"HERESY HUNTING"
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—In an article, " Heresy Hunting," last week, it is stated that " the (Free Church) Assembly of 1881 by a large majority deposed Robertson Smith from his chair." This is not strictly accurate. Robertson Smith was never deposed from his chair. To the end of his life he might have drawn his salary as Hebrew professor in the Free Church College of Aberdeen. What the Assembly did was to inhibit him from teaching in the College.
From one point of view this may seem a distinction without a difference ; from another point of view it is highly significant. It means that the Assembly could not and did not say that the views on the Old Testament promulgated by Robertson Smith were inconsistent with the carefully drafted doctrine on Holy Scripture which is found in the Confession of Faith. But the Assembly found that these views were novel and staggering to many within the Church, and that at present it was not advisable that they should be taught as the opinions officially held by the Free Church.
I have no desire to discuss the matter at length. But there is room for a difference of view on the action of the Free Church. Some can see no more than a move prompted by panic and cleverly engineered. Others see more. To them Smith's views were novel and disturbing to the body of the Church. The Church must have time to think them out calmly in all their bearings on its attitude to scripture. And, in order that this might be done calmly, it was advisable that they should not meantime be taught as though they were authorized by the Church itself.
The question involved is too large to be discussed in a letter. It is enough to point out precisely what the Free Church did in 1881 and to suggest why it was done.—I am, Sir, &c., ADAM C. WELCH. New College, Mound, Edinburgh.
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