Elders
and Sacraments
Thomas
Witherow was Professor of History and Pastoral Theology at the Presbyterian
College in Londonderry, and Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (1878).
We tend to know him through his work on Presbyterianism, “The Apostolic
Church—which is it?” (1856). However, he also authored a short study
that dealt specifically with the eldership. It makes
interesting reading and certainly contains some novel ideas:
“As to the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, we ought
to divest ourselves of the last
relic of that old sacramental theory, that the ordinances lose all their influence if not
dispensed by the hands of a minister,
and admit the fact, that there is no reason why they should be administered by
the pastoral elder rather than the
ruling elder, except that the former is usually best qualified, when
administering the rite, to edify the people at the same time.
What mystery is there about these symbolic institutions, that we should
believe them to be more efficacious when administered by one of the elders
rather than by another ?
Is such a notion consistent with our own doctrine, that "the sacraments
become effectual means of salvation, not from any virtue in them or in him that
doth administer them ?" Are we to perpetuate the absurdity that no spiritual good is conveyed
by a sacrament, except it is dispensed
by the one among the elders who is better educated than his brethren ? Education
certainly has its advantages ; but we make too much of education if we suppose that the want of it in a
church-officer deprives of its validity the
ordinance of Christ.”
“The
New Testament Elder his Position, Powers and Duties” Witherow, Thomas,
1824-1890
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