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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
October 1926
£ ju eJ i
Light on the Law Governing the General Assembly o f the Presbyterian Church By a Rationally Known Lawyer'Preacher . DR. MARK A. MATTHEWS Pa«to£’ Firat Presbyterian Church ^ Seattle, Washington In the first installment of this splendid analysis by Dr. Matthews of condi- tions in the Presbyterian Church and the results of the last General Assembly, he brought out ( 1 ) The Conservative Position of the Baltimore Assembly; ( 2 ) The Importance of the Rotary System of Membership on the Boards; ( 3 ) The Reason for the Deficits; ( 4 ) The Situation at Princeton Seminary; ( 5 ) No Organized Modernism in the Body and the Real Danger, SECOND INSTALLMENT (Continued from September Number)
The Commission of Fifteen, if you take its report as a whole, plainly said to the Church, Go home and master the law of the Church; master your constitution; master the polity of your Church; master your doctrines; bring the Presbytery back into power; make her function; live within your constitution; be loyal to the standards of your Church, and, progress under those standards as only an evangelical, evangelistic Church can progress. It is impossible for one, who understands the English language, to find comfort for wrong-doing in the language of the report. If any individual, or, if any Presbytery undertakes to do anything that violates the law .of the Church or repudiates her doctrines or discredits her stan dards of Faith and gives as his or its excuse for so doing the report of the Committee of Fifteen, that individual, or that Presbytery, or that organization is void of conscience and comprehension, or is deliberately attempting to put hipiself or itself in direct contempt of the Church and her courts. That report was a conservative report,— conserva tive in every particular, appealing to the Church to be loyal to her standards; to be true to her doctrines; to be faithful to her polity; to be Christ-like in her conduct and to be progressive in her evangelistic work. The Committee of Fifteen boldly asserted, on the floor of the Assembly, through one of Its speakers, that it did not attempt any thing looking toward the revising of her polity or of her creed. The Cdmmittee did not ask to be continued for the purpose of revising the Confession of Faith, but, it did ask to be continued that it might make clear certain defini tions and direct the Church in studying the boundaries of her polity and the matchlessness of her doctrines. (7 ) Remember, the report called your attention, at least by intimation, to the Importance of your permanent Judicial commission. If you are going to establish a permanent Judi cial commission, which is, in effect, the Supreme Court of the Church— because the General Assembly, In very rare cases, reverses .the decisions of its commission,— you should build that court out of qualified, judicial material. The permanent Judicial commission should be made more permanent in its tenure of office The classes should be elected for three, five and seven years, and, after the first year, the retiring class should be elected for seven years. Men should not be elected to the commission because they represent Borne section of the Church. No one should be allowed to sit on the commission who does not know, in a masterful way, the doctrines of the Church, the polity of the Church, the laws of the Church, and, who does not possess judicial temperament. We need men of Judicial (Continued on page 609) '
■NOTHER part is much misunderstood. ( 6 ) The Committee plainly stated that the Judicial deci sions arrived at by the highest court of the Church were final decisions, and, when they establish con stitutional principles, and the Qeneral Assembly, sitting as a court, made the judgment of the Judicial Commission its verdict, that was an end of the case, and an end of all litiga tion on that case. The decision was final and binding. As I said in my argument on the question before the Qeneral Assembly, it is impossible for any legislative body to prevent future litigation or to prevent future courts from passing on a set of facts similar to previous cases. No congress, no constitutional convention has yet been able to write a constitution or enact a law that could prevent future su preme courts from passing upon other phases of the same question. There is nothing unstable about that rule. There isn’t anything in the report that could give comfort to a heretic; to a rationalist; to a modernist, or to ahyone else who wants to violate the law of the land or the law of the Church. It is the glory of our American Government that the humblest citizen can have, at all times, the right of appeal and the right of having consideration given his case by the highest court of the land. That same fundamental right and principle is in the Presbyterian Church, because, the Federal Government was patterned after our church government. There is an end to litigation of an issue, and that end is in the verdict of the Supreme Court of the United SUtes. When it passes upon the constitutionality of the law and the fundamenUl principles therein involved, the constitutional question is settled forever. There is an end to litigation in the Presbyterian Church, and when our supreme court passes upon the constitutionality of the ques tion involved, the case is forever settled. If another man’s rights are involved or invaded, he has a right to appeal until he reaches the highest court in the Church, as well as the highest Court in the land. The General Assembly, sitting as a supreme court, cannot reverse previous verdicts, but it can write a new verdict on new phases, in new cases, where new constitutional questions are involved. There is no principle of law more clearly established. Therefore, if any modernist or rationalist or violator of the law, or evader of the constitution and doctrines of the Church, undertakes to cite the report of the Commission of Fifteen as a docu ment containing comfort for violators of the law, or for heretical practices in the Church, he is either void of con science or ability to comprehend the ^English language.
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