As to the _necessity of this work;_ two little volumes have appeared,
assailing some of the positions of the Definite Platform, and none in
vindication of them. The New School must therefore receive credit for
moderation. Those volumes were hailed with exultation by the four or
five Old-School papers of our church, and all of them, even the
Missionary, invite the continuance of the discussion in pamphlet form.
Those publications did not agitate the church, neither will this. That
man must be ignorant of human nature, who does not perceive a vast
difference between a controversy conducted in the newspapers of the
church, and one confined to independent pamphlets or volumes. In the
former case, the dispute is forced upon all who see the paper, and
reaches fifty times as many persons, amongst whom may be many who, from
prejudice, or want of sufficient intelligence, do not appreciate the
importance of the discussion; in the latter, it reaches only those who
desire to see it, and feel sufficient interest to purchase the volume.
Yet the Definite Platform, be it remembered, was not the cause but the
result of Symbolic agitation, continual, progressive, and aggressive, in
the several Old-School papers and periodicals, for eight or ten years
past. As it evinced a spirit of resistance, they of course pounced down
upon it, and labored hard for its destruction.
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