INDEPENDENCE IN THE PULPIT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20254, 14 May 1929, Page 12

INDEPENDENCE IN THE PULPIT.

Sir, —Your readers are under a debt of obligation to Mr. Murray for the courteous explanation of hi:s remarks of last Tuesday night, but some of us arc not yet satisfied. Ho still advocates the unjufit victimisation of honest and sincere men, and that, I hold, is contrary to the great commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Sticklers for orthodoxy are apt to forget that the essential thing in true Christianity is not correctness of intellectual belief, but love, and I am far more concerned about this than I am about evolution or any other such question. Mr. Mtirray contends that ministers are breaking their" ordination vows when they preach evolution, but I fail to see it. Even the question asked of deacons in the Church of England, "Do you unfeignedly believe all tho canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments?" must necessarily imply, "So far as I understand them/' • and many Christian believers in evolution hold that it is quite possible to reconcile evolution with the spirit of the Genesis narratives. The Apostle Paul declared, "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (2 Cor. iii., 6.) At tho ordinatioa of priests in the Church of England—and the Methodist Church has practically copied it word for. word—the questiotr runs thus: "Are you persuaded that tho holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all doctrine required of necessity for salvation through faith in Jesus- Christ?" These words are quite consistent .with a broad-minded intex'pretation. -The words mean briefly, "I believe that the Bible contains the Word of God," which belief practically all ministers sincerely maintain, whatever may be their attitude to evolution. Therefore, the measures ad-vc-cated by Mr. Murray are inexcusable. Ho is advocating the punishment of men for breaking their vows who never broke their vows and had no such intention. If Mr. Murray holds that believers in evolution are breaking . their vows, he must admit that he is going against the opinion of the i great majority of Christian scholars in the world to-day, who hold • no such opinion. It would be a case of "Athanasius contra mundum," only that Mr. Murray is not an Athanasius.. May 11. . Poor Parson.

Sir, —In a letter in Saturday's Herald the Rev. A. A. Murray deals with the question of disloyalty to the standards that ministers have promised to maintain. There-is no doubt that ministers of the Presbyterian Church are particularly in view. Does Mr. Murray not see that in' advising office-bearers and congregations to take such ministers to task he is urging these office-bearers and congregations to set afc nought the standards of their Church ? Ministers are responsible to Presbyteries and nofc to sessions for the discharge of their duties. Even Mr. Murray, with all hi_s_enthasiasm for safe doctrine, used language at the Town Hall demonstration .that, could bear no. other construction than tho ascription and form to God.. Such . teach'jfl'g, T has always been explicitly ruled ouj, ; by..the standards of the Presbyterian So that, with all his good intentions jtp s „gviard the articles of belief he fails- ascertain points himself. One ; of . the "supreme offences for. which a minister-sheqlsk be dealt with is, his acceptance of tjagj theory of evolution in any form. Yet jife-eeflser-vative theologian like- the late Prof. Jas. Orr, of the U.F. Church ' of Scotland, makes -the following statement,'" religious interest. I may take it 'for 'granted, is imperilled by a theory of evolution, viewed simply as a method of-creation, provided certain conditions are ""fulfilled, and certain limits are observed." A balanced statement such as this is was nofc made by the speakers at the demonstration in tho Town Hall, and they made it clear that they would not tolerate anvthing of the kind. Ho will s«e that some of the most powerful critics of theories of evolution are themselves believers in some form of evolution. D. D. Scott. The Manse, Onehunga. May 13,-1929.