“New York's Presbytery.” New York Times, March 14, 1899, page 8.
NEW YORK'S PRESBYTERY
Committee Appointed to Investigate Alleged Slanders.
HERMAN WARSZAWIAK'S CASE
The Rev. Dr. Patterson's Assertions Will Be Sifted — License Granted to the Rev. Mr. Bebbe.
The New York Presbytery met in regular session in the chapel of the First Presbyterian Church yesterday afternoon and the case of Herman Warszawiak was the subject of protracted discussion. The Rev. William B. Bebbe, a graduate of Union Theological Seminary, obtained a license by a close vote after a warm dispute over his theological views.
The Warszawiak case came up when attention was called to a pamphlet recently issued by the Rev. Dr. James G. Patterson, who was assigned by the Presbytery to defend Warszawiak during his trial. This pamphlet was issued as a supplement to Salvation, a religious publication. Many members of the Presbytery took exception to Dr. Patterson's assertions, and the Rev. Dr. A. F. Schauffler, Superintendent of City Missions, declaring that he had been made the subject of undeserved slander brought the question to an issue by moving that a committee be appointed to investigate the accusations against him and the Presbytery by Dr. Patterson.
The article objected to is entitled “The Animus and Tactics of the Enemy,” and in it Dr. Patterson states:
Not since the days of Archbishop Laud, the Star Chamber, and the Court of High Commission have the annals of the Christian Church afforded a parallel in ecclesiastical judicature to the case of Herman Warszawiak. For fraud, duplicity, mendacity, and perfidious trickery on the part of witnesses, and for prejudice, adroitness, and persistent energy on the part of those who are responsible for the continuance of this cold-blooded persecution of an innocent Jew, the case of Herman Warszawiak finds its only modern parallel in that of Capt. Dreyfus of the French Army.
The uncorroborated detective testimony by which Warszawiak was originally convicted on the charge of gambling before the Session of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, in June, 1897, is fraud, collusion, lying, false swearing, from first to last, through and through; a transparent fiction, which falls to pieces in the light of its own self-evidence under the briefest critical scrutiny.
Dr. Patterson explained that the committee appointed to investigate Warszawiak's conduct had exonerated him from all aspersions, and then he continued:
But, notwithstanding this, the man who instituted this investigation—and we might as well name him here—the Rev. Dr. A. F. Schauffler, Superintendent of City Missions, and a member of the Presbytery of New York; after having signally failed to establish a single one of his incriminating accusations against Warszawiak, nevertheless subsequently declared, “I will crush Warszawiak yet, or drive him out of this city.” And the Rev. Dr. Schauffler has been industriously engaged in this “crushing” business from that day to this.
Dr. Schauffler, confidently believing that all things would come to pass in Presbytery according to his skillful planning, had armed himself in advance with a set of resolutions designed to crush Warszawiak, by drying up the streams of financial support for his work. These resolutions he handed to the reporters of the public press, and also furnished a copy of them to the Chairman of his former committee, for the purpose of having them adopted by the Presbytery, as he himself could not remain to offer them.
After a long arraignment of the methods pursued by Dr. Schauffler the article continues:
The present writer happens to have been one of the innocent victims of Dr. Schauffler's cunning, whose wings and legs were entangled for the time, in the snare which this skillful fowler set for their capture, in the very presence of his birds, the members of New York Presbytery. When the committee, the invention of Dr. Schauffler, reported, declining to receive Warszawiak under our care as a candidate for the ministry, and unanimous consent having been asked for Warszawiak to speak in his own defense, Dr. Schauffler sprang to his feet, and, shaking a bundle of papers in our faces said: “Mr. Moderator, if that man is permitted to open his lips on the floor of this house, I will claim full time to make reply. It took me six hours to say what I had to say in the hearing of this committee, and it may take two hours here.”
This statement from Dr. Schauffler not only snatched from Warszawiak the privilege of being heard in the presence of a body about to condemn him wrongfully as an immoral person, at the sole instigation of Dr. Schauffler, but Dr. Schauffler's manner and bundle of papers deeply impressed the Presbytery, and the writer among their number, with the idea that there must be some good reason for all this, and that reason could be none other than Warszawiak's moral delinquencies, concerning which Dr. Schauffler must hold in his hands conclusive evidence.
But somehow or other this young servant of the Master, by the help of God, remains uncrushed to-day.
Upon the request of Dr. Schauffler, a resolution was presented providing for the appointment of a committee of five to investigate the charge of slander, and also the accusation against the Presbytery. Before the passage of this resolution, a discussion took place, in which nearly all present joined. One member was afterward quoted as having said:
“The Presbytery is always appointing a committee to investigate the act of some individual. If this continues, there will be a hot time in the Presbytery more nights than one.”
The consideration of the Warszawiak case continued for nearly two hours. Then a resolution for the appointment of a committee of investigation was passed.
The question of granting a license to the Rev. William B. Bebbe was then taken up, and in this case the Presbytery was very nearly divided. Mr. Bebbe was examined first by the Presbytery on June 20 last, when his theological views were found to be not altogether acceptable. Among other things, he failed to declare his implicit belief in the Old Testament story of Jonah and the whale. There was doubt as to his views on the Atonement, the divinity of the Scriptures, and on future probation. A committee was appointed at that time to inquire into his case, and this committee gave its report yesterday.
The text of the report was not made public. The clergymen on the opposing sides could not agree.
The Presbytery took up the case and again examined the applicant, who, while not expressing his views on the Church doctrine in the language of the Confession of Faith, convinced the majority present that he was deserving of a license. This was finally granted, by a vote of 35 to 27. Licenses were also granted to the Rev. J. B. Eakins and the Rev. R. J. Boyle.
The Rev. Dr. J. F. Dickie, pastor of the American Church, at Berlin, made a short address. The meeting began at 3 o'clock and was not ended until about 7:30 o'clock. The Rev. Dr. John Balcom Shaw acted as Moderator.
One other important matter taken up was the trouble in the West Presbyterian Church, and a committee of three clergymen was appointed to confer with the officers of the church and with the Rev. Dr. Anthony H. Evans, the pastor, with a view to settling difficulties existing between them. |