The record-union., 1891-05-17

According to the JeaoiSh Messenger, the
Rev. DIR. Cuyler tells the story of little
boy, the son of good Presbyterian
parents, who was asked the question in
the Catechism, what is the chief end of
man? and he answered it. "Man's chief
end IS to glorify God and annoy Him
forever" There are too many men, says
DR.. Cuyler, who act as if that were their
chief end.
The COngregdtio7laliSt says: "The Bop
tlSt Teacher, in its treatment of the first
Sunday-school lesson on Jonah, says: If
it had pleased God so to order, it would
have been entirely possible even for an
oyster to swallow Jonah-quite as easy as
for Jonah to have swallowed an OYSTER
II it had pleased God so to order, it would
have been entirely possible for Him to
nave made an oyster Sunday school
teacher; and it would hardly have been
more remarkable than that one who
ment quoted should be chosen for that
position: But the oyster, if allowed to
follow his natural instincts, would have
kept his mouth closed"
Unity (Chicago) says: Liberal ortho-
doxy has more than caught up with con-
servative Unitarianism, for while reach
ing the same intellectual conclusions, it
has kept its own spiritual zeal and con-
ylctlon. We speak without rancor, but
deliberately, when we say that modern
thought has no longer place, either logic
ally or historically, for that phase of re-
Egious belief known as old-fashioned
Unitarianism, that which stands only for
milder sort of dogma. The only Uni
tarlanism now Of any worth to thinking
minds is that which plants itself firmly
and unreservedly on the principle of
reason in religion, and on the moral con-
sciouSness of man"
The WGtchmGn Bapt.) says: when
the matter of tariff revision was under
discussion before Congress and through
the country few years ago, 1t was claim
ed that the tariff should be revised by it's
friends. We can but think, now that
Biblical criticism has come to the front in
| theological discussions, that the Bible
should be criticised byits friends. Wedo
not rely greatly upon the critical pro-
cesses or results of scholars who do not
revere and love the Bible as divine rev.
elatlon. This is not saying that we dis
trust those who do not assume q pri0ri
that the Bible is a divine book; but it is
saying that we distrust the criticism of
those to whose spiritual perception the
Bible does commend itself as from God"
The Northwestern Presbyterian says:
LESS Latin and more Hebrew would
make good watchword for our Christian
colleges. In the middle ages Latin was
the ecclesiastical language in which
everything was written, and knowledge
of it was indispensable. But now
nothing is written in Latin, and the orig
inal authorities of the first importance,
outside Of patristic and medieval theol-
ogy or history, can be studied in English
Hebrew and Greek are the two original
languages of the Bible. They ought to
have have a leading place in the curricula of
Christian colleges. Until they have, the
church will be at the mercy of literary
criticism, because she is so unfamiliar
with the original Bible"
To this adds The Church at Home and
Abroad: more Hebrew, certainly, say
we-that is, If you mean more thorough
knowledge of Hebrew, but are you sure
Of getting that by joining in the cry of
less Latin?
"'I don't know what my boy will ever
do with Latin said Sheriff A to Princi-
pal w.
''The experienced teachers reply was:
1T is not for what the boy will do with
the Latin that wish him to study it: it
is for what the Latin will do to the boy
I'VE suspect that, for a good while to
come, the best Hebrew scholars in our
theological seminaries will be found to
have been the best Latin and Greek
scholars in college,"
On the question of recognizing" the
ordination of a former Congregational
minister who had come into the Baptist
Church, the Examiner (Bapt) saws
'Baptists hold that men should first be-
ieve, then be baptized, and 80 become
members of Christ's Church. man
who has fulfilled these conditions, and
has shown fitness for the work, may be
ordained to the ministry by prayer and
the laying on of hands. Evidently
man who has never been baptized, and
who has been ordained by unbaptized
men, has never been ordained in the
strict sense of the word. Baptists can no
more recognize such an ordination than
they can recognize sprinkling as baptism.
Baptist churches refuse to recognize
sprinkling; to be consistent they should
refuse to recognize these imperfect ordi-
nations. 1t is no reply to this argument to
aiIege that Baptists do recognize such or
dinations when they speak Of the Rev.
Phillips Brooks and the Rev. John Hall.
The use of common titles of courtesy
does not imply approval OF the ecclesias-
teal uSages underlying them.
''It is a curious fact that the only eccle-
siastical act of a Pedobaptist church that
is ever recognized by Baptists is this of
ordination. We never heard of more
than one Baptist church that would re-
celve letters of diSmiSSiOn from Pedo-
baptist churches, and that one has al
ways been considered several degrees re-
moved from soundly orthodox Baptist
not administer valid baptism, cannot give
its members valid letters of dismission,
how can it confer valid ordination?"
The Interior says: ''In his recent very
able article Professor Green saws: The
denial of inerrancy in the minima of
Scripture, in trivialites which are of no
account and neither disparage the truth
tulneSS OF the narrative, nor in any way
affect its doctrinal statements, is COM
pared by DR.. Charles Hodge Systematic
Theology, vol. l., p. 100 to the detection
of peck of sandstone here and there in
the marble of the Parthenon. If this
were all, it need create no uneasiness.
But If under cover of admitting errors
lin the circumstantialS and not in the
essentials" +" sin the human setting, not in
the precious jewel itself'' Inaug. p. 35),
all the discrepancies and contradictions
and historical Inaccuracies are to be i'm
ported into the Bible which some Biblical
critics profess to find there, we seriously
demur.'
"The Interior may be permitted to
make a cautionary remark here, to the
effect that though of necessity there are
clrcumstantlals in the Scripture, there
are no 'trivialities.' The fact that Paul
forgot his old cloak at Troas is a circum-
stantial; his sending for it to wrap his
shivering limbs in the Roman prison for
the few days remaining till his martyr
dom, was also circumstantial, but
neither was a triviality, though some
theologians, intent upon the weightier
matters of the law, might so regard it.
/ am ready to be offered he said, and the
time of my departure is come. / have
fought the good fight, have finished the
course. have kept the faith; henceforth
is laid up for me the crown of righteous
ness Then he adds some directions,
among which are: The cloak that I left
at Troas with Carpus bring with thee
when thou comest.' The Interior holds