0n Prince Eddard Island

Let it, however, be distinctly understood, that as professed Presbyterians we assume this firm posi— tion, and this frank confession of it, not from the slightest spirit of self adulation on our own part, which would be something entirely out of place in such a connection as this, but on the contrary, simply and solely from what we unhesitatingly con— ceive to be in themselves most obviously the plain and unvarnished facts of the case. Some of our Episcopal brethren, it is true, although for the most part candidly admitting that elder and bishop were thus originally used as we have already pointed out in the primitive New Testament church as strictly interchangeable or as synonymous terms, and hence at that early day must unquestionably have denoted one and the same office, yet assert that very shortly after the time of the apostles, if not with and by their personal consent, this primitive order of things was practically changed, and the Episcopal form of church government which they maintain was permanently substituted in its place. For this most unwarranted assumption, however, they can- not find the slightest countenance in Scripture itself. It is only necessary to say, in order to completely refute it, that of itself it merely embodies a very wicked example of going decidedly “Beyond what is written.” Here, if anywhere, we are sacredly bound to take revealed truth or real Scripture narra- tive just exactly as we find it, and without seeking to uphold any prepossessions or preferential schemes of our own, submitting ourselves both lovingly and

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