es
entitled _The Great Supper_, likewise published by the Presbyterian
Board of Publication, complains in these terms: "Sectarian partisans
are interested in misleading the public in regard to our real
sentiments, and hence their assertions should be received with
caution. Those who would understand our system of doctrines, must
listen, not to the misrepresentations of its enemies, but to the
explanations of its friends." (p. 40.) Again: "As these men cannot
wield the civil power against us, they will do what they can to
punish us for holding doctrines which they cannot overthrow by fair
and manly argument. God only knows the extent to which we might
have to suffer for our religion, were it not for the protection of
the laws! For, if men will publish the most wilful and deliberate
untruths against us, as they certainly do, for no other offence
than an honest difference of religious belief, what would they not
do if their power were equal to their wickedness?" (p. 73.)
This writer expresses his sense of the "wickedness of those who
oppose Calvinism" in still stronger terms: "If, then, the
doctrines of grace [Calvinism] are plainly taught in the
Scriptures, if they accord with the experience of Christians, and
enter largely into their prayers, then it must be exceedingly
sinful to oppose and misrepresent them. Those who do this will
eventually be found _fighting against God_. We have recently
heard of persons praying publicly against the election of grace,
and we wonder that their tongues did not cleave to the roof of
their mouth in giving utterance to the horrid imprecation." (p.
178.) Ah! These Methodists are very wicked!
The Rev. L. A. Lowry, author of a recent work, entitled _Search
for Truth_, published by the same high authority, discourses as
follows:--
"When I see a man trying to distort the proper meaning of words,
and, presenting a garbled statement of the views of an opponent,
I take it as conclusive evidence that he has a bad cause; more
when he is constantly at it, and manifests in all that he does a
feeling of uneasiness and hostility towards those who oppose him.
During my brief sojourn in the Cumberland Church, I was called
upon to witness many such exhibitions, that, in the outset of my
ministerial labors, made anything but a favorable impression on
my mind. I found there, in common with all others who hold to
Arminian sentiments, the most uncompromising and _malignant_
opposition to the doctrine
|