The record-union., 1891-01-18
RELIGIOUS OPINION.
Expressions from the Various
Religious Newspapers.
CURRENT TOPICS DEBATED FROM
DIFFERENT STANDPoINTs
The Religious Thought of the Day as
Expressed in the Sectarian Press
Some Matters of Interest to Both
Ministers and Laymen.

me CHf7Stid7l Ltegi3ter (Unlt.) says:
"The denominational press is opposing
very strongly the opening of the Worlds
Fair on Sunday. We are certainly as
much Interested as our evangelical friends
IN preserving the moral and spiritual
uses of Sunday, but the educative oppor-
tunities of the day must not be over
looked. Some of our evangelical friends
have steadily set their faces against the
opening OF museums and public libraries
on Sunday afternoon. But, where they
have been opened, they have been found
to be OF unqueStionable benefit. So to
open the exposition on Sunday afternoon
would be TO furnish an educatiye oppor-
tunity OF rare value TO q large number of
people who could enjoy it on no other
day. Much more disorder is likely to be
created in Chicago by a,measure which
drives people TO the saloons than by one
which opens the exposition halls for their
benefit"
The Congrcgationdlist says: SIS it posi-
bic that the Interior, whose knowledge
eAtenc.s TO every sphere, does not know
the historical difference between Pilgrim
and Puritan? How otherwise can we ac-
count for its editorial, week before last,
on the Puritan, and the statement that he
landed on Plymouth Rock December
Y ~, lG2G? Does not the editor know
that the Pilgrims were Separatists, while
the Puritails were unwilling to leave the
Church; that the latter looked On the
former as 5chisnlatics, ard had no SYM
pathy with them, and that none OF the
Puritans saw this country till they landed
at Salem in 1929, as the pioneers OF that
great company which settled Boston and
the other towns of the Colony of Massa-
chusetts Bay, while the settlers of Ply
mouth, the Pilgrims, branching out
slowly till they had twenty towns, more
or less, with population of about 5000,
continued to be Il separate colony for
seventy years, or until 1851? We have
often noticed inaccuracies in papers OF
other denominations having occasion 10
speak OF matters connected with Congre-
gatlonalism, but we were hardly prepared
10 lind such ignorance III regard to the
Pilgrims and the Puritans OF our early
history. We would suggest course of
study in DR.. Leonard Bacon's book enti-
tied The Genesis OF the Churches"
As q hint on preaching, the Chu,cltnaan.
(P. E.) offers the following: ''We often
find on our boos-table volumes of short
essays OF various degrees of merit, but
all OF nearly the same length, and each
presenting within that length clear
statement or discussion of some single
part or phase Of one particular sub
ject. The natural history of these ESSAYS
is obvious enough; they have originally
appeared as articles III the columns Of
some weekly journal, and have all been
that they must not exceed certain def
mite limitations of space. 70 q pract;ced
eye it is often evident that the essay, as
printed, has been cut down to the pre-
! scribed measure from a much larger
original; and the seyerity-not to say
bareness-of the style suggests that
many adiectives and adverbS have been
remorselessly erased by the author under
ali overmastering sense OF the necessity
of broyity. y ct the English OF these COM
positions is generally excellent; the style
IS always simple, and The treatment OF
the topic is nearly always admirably
lucid. The writer says all that his space
permits him to say; he Introduces moth
ing that he cannot finish within that
space; he has the end in view from the
| beginning; and he stops when he reaches
| it because he must, but not because his
matter is exhausted. If any one thinks
| that composition OF this sort is easy work,
ii he did so, he would probably change
his mind. But, like everything else, it
can be learned; and there are scores OF
people who have learned it so well as to
make their living by it. Now, if we re-
| gard the sermon as species OF compost
| ton, it occurs to us that its limitations
are not unlike those of the newspaper
essay; and we venture the hesuggestion that
it ought to be written in very much the
same way. If u preacher would resolve
! TO allow himself just 50 many pages III
which to write Il sermon, and then rigitily
limit himself to that space, he would
probably be obliged to leave out many
things and to scratch out more-perhaps
! to exscind his most brilliant paSSages-
! but he would find i'll tiiGe that his SER
mons were all the better for it; that they
were always clear and sometimes strik-
ing, and that they wearied no one-not
even himself!'
OF RESCUE Work. the Coa0reqotioaQ!-
asst says: This phrase, equally applicable
| to all forms of redemptive effort, has
come of late to stand for a particular Kind
of work, the possibility of which are
growing upon the mind OF the Christian
Church. In its modern use the phrase
deSignates the attempt to recover and re-
store to their place in the family Of God
those whom society has cast out, in whom
the image Of God has been almost etiaced,
who have fallen to the rear in the march
of civilization. Such powerful volumes as
| General Booths and Mr.. Riis', describ-
! ing respectively the condition of this for
| lorn and Shipwrecked contingent of
humanity i'll London and New York,
help to concentrate attention upon the
slums and their unhappy occupants, and
| it is to be hoped will awaken more than a
temporary and g sentimental interest in
the miseriibly poor. Whether the partic-
| ular schemes of relief advocated in these
/ books succeed or not, the kind of Chris
tan work which they represent has
earned its right to recognition and sup
| port. There is something heroic in this
! modern movement to rescue the most
degraded of the children of men. Back
of ii is the grand conception of Christian
| ity, which thinks of our blessed religion
not as luxury suited especially for
! those who dwell in kings courts and
who live delicately,' but as the heaven
Il ,,.l-
of hope for the prodigals and the harlots,
| the refuge of those who have been cast out
and trodden under foot OF men. Rescue
work is not hopeless undertaking. It's
results are fairly commensurate with the
efforts put forth. Witness Jerry Me
Auley, witness the scores of reformed
and redeemed drunkardS whom it is
possible to find in almost any great city
where rescuing agencies have been in
| operation any length of time. Rescue
work demands q great faith in God
and in man, but it is Christ's own work,
and not a few of our fellow Christians are
devoting their entire lives to it with a
Pauline devotion. We who are not doing
it should know about it, believe il it, and
| help it forward
The Presbyterian Banner says: "We
are not unaccustomed to see wild state
ments, even in the religious press, but in
the class of writer's that indulge in that
kind of thing, the Rev. James Henry
Ecob, DID,, pastor of the Second Church
of Albany, n. Y, is certainly entitled to
go up head. In the New York EuapqeIist
of last week, speaking of the indifference
prevailing with respect TO the revision of
the Confession Of Faith, he gives vent to
the following utterance, which has no
foundation whatever: Everybody seems
to feel that the real work was done on the
| floor Of the last Assembly. When such
| an oyprN ballnipp minority af tba I,,.os
byteries came together, looked each other