Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-05-12
CHRISTIAN

There are at this moment movements
taking place in the religious world which
thirty wears age would have been deemed
utterly incredible by all parties, and which
seem about to render our common Chris
,ian faith q more comprehensive unity
than has yet been considered possible.
All the old standards Of the Reformed
Churches appear to be becoming quite in
sufficient to keep the best men OF various
sects apart, from the Roman Catholic to
the Unitarian. The Episcopal Church
and the German Reformed seem especially
to be centers Of this singular uniting ten
dency, so far as the greatest Of these ex-
,remes are concerned. Fifty years ago,
the Evangelical School Of Diyinss seemed
to be the mos. extensive body Of different
sects who at all openly fraternized. But
now in response to Or. Manning, the new
Roman Catholic Archbishop Of West
minister, DR.. Pussy, of the High Church
party, expresses the utmost fraternity
with the best Roman Catholics, and an
effort i, being made, daily more marked,
by large numbers Of the Episcopal clergy
to assimilate the services and vestments in
many of the churches to ancient patterns
and customs of information, bringing them
thereby more into harmony with the 10.
man Catholic custom.
At the same time, the clergy Of the
school of the late Rev. F. W. Robertson,
of Brighton, embracing some of the most
earnest aud progressive minds, both in
England and in this country, unite, with
many even High Church views as 10 ritual
conformity, a Catholic liberality most sur
prising in all doc,rinal speculation. The
high esteem and Christian regard in which
the writings Of DR.. Claiming were openly
held by Mr.. Robertson, are well known,
and were avowed by him while living. and
that, too, at Stime when he was earnestly
solicited to join the High Church party /;
and in fact, there was in him q breadth Of
character which embraced the best ideas Of
many different seets. A writer in a late
able number Of the Nation, in reviewing
the work of DR.. Bushnell, on the Atone
ment, shows that his doctrines Of vicari-
Gus sacrifice, as a law Of universal obliga-
ton, is such that the most considerate
Unitarians could accept it. Indeed, DR..
Hedge, in his sermon on the Atouement,
in connection with the Death Of Christ"
published in the March number Of the
Monthly Journal of the American Unitarian
Association, comes very far towards the
orthodox ground, so far as DR.. Bushnell
may be admitted as a fair exponent Of
what that ground is in fact, though diff.
fering in the terms they employ, the prin.
ciples Of DR.. Bushnell, DR.. Hedge and F.
W. Robertson are easily reconcilable in
substance with each other. It is true, in
deed, that DR.. Hedge does not use the
term /" vicarious," while the other two do.
But the fact is, that Bishop Butler, in the
second part Of his Analogy, where he
speaks of the innacent suffering for the
guilty, suggests the fundamental idea in
which in which all the modern writers
consciously or unconsciously find the real
origin Of their principles.
We have no idea that Bishop Butler
thought of any such consequences when
he wrote his Analogy, and few have
thought of them when first perusing his
great work; and yet it is no less true, that,
perhaps, of the men of modern times, he
has boon tho chief means of diOoiplining
the minds and thoughts of the most en-
lightened and orthodox divines of our
age, and leading them to see a point Of
possible union. where men of various
creeds, the Roman Catholic on the one
hand and the Unitarian an the other,
could, to a great extent, agree. Each may
use words somewhat differently, and yet
both see unexpected points of agreement,
and each see a sort Of deficiency Of the
views Of his own party in times past COM
plimented by some other views held by
others. DR.. Hodge, for instance. remarks
that some make no account Of the cross
as an element Of the Christian dispense.
ton, and deny all value to the death Of
Christ, beyond the evidence it furnishes Of
his sincerity and the consequent presump-
ton it affords of his Divine authority.
This view does not satisfy the Christian
consciousness any more than it does the
sense Of the Scripture" He thinks the
cross Of Christ draws men to salvation, by
the love He excitesl in US, as q sufferer in
our behalf, "by exhibiting in Himself, on
the cross, the power and beauty Of a true
and divine humanity, and by revealing
with the cross the true significance Of sor.
row, reconciling the soul to inevitable i'll,
and persuading to the remuneration of he
selfish, %carnal, pleasure-seeking earth
bound life" He regards Christ as q rev.
elation Of God in man, humanity reinstated
in the likeness of the God-head. As the
Son Of God he represents the Divine; as
the Son Of Man the human.
OF course we do not pretend to discuss
the point Of where the truth lies in all
these theories. We only state It as a re-
markable fact that men the most intelli-
gent, pious and distinguished are ap-
preaching each other in the intellectual
expression Of their sentiments, in the one
ness.of their religious feelings and expert
ences-or rather, perhaps, in the express
sion of that oneness-beyond anything
which could have been expected thirty
years ago. If the oneness should never 90
any further, it will at least show that
there are points where all good men can
agree, and that these are the most impor-
tant and Fundamental Of all.
Shocking Murder OF n Policeman.
MARYsvILLs, May l0.-C. S. Doebler,
for several years connected with the police
force Of this city, was attacked and fatally
wounded by two assassins, last night.