J. Gresham Machen Bibliography

Box #4, Princeton, New Jersey, January 1, 1925.

Rev. Hugh W. White, D. D., Bedford, Virginia.

My dear Dr. White:

I am deeply interested in your letter of December 28th, and it is refreshing to get into touch again with someone in the Southern Church who understands how critical the situation is. The last number (I think it was the last) of THE PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOUTH was just about the most discouraging reading which has come into my hands for some time. I think the provision of the Foreign Mission Board that utterances of missionaries should not be subject to criticism until formal charges are brought is the most preposterous interference of speech of which I ever heard. The same tactics were pursued by the Modernists at our last General Assembly. It really looked as though certain gentlemen had published their writings with the intention of concealing them from other Presbyterians. For my part I think that when a man comes out in print what he says is fair subject of discussion for the whole world, and I am interested, from the ecclesiastical point of view, not in a man’s private views or in his personal relation to God, but in his public testimony.

As for adjudication by the Board or by Presbyteries, I can only say that an ecclesiastical court which could clear Dr. Leighton Stuart could clear anybody. Moreover, the action of the East Hanover Presbytery was so absurd on the face of it – Dr. Stuart was pronounced to be all right simply because he said he was all right. But as a matter of fact practically all Modernists are engaging in chicanery and deceit of the worst possible kind.

The action reported in that number of THE PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOUTH about that union seminary in China was wrong in principle, again quite independent of the merits of the case. Christian men were told to go on engaging in a common service with men who are perhaps admitted to be Modernists or non-Christian, with the notion that thus the conservative influence in the seminary might be promoted. Permit me simply to say that in my judgment we shall not bring the world to Christ by that kind of “influence”, which involves disloyalty to Christ. The only hope, I think, is in a faithful preaching of the gospel, whether those who help us are for the moment many or few.

I am very doubtful whether the time is ripe for the formation of a Bible Union in America, at least of a Union which shall extend into various Churches. For the moment I think that we ought to fight each his own ecclesiastical battle in his own church. But that is only a tentative judgment. Your idea is a very interesting one.

As to your inquiry about the future I cannot tell what will happen. The future is in God’s hand. In Scotland in the larger churches, the battle, I suppose, has been lost, but in Holland it was gloriously won, I believe, some years ago. I think that we ought not to despair about the preservation of the Christian character of both our Presbyterian Churches in America. But it is going to be a big fight, in which prayer is needed as much as labour. I think the notion that the Southern Church has no necessity for controversy is quite absurd. A Church which has within its bounds so subversive an influence as that of James I. Vance, for example, can hardly speak in that way.

It seems to me that that great protest of Christian men in Great Britain which was made recently is an exceedingly hopeful sign of the times.

Let me say in closing that I sincerely hope that the “denominational coloring” will not be lost. Church union in its existing form is thoroughly agnostic and utilitarian; there is great need, I think, for a strong Church consciousness like that which is so salutary in the Lutheran Church. Some one suggested a while ago that there ought to be two Churches, a Modernist Church and an Evangelical Church. But I think that there must be at least three Churches: a Modernist Church for the Modernists, an Evangelical Church for the Evangelicals, and a Presbyterian Church for me.

Thank you again for your exceedingly interesting letter. I rejoice with all my heart in the Christian fellowship which I have with men like you.

Cordially yours,

J. Gresham Machen