"POLLEX," AND THE DUNEDIN PRESBYTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9103, 11 July 1888, Page 3

"POLLEX," AND THE DUNEDIN PRESBYTERY.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —I am sure your contributor " Pollex " would not willingly deal out injustice to any body of men ; but, I fear, from want of sufficient knowledge of the case, he has dealt very unfairly with the Presbytery of Dunedin in his criticism of this morning. He may call it playfulness, bub it is playfulness having very serious consequences in the inteiests of our common Christianity. Professor Salmoud is not now •'a grand old Professor of Theology." He held his heretical views when he accepted the Theological Chair ; but only when he felt himself secure in the Chair of Mental and Moral Science did he give expression to them. In his pamphlet he tells us he has held these views for thirty years, and "I had no rest in my spirit till I sat down at my desk, and poured out my soul's contents on paper." One naturally wonders why he should have remained in such mental agony for so many years. If his views were out of touch with those of his Church, his ability and culture would have found him a more congenial sphere than teacher of doctrines he did not believe in. There is an entire absence in his case of any "spirit of sacrifice" for what he believed bo be truth, and not even " Pollex" will be able to raise him to a martyr's crown. But what I specially object to is that " Pollex" proceeds in his criticism without book. He says that in the deliverance of the Presbytery there is " not a word of endeavouring by argument to dislodge him from the position he has taken up, or of seeking to enlighten him as to his error." If " Pollex" will read the telegram again he will find he is wrong. It says that the following resolution was agreed to : " That the Committee meet Dr. Salmond to represent to him the judgment of the Presbytery, and expressed in the report !

adopted, and in view of that judgment ask him to suppress his pamphlet," etc.' * That shows clearly enough surely that the pamphlet has been carefully examined, and that the judgment is based on the report of the Committee that has been engaged in argumentatively showing the untenableness of Dr. Salmond's position. " Pollex" is at liberty to hold his opinion, so elegantly expressed, that the men engaged in this matter are "worthless clouts." He will allow me doubtless to express mine, and it is that some of these men are quite a match for Dr. Salmond in the domain of theology. He is perhaps unaware of the fact that the Rev. James McGregor, D.D., for many years Professor of Theology in the Free Church College, Edinburgh, now of Oamaru, a man who has a reputation for ability, research, and erudition, that Dr. Salmond will have some difficulty in reaching; a man as familiar with every phase and bearing of theology as a schoolboy with the alphabeb, has written a pamphlet in reply to the " Reign of Grace." Dr. Salmond's is a philosophical disquisition, Dr. McGregor's is a setting forth of the Scriptural aspect of the question. The Bible teaching has not been set aside in favour of the Confession, as "Pollex's" statements imply. It is Dr. Salmond who has failed to grapple with the Bible difficulties in his way. He admits that "it is when we turn to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that our view encounters the greatest amount of difficulty." And he gets over the difficulty by representing Christ as a popular preacher, whose "thoughts and emotions burned with an intensity of feeling beyond our conception," and whose preaching sometimes conveyed impressions to the minds of his hearers, that had no solid resting ground. This Dr. McGregor represents as "imputing to Christ the shameful falsehood of appearing to teach what in His heart He does not believe." Surely " Pollex" will admit that in view of these things the Presbytery of Dunedin were acting wisely and kindly in seeking to bring their wandering brother to a better state of mind. Ido not write as the apologist of narrow-minded men ; with such I have no sympathy. But I like fair play, and that Ido not think Pollex" has extended to the Dunedin Presbytery in writing as he has done, in ignorance of what is contained in the committee's report, and in the judgment of the- Presbytery based thereupon. Presbyterian ministers are just as ready to advance with progressive theology as their neighbours, but they are sterlingly true to what is proved to be the sure Word of the living God ; and the standards can have no hold upon their conscience in any part or particular proved to be out of keeping with that Word. The verdict of the enlightened . and liberal theological world in regard to the Reign of Grace, as put by Dr. Salmond, is " Not proven," and until it has ."been proved we will continue to holdfast by. the form of sound doctrine which we •find-in the Bible. — am, &c., ' Robert SoilMerville. July 7, 1888.