing of the human race with little or no regard for them as his children, but only_ as Bubservient to the purposes of his sovereign will—infinitely cold and calculating—as foreordaining all their actions, good and bad alike; as imputing to them all and every sin which they had never committed, thus concluding them, while yet unborn, under the wrath and curse. Again he represents him as providing an atonement for a few chosen ones—for such and no others; all others, indeed, being doomed to eternal torments ; and he (Augustine) is careful to explain that in this election to eternal life and eternal death there is no regard whatever to anything in or about the individuals concerned, but solely to the sovereign will and the purposes of His own glory ; in the one case to demonstrate His mercy, and in the other His justice. Again, that the Sovereign Will has decreed that this atonement shall be offered, not only to the elect, but to the nonelect also, accompanied with the warning that their rejection of it shall bring upon them everlasting torment, while all the time it is to be understood that there is no atonement to offer other than that of a mere makebelieve or "hunt-the-gowk," under circumstances sufficiently tragic and painful. And here is yet another feature of the Augustine theology—that whereas the fires of Gehenna would speedily extinguish all consciousness and pain, the Deity to obviate this is represented as working an eternal miracle in bracing them up to such a degree of tension as will qualify them for the endurance of perennial agonies according to the measure of his wrath. Such in brief is the theology of Augustine, and we fail to see wherein there is any improvement upon the terrorific paganisms of his own day—gods infinitely selfish, infinitely capricious, and far removed from such mortal weaknesses as love, benevolence, and fatherhood. Is it any wonder that Professor Salmond lias sought refuge from a theoloay like this, of which irresponsible tyranny and a disposition to indulge it arc the characteristic features ? Is it any wonder that the churches of the Home Countries, of America, and of Germany arc doing the same ? Though Doctor Macgregor seems to discredit this, Professor Salmond is but stating the honest truth—that the | leading theologians of our time are tending to this, and that many are relaxing in their loyalty to the Westminster Standards, as witness the repeated overtures to the Free Church Assembly for a reconstruction of the 'Confession of Faith.' Professor Salmond does not slander his brethren, as he is fiercely accused; he is but enunciating a notorious fact. Nay, Dr Macgregor is an ' example. From the central chair of the central college (see ' Day of Salvation,' page 61) he has held forth cheering hopes respecting dying babes and heathen saints, who, he says, may be sons of God, redeemed by Christ, and inhabited by the Holy Spirit. This is well, but in so saying ho is placing himself under the condemnation of the Westminster Confession, and, on the principle which he applies to Professor Salmond, he ought to be impeached for heresy and for open conformity with modern thought and infidelity.—l am etc,, Only a Layman, Dunedin, May 25.