Here it will be found that two classes exist in all the great Protestant sects, viz.:
Those who hold that the cause is a depraved nature, [signifying what men mean when in common life they use the terms, nature, organization, construction or constitution,] and those who deny that any such depraved nature exists. These two opposite opinions, ever since the third century, have been expressed by the terms, Augustinian and Pelagian.
The case is now so fairly and clearly before the people, that every theologian who has capacity and training sufficient to understand an argument must knowingly do one of these things:
1. Deny depravity of nature and allow that he is a Pelagian; or
2. Affirm such depravity, take rank as an Augustinian and then meet the argument which, on this assumption, destroys all evidence of the benevolence of God, and renders a reliable revelation from him impossible.
3. Withdraw from all discussion either by entire [pg 367] silence, or by hiding in the fogs of metaphysical and theological technics, or by the disgraceful arts of debate practiced to alarm and delude the ignorant.
Heretofore the editors of secular papers have practically conceded that the religious disputes and conflicts that agitated the churches were matters out of their province and to be turned over to the clergy and religious editors. And inasmuch as most of these contentions have related to matters of rites and forms, or to abstract doctrinal points having little practical bearings on the daily life, such abstinence seemed appropriate. But the progress of the age has at last fairly brought the organized church front to front with the unregenerate world on the greatest of all practical questions-a question with which every editor of every secular paper has as deep a personal and family interest as has any religious editor, or any doctor of theology, or any parochial pastor.
Is it a fact, or is it not, that every man at birth is so depraved in nature that every one of his moral acts is sin, and sin only, until a change in this nature is wrought by the creative power of God, and must all young children be educated on this assumption?
The training of the family, our institutions of education, the church organizations of the great religious sects, all depend on this question. The answer to it must be yes or no, for no third supposition is possible. Every intelligent man then must speak out in the affirmative, or in the negative, or else hide in silence or in the mists of deceit.
In this view of the case, it is believed that the educated class of powerful and cultivated minds, who [pg 368] are, by their position and talents, the leaders of the secular press, will not turn this matter over to their theological contributors, but will take the case into their own hands, and fearlessly and earnestly meet their high responsibilities.