The editor of the Western Recorder has put to the editor of the Independent two plain questions suggested by recent utterances of the latter. The questions are these:

      Do you hold that we are under obligation to believe whatever the Bible, fairly interpreted, teaches; and to do whatever the Bible, fairly interpreted, enjoins?

      To both of these questions the Independent answers with an emphatic "No." As examples of things that he does not believe, he specifies the account of creation, and the prediction by our Lord, in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, about his second coming. As an example of precepts which he is not bound to obey, he specifies Paul's order that women shall keep silence in the churches. Of the latter he says:

      The Bible, "fairly interpreted," seems to us to "enjoin" women to keep silence in churches. We can get no other fair interpretation out of Paul's language. To our mind it is clear that women now have a right to speak and teach, and that the Holy Spirit in the church has reversed what the Holy Spirit said through Paul. That is, if Dr. Eaton prefers, we set up our private judgment against Paul's interpretation; but we think have the Holy Spirit with us. [379]

      We shall wait and watch with interest to see how Bro. Eaton will dispose of the shallow sophistry by which the Independent tries to excuse his candid confessions.

[SEBC 379-380]