The record-union., 1891-02-15
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions from the Various
Religious Newspapers.
The Religious Thought of the Day as
Expressed in the Sectarfan Press
Ministers and Laymen.

''The Rambler" in DR.. Wayland's Ma
tao1aat Baptist, says; 1.-The Rambler does
not usually expect to find anything to
awaken smile in the pages of our local
association reports. The following item
furnishes an exception. A letter to the
association from one of the churches
closes with these wordS-we quote GER
o0tin ct Rterdtin1: In August, we eN-
tended call to Rev. Ia minister
OF particularly shady antecedents) to be-
come our present pastor for one year. He
accepted, and entered upon his present
labors the first Sabbath in -. Brethren,
pray for us. -, Clerk On the
whole it would be advisable
The Christian Inquirer (Baptist) says
Dr. Joseph Parker holds that if God
has really called man to the office OF
preacher, the man would have no diff
Guilty in discovering that he is the subject
OF divine vocation Whereupon the
Ch17SttdR Register remarks: The diff
Guilty sometimes is in convincing others
that he has received the call. The minis
ter must do this, or else his call is a very
doubtful one.' Good old Ira Steward,
when he was pastor of the Mariners
church In this city, used often to say that
there We're good many men who felt
God had called them to preach, but 10
one was ever called to hear them.''
The Ch7fstioe IncUf''e'' tBaptist) says:
"A clergyman in Massachusetts lately
claimed that 400 churches in that State
could be dispensed with, and that their
elimination would contribute to the eff
clency OF the remaining 1,200. Zion' s
Herald has good word for the small
churches, which, it says, lave mission,
and often stand for truths and virtues
which find cold treatment in larger
bodies 1t further remarks
Small churches and poor churches
are often vastly more important to the
public veal than large ones. In this
matter OF churches and of religion it is
totally unsafe to estimate on a gold basis
The weak things and the foolish things
hath God not seldom chosen to confound
the mighty, and we have a conviction
that one of the most important things for
this land to-day is the nurture of the
feeble churches. The church universal
was once lnclosed in a single room. In
numbers it was very small, and the entire
membership was not worth $780,"
! On Moral instruction in the Schools
the Presbyterian Banner says: 'sAs
rule, our teachers are intelligent and in
splred with high moral purpose. They
find in their work many opportunities
for doing good. They build not only for
the present, but for all time. They be-
stow labor which draws heavily upon the
heart and the sense of moral RESPONSE
bIllty. child brought under the daily
| influence OF such q character cannot fail
to receive moral training of the greatest
value. Even if the Bible is not read, it is
| represented, and its great truths instilled
into the heart and made fruitful in the life.
Again, as already intimated, the gov
ernment OF the school to-day depends
| largely on moral principles The obliga-
| fiOn of rlI,ril tn ba, ;e,.
! presented and insisted upon in all the re-
lations OF the school-room. Such in
| struction embraces every principle of the
moral law. The motto made conspicuous
every day is. Do right" 1t is encourag-
ing to see how many youth in our schools
are governed by sense of duty. They
are pursuaded to this from the authority
OF the truth and an enlighted conscience.
! There is less of physical pain and penal
ties than were resorted to half a century
| ago. Fear does not become motive of
duty or obedience in the most successful
| school government"
| The Sacred Heart ReUSeW saws: ''Tbe
| letter of Miss Lincoln to Colonel Hiegin-
son must be particularly bitter morsel
for the persons who have lately done so
| much to agitate and disturb the commun-
ity by their wholesale denunciation and
hostility towards everything Catholic.
Here are two persons, both thoroughly
American, cultured, highly intelligent, of
| envlable social position and SpotleSs rep
utation, and Known to be among the ad-
vanced and progressive writer's, thinkers,
and workers Of the day-and one of them
writes and the other publishes letter de-
claring that the Catholic Irish in this
community ARE more moral people
| than the native Americans, because they
are restrained by their religionp Do not
| the very walls of Music Hall tremble at
these words! What can Miner and Full
ton and Cook reply? They cannot abuse
Miss Alice Lincoln and Colonel Higgin-
son as foreigners, enemies of our Gber-
ties, and papal emissaries. They will
hardly say that they are JesuitS in dis
guise. Surely their case is a hard one."
Writing on ''Prayers Subjective and
Objective in the Congregational Reviev.
the Rev. Edward Hungerford says: ''We
have tested the worth of eXtemporaneous
prayer and are believers in its importance
as an expression of vital piety, though
most ministers in the non-litureical
churches have long since ceased to affirm
that the habitual use of written prayers is
inconsistent with vital piety. In the face
of evidence constantly before our ewes
that affirmation could only be proof of
prejudice. The conviction is gaining
ground among us that exclusive adher-
ence TO the one mode is as narrow as ex-
elusive adherence to the other, and is
prejudicial to benefits which might result
from a middle course. We may at least
concede that written prayers would Sc
cure the remembrance Of topics that
ought to be constantly rememb bered in
public ministrations, and would check
tendencies of pastors towards too exclu-
sive occupation with phases of experience
in which they may be interested, to the
loss of the full sympathy of their concre-
cations. 1t may be that the true use of
the extemporaneouS method would re-
serve it chiefly for occasional and local
wants, or for emergencies of feeling and
purpose that cannot be provided for in
prescribed forms, and the failure to pro-
vide for which constitutes the defects of
some liturgies.'
Writing in the Christian Register on the
changed views of miracles among Uni
tarians, the Rev. John w. Chadwick
says: From denying the present use
fulness of miracles, Parker went on to
deny their actual occurrence, and many
followed him, some explaining them
away into natural or possible occurrences,
and some regarding them as altogether
imaginary and fictitious. There was
some haste and crudity in the denial of
the possibility of miracles, and there has
been much shuff1ing and misunderstand-
ing here, some meaning by miracles
violations of natural law, and others the
special wonders of the New Testament
One significant feature of our Unitarian
movement has been the clearer distinc-
ton of these meanings. One thing is
certain, that only miracles that are viola
tions of natural law can sustain super
natural revelation. Miracles that are
simply exhibitions of undiscovered laws
cannot do this. And the point to which
the most of us have come in regard to
violations of natural law is that, whether
they are possible or not, it is impossible
for US to affirm such violations. There is
no presumption here.
but when it comes to affirming that
ayv fhincr hoy,,a,,al 4bo,o