The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-09-10
In RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions From the Various Re-
ligiOus Newspapers.
The Religious Thought of the Day as
Expressed in the Sectarian Press
Some Matters of Interest to Both
Ministers and Laymeu.


The Cumberland Presbyterian of Nash
vile, Tenn, finds in the growth and in
duence of the Salvation Army an inspi-
ration for the churches of its own creed:
Twenty-Five years ago." it says, ''the
Salvation Army consisted of one ostra-
ciZed Methodist preacher and his wife.
To-day it is able to report thoroughly
equipped organization, with more than
100000 adherents, 5000 officers, and 1890
barracks, in which religious services are
held daily, and an annual revenue
amounting to millions. This is but a
repetition Of what has been coming TO
pass over and over again since the Pente-
costal church added three thousand to its
membership in one day. 1t was seen in
the rapid growth of the Wesleyan move
ment in England and America; the same
thing happened in the Western back
woods in the church organized by Ewing,
King and Meadow. We need only the
old spirit of faith ana work to insure a
renewal Of the miracles Of growth and
power. If each OF our !, 200 Cumberland
Presbyterian preachers believed in God
with as unquestiOning a faith as that
which inspired the three men who organ
lied the church in 1910. and if all would
consecrate themselves to the work with
the same selt-denying and unresting en-
ergy which characterized our fathers, we
might again see our UNCONVENTIONAL num-
bers and resources doubled and quad
rupled each year. The faith of too many
in pulpit, as well as pew, is dimmed with
worldly eclipse. Too many are standing
ldle IN the market-place, pleading the
poor excuse: No man has hired u.s."
-
Commenting on Archbishop Corrigan's
ofnclal correspondence with the Holy
See about the education of children, the
ChurchHld2t (P. Z. says: sit indicates that
within the Roman Catholic Church in the
United States there are two Tenderness or
schools OF thought, If not organized par
ties. The one is American, the other
severely Roman. AS representatives Of
the one, both Roman Catholics and
PrOtestants, rightly or wrongly, would
place Cardinal Gibbons aad Archbishop
Ireland, at the head of the other Arch
bishop Corrigan. And it is periactly true
that Americans do not like the severe
Romanism of the one so much as the free
Amerlcanlsm OF the other. A similar
relative position was occupied in Eng
land-such at least was the general judg-
ment-by Cardinal Newman and Car
dlnal Manning, and in spite of an amaz-
ing success of its kind, Manning never
people as Newman did. Nor nor could
any policy be more sagacious than the
matchmaking Of the Roman Catholic
Church in the United States. 1t is wholly
inconsistent, indeed, with that doctrine
OF papal supremacy, Of which the Jesuits
are the representatives, and which found
complete expression in the Vatican
dogma of infalHbility. But even that
dogma can be minimized as it was by
Newman; Is scarcely ever applied in
practice, and can always be made to ap-
pear dlYlnely guided settlement of q
controversy which has been really settled
by long discussion and a general con-
sensus. Al any rate there can be little
reasonable doubt that amoung the most
distinguished prelates Of the Roman
Catholic Chuch in this country there is a
wide, and still widening, divergence both
OF opinion and policy on so very serious
a subject as the relation of the papal au-
thority to national sentiment and civil
law"
THE frequent discussion of the reasons
why people do not go to church, " saws
the CHRISTIAN hegtSteT (Unit.), involves
number OF the Protestant denomina-
tons, but it does not seem to involve to
any. degree the Roman Catholic. Rain
or shine, winter or summer, crowds NAV
be seen pouring into or out of the Catho-
lie churches. This does not prove that
the Catholic Church does more for it's
members or for the community. 1t does
show, however, that it succeeds in secur-
ing their attendance at church. iii does
this by appealing TO the element OF fear
or ecclesiastical authority enforced by re-
IglouS penalties, Professionals NAV feel as
they undoubtedly do, that church at
tendance secured at such a price is too
costly for the church and the people. The
matter of legal and ecclesiastical coercion
combined was tried in New England in
the puritan system. 1t was a spiritual
nature. The real question after all is not
what percentage of people attend church
but what percentage Of people who 90 get
some good and are able to impart good
from participation in church work and
worship"
The ChuTcbHlaa (P. E1 thinks that a
serious question confronts the Protest
ant Episcopal Church. THAT question
is" 1t says, whether or not this church
snail advance beyond the type of organi-
cation represented by the English parish.
as the same was AmericaniZed in 1889
Whatever may be justly said of the great
development of the church idea during
the past century, it can hardly be dis
puted that the form of Protestant Epis-
copal Church organization has been the
parish Dioceses have been confedera-
lions of parishes. The General Conven-
ton has been a confederation ofsuch con-
SuSAaCl6S, Iu4l OI pdTOCutallSLl, lis prece-
dents and prejudIces, it's traditions and
customs. The bishops have been spirit
nal tunctionaries to whom the parishes
have delegated, or conceded, visitorial
powers, on condition that they will not
use them 'uncanonically,' that is to say,
otherwise than as the parishes which
make the canons say. OF course the prac-
tee under the system is better than the
system. OF course, also, there was no
other way of resuscitating the church,
after the Revolutionary War, except by
confederation of parishes. And it may
be admitted that the system worked toler-
ably Well when the church was feeble
when clergym were scarce and in great
demand, ana when bishops were them
selves, necessarily, rectors also of par
lshes. But II was a system OF swaddIing-
clothes; and, although the church in this
country is yet but a creeping infant by
comparison with her manifest DESTINY. it
is high time to remove the impediments.
She is to walk and rum
"a Bible in every pew is one of the
ends proposed in some religious papers- y
says the Christian AdCocate M. e. eve
have no objection to this object. surely