Pastor Quits for Conscience’ Sake

The Watchtower, June 15, 1953

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“The Rev. Edward H. Morgan, pastor for eight years of the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, Delaware county, resigned yesterday from the Presbyterian Church of the U.S.A. . . . Mr. Morgan blamed the trend of modernism for his action, and declared he could no longer continue to compromise his beliefs, . . . [saying] ‘I am leaving the church because I can no longer serve the Lord with a clear conscience and without compromise as a minister of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. . . . Finding myself continually involved in what I believe to be at variance with God’s word, I find the only course for me is to remove myself.’”—Philadelphia Inquirer, January 19.

If the pulpit were a service instead of a profession, such men would not find themselves economically bound to a system they could not honestly support; and if more of them had the strength to give up their life’s work when they found it did not correspond with God’s Word, even though, like Mr. Morgan, they had no idea what they would do in the immediate future, there would be fewer men at war with their consciences, and there might be more true servants of God in the land.

Also in this issue

• Announcements
• Overcoming the “Impossible”
• Questions From Readers
• Religious Pretext for Vain Show
• The Bible—but Only the Desirable Parts
• The Broad Road of Religious Divisions
• The Narrow Way Leads to Life
• The Rule of King Death Broken
• The Rule of King Death
• True Worship Progresses in Northern Africa and on the Iberian Peninsula