THE UNITED SYNOD
OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
THE UNITED SYNOD OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, met in the
Second Presbyterian Church, Lynchburgh, Va., Thursday, May 19,
1859, at 11 o clock, and was opened with a discourse by the retiring
Moderator, of which the following is a very brief outline.
OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
THE UNITED SYNOD OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, met in the
Second Presbyterian Church, Lynchburgh, Va., Thursday, May 19,
1859, at 11 o clock, and was opened with a discourse by the retiring
Moderator, of which the following is a very brief outline.
2 Cor. iv. 5. " For we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord."
The lessons of church history are humiliating, in respect to the treatment which the preachers of righteousness have received from the world. Under this general remark, allusion was made to the treatment of Moses by the Israelites and to the fact that our Saviour, who was made like unto Moses, was condemned by the popular voice, while Barabbas was released. Paul needed in his arduous work all the support of the divine principles which he preached, to sustain his heart amid opposition, persecution, and misrepresentation.
In developing the sentiment of the text, he dwelt, 1st. Upon self-preachers. Under this head the assumption of those, who undertake in their preaching to lay down a set of dogmas as the truth, to which all must become subservient, or be not received and acknowledged as brothers in Christ, was commented upon such attempts to bring the human mind into entire uniformity upon the non-essentials of religion, was shown to be productive of a servile spirit in those who submit, not consistent with the "liberty of the Gospel." And it was shown that in the course of the Reformation, so long as the minds of the great Reformers were occupied about the great cardinal doctrines of
Christianity they acted in harmony, whether separated by country or any other circumstances but when at a later period, minor points in the creed of Christian belief became matters of controversy, the great work stood still, and the lovely spirit of charity that bound the early Reformers together, departed from the churches.
2nd. Christ Jesus the proper theme of the Gospel preacher. " We preach Christ," said Romaine, "because we have nothing else to preach." Faith in Christ and its fruits are the only hope of the world and constitute the only principle for moral reformation. The testimony of distinguished servants of God upon this head, was exceedingly interesting, and illustrative of the truth that Christ and Christ only is, and ought ever to be, the great theme of the Gospel preacher.
In developing the sentiment of the text, he dwelt, 1st. Upon self-preachers. Under this head the assumption of those, who undertake in their preaching to lay down a set of dogmas as the truth, to which all must become subservient, or be not received and acknowledged as brothers in Christ, was commented upon such attempts to bring the human mind into entire uniformity upon the non-essentials of religion, was shown to be productive of a servile spirit in those who submit, not consistent with the "liberty of the Gospel." And it was shown that in the course of the Reformation, so long as the minds of the great Reformers were occupied about the great cardinal doctrines of
Christianity they acted in harmony, whether separated by country or any other circumstances but when at a later period, minor points in the creed of Christian belief became matters of controversy, the great work stood still, and the lovely spirit of charity that bound the early Reformers together, departed from the churches.
2nd. Christ Jesus the proper theme of the Gospel preacher. " We preach Christ," said Romaine, "because we have nothing else to preach." Faith in Christ and its fruits are the only hope of the world and constitute the only principle for moral reformation. The testimony of distinguished servants of God upon this head, was exceedingly interesting, and illustrative of the truth that Christ and Christ only is, and ought ever to be, the great theme of the Gospel preacher.
