The record-union., 1892-08-06
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 Laymen.

On the subject of Paganism in New
England the New York Church01an Up.
e. remarks: THE great error in the
Puritan theology was the abandonment
OF the truth OF common corporate fell
!oWship OF all the baptized III the Brother
| hood of Christ and the Fatherhood of
God. With the neglect OF sacraments and
OF some necessary elements in public
worship, the truth OF the Incarnation it.
self began to fade. 1t will be found that
the distance from the village meeting
house of so many of the inhabitants,
scattered as they are all over the large
townships, is factor in the problem that
cannot be neglected. When religion be-
comes so sublimated that the chief en-
phasls is placed upon the SOULS past ex-
perlence and emotions, and the passive
reception of preachers thoughts, while
worship Is unknown and sacraments are
forgotten, 1t is not strange that the prac-
tlcal and close calculating New England
1armer should conclude that he may as
Vel 90 his own preaching and let his
Tired horses rest on Sunday. Without
the obtaining OF truer and deeper religi-
Gus teaching, helpful reform in the di-
ton OF larger church attendance will be
the building of better and straighter
roads. The Massachusetts Legislature
has provided for commission to investi-
gate and report upon the advisability of
putting all roads under State supervision
ana maintaining them at fixed stand
ard OF excellence"
1T is not surprising" the Living Church
II. Ed of Chicago says, that when the
word 'dogmatic' is used in connection
with theology, the popular idea should
still be associated with it. 1t is supposed
to refer to a theological system asserted
as having authority, but in reality merely
embodylng the views of some man or set
OF men. But there is wide difference
between the dogmas of the Christian re-
Hgion and those of any individual man
or merely human society. No man,
however learned or wise, can claim I'M
questioned authority for his views
and teachings, but revelation from Al
mighty God is authoritative in its very
nature; the facts and truths which it de-
clares do not admit of question. God
does not argue with men; He reveals
what men could not discover through
processes of thought, and He proclaims
the path of duty from which there is no
appeal. Dogmatic theology as formulated
by the church is the expression in scien-
utlc form of the revealed truth of God. 1t
is rightly 'dogmatic,' because it has the
authority of the Holy Spirit, who resides
in the church and whose mission is to
guide the church into all truth"
II, as is true, the old theology exalts
Il
blind assent TO senseless and contradic-
tory dogmas," says the New York o.
8eTUeT (Pres.). "It is faith founded
upon Word whose events are not en-
bedded in history, and were not done in
corner Coniessing that mystery at
taches to all fundamental questions, it be-
Heves in the invisible God whom no eve
hath seen, just as the science of to-day be-
lieves in the primordial atom which no
eye hath seen. 1t is essentially a spirit
ual faith founded upon a spiritual phil
osophy, just as the doubt of to-day is a
material creed founded upon material
philosophy, but it knows that the demon
stration of the reality of matter is as inn
possible as demonstration of the reality
of spirit Edison confesses that he knows
no more about the nature of electricity
than the first boy who first rubbed a bit
Of amber with a bit of silk in the dim
ages of the unrecorded past; but Edison
has not waited for what he does not know
to give to the world his lamp, his tele-
phone, and his dynamo. We shall never
in this life attain to more than partial
knowledge; but theology which begins
with what it does not know will never
be so effective as one that begins with
what it does believe"