The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1880-04-13
RILToIous DRIFT.

London on May slBt.
TIE Michigan Supreme Court has de-
,ided unanimously that the Laws which
declare all Sunday contracts void except
those for works Of charity and necessity,
do not apply to q subscription made on
Sunday in aid Of the purchase Of church.
1t holds that the support Of public wor-
ship is work Of charity, and that promi'
SEES made in support Of 1t can be enforced
in courts Of law.
FRANCIS A. PALMER, President OF the
Broadway bank, New York, and member
Of the Broadway Tabernacle Church, has
bought for 900 the Methodist Church
in Thirty.fourth street, for the purpose oil
trying there the interesting experiment oil
an absolutely "free church" open Tor all
corners without cost. For the present, the
RELIGIONS services are TO be under the
charge OF Rev. George J: Mingins, former
iy connected with the city mission work.
Miss Caroline Talmsn has MADE 70 tne
Episcopalians the magnificent oIering o.
the "Church OF the Beloved disciple, IN
Eighty.ninth street, built and lufnisned
entirely at her own expense az COST u
$3.50. 900, as q memorial OF her deceased
father. Il
Tur interior says that new book is
needed on the evidences OF Christianity, a
book to do for this age what Paley did for
his age and Butler for his. Here are two
bits OF advice which the Interior offers to
the man who may undertake such a work;
'Remember,whatyou wantto prove: That
Christianity Is divine revelation that II
ia through the blood Of Christ that men
are saved, and that there is no other sal :
yation: in other words, the divinity, final
ity and exclusiveness Of the Christian re-
liSion. Prove that. And remember that
a strong and conclusive proof OF little, so
that little be enough TO save the SOU, Is
better than a weak defence Of q great deal.
Remember you are not writing q book on
dogmatic theology; but on the evidence oil
Christianity. You must cover a large area
OF objection; but you are asked to defend
only a small area OF truth. 1t is only a
little that we want; but we want that little
strong"
DR.. LEONARD BACON writing in approval
to the Congregatlonalists Of its position
concerning the Lords supper as church
rite, adds his own protest to the modern
tendency toward the cheapening Of the
holy sacrament. 1.-THE fact" he says,
land itmust be frankly acknowledged
that the habit OF protesting against the
close communion Of Baptist churches has
| led some at least OF our PtGdobaptist Con-
gregationalistsi into what may be deter.
mined loose communion. A hundred
wears ago the communion Of churches one
with another was much less Authoritarian
than the modern practice. But now a
vague invitation Is ordinarily given, in
the name OF the church, TO members Of
other churches or perhaps to members OF
other evangelical churches and itmay be
that neither the pastor nor the
church knows who they are that
accept the invitation. Some churches,
like the Plymouth church in Brooklyn,
deliberately remove all show or seeming
OF any barrier between the church aud
the world in the communion OF the Lords
supper; and seme pastors hold that by
their prerogative as ordained ministers
they may invite all persons present 70
Judge for themselves as to their own fit
ness to commune with the church at
the table OF the Lord, have known a
young pastor who, as II he were Roman
Catholic or Anglo. Catholic priest, provid-
ed himself with pocket communion ser
vice that he might, at his own discretion,
| r..,. a naolyat INFANT mr. yiatiNnu IN n
sick parishioner, Our theory-the truly
Protestant and evangelical theory, purged
OF transubstantiation and all kindred no.
tions-has been that the Lords supper is
essentially social commemoration.
The holy supper ia not q solitary meal
but committeeman simply the COM
muning OF the individual soul with Christ,
which might be in solitude and silence,
but the coming together OF the disciples
at the Masters table TO remember him and
TO remember that where they are thus as
sembled there he is in the midst OF them.
The eommemoration loses its character II
they do not meet as his protested disci-
Piles. The table at which they meet is q
common table and therefore communion
table-common not in the sense OF being
unclean, nor as II 1t were the communion
| OF light with darkness or OF Christ with
Belial, but in the sense OF being for the
community, the household OF faith. 1t 10
by the church and for the church, by and
for the fellowship OF saints, that the table
is spread in the name Of the Lord"
TIE orthodox religious papers all have
a kindly word, apropos Of the Charming
centennial. Each discovers something ad-
mirable in the man, and indeed is in
clined to reck on him nearer in belief to
its own sect than the one which looks up
to him as its own especial saint. Thus
Zion, Herald remarks that "the Unitari.
anism Of DR.. Charming was very differ.
emit thing from the generic term that holds
its title at this day. It was largely pro.
test against high Calvinism, and, as such,
would command largely the sympathy Of
Methodist Arminians. Itembraced new
birth as we'll as developed moral charac.
ter; 1t held to the sacred record, and ut.
tered the solemn sanctions which the
Bible attaches to theimpenitent trampling
upon the divine law. In revolving
from Calvinism, however, the reaction
passed over ultimately to Socinianism and
naturalism, SO that Channing's sermons
would now sound quite like earnest ortho.
dox discourses II uttered in many modern
Unitarian pulpits." The ChUrchman says
that much in the DRIFT OF bis influence was
largely predatory to the better understand
ing OF the Episcopal church in ewing.
land. Charming" 1t continues, was a
positive thinker. His tendency was to