THE QUESTIONS OF PRINCIPLE EVADED.
James Dodson
The matter recently has never been fairly dealt with by Church Courts upon its merits. This is one of the grounds of complaint, but it is certain that at next Assembly the point will be raised in a way which must elicit a decision of some kind upon the precise merits of the question.
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The majority of members of the Elgin Presbytery have resolved to sanction the introduction of an organ; they are insisting upon this view in the face of a minority in the congregation, who have refused to acquiesce in the arrangement, and this minority insists upon having the decision of the superior Courts of the Church to begin with on the legality of the innovation; and whether they are to be deprived of their Christian privileges, and driven from their own parish church, because they cannot conscientiously support a form of worship repugnant alike to ecclesiastical and civil law.
In contemplating the unsatisfactory contrast which has lately arisen between the law and practice of some Churches, it may be important to fix attention, not only on the reasons which exist for maintaining the dignity of the Supreme Court, by a uniform, consistent administration of the law, and also on the consideration that if illegal novelties are tolerated at all, it is impossible to set limits to the aggressions and disorder which may arise; but also on the absolute necessity of maintaining uniformity of worship in every Presbyterian Church. It seems plausible, no doubt, to say that no great harm can result from changes if individual congregations are only tolerably unanimous and satisfied. But it is purely fallacious. No congregation in a Presbyterian Church can, in the nature of things, be regarded or treated as a mere unit. It is part of a great whole, and to deal with it otherwise is to abandon Presbyterianism altogether, and adopt avowedly the theory of
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congregational Independency. Nay, to allow of Ritualistic worship on the one hand, and permit the congregations to alter the worship on the other, is to adopt a strange compound, unknown to previous ages, borrowed partly from Prelacy and partly from Congregationalism. A congregation, moreover, may, as every one knows, be unanimous today, and in the continual migrations of the population, new members may come from other districts, whose devotions may be greatly disturbed and their principles outraged by the novelties which they find in their new church. Thus the peace of congregations may be continually violated. The ministers, also, are periodically changing by reason of death or otherwise, and it is not in accordance with justice that a conscientious minister, adhering to his ordination engagements, should, for example, be precluded from accepting the pastoral care of any congregation within the whole bounds of the Church, because he feels that his personal convictions and ordination engagements make it impossible for him to conduct the worship according to any new, and as he thinks illegal, fashion. This difficulty arises even when ministers are appointed by the Presbytery to preach in turn in vacant congregations, into some of which innovations have been introduced. A minister must, in such a case, choose betwixt obeying his ecclesiastical superiors and violating his own conscience, and, as he believes, the constitution of the Church. The matter, in its practical bearings, is very serious, also because each
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unscriptural and unauthorised form in worship carries doctrinal error in its bosom, and must tend directly to the injury of the truth. A simple, scriptural “uniformity of worship,” so strongly insisted upon in all previous ages, and in all churches that are not purely congregational, seems, therefore, absolutely essential to the very existence of the Presbyterian Church, whilst the recent open toleration of diversity by the Church Courts is not only productive of great and growing practical inconveniences, but is subversive of one of the most vital principles of our Presbyterian constitution, as heretofore avowed and understood. There is, indeed, no better reason for openly allowing the worship of the Presbyterian Church to be practically subverted, than for permitting its government, doctrine, and discipline to be set aside—in a word, for allowing Presbyterianism to be subverted altogether, and Prelacy substituted—an issue, indeed, at which some of the innovators are, with too much truth, alleged to be aiming.