The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-07-20
Religious Intelligence.

The last number of the Nation has sharp
article on "The Religious Press, in which it at
tribute the waning influence of that class of pa
pers to the offensive manner in which they "dis-
charge their duties as ec-offcio defenders of re-
iigious truths The writer says: ''Their arti-
Giles read very much like the Pope's alloctuions.
The sound and the phraseology are technically
unexceptionable. 1t would take doctor OF
divinity to detect a flaw in their doctrine but
the substance, the life, the glow of conviction,
are wanting. One feels on running through
their hOmilies as if they were written rather to
furnish certain number Of good people in the
country districts with proper Sunday eading,
than because an earnest and honest man had
something to say in them, and conld not help
and manly aP Ena dns now en- s sPe
ering of infidels and Comtists, whether real or
supposed, is not the mission of the religious
press of to-day. Whether it be possible to- find
IN any community many men capable Of reg
ularly once week taking, in a newspaper, a
strictly religious view of the events of the day,
and treating them from this point of view with
real fervor and real force, may be doubted.
But that the business of the religious press is
to do this, and not to bring railing accusations
against its neighbors, admits of no doubt.
That it is only by doing this with eloquence
and earnestness that it will ever justify its ex-
istence, admits of just as little. At present
the world begins to feel dissatisfied with what
Aeo oAiCiS a. itS f0tcON " cure. r
With the number for this week "The Spir-
itual Republic" commences its second volume.
1t is issued by the Central Publishing House,
Chicago, is an able and independent jounal
devoted to Radical reform, to the advance
ment of free thought and equal human rights"
The Richmond (Methodist) Advocate says:
+" In our church the ministerial restitution is
very great At the last session ofthe Virginia
Conference, embracing a membership of thir-
ty-fve thousand, there were not halfa-dozen
applications for admission. From some large
districts, with thousands of church-members,
there was not single candidate" zaiioti4.s
Rev. Thomas Fielding Scott, Episcopal
Bishop of Oregon and Washington, died sud-
denly at New York, ON Sunday morning, of
Panama fever, which he had contracted on the
voyage from the Pacific coast whence he arriv-
ed on Friday. f'
The Baptist missions in Sweden enjoy
continued prosperity. Mr.. Uiberg, the superin-
tendent, writes from Stockholm of almost
weekly accessions to the churches. The only
hindrance seems to be the attendance of such
crowds of people at their meetings that the po-
lice threaten to interfere, although there is no
appearance of disorder.
The Earl of Shaftesbury, the Archbishop
of York and the Bishop of Durham refused to
have anything to do with the ritual commits
sion. Most persons are agreed that the Bishop
of Oxford will be the virtua director OF the
commission.
The Banner of Light calls for some per-
son to commence the task of collecting and ar
ranging suitable hillary for the use of the
children of Spiritualsts in their Progressive
Lyceu ms ID --+tierr . isss saf
Mrs Emma Hardinge's address before the
Boston spiritualists on the 10th, prior to her
departure for Europe, is printed in the Banner
of Light -
"A new Arabic journal has anne.rea 3, .ho
city of Aleppo called Frat or the Es.phrate. t.
is printed in both Turkish and Arabic. and il
the Government official organ. Its first num-
Der appeared on the first of Maharram, 1924
Hejira, or Sunday, May 8, 1867. Being issued
ON Sunday is looked upon as a direct insult to
the Christian population, who, though having
little regard for the Sabbath in the American
and evangelical sense of the word, yet regard
it as a holy day, and abstain from all ordina
ry occupations. .-, .......
The impression seems to be gaining
ground that the events now transpiring in
Rome have more significance than mere GER
emonial. 1t is believed that the Papacy in its
despair has resolved to use its last resource, to
WELD once more the weapon which for three
hundred years Popes have dreaded to I'M
sheathe, lest it should be turned against them
selves, to summon once more the body which
even the Ultramontanes hold to be greater
than the Popes, the mystic depositary of inspi-
ration, the Sovereign Parliament of the Church
O''a0ersdt. Should the present gathering of
the ecclesiastics be turned into an Ecumenical |
Council OF the Church. with power to depose |
Popes and modify creeds, to declare new dog |
mas and establish new formulas of discinline
a true successor to the Council of Trent. sur-
prising events may be looked for. The task IT
will assume will be no less than that of re-.
the Government of the Roman Cath.
Ole Church, by concentrating its supreme
control in an individual grasp, and declaring
the personal Instability of its head. This pur-
pose is said to have been entertained, and the
plans for its fulflment carefully prepared
through series of years by the Order of Je-
suits, aided by the leading minds among the
higher clergy. 80 ss5 .-. .-.-