Surveying the future in the light of the immediate past, Dr. Burleigh Cruikshank, the intrepid Presbyterian pastor before quoted in this series, bares his heart with amazing candor as to the deeper meaning of the immediate crisis, and its probable effect upon the future course of his church. This appears in the Presbyterian of April 18:
"The time may come when the cleavage in the church will be so sharply drawn that all of us, irrespective of cost, will have to choose between the two. That time appears to be drawing nigh. We pray that it will not come. We hate divorce of any nature. But this may be God's way of opening something up. Salt that has lost its savor, according to Scripture. has lost its value. Is it possible that the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., has spread its doctrine so thin that it has lost its vitality and strength? If so. a new organization that does not play with words or equivocate with divine truths, is inevitable. There is no human power that can stop it. You can dam a river up in one place, but that will not stop it on its journey. You may cause it to change its course, but continue, somewhere, it will."
After reviewing disapprovingly the course of the leadership in handling this crisis, he adds: "Everyone knows that underneath there is fundamentally a question of theology." And then come these weighty paragraphs, which culminate in allusion to probable division, and possibly to "a new Reformation" that may ensue:
"Had the Presbyterian Church leaders hearkened unto the insistent demands that we stop compromising with Modernism, and corrected even some of the evils which exist, the contending forces might have continued to exist in the same house. Since our leaders have ignored the men who believe in the creed of the church without any mental reservations, and since they have persistently played into the hands of those who put a question mark after many of the articles of our faith, we fear that the hour is too late for any reconciliation. . . . Only a drastic turn to the conservative position by_the_next_Geaeral Assembly can, by any stretch of the imagination, satisfy a large portion of the church that is weary of words that mean nothing and a policy that it thinks is untrue to our Presbyterian standards. If a conservative moderator is elected, if the General Council reverses its position. if men in whom churches have confidence are elected to the Board of Foreign Missions, if the General Assembly will rescind the action it took last year against the members of the Independent Board, and if some assurance is given that the day of vacillation and compromise is over, then God will have worked a miracle, and a split in the Presbyterian Church will be avoided.
"That is expecting too much ! We do not look for any such reversal. The leaders of the church are too deeply entrenched. When the General Assembly convenes, hot debate will fill the air for hours. Then. when the Assembly is weary and tired, one of the venerable and honored church fathers will rise. A great stillness will pervade the air. He will plead with the brethren to be Christian. He will proclaim that the church is sound and true. He will point with pride and piety to the noble band who hold the lines against a wicked world. He will lament the misunderstanding which disturbs the peace of the church.
He will call upon that great body to hold up the hands of our consecrated leaders. The hearts of all will be deeply stirred. The commissioners will wipe the tears from their eyes, proclaim a vote of confidence in everybody, and a motion for adjournment will be found in order.
"The storm, however, has gathered too much momentum to be so easily dissipated. The matters involved are too significant. The numbers vitally interested are too great. Some of us, who by the grace of God have been trying to keep our feet on the ground and our congregations loyal to the boards of the church, will be driven by conscience and circumstance to take our stand. We tremble to think of the divided families. sessions, and churches that will of necessity follow in the face of such action. A new Reformation will ensue. There are many Christians who would welcome such a breach if thereby they thought the cause of Christ might be enhanced. We humbly pray that such a storm need not break, and that the loving Father of us all will, even at this late hour. open something op."
Since the first two of these surveys of the Machen case were written, the 147th General Assembly of the Presbyterians convened at Cincinnati, and the issues there came to test. The right to their seats in the Assembly of three commissioners,—supporters of Doctor Machen, and members of the Independent Board,—was challenged. The committee decided against them, and was sustained by the Assembly. An overture was submitted by Fundamentalists, proposing instruction of the Board of Foreign Missions to see that all literature issued in its name be thoroughly evangelical as to the five great points of Fundamentalism. But this was "not sustained." The Presbyterian of June 6 makes this terse but significant statement:
"The overture from the presbytery of Northumberland, asking the rescinding of the action of the General Assembly of 1934 in regard to the 'Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions.' was answered, 'No action.' Many overtures to this same effect were answered in the same way, refusing to rescind the action of 1934, or to recognize the 'Independent Board.' "
And the jubilant Modernist Christian Century (June 5) chortles editorially:
"There was enough dynamite in the issues that came before the one hundred and forty-seventh General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, still in session at Cincinnati as this is written, to shatter half a dozen less stable denominations. But there was no explosion. There was not even danger of an explosion. Whatever answer the assembly gives to the delicate and somewhat embarrassing questions that have been put up to it by various presbyteries and forced upon it by a few recalcitrant individuals, the resulting detonation will be no more than a muffled pop, certainly not a resounding roar. A few fragments may be detached in consequence, but there will be no shattering and no serious cleavage of the structure."
Thus we see the official stand of Presbyterianism in this episode in the Fundamentalist-Modernist issue.
We confess to deepest interest and concern over such developments in Protestantism. Long foreknown to us, and therefore long expected, the events now pass in tragic procession before our eyes. Though not a part of the groups involved, we nevertheless have an inescapable responsibility toward them. To this end was this movement born, and to this end were we given the most important and far-reaching commission ever committed to churchmen.
We have the bounden responsibility of throwing across their pathway the beams of the threefold message, as the divinely ordained expansion and consummation of the "everlasting gospel" commission. Some things these men see very clearly, but the deeper issues of the conflict they have not yet discovered—the call to complete the arrested Reformation, the summons to separate from ecclesiastical "Babylon," and the invitation to march forward with God's remnant witnesses that keep the commandments of God as well as cling to the faith of Jesus. This is as yet unperceived and must be brought before them.
We confess to profound admiration for certain of these men who stand for the verities of the gospel, as they understand them. On trial for loyalty to the basic principles and provisions of Christianity, and cast out because of fidelity to those principles in the midst of increasing apostasy, they will find themselves more and more isolated and estranged from apostatizing Protestantism. Where will they go? to whom will they turn? They should be drawn instinctively toward this movement as the issue becomes sharp and decisive.
This question is then inescapable: Are we on the alert to take proper advantage of their inevitable disillusionment and withdrawal? Are we sympathetic and understanding enough to make favorable contacts and to create favorable impressions? Are we elastic enough to recognize and to utilize their conspicuous talents? or would there be an unconcealable repression that would make such men disastrously restive? Here is scope for profitable thought. We should have, and should therefore expect and plan for, conspicuous accessions to the ranks of this movement. Shall we be willing and able to use them?
Let us address ourselves to making favorable contacts and friendships now. Let us form key acquaintances and friendships. Let us use favorable approaches, and let us cultivate a sympathetic understanding and attitude toward all sincere defenders of Christian faith. To fail here is to be recreant to manifest duty. They will be satisfied with nothing less than the genuine gospel.
L. E. F.
