The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-04-26
A Bishops Surprising Expressions.

preston to these remarkable senti'
ments at a business mans praye'
meeting in Baltimore:
"Why is il that the field of religion
is left to women? To my mind
there is one reason patent among
others, and that Is that mon>trou>
pc version of Gods Gospel known
a. the revival system. 1t teaches the
idea that before men can worship
God they mu-t he worked up TO some
intense emOtiOnalism or go through
certain commissions of feeling, &c. On
account of this perniciOus idea | have
seen some of the saddest fruits.
~ remember certain member OF
the Supreme Bench of the United
States. now dead. He was n learned
man, ont had gotten this idea OF
emotional religion into his head and
died without being baptized or con-
firmed. | pray God he will he for.
given for the error into which he had
fallen.
Then there are hooks of prayer
crammed full of sentimental stuff
thai nen cannot accept. This idea
of sentiment is a false one. cannot
feel like a woman. | cannot pray
like woman. Nor is it required to
aim to fill your prayers with fictitious
feelings that have no response in the
heart"
Yet is not emotion the very es-
sence of religion? Is not emotion
that which distinguishes religion
from mere system of ethics To be
religious is not merely to obey the
moral law. but to obey it from the
love of God, not because the intellect
assents ard commands, but because
with the love of Christ. Love for
Christ as the master, the leader, the
exempIar, was the whole burden of
the remarkable Lenten lectures Of
the Rev. Phillips Brooks at Trinity.
The great purpose of the preacher
was to awaken the enthusiasm of his
hearers so that they might forget the
world and its ambitions in the SUBJ
lime elevation of their affections.
Personal love for Christ as the only
means Of purifying the character ana
conduct, was his unyarying theme.
Next to the Bible alone the relig-
ious book which has the largest
number of readers in all times is the
Limitation of Christ" by Thomas
A. Kempis, book "crammed full"
of what Bishop Paret calls "senti
mental stuff that men cannot accept"
1t was translated into English by
Wesley, and has had profound in.
f1uence on Methodism. the most pure.
ly emotional ofreligious systems. No
book could express more passionate
love and yearning for the personality
of Jesus; and both Protestant and
Roman Catholic literature generally
IS full of the very sentiment that
Bishop Paret calls false and feminine
rather than true and masculine.
Monsignor Preston, of New York,
has just published volume of
"Gethsemane Meditations," charged
throughout with this very emotion.
The wounds of Christ are depicted
with graphic particularly. aud the
sufferings of the Virgin Mother are
dWelt upon with exhaustleSs tender
,n1n hnf hS, h1A,, - .>c HD
believer may be touched with COM
passion and stimulated to love like
the love of Il woman. Jonathan Ed.
wards preached harsh system of
theology, and yet he made love the
basis of it. coincidence" he says, "is
but one part of the duty we owe to
God. Our obligation to obedience is
not the prime ground of our duty to
lOYe Him and honor Him. But on
the contrary our obligation to love
and honor God, and to exercise a su.
Dreme regard to God, is the very
proper ground Of our obligation to
obey" Obedience without love may
may make ethics, but both together,
and obedience because of love, are re-
quired to make religion.
The Judge of the Supreme Court
of whom Bishop Paret speaks could
not bring himself to that state of feel
ing. He was probably a moral man,
righteous in all his dealings. but he
could not make his sole motive for
so doing the emotional love of God.
His intellect and not his heart was
the controlling influence with him
and therefore he rightly concluded
that he was not Christian. He did
not have the religious spirit. With
out any religious belief at all, though
he utterly repudiates the personality
of God, man may be of blameless
morals.
Except We be converted, and be |
come as little children" says Jesus
Himself. "ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven" When Mary
Amounted His head with precious