THERE is no class of men whose calling so emphatically demands honesty as the professed servants of Jesus Christ. All their dealings with their fellow-men should be characterised by above-board dealings and sterling honesty. That does not mean that in so acting they will necessarily receive credit for it from their fellow-men. Oftentimes it will be the reverse. Motives will be imputed to them and mistaken and biased judgments will be pronounced on their actions and words which, in the light of the real facts of the case, are unjust and sometimes cruel. There are minds incapable of distinguishing between caution, alike in speech and action, and cunning. The verdict coming from such sources need not be seriously regarded. It will weigh very lightly in the scales of justice. But, while this is so, it is expected of the servants of God that they should have consciences void of offence toward God and toward men; their profession demands it, and solemn promises made by them render it obligatory that they should implement them. The experience of the Christian Church has taught it that some statement of faith professed should be formulated so that it may be subscribed by those who are bound together in a common bond of belief. This is necessary to maintain order in the professing Church of Christ in the world. Hence the necessity of creeds in which certain beliefs are set forth which those who subscribe them profess to find in the Word of God. The doctrines contained in these creeds, in so far as they are the truths of God, are binding on the consciences of all who subscribe them. And, in cases where these doctrines have been solemnly subscribed in the presence of men, there is a duty laid upon the subscriber alike to his God and his fellow-men that when his views change he should honestly and without hesitation renounce the emoluments that are attached to the profession of faith he has made. These thoughts have been suggested to our mind in connection with certain recent notorious happenings in the Church of England. But the plague that is undermining the spiritual vitality of Christianity is not confined to the Church of England. It is permeating the whole religious life of the land. Here are men, who have come under the most solemn promises as to certain articles of faith which they professed to believe at their ordination, coolly and calmly taking advantage of the position which such a profession has conferred on them, renouncing and denouncing these articles as no longer worthy of being held by intelligent men. One would naturally think that common honesty would demand of them a renunciation of the emoluments the moment they renounced the faith they formerly professed. In recent times we have heard a great deal about the inviolability of contracts between master and servant, and rightly so, but how can the professing Church lift its voice like a trumpet when its own conduct in such matters indicates that its mentality is of the German type as to solemn treaty obligations which are regarded as only scraps of paper? We have the Primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury, publicly acknowledging his acceptance of an infidel view of man’s creation, while rebuking a Bishop for his anti-sacramentalism. Then we have a Bishop of the same Church in one of her most famous pulpits speaking about the opening chapters of Genesis as folklore. The common honesty of the man in the street finds it hard to reconcile such beliefs with solemn promises made at ordinations. And whenever the morality of the professing Church sinks far below that of the mart, then Ichabod is written over the portals, and the days of the Church’s usefulness are sealed. To add to the confusion, we have in the Church of England another set of traitors who, while supported by the emoluments of a Protestant Church, are doing all they can to undermine its Protestant foundations. The farce of one of these standing up in St Paul’s and delivering a solemn protest against Dr Barnes’s sacramental teaching, while he himself has attended Mass in Roman Catholic chapels, is ludicrous in the extreme, but lamentably sad when one remembers that the honour of Christ’s cause is at stake. Things have come to such a crisis in the Church of England that the question of seceding from it is being publicly discussed by those who wish to live up honestly to their profession. It is a serious state of morality in any land when the rogues are left with the spoils while the true owners are turned adrift, and M.P.s. should seriously consider this aspect of the question when giving their vote on the Deposited Prayer Book.
But the plague, as hinted, is not confined to England. It is widely spread in Scotland. For years Rationalism has been at work and is now reaping its harvest. For the sake of expediency the two larger Churches have postponed the movement to cut with the Confession of Faith, but they have made no hiding that when the propitious moment comes they have the will to set to the work with hammers and axes. Why should they not honestly leave the emoluments attached to the Westminster Confession doctrines and clear out if they are tired and wearied of its scriptural teaching? As a rule, men who have departed from the faith are rarely straightforward and honest. There is a twist in their mentality which is disconcerting to honest men. They cleave to material things with a tenacity that has never been surpassed by any limpet, and if they are dealt with in order to take the step that common honesty demands them to take, then there is a hue and cry that they are not being Christianly dealt with. There have been some who honestly faced the consequences of their departure from the creed they professed, and whatever else may be said about them, they deserve credit for acting honestly, but how few they have been in comparison with the host that undermined the faith while cleaving to the emoluments that were attached to the profession of that faith. It is in view of this dishonest conduct on the part of office-bearers that our Synod in its declaration on Creed Subscription says:— “The solemn promises and declarations made at ordination—commonly called ordination vows—are made not so much unto men as unto God, and are therefore of the like binding obligation with an oath and ought to be made with the like seriousness and religious care.” As long as the aforementioned conditions prevail in the professing Church in this land, and are condoned by its members and office-bearers, they need not look for the blessing of God’s Holy Spirit.