THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OP FAITH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14281, 1 August 1908, Page 14

THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OP FAITH.

SiR,-Sinee both the Rev. R. R. M. Butlierlatid and tho Rev. Isaac Jolly have found much to shock them in the Rev. Mr Gibson Smith's ttcparturo from the dogma of -the Westminster Confession of Faith regarding the Atonement, will they, as Christian ministers please answer this question of mine? Do they unreservedly believe this paragraph taken from the Westminster- Confession?—" By tlie decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels aire predestined unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death. As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath Ho by tho eternal and most free purpose of His will, pre-ordained all the means thereto. . The rest of mankind God was pleased . . . for the glory of His sovereign power over Hi 6 creatures, to pass by, and to ordain them to dishonour and wrath for their sin, io the praise of His glorious justice. . Others not elected . . never truly come to Christ, and therefore canof. be saved; much less can men not professing (he Christian religion bo saved in any other way whatever, bn they ever so diligent to frame their lives according to tho light of Nature, and the law of that Teligion they do profes?. . . Tho visible Church .' . consists of all those tliroughout the worJd that profess the true religion, together with their children; and is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of Cod, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. . . The. wicked, who know not God and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into eternal torments." I ask this for tho enlightenment of Presbyterians- generally, as 1 do not believe tho everyday Presbyterian churchman has any idea, of what is in that Westminster Confession, and I think that it is time that he did know.—l am, etc., Duncdin, July 31. Veritas.