her orthodox creed; but the bad features are stated with an
explicitness and emphasized with a candor that render the creed
absolutely appalling. It is amazing to me that any man ever wrote
it, or that any set of men ever produced it. It is more amazing
to me that any human being ever believed in it. It is still more
amazing that any human being ever thought it wicked not to believe
it. It is more amazing still, than all the others combined, that
any human being ever wanted it to be true.

This creed is a relic of the Middle Ages. It has in it the malice,
the malicious logic, the total depravity, the utter heartlessness
of John Calvin, and it gives me great pleasure to say that no
Presbyterian was ever as bad as his creed. And here let me say,
as I have said many times, that I do not hate Presbyterians--because
among them I count some of my best friends--but I hate Presbyterianism.
And I cannot illustrate this any better than by saying, I do not
hate a man because he has the rheumatism, but I hate the rheumatism
because it has a man.

The Presbyterian Church is growing, and is growing because, as I
said at first, there is a universal tendency in the mind of man to
harmonize all that he knows or thinks he knows. This growth may
be delayed. The buds of heresy may be kept back by the north wind
of Princeton and by the early frost called Patton. In spite of
these souvenirs of the Dark Ages, the church must continue to grow.
The theologians who regard theology as something higher than a
trade, tend toward Liberalism. Those who regard preaching as a
business, and the inculcation of sentiment as a trade, will stand
by the lowest possible views. They will cling to the letter and
throw away the spirit. They prefer the dead limb to a new bud or
to a new leaf. They want no more sap. They delight in the dead
tree, in its unbending nature, and they mistake the stiffness of
death for the vigor and resistance of life.

Now, as with Dr. Briggs, so with Dr. Bridgman, although it seems
to me that he has simply jumped from the frying-pan into the fire;
and why he should prefer the Episcopal creed to the Baptist, is
more than I can imagine. The Episcopal creed is, in fact, just as
bad as the Presbyterian. It calmly and with unruffled brow, utters
the sentence of eternal punishment on the majority of the human
race, and the Episcopalian expects to be happy in heaven, with his
son or daughter or his mother or wife in hell