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-. Welsh Baptist Union.

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Welsh Baptist Union. NEW CONSTITUTION. The annual conferences of th? Baptist Unioi of Wales were begun on Thursday at Llanelly, under the presidency of the Rev J M Maurice, Dinas Cross. Principal Roberts, of the Univer- sity College, Aberystwyth, the vice president, was unanimously elected president for the en- suing year. There was a contest fo the vice presidency between the Rev J R Jone, (Ponty- pridd), the last named being elected. The "Secretary (the Rev E Edmunds, Swansea) re- ported that tho capital in the Centemry Loan Fund now amounted to £4.569, an thit it had been decided to grant £2,300 hy way of loans .to chapels for work of church extension. Mr J P Gibbon (Maeste.?) reported a deficit of £102 in the Sunday School Fund. A spirited discussion took place with reference to the proposed new constitution of th Union. The Investigation Committee reported in favour of the changes, and in order to meet the wishes of the Welsh Churches in Wales proposed that the annual meetings of the Union be conducted either in Welsh or in English, according to the discretion of the Union Committee, and that the claims of the English Churches to a fair share in the proceedings be fully recognised. Principal Roberts, in supporting, said that the proposed changes in no way altered the prin- ciples which they laid. A delegate complained, amid laughter, that all the documents issued by the Union were in Welsh, -with the solitary exception of the ap- peals for subscriptions, -which we-e invariably in English. Dr Morris, of Treorchy, urged that the new constitution should clcarly set forth their doc- trine as to the Atonement and the Person of ChI ist. It was not enough to state their posi- tion in regard to strict communion and baptism. The Baptist churches of Wales had no room for Freethinkers, and did not reduce the Saviour to the level of John Smith. The proposed new constitution was adopted. On the motion of the Rev W Maurice, Taly- wain, a resolution was adopted calling upon the Government to introduce a bill establishing purely secular education. Another resolution asked the Government to take action to suppress atrocities in the Congo. The Temperance Com- mittee submitted a resolution in favour of tem- perance legislation on advanced lines, with local option fo Wales, and this found hearty adop- tion, the Conference resolving also to appeal to all Church deacons to become total abstainers. THE GOVERNMENT AND DISESTABLISH- MENT. Principal Edwards, of Cardiff, tabled a long resolution expressing the deep concern of the Baptists of Wales at the present position of the question of Disestablishment for Wnles, and declaring that the Government, by its inaction in the matter, was straining the loyalty of Wales to the utmost. The resolution called for 'the passing of a Welsh Disestablishment Bill through the House of Commons, and that i.n the event of its being thrown out by the Lords the question be placed in the forefront of the Liberal programme at the next general election. Sir Alfred Thomas, M.P., chairman of the Welsh Parliamentary party, who was in attend- ance, expressed sympathy with the disappoint- ment shown in that a Disestablishment Bill was not to be introduced next year, but the responsibility for this was upon the House of Lords. Personally, he was in the forefront on this question, and there he intended to re- cn.ain. The majority of those who criticised "the Welsh members on this question were per- sons who themselves have never done anything to advance the question. He expressed abso- lute confidence that the Cabinet intended to deal fairly with Wales. « The resolution was passed. SCATHING DENUNCIATION OF THE c; NEW THEOLOGY." The chief feature of Wednesday's Conferences of the Baptist Union of Wales at Llanelly was the presidential address, delivered by the Rev J W Maurice, Dinas Cross, before a crowded congregation, at Bethel Chapel. His subject was "The New Theology and the Old Religion." He said it would be ridiculous to desingate as theology the hash contained in the Rev R J Campbell's volume. It was not theology, and it was not new, except in its form and its most noteworthy features were the ig- noiance of the writer of the plain teachings of the Word of God, his assumed infallibility, and his presumption. Many portions of the so- called new teaching were older than Christian- ity, and had been popular in other ages. They -were what Paul described as "philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of .the world, and not after Christ." The saints had rejected them, and God through His Spirit had proclaimed them execrable. He prayed God to save them from making use of harsh and bitter words about the teachers of this new doctrine, for it might later on be found that the Spirit of God had used this" New Theology as an instrument for bringing about great blessings upon the present generation by stimulating wider, deeper, and more honest study of the truth as it was in Jesus. We are living, said the President, in an important and wonderful epoch—the most important and won- derful, probably, of all the Christian ages with the exception, perhaps, of the second century. Unfortunately, while secular knowledge was rapidly increasing. Scriptural knowledge was declining with equal rapidity. Many were lax in tBeir grip of the truth, and a still larger num- ber, he was sorry to say, especially of those who had reached a high level of scholarship, seemed to think they could take any liberty they chose with the Holy Scriptures. The New Theology, tinlike the old religion, had no God that the soul could love and rely upon. The New Theology made God everything, and transformed every- thing in-to a. God. This was the oil doctrine of Pantheism, but under a new and more classical nsfne—the immanence of God. The President emphasised the yiew that the universe and God existed apart. They must recognise the existence of an all-wise, omnipotent Person, of whom, through whom, and for whom all else was created. The New Theology ha i nOt light to throw upon the problem of the existence of sin. The theory of the fall advanced by the ;great leader of the new school would be laugh- able were the matter not so serious. The definition of the Devil as a vacuum could not have been founded upon any analysis of exper- ience it was based on an incorrect theory of God and the universe. God and evil were moral principles, and we could not have a conception of their existence without realising also that the universe had its moral as well as its natural aspect. The story of the Fall in Eden as given an Genesis -was a story which could not be denied or explained away so easily a some of the new teachers seemed to think. The story of the Fall was a story with a substance, and nota baseless fable. it contained a truth that all who wished could understand. What could science, confining its operations to matter, know of moral and spiritual principles further than was suggested by analogy ? Science had not yet discovered a single fact which hinted at the non-existence of sin. EXTREME PRESUMPTION OR IGNORANCE The sponsor of the New Theology declared that he knew Jesus had a human father. If that were so it waS useless to continue the dis- cussion. But did not such an assertion smack of the most extreme presumption when made by such a person. He (the speaker) preferred to believe that the Rev R J Campbell was ignorant and presumptions than to believe that the angel Gabriel, Joseph the husband of Mary, and the evangelists Matthew and Luke had entered into a conspiracy to utter a lie. He experienced no difficulty in accepting the story as related by Matthew and Luke. The Bible from beginning to end called upon them to believe facts and not to comprehend means and methods. It was no greater feat for the Almighty to create Jesus as described in*the gospels than to create the first man as described in Genesis. The preachers of the New Theology spoke much about the human side of God and the divine side of man but they completely excluded the Christ of God from the Gospels, thereby rendering the old religion a deception and a vacuum. He chal- lenged the teachers of the New Theology to bring together all the materials Contained in the life-history of Jesus of Nazareth, and out of the whole make a man according to the;- highest ideal of man and when they had done that, if they possessed a grain of honesty and respect for the truth, they would admit that they had much material left that they could not utilise in the immanence of God" they spoke so much about. In his treatment of the doctrine of Atonement the author of the New Theology completely ignored the teaching of Scripture. Clearly, in the opinion of the pastor of the City Temple, wisdom, like the dove of Noah, had been on the wing above the waters of the deluge of ignorance for many ages without find- ing a resting place, but now the bird had des- cended upon .him, and from present indications it had no idea of ever again seeking another place of rest (Laughter). It was perfectly home- ly and comfortable where it was (Laughter). All the teachers of the New Theology, especially if tliey had graduated in one of our universities, tried to rob them of some portion or some book of the inspired Canon, and then, like the ape in the zoological gardens, ran awav with what they had stolen into a corner, there to find out what if contained and to rejoice over the feat they had accomplished. If the Bible was not the Word of God written by holy men, inspired by God, and therefore the infallible rule of faith, then any religion worth professing and living was impossible. The great need of the age was more faith and less presumption and ignorance. It was not easy to believe, said the President in conclusion, that the Apostle Paul had failed to comprehend God's plan of salvation. It was. far easier to believe that the infallible nastor of the City Temple, despite his scholarship and his pretensions, had failed to understand the teach- ing of St Paul. The heaven of the New Theo- logy was not worth striving for, and its hell was not a thing any one need take much trouble to avoid. The present controversy showed that it did not follow that men understood the Bible because they had attained a high degree of scholarship. It was, he. declared, the duty of those who had promised to preach the Word of God as it was understood by a particular sect to leave that sect when they had lost sympathy with its teachings. To use the money of one denomination to teach and spread the principles of other people was dishonest. The foremost and most important duty of the religious world at the present day was to keep the Bible in the place that had been meant for it. The New Theology mnde the religion of our Lord Jesus absolutely valueless, and the perpetuation of that religion would be impossible if the New Theology was accented.

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