People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1895 — WHY I AM A PRESBYTERIAN. [ARTICLE]

WHY I AM A PRESBYTERIAN.

BY KEY. E. B. NEWCOMB. LA PORTE. IND.

Being asked to state my reasons for being a Presbyterian, I try to do it briefly and clearly. First of all, I am a Presbyterian because I am a Christian. I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, with an intellectual assent to and a heart trust in his teachings. My Christian faith comes first and my Presbyterianism afterwards. One cannot be a good Presbyterian who is not first • a good Christian. My love for Jesus Christ is superior to my adherence to any branch of his visible churcn. Next, I am a Presbyterian because I was born that way. Early environment has a great deal to do with shaping our later connections. My father was a ruling elder in this church; I was accustomed to attend it fi’oin childhood; all my dearest associations were with it. Therefore, I came to know Jesus Christ as my Savior and my Master and desiring to be connected with people of similar experience, it was most natural that I should enter the church of my early associations. But this was not a determining reason. Circumstances had thrown me into frequent association with other churches and friends who lovingly adhered to them and I could have been much at home in almost any of the evangelical denominations. There were features of Presbyterianism which attracted me in that direction controllingly. 1 am a Presbyterian because I believe the bible to be the Word of God. As a denomination our church has stated that doctrine with particular definiteness. We do not believe only that the bible contains God’s word to be sifted and sorted out according to individual prefer ei.ee, but that it is God’s word, immediately inspired by him and in its integrity and entirety; “the only infallible rule of faith and practice”. I am a Presbyterian because I believe in a definite creed. When a man says to me, “The bible is my only creed,” he seems to me to be talking nonsense. There are—who knows how many?—

churches calling themselves Christian going to the bible as the basis of their existence.drawing their teachings from it, yet differing as widely as the poles in their preaching and customs. A.ll sav “The bible is my creed". Your creed is what you believe “Crede,” I believe. Presbyterianism stands for some definite conceptions and conclusions as to what the bible teaches. It holds to many conclusions common to all evangelicalism. The theology which it preaches is called Calvanistic, or Augustinian, or Pauline. Even this is common to some other churches. Baptists, orthodox Congregationalists, Dutch Reformed and other churches preach this line of doctrine, and some of them have adopted the same standards as ourselves, the Westminister confession of faith and the catechism formed upon it. A Presbyterian is one who. doctrinally, believes that these standards most consistently and logically embody the teachings of the bible concerning God and man and their mutual relations. This Pauline theology places God on the throne of the universe, sovereign, supreme, ruling according to the counsel of his own will. It makes salvation all of grace, an infinite mercy to lost men, utterly helpless in themselves. It abases (not debases) men in sin and glorifies them in Christ. God saves them not because they deserve it but because be desires it. We believe definite things concerning the plan of salvation, in its origin and its purpose. To say that a man is a Presbyterian preacher locates him. doctrinally, with , a definiteness not always known in other churches. I am a Presbyterian because I believe in its spirit of charity. It is open-hearted to every Christian, by whatever name he calls himself. It has no taint of exclusiveness on its garments. It unchurches no true Christian; and unfrocks no minister of Jesus Christ, whether ordained by its authority or that of another body than the presbytery. It has no stricter rule for fellowship than that, of faith in Jesus Christ. It does not demand any shibboleth at the pulpit steps, at

the baptismal place, at the communion table. Its hearty utterance is, “We be all brethren, and one is our Master, even Jesus Christ.” Presbyterians are not only open-hearted, but openhanded, peculiarly sympathetic and generous to non-denomina-tional agencies which are seeking to do good in the world.

They are sometimes, indeed, called “God’s silly people” because of this generosity outside of denominational lines, while the work of their own church agencies may need larger support. But better this fault than that of selfish exclusiveness. I am a Presbyterian because I believe in its simple requirements for membership. This church is commonly accused of being most strict and difficult in this manner. It is reallv most liberal. It demands simply faith in Jesus Christ, credible evidence of the genuineness of that faith, and honest purpose to do the

will of Christ. It requires no assent to a long creed statement. No applicant is ever asked to subscribe to the standards of the church, the confession of faith and catechism. He is expected to have faith in Jesus Christ, a helpless sinner in a divine Savior and endeavor to lovingly and loyally serve him in all things. Lacking these things, he has no place in any Christian church. Having these, and only these, the doors of the Presbyterian church swing at his touch to let him in. Only those ordained to official station must subscribe to the standard.

l am a Presbyteiian because I believe in its system of government. It is neither autocratic on the one hand, as churches that are governed by pope or prelates or bishops; nor entirely democratic on the other hand,’ as churches that are independent of each other and only bound together by the loose tie of a voluntary association. The form of government of the Presbyterian church and the constitution of the United States have great similarity. Each provides for a republican system, avoiding centralized power and dissipated reponsibility, equally. Presbyterianism is a government neither by an autocrat nor a mass meeting, but by representatives of the people. Ministers have equal authority and every church has representation. One-man power is prevented and the protection of tne humblest in his rights is assured. There seems to be a peculiar affinity between the theology of Presbyterianism and this form of government. Prudent historians have not been slow to testify that the civil liberties of this and other lands, notably England, are largely the fruit of Calvinistic theology. Carlyle has said: •’Protestantism was a revolt against spiritual sovereignties, popes and much else. Presbyterianism carried out the revolt against earthly sovereignties”. Prof. John Fiske of Harvard University says: “It would be hard to overrate the debt of civil liberty which mankind owe to Calvinism. It left the individual man alone in the presence of God. It was a religion fit to inspire men who were to be called on to fight for freedom, whether in the marshes of the Netherlands or on the moors of Scotland”; and its system of government, he says, “constitutes one of the most effective schools that ever existed for training men for local self-government”. Froude's famous passage may also be quoted: “When patriotism has covered its face and human courage has broken down; when intellect has yielded, content to philosophize in the closet, and abroad to worship with the vulgar; when emotion and sentiment and tender imaginative piety have dreamed themselves into forgetfulness that there is any difference between lies and truth, the ‘slavish’ form of belief called Calvanism, has borne ever an inflexible front to illusion and mendacity, and lias preferred to be ground to powder like flint, rather than bend before violence or melt under enervating temptations”. These are some of the reasons why I am a Presbyterian.