Love Feast

Two Sundays ago Rev. Dr. John Hess McComb, broad-shouldered 36-year-old bachelor, mounted the pulpit of Manhattan's Broadway Presbyterian Church to preach on "Christ and Him Crucified." He was well aware that this and subsequent sermons would be worth exactly $77,296 to his new church, which had called him from Forest Park Presbyterian in Baltimore. That sum was bequeathed to Broadway Church by its longtime Fundamentalist pastor, Rev. Dr. Walter Duncan Buchanan, who died last year, aged 74, worth $1,086,576 which he had largely acquired by marrying into R. G. Dun & Co. (now Dun & Bradstreet). Dr. Buchanan appointed three devout Presbyterians as watchdogs to see that his church should have the $77,296 only so long as its pastor adheres to "the Presbyterian Confession of Faith in the U. S. A. as of the year 1929."

His first sermon having been satisfactorily Fundamentalist, Pastor McComb last week faced another test--reception by the liberal Presbytery of New York. Gathered in Fifth Avenue Church, 100 laymen and ministers began by cautiously examining Mr. McComb as to his theology and character, so cautiously that one minister chided them all for ''pussyfooting and chasing around the bush." What was in their minds, he knew, was: would Fundamentalist McComb be loyal to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions? Or was he mixed up in that Independent Board which has caused the Presbyterian Church so much trouble? Mr. McComb finally said that he had never given a penny to the rebel board, but: ''I must refuse to bind myself unconditionally to any of the boards of the Church. I feel that my loyalty is due to Jesus Christ and to Him alone. I will support those agencies which honor Him and which are pleasing to Him and His glory."

Thereupon, the minister who had cried "pussyfooting" apologized. Handshakes all around. "It was," said Moderator Dr. Daniel Russell, "a love feast."

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