The record-union., 1891-07-25
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions from the Various
Religious Newspapers.
The Religious Thought OF the Day as
Expressed In the Sectarian Press
Ministers and Laymen.

The Observer (Pres.) says: "The Chris
tan Union takes the occasion of young
| Brokaw's drowning to sneer at creeds as
follows: We do not know what religion
young Brokaw profeSsed, if any; no one
thinks of asking what was his creed
| we DO know what religion young Brokaw
| professed, and that his six years of faith
ful membership in Presbyterian
Church, the church Of his fathers, aided
IN developing the character which made
him hero when his opportunity came"
! To correspondent who asks: s'Is it
right to pay church music on Il musical
instrument on the Sabbath day, the mo-
tive being purely intellectual endowment
rocote (Meth.) replies: 1T is desirable
to keep musical instruments under
/ proper control on the Lords day in the
home. Children should not be allowed
to go to them at random and play on that
day. To play church music when re-
ligious duties have been properly at
tended to is, in our opinion, compatible
with the day."
The Christian IntelIgencer Refd. says:
"A sensational preacher in this city said
recently, There is no authority over us
but the authority of God If so, and he
surely ought to know, then his Church
cannot be after the New Testament pat
tern, for we read Heb. xiii, ID, obey
! them that have the rule over you and sub
nit yourselves and the Apostle Paul, in
the first epistle he wrote u Thes V. ~,
told his brethren about some who, he said,
| ARE over you in the Lord There are
and always will be persons to whom the
very name OF authority is odious. Never
theless it will exist. The Church of the
Lord Jesus is not mob nor a disorderly
crowd, but an organized community, and
as such has officers and they have author
ity."
The Occident (Pres.) says: events
seem to be hurrying the Presbyterian
Church beyond the fears of the most
pessimistic or the aims of tie most radi-
cal. The issue has suddenly changed.
The supreme question is no longer, what
about Professor Briggs?' nor yet, What
about Union Seminary?' p but this: will
the Presbyterian Church surrender that
measure of control over its theological
seminaries which such pains were taken
to secure in 1902 The fact that the de-
mand comes, apparently, from a slender
minority, is far from conclusive. 1t is
just possible that the conditions of life
and Christian work have so changed
within a generation that the defiant
attitude of a small minority should
be accepted as the signal of Providence
for concerted readjustment of ecclesi-
attitude touching educational agencies y
The st. Louis Republic says: 'The
Republic does not believe in pamperine
ministers or any one else. Let them
make sacrifices. The man who cannot
do that is not fit for much in this world
or any other; but give them enough tc
eat! 1t is scientific fact that oxygen is
constantly eating away their muscular
tissue, and that if this muscular tissue is
not constantly resupplied, chemical ac.
ton soon impairs their usefulness. And
when they are old, when they have
learned that 1t is not eloquence to increase
chemical action on their muscles by
humping the Bible and gesticulating in
the pulpit, do not conclude that they are
past their usefulness They know more
than they did forty years ago, or than you
are likelyt to know for forty years to come
Keep them, feed them, listen to them
and initiate them, whether it puts you il
the fashion or not"
On the question of the authority of the
Bible, the ChTiStidn Union states the argu.
ment thus:
"GOd is infallible.
Therefore: a book Of divine authority
must be infallible
but this conclusion does not follow
from this premise. God is infallible
But he might reveal his truth by mean:
Ol Impressions on the oil 1alll Die
men; then the impressions would not bt
infallible. The fallible men might ust
falllble language to communicate these
impressions to their fellow-men; ther
the communication would not be infalii
bic. These communications might be re.
ceived and interpreted by fallible men
| then the resultant understanding and in.
depreciation would not be infallible. II
other words, an infallible book would re
quire not only an infallible author. but
also an infallible medium of communica.
ton. But the medium of communities
. ton is not infallible. Therefore, although
the book is divine in its author. it is no
infallible. The reader may indeed say
that such book is not, strictly speaking
a divine authority, but divine-humaI
authority. That is true characterize
ton of the Bible; the Characterization
which the Bible gives of itself. Holy
men of old spake, moved by the HOLY
Ghost 1t is book written by men, bu
by men who were inspired by God
I'VE conclude, then, that the Bible pos
sesses divine authority, but it is not in
fallible. 1t is divine because its author i:
God; it is not infallible, because the in
terpreters of God are infallible men
; Some truths they saw and interpreted
imperfectly; others which they though
permanent principles were temporary
rules; others Of their utterances have
been imperfectly and enormously inter
preted and applied by subsequent gener
ations. But the great underlying princi
pies of the divine life inculcated in tn,
Bible, those which give to it q UNIQUE
character and have conferred upon it
unique power, have had their AUTHORITY
tested by the experience of the centuries
Their divine authority is established by
actual Xperiments--experi on al
immeasurably larger scale than any tha
have ever been used TO test the authority
rHNRnft tNn Il
science"
DR.. Leonard w. Bacon says, In tht
current Neao Engtander, of the Presby
agreed that there is no existing edition
or translation of the Scriptures, or any
manuscript copy of them in the origina
languages of which absolute infallibility
is to be asserted. The defense by
the Princeton diyines of their fayorit,
thesis Of the absolute inerrancy of Holy
Scripture is rested. in the last resort, OF
the absolute impossibility of determining
exactly and beyond question what HOLY
Scripture originally was and wha
it meant. For the Church has asserted
absolute infallibility only of tht
original autograph copies of the Script
ures as they came from the hands o
their inspired writer's [Dr. A. A. Hodge
Outlines of Theology Ed. 1873, D. Is.
Armed with this qualification, the in
genuous young Timothys under trainin,
at Princeton for the Holy War ar,
encouraged to plant themselves boldly
on the doctrine of the infallibility of tn,
Scriptures, and bid defiance to the armie
of the aliens. In answer to profan
allegations of discrepancy in the sacreC
text, they are instructed to hurl into tn
teeth of the caviller the question 'Hov
do you know it was in the origina
autograph p and demand the proof
which it is safe TO say that no mortal cal
4 /, L.