The record-union., 1891-04-05

! Without doubt, he is sincere in urging
the claim that he has not departed from
the orthodox teaching of the creeds;' and
| by this | understand him to mean that
his address is in harmony with the sys-
tenn of doctrine which, at the beginning
of the inaugural services, he declared that
| he then received and adopted. Sincerity,
| however, may coexist with error; and,
/ hard as it is to do SO, / feel bound to close
| this review with the statement that / re-
| gard as an error-than which in teacher
| few errors could be more serious or
| perilous-Dr. Briggs belief that his adj
dress can be harmonized with the system
of doctrine embodied in the Westminster
| Confession
The Beacon Congo says: SIN all the
discussions of religion, questions of criti-
cisin, debates about books and institu-
tutious, revelation and inspiration, the
crucial question after all is: What think
ye of Christ? His blameless life, his
spotless character, the fact that He never
confessed sin nor mistake, never gave
utterance to any prayer for forgiveness
nor any aspiration for greater purity;
that He claimed to do all things with the
will of His Father, and all this without
any shock to our sense of the fitness of
| things such as we would experience if the
same claims were made by any other
member of the race, prove Him to be a
| apart as belonging to another order"
The Observer Pres.) says: s'The Rev.
DR.. Virgin, of the Pilgrim Congregational
Church, preached on Sunday last a
powerful sermon, criticising higher criti-
cism. His presentation of Presbyterian
| ism as corrective for New England
| liberalism, however sad for Presbyteri-
ans, is extremely amusing to New
Englanders:
There has recently been established
| in the city of Boston new Presbyterian
| Church. Churches OF this beloved COM
munlOn are as lnfrequent in Boston as
| Congregational Churches are i'll New
! York. The pastor was asked why the
! new church was formed, and replied that
Boston needed the corrective of sound
| Presbyterian theology, while at the same
time the press of the city was reporting
an address by a member of the New York
Presbytery and professor in Union Theo-
logical Seminary that declared the falli-
| billity and errancy of the sacred Script
ures, maintaining that there were six
| barriers to the free access to the Bible
superstition, the dogma of verbal in
! splratIon, the claim of the authenticity of
the Scriptures, the errors of the Bible, its
/ supposed hostility to science, and the in
depreciation put upon predictiye proph-
ecy.n
The whole discussion tended to
awaken doubts, rouse questions, destroy
confidence in and lessen the authority OF
the Word of God. Boston, I am sure,
needs no such teaching as this. In the
midst of its multiplied ''isms'' and in
| fidelity, such Presbyterian teaching be-
comes an ally of the forces that have long
battled the citadel of truth. And even
| Congregational pastors cry out against
such destructive help"
Tho Da1, a11a.. ~ =
| Unitarian ReUieaO: ut is significant that
Christianity alone has taught the horrors
OF an everlasting gulf between heaven
and hell, contradictory as this is to its
faith in the long-suffering mercy of God /:
for this doctrine, in its origin was mainly
an expression of the intense ethical feeling
! fed by the Christian reverence for the
| infinite value of souls. The insight of
conscience and the sense of sin are the
source, and not the fruit, of religious fear,
and whatever is fabulous in the scene on
which it looks is but distorted shadow
cast from the truest light 1t is the
radiant light of this intense and holy
| ethical feeling of Christianity that casts
| the distorted shadow OF this hideous
doctrine; and we must confess that this
shadow was inevitable simply because no
other symbolic picture seemed ADEQUATE
to express to the religious Imagination
the distinctive Christian feeling of the
infinite and everlasting gulf between sin
and holiness. In popular Christian ap-
peal even to-day this doctrine has a tre-
mendous power to press home on the
conscience the Christian feeling of the
| obligation OF an immortal soul to be
faithful TO its privilege of becoming true
| child of God.
ANY one who will look beneath the
| logical forms of statement which theo-
logians have given to this popular Chris
tan doctrine, and penetrate to the spirit
uai fact of human experience that is hid
within, can read the deeper meaning of
this doctrine. But, if Unitarians. in
dropping the doctrine, lose also the
Christian sentiment which it was meant
to express, they miss the central truth OF
the Christian Gospel"
OF the Methodist and the Episcopal
! Churches the Churctnlan says: 'sIs it TOO
much to say that both were injured by
their division from each other? United.
they might have been a mighty spiritual
| power for all classes of men; divided, the
one lost one class and the other another;
and of those who were thus lost, thou
/ sands, nay millions, were lost to all re-
ligion. Methodist fervor and simplicity
with Episcopalian culture and dignity
would together have accomplished work
| which 1t is not too much to say that they
have not accomplished separately. Was
| it well, then ever to have separated? +?
1T is curious to see how these two
bodies have changed their ground; Meth
odism founding great institutions oi
learning, and the Episcopal Church turn
ing to evangelism; curious it is to- see how
difficult il is for Methodism to keen its
educated people, and how hard it has been
for the Episcopalans to become success
ful evangelistS among the neglected
masses; and then, at last, how suggestive
it is TO observe that, while st. Georges
I becomes crowded free church, and the
missions of Calvary are rejoicing in the
ingathering of the poor, st. PauFs, hard
by. is driven to migrate in pursuit of de-
parted pewholders! We are not at all dis
posed to triumph at this aforementioned
contrast, for st. Paul's has had MANY
an example of the following of wealth
set before il by Episcopal churches and
congregations. What we believe, how
ever, is this: That but for the disastrous
and ineXcHsable division of forces which
was involved in the separation of Ameri-
can Methodism from the Church, there
might have been no such migrations any
where; there might have been no losses
| either of the poor or of the rich, the cuI-
tured or the uncultured, to record the
united Church might have won all classes
and held all classes in town and country.
SO that, instead of constant tabandonments
OF posts deliberately occupied, there
might have been a continuous advance
of the whole line, following the progress
of populations, but surrendering no post
| where the standard of the Cross had once
been reared. Again we ask, was it wise.
or well, or Christian-lilie, to separator"
The Western Ch1istian 4 dvocate saws
| Little by little each pastor has been
/ pushed out into this financial work. until
at last his congregation is assessed, and
he is asked in open Conference to report