Van Dyke's Pew

As Geneva is the world-center of Calvinism, so Princeton is the shrine of Presbyterianism in America. For a century the Princeton Theological Seminary has been the fountainhead of its theology. A stone's-throw from the campus stands the First Presbyterian Church, where the Presidents of Princeton have worshipped. Of late, one pew has been rented by the Rev. Professor van Dyke, and occupied by him except when he was away preaching. But last week Dr. van Dyke wrote this letter: Howard E. Eldridge, Treasurer,

First Presbyterian Church, Princeton, N. J.

Dear Sir: Having had another Sunday spoiled by the bitter schismatic and unscriptural preaching of the stated supply of the First Presbyterian Church of Princeton, I desire to give up my pew in the church. The few Sundays that I have free from evangelical work to spend with my family are too precious to be wasted in listening to such dismal, bilious travesty of the gospel. We want to hear about Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, not about the Fundamentalists and Modernists, the only subject on which your stated supply seems to have anything to say and on which most of what he says is untrue and malicious. Until he is done, count me out and give up my pew in the church. We want to worship Christ, our Saviour.

(Signed) HENRY VAN DYKE.

The "stated supply" was the Rev. J. G. Machen, Assistant Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis in the Theological Seminary. He habitually attacks liberals, saying: "The Modernists believe what the great enemies of the church 50 years ago believed, but they keep the traditional terminology. Their use of the old terminology is dishonorable. They have lost the conviction of the guiltiness of sin. There will be no revival until we have a new conviction of sin."

Dr. van Dyke is tired of hearing his friends and his son (Rev. Tertius van Dyke) called pagan and dishonorable