Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-11-24

fess, the color line in religion strikes the
Catholic mind as something extremely
queer. And queerer still was the DISPOSE
ton made of the question by the polished
Episcopalians. They declare that they
have by no act or law admitted or i'm
piled that difference of race or color
affords ground for distinction in legisla-
tive rights or privileges and yet they say
they have no control over questions of
jurisdiction and representation in the sew
eral dioceses.' The distinction, it will be
observed, is really somewhat more than
that between tweedledum and tweedledee,
though an attempt is made, by obscure
words, to make both positions to seem as
one. To the advocate of color-line aboli-
ton the Convention says: Ny dear sir,
we have never recognized such a thing as
the color line.' To the opponent of the
abolition, it says: My dear sir, you can
do as you choose in your diocese To this
non-committal position on the color line
the Episcopalians owe it that they have
not split in two"
The Richmond Christian Adrocate
Meth says: "The pastorate has been
added to the duties of the itinerant evan
gelist of Asbury's day. That is weight
enough. On these are heaped the 'collec-
tions.' The practice, once necessity, of
the preacher conducting every department
is still chung to. The man who turned
the simple spinning-wheel has on him
nowadays the work of turbine, and re-
wolves the wheels filling floor above floor
full of looms, reels and spools, never
thought of in the times of the fathers. We
must unload the preacher. The jinrikisha
in which Asbury pulled the one collection
for that college in Maryland and how he
groans in his Journal under lt-has be-
come an omnibus, crowded on roof and
floor with collections for the CALLED shout
ders of his SONS in the Gospel to drag year
in and year out. To make matters worse,
the standing in the Conference is gagged
by the collections Few men are experts
as solicitors. Whatever the preacher
powers in the pastorate or pulpit, the
clean sheet has grown to be the measure
of the man. The drift is to set value on
business men, as the phrase is, in the
apostleship. An imperious need is bet
terment of our financial methods. The
church itself must manage the money
HC PlCoSlC4 lhuob hdNC idl "
give himself to the ministry of the Word.
If the General Conference would devote
its days and nights to this one subject, il
would deserve well of its constituency
Our present plan educates the membership
into idleness, while it crowds on the shoul
| ders of the ministry cares that consume thu
time and energy that belong to the pastor
ate and pulpit"
The John Bull says: "What is called
| the criticism of the Old Testament con
sists of series of idle conjectures concern
ing the dates and the authorship of tn,
books and of the various parts of them
The reason why these conjectures are pu
forth is this: That the critics are infdel
who want to overthrow religion by casting
doubts on the Bible. Their efforts ar,
concentrated on discrediting anything il
the Bible which implies miracle or tn,
supernatural. When future events ar,
foretold, they say that the prophecy is
fraud, having been written after It's al
legged fulfllment. When Gods miraculous
| dealings with man are narrated, the crit
les set to work to show that the story i
an embellished version of some purely
natural occurrence. When the author de
clares that he himself was an eye-witnes
of the marvels he relates, the critics say
that the work is late forgery. After
wards, when the guess-work has beer
proved baseless and their arguments tori
to tatters, the critics publish new book
carefully ignoring all that has been urgec
against the old ones, and simply reaffirm
ing dogpatically their former conclusions
Then certain weakened Christians
deeply impressed with the audaciousl!
positive assertions Of the destructiv,
school, hasten to accept them as the un
doubted results of criticism They fly t,
church Congresses to warn their brethren
against the danger of disputing these re
suits They wildly attempt the imPos
sible task of serving two masters They
imagine they can still remain Christian
and still profess reverence for the Bible
as a whole while accepting in detail tn,
theories of the Nationalist school"