Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · October 2, 1890

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 5, No. 39

REV. JAMES MCCOSH, D. D., LL. D., ex-President of Princeton College, in discussing the question of the revision of the “Confession of Faith,” says:—

There are some ministers and elders who have been speaking very unadvisedly as to revision, and leaving the impression that they are ready to abandon some of the essential truths of religion on which the hopes of Christians depend. They are persons who have not been trained in the severer truths of the Word (we are to “behold both the goodness and severity of God”). A few of them have come from other denominations, where they were not taught the sovereignty of God. The greater number have received their higher training in Germany under professors elected, not by the Church but by the State; in other words, by politicians, and have no fixed faith in the inspiration of Scripture.

This is not a very good testimonial to the benefits of State religion, nor to State teaching of religion; but it is fully justified by the facts. Germany has long been noted for its infidelity; and, as Dr. McCosh intimates, it is unquestionably due to the fact that its ministers of religion are for the most part trained in colleges supported by the State, and presided over by men selected, not because of their piety, but through political favoritism. A similar state of affairs would produce like results in this country.