Page:On the Revision of the Confession of Faith.djvu/73

Rh of immaturity to cast out by this process the whole round of Christian doctrine." And it is more important still to remember that the circumstances of the several churches are widely different, and the relations they bear to the Standards very diverse, so that the causes of restlessness that are operative in one are wholly absent in another. There is obviously, for example, a very great difference between objecting to be bound to an extended doctrinal treatise in all its propositions and rejecting the whole Calvinistic theology. If we, however, range the world over and gather together indiscriminately all the objections that have been made to the Westminster Confession during these last years, we are in danger of confusing even such opposite points of view as these. In the midst of such an agitation for change as has arisen in the American Church during the last months, therefore, it seems necessary for us to take a general glance over the Presbyterian world with a view to tracing the causes which are working in one place or another, to the production of this restlessness. In so doing we can scarcely fail to learn more accurately to estimate at its true value much that might otherwise be misunderstood, and perhaps also we may learn to value more highly our own inheritance in our creed and in our relation to it as fixed in the formula by which we accept it in ordination.

Among the causes of the present restlessness with reference to the Westminster Standards, the first place is undoubtedly due to the overstrictness prevailing in some churches, in the formula of subscription which is required of office-bearers. And it is worthy of notice that where the formula seems most overstrict, dissatisfaction seems to be most widespread, most pronounced, and most difficult to