New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-09-24

| Some MODERN RELIGIOUS TENDENCIES
! A correspondent recently touched on
| question which is exciting anxious attention
! in The religious world the tendency OF
| modern belief tow ard the old historic Churches.
especially the Church of England. He ex-
p'ainel this step backward rs he and all
Dissentcrs evidently would consider it, by the
utter WEAKNESS of thinking men with their
! long continued doubts and uncertainty. III
is, he suggests, a cropping, tentative age {;
! every world. old truth or error, even those on
which depends the souls salvation, must be
! brought up for trial and tested by each man
! before il is accepted. Our correspondent holds
| that men are tired of this lrcessant argument
concerning salvation in which they are ut once
counsel criminal and Judge, and to get rid OF
it they fling themselves into those Churches
| in which they have only to SIT still and allow
other men to think for them.
| we suggest that more probable eXplana-
ton of the increasing popularity OF the
Church of England is to be found IN two facts ::
the great scope allowed for individual opinion
within her pale, and the expression for the
higher emotions provided i'll her ritual.
| There is perhaps no sect where so VIDE
| difference exists in the belief OF its members
| concerning the less important dogmas as In
! this 4 man may be immersed or sprnkled'
he may place his faith in frec-wll Oh fatal
ism. he may strip his chapel as bare as n
| puritan meeting. house or deck ii as richly
Is the first temple. and yet be worthy son
! Of this Church.
| Now there arc some significant hints cor
corning the tendency of modern religious
| no &, tl,ot hnth H.pr1litV
the ceremonious ritual of this sect are popular
which are of interest to thoughtful outside
spectators rs well rs to the church going class.
In the first place, men nowadays Will nave
freedom to form and to formulate their own
religious belief. The days of "I'hus saith
! the priest" are over. The only priest who has
| power to influence the belief or the fate OF
| modern men is the man whose actions show
tnat the holy spirit OF truth and manhood
and brotherly love is in him. BY his fruits
! he is known, not by any laying on of hands
or cope or scaruary. In other Churches, too,
| even in the most dogmatic, we find OF late years
| "A disposition TO allow the dOgmas and doctrines
| which occupied our fathers to the exclusion
of Christian charity to drop out OF sight and
to bring forward simply the human
lessons of the life and death of Jesus and OF
other men who have been inspired by Cod
| For this reason, Christmas, Good Friday,
! Easter and other anniversaries, which force
some helpful truth for daily life home upon us
are every year more observed III all sectS'
This increasing breadth OF view hints itself
| in countless ways How many mothers now
! teach their children the story OF Eve, the
serpent and the apple without giving the
meaning to the allcgory which goes down into
| tLe life of every human soul Rational men
! begin to suspect that it was unreasonable for
| two powerful religious bodies to wage Il re-
lentless and often bloody war for generations
to the total destruction of Christian spirit on
the question of the amount OF water which
should be used as a symbol to typify the
| mystical washing away of Gin by the Christian
shirt. In many Churches OF the most OrthO-
| dox belief the work done by Plato, MahOmet,
Budlha and other Pagans or Dests in uplifting
| humanity is recognized at its tuil value.
| There are few relig ous teachers now who
would assert that the Omnpotent Spirit OF Good
who controls the universe manifested HIM
self only To one small race i'll order 10 bless
! them cternally while He created millions only
| to damn them In a word, Religion Is coming
with each year more and more to mean the
| facc-tO-facc relation of each individual man
! TO his God and TO his brother, and to be cleared
of the allegories and umimpOrtant d0gmas
with which orr forcfathcrS encountered it.
! Tie more profoundly, too, that the man feels
! that he il always face to face with tins IN
visible Being, to whom he must some day
render an account of how he has used his
own sonl and comportcd himself toward his
brother the more he admits the help which
comes to him only from that RelOrmer who
! died upon the cross. There is no allegOry
! here no dogma. He brought light into the
world, and the light is in it now. Ii is divine,
| not human It makes hero out of the brutal
! laborer on our streets, and it uplits Nation
! Men are struggling 20 get nearer to this Man
| who died eighteen centuries ago and to get
| from Him what they want now, to-day and
! if to reach Him they push aside the garments
and types of Presbyterianism, AIethodiom,
Episcopalianism, or any other ism, there is
no need for fright or talk of inidelty.
| Our readers may wonder why, if men de-
mand the truth bare and unhampercd they
should prefer forms and ceremOnals. a form
| is n different thing from dogma. 1t is only
an expression of belief which appeals in some
way to our emotions or taste. That the more
elaborate ritual of an old historic Church
should be preferred to the plain forms of newer
ones only indicates that the emotional nature
and taste OF the people are more highly
educated. One man peIceivcs God only
through his own need of Him another feels
| Him in the wind in noble music, in all beauti
full sights and sounds. 1t is question not
of faith but only of the expression of faith.
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| SUNDAY RAILROAD TR1INS
| The question of applylng ordinary Sunday
laws" to the operations of railroads and steam
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