Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1891-10-29
The Theological School and the Age.

Recent deliverances of professors of
| theology at Bangor, at the Theological
Seminary at Andoyer and elsewhere, lead
US to believe that the new movement of
the church toward the discussion aud ap-
prehension of Christianity as social force.
begun among the laity, is to continue, so
to speak, at Jerusalem, that Is, at the CEN
ters of theological training. Professor
Anthony of Cobb Divinity School in Lew
iston. has recently directed the attention
of members of his classes in theological
instruction, to the word of God in society,
and has instituted studies of social ques-
tions within the immediate environment of
the school itself. His method of disci.
plining the attention of his students by cit
| ations from their own Independent obscr-
walton in Lewiston, is valuable in that it
cultiyates two virtues very important to
the ministerial professions-the virtue of
seeing the near at hand and of close and
sympathetic investigation of the phenom-
ena of local life. The perils of purely
academic Christianity are thus success
fully foiled while habit of mind is form
ed as valuable as the habit of heart.
The signs Of this new movement are
many. Bishop Taylor in Africa, is return.
ing to the missionary theory and practice
of Paul by instituting self supporting col
onies of missionary artisans. In New York
city 'Neighborhood Guilds" are being
foImed-clubs of small numbers to repro
duce family life, as the best type of social
federation. These Guilds are elf-govern-
ing. free from patronage and charity, in
tended for the social. industrial and moral
progress of young people born not to the
happiest of conditions. The development
of thought and of social attention in the
summer religious meetings is shown at
Northteld and at the campmeetings which
unite the Chautauquan and Pauline Cos
Intellectual and moral vigor in so
cial evolution
The chair of sociology, in our judgment,
in the near hereafter will hold as impor-
tant a place in the work of theological
schools as the chair of exegesis or of
historical literary treatments The prob
lem so often propounded but hitherto so
poorly answered. How to carry the goS-
pei to the masStsy will answer itself " hen
the church has redisCovcred and reemb0d-
led its social functions bv the study of the
life and mind of the people and by adapt
Ing its membership to Christ instead of
Christ to itself. The decline of the tccle-
siastical bias and of sectaran reserve Is
one of the tokens of this reconstruction of
the method and Of this enc. gizng of the
spirit of Christianity. Philanthropy no
longer sneerS at science. and the church
begins to be sorry that III Il moment of
cnnui, she sneeTed at enthusiasm. When
tor the present excess of machinery we
have substituted cooperation among the
well-w -wshers of mankind, almsgiving will
be replaced by charity. whose function -
more the creation Of opportunity than the
connection of free soup. Bureaucracy is
AZ (taI in In ".
the central principle when We put CON
plexity in the place of the simplicity that
is in Mcs>anic foundations.
II is good sign that the heaven of So
cial reform is working throughout the
whole loaf That is why optimism is in
The AR. This is why social development,
now so responsive to political develop
ment. also begins I" be ke.nly alive to the
commanding necessity of responsive
moral and religious development.-Le'
ton JourHpR.