Doctors Who Disagree

In these times of theologie] unrest and heresy trials any minister who takes a new charge or resigns an old position is Hable to be called on to sta his motives. Recently a rumor are that the venerable Dr. John Hall was about to resign as chancellor of the University of the City of New York. This was promptly followed by another that it was "because he was in pathy with Dr. Briggs." It turns out, however, tljat ö& E(ajl only tftgk. fte place temporarily wnen Dr. Howard Qroeby resigned; that his dnües are bnt npmlnal and he draws no salary, the official woik being done by the vice chancellor, Dr. Henry M. McCracken. Dr. John Hall, bo long considered the embodiment of pure old orthodoxy, comes of a stock that is noted for that qnality, for he is of Scotch descent, and was bom in County Armagh, Ireland, Jnly 31, 1829. After winning high honors in Ireland he was called in ber, 1867, to his present position in. the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian church. Another, and usually considered a somewhat severer exp o n e n t of the faith of the fathers, is Dr. Francis Landey Patton, who was born in Bermuda, Jan.22, 1843. ñcated in Canada, and graduated from Princeton in 1865. After serving as minister and professor in various posta he was in 1881 called to the chair of the relation of philosophy and science to the Christian religión, at Princeton. In 1888 he was made president of that institution, and continúes to uphold the old standards nnflinchingly. At the head of the creed revisionists and prominent in the so called "liberal school" is the learned Dr. Philip Schaff, whose disciples feel for him a fervent admiration. He was bom in Switzerland, Jan. 1,1819, and at the age of twenty-five was lecturer in the Berlin university on exegesis and chnrch history. In 1844 he was called to a profeasorahip in the Gterman Refonned Theological seminary at Mercersburg, Pa., and in 1845 was tried for heresy but acquitted. In 1863 he moved to New York, where his labora in every form of church work have been enormous. His published books fonn a large library, and in the details of chnrch history hia friends claim that he ia without a rival on this continent. Among the younger divines charged with ''irregnlárily" is Dr. Wiljiam Stephen Rainsford of St. George pal church, New York, who eágnalized hisLenten services thia year by inviting non-Episcopal clergymen to serve with him, as did the Kev. Heber Newton. He has s i n c e preached a sermou indorsing Dr. Briggs. He was born in lin, Ireland, Oct. 30, 1850, and graduated from Cambridge in 1872. After service in Canada he was called to New York in 1883, and received from Trinity the degree of D. D. in 1887. His "liberaliam" takes on a slightly humorous tinge, as in this sentence in a late sermón: "Creáis are crutches by which poor, latáeonmanity eau hobble toward God; buj; it never was intended that they shónld be nsed as clubs by Christians whh which to break each others' heads." Last to enter the list, and probably the most severely criticised at present, is JDr. Charles Henry Parkhurst, of Maaïlcin Square Presbyterian church, New York, whose recent sermón on "hexesy honting" might, perhaps, be called the sensation of the hour. He was born in Framingham, Mass, April 17, 1842, and graduated from Araherst in 1866. After traveling, teaching and serving sis years as pastor to the Congregational church at Lenox, Mass., he was called to New York in 1880.