Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-07

Methodist Episcopal Church has already
done the deed and incurred the guilt. In
what does the General Conference differ
from the Quarterly Conference? It is the
Official Board Of the whole church. and so
mas a wider realm and higher duties of
legislation to perform. But the one is as
truiy council OF the church, a governing,
adludlcatlng, and, in subordinate way,
ieglslatlng body as the other. There is no
argument which isvalid against the propo-
sltion TO make our sisters eligible to seats
IN the General Conference but is also and
equal conclusive against their right to a
place In the Quarterly Conference Of the
local church,"
The Christian Leader Univ saws: "We
have read with interest the sermon which
the Rev. Minot ]. Savage went from Ros-
ton to Chicago to deliver on the occasion
of Western Unitarian Conference Its
topic was The Religious Situations and it
proved to be, as was expected. a kind of
authoritative deliverance from the Eastern
Unitarian leader on the subjects of contro-
versy among the Western brethren Mr.
Savage usually makes himself understood
and we turned to his sdiscourse with the
expectation of having the situation set
forth in clear light. The case is one NJ
great intrinsic difficulty. and we are not
sure that even Mr.. Savage has made his
position and that of the Unitsriapism for
which he speaks plain. He saws there is
utter freedom in the Unitarian fold. No
one, not many, can say what's pecessary
to constitute a Unitarian. Hence no mo
can be cast out, and no one can secede for
what is there to secede from p he asks
Yet it must not be imagined that we arc
all at loose ends Unitarians stand To-
gether even when they stand apart In
answering the question: why do Uni
tarians care for church extension, and what
do they seek to extend% Mr.. Savage Iabors
under the serious limitation expressed in
the words, 4 speak for myself Yet as a
representative man, believed in and put
forward by his brethren, he probably
speaks with as much authority as any one,
1t is but just to say, that having formally
thrown Christianity overheard, Mr. Savage
still contrives to frame a creed and outline
a church that mimic Christianity admira-
bly,"
The LiUinq Church says: "The devotion
Of the cloister and the closet still consti-
tute the substance of divine worship and
for the most part the faithful are shut out
from the altar or compelled to approach it
through long preliminary devotion that
sustains no vital symbolic relation with it.
So that at last we come to the sacrament
of the altar, possibly burdened already to
the verge of weakness. This is plainly
the trend of the existing rubric, and all
efforts for Eucharistic liberty encounter
rubrical hindrances. Mathis are not
merely permissive; they are mandatory.
And that anxious priest who would rein
state the ancient Eucharistic worship and
duly feed his flock, must submit to the
intrusive function of Mathis as best he
can, or render himself liable to the 'godly
admonitions' of the ordinary. We are,
however, undoubtedly undergoing revo-
luton IN liturgies and ritual, and so deep
and widely spread that laity, priests and
Bishops find themselves for the nonce on
neutral ground observing truce. The
ordinary, for the most part, postpones his
'godly admonitions,' and the priest who
has Mathis plainly said before the service
Of the altar land the number of such
priests is rapidly growing), escapes official
censure and even popular comment. The
undercurrent of popular conviction is
steadily and rapidly shaping itself for
such recasting or readjusting of the rubrics
that any priest msy do this in remem-
brance' as the great act of divine worship,
without breach of law or strain of con-
science; and we are fast nearing the day
when at least permissive rubrics will open
the way for return to the due Euchar-
istic worship of the Catholic Church"