The record-union., 1891-04-12
In RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions from the Various
Religious Newspapers.
The Religious Thought of the Day as
Expressed In the Sectarian Press
Some Matters of Interest to Both
Ministers and Laymen.

The Watchman (Bapt.) says: "Never
since the world began were so many
human eyes peering with Mary and the
other women into the empty tomb IN
Joseph's garden, never were so many
human souls with Mary in the garden,
with the eleven in the upper chamber,
with the seven on the beach of Gennesaret,
and with Thomas recognizing the glorious
fact that Jesus of Nazareth has been
declared to be the Son Of God with power
by the Resurrection from the dead, that
He is the Savior and the Lord. 1t is not
for us to cut ourselves off from the inspir-
ing influences that strengthen faith at
this season, or to keep our thought and
worship aloof from the mighty currents
of Christian meditation and devotion
sweeping throughout the earth on Easter
Sunday"
The CongregdtiondIISt says: "The OBJ
servance Of Holy week is becoming more
general every year. Not few Congre-
gational Churches are holding services
every day, and in most places they take
pains to interest the community in the
special meeting by announcing them
widely. Here in Boston there is to be on
Good Friday a service at the Old South,
in which the neighboring Episcopalian
ing of Christian thought upon the last
and crucial days of the SaviOr'S life must
make him more real to His Church, and
draw all of its branches closer to Him,
their common head. Good 1t is, too, for
every believer to follow Jesus closely in
thought this week, as he passes from the
acclaims of the multitude to His loneli-
ness, His suffering and his final triumph.
TO dwell long and lovingly upon the sad,
sweet story of that eventful week in Jeru-
salem prepares us to celebrate Easter
Day intelligently and joyously."
The Illustrated Christian Weekly says:
'In all Christian churches, even among
the most extreme sects of Professionalism,
there is an increasing tendency to recog-
nize the dear feast of Easter, and to fill
the day with services of Joy and thanks
giving, making it musical with anthems
and fragrant with flowers. This ten
dency is based upon the not unreasonable
argument, that if the value of our religion
comes from the truth that Jesus Christ
hath abolished death, and brought Life
and Immortality to light it is certainly
fitting that we should hold precious the
day in which this tremendous fact was
proved to mankind. For the resurrec-
tiOn was everything to Christianity, its
zenith point, its nadir, its keystone, its
source of energy, and its final goal. I'm
mortality. cannot, in any satisfactory
way, be proved from nature. 1t is rev.
elation, truth vouched for by Him who
made the first Easter Day glorious. No
impartial mind, therefore, can view with
aught but pleasure the loosening of those
prejudices, and the unbinding of those
narrow and often bitter misconceptions
which have hitherto prevented so many
intelligent Protestant bodies from recog-
nizing Easter. Such ProteStants should
understand that they can never hope to
convince of error the followers of any
alien system of theology, as long as they
confound in one sweeping denunciation
], Il 9
and refuse to show the loving discrimina-
ton which gives la cordial welcome to
every good word and work in their neigh
bors."
The Christian Inquirer says: "The
Church does well to celebrate the event
with special annual gladness. Every
Lords Day, indeed, is its memorial, and
some have been jealous of the annual
festival, lest it should put into the shade
the relation of each first day of the week
to this most transcendent fact of the
Christian faith. For him who has liv-
ing, practical. and hearty faith in the re-
surTection of Christ, to whom the vital
aspects of the fact are more than the theo-
retical aspects of the doctrine, this cannot
be. Every such disciple remembers, every
day as well as every Lords Day, that his
Redeemer isa living Friend. Each morn
ing is to him reminder that he has risen
with Christ, and that the day before him
must be a day of aspiration after higher
things. To him the springtide of the year
cannot set in unassociated with the great
fact of his faith and the chief force of his
spiritual life"
'FWho then would forbid him when,
not in the spirit that is in bondage to sea-
sons. but in the very liberty of their in
ner life and meaning, he seiZeS the occa-
sion TO lift his JOY in Christ's resurrection
to higher than ordinary levels, and to
give to the worship of the time an exclu-
sive relation to the theme which is
actually interviewer with all his Worship
If any would forbid, it becomes annually
more certain that their protest is inetfect-
i've and their opposition vain. The heart
of the church universal is yearly more
jubilant at the recurrence of the festival
of the resurrection. 1t remains for those
flowers, her exultant anthems, her
crowding worshippers, her specially
elaborated and triumphant proclamation
of The Resurrection and the Life,' to
prove that her faith in the fundamental
and characteristic fact of Christianity is
less ardent, sincere, and operative, be-
cause of such a celebration of her Lords
victory"
President Andrews, of Brown Univer-
sity, says in the Independent. Though
brought up an ultra Protestant. with a
scriptural observance in church, the
writer has grown in spite of himself to
think very faYorably of following the
ecclesiastical year. The habit is a prime
aid TO the preacher, greatly increasing, in
the course of time, his knowledge Of
Scripture, and imparting to his sermons
much variety and freshness which other
wise they would fail TO exhibit. 1t is
equally helpful to Christian devotion,
subject only to the proviso needed touch
ing all the eXternals of religion, that the
spiritual end be constantly kept in view.
Any exercise whatever that is performed
In the name of Ereligion may doubtless
sink to the level of q baneful formality,
lnjuring rather than fortifying the spirit
ual life. 1t is part of our probation to
use such adjunctS of religion instead of
abusing them.
Il for one, love to witness the increas-
arg regard which people have for Easter.
IL cannot but do good. Christians them
selves are in no danger of rejecting too
much upon the resurrection of Christ,
ana II seems TO me that this momentous
iact IS brought home to US by the formal
heedlng OF Easter more solemnly than in
any other way. Beyond the good
thoughts which the day intrinsically sug
gests' the celebration of it aids faith by
connecting the religious life of to-day
pack TO That OF the earlier Christian ages.
one OF the worst mistakes of Puritanic
Protestantism was the needless sunder-
ing OF connections like this. 1t is worth
our notlce along with the above that
Christmas and Easter are to multitudes
OF our fellow-men all about us. nearly
the sole reminders of Christian truth.
Thousands who never saw or hear n
prayer have at least passing thought of
Christ at these times"
The Chy'iStian Union SAYS: 1.-THE
CT Of hiOuraroi1U 10