The record-union., 1893-02-09
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.

OF the late Phillips Brooks the New
York Observer Pres.) says: "Gigantic
not only in his physical proportions, but
also in the breadth of his mind and soul,
he was eminently fitted to do a great
work for mankind. He was aH all
around Christian, with no place for envy
or the little meanness which disfigure
so many otherwise beautiful lives. His
theological views were not after our sort
IN all OF their details, but his noble and
beneficent Christian work and his unset
fish and holy living put the best of us to
shame. He was the best kind of church
man, one who placed duty to Christ above
all the technicalities of ecclesiasticism,
and had grand and noble conceptions of
what the church ought to do, not for
Itself, but for the human race. Scholar
ship, p,-doctrine, ritual, were valuable only
as means to something greater and more
important, the regeneration of individual
lVes and the uplifting OF mankind. He
was hopeful, almost an optimist, and his
whole course of thought and preaching
and living was helpful and inspiring to
those who believe in and strive for the
good and noble and holy. lie had not
tllne for denunciation and criticism and
gloomy forebodings. Too much positive
brotherhood OF Christ came into his great
soul Tor ever to despair of the work of
GODS love and mercy upon mankind"
The New York Churchnaaa (P. E.), in
It's comments upon the appointment of
Mgr. Satolli, observes: the significance
OF the appointment of an apostolic dele
gate is twofold. On the one hand it is an
emphatic reatfirmation of the Papal su-
premacy in its fullest extent, both of
honor and jurisdiction. 1t reminds bish
ops that the old man in Italy can create
or transfer them, or reserve to himself
any part of their ordinary powers, or de-
pose them; in fact, deal with them as
his mere creatures and slaves. ('Smiths
Ecclesiastical Law l., 24Y-250) The res
ldence OF his personal representative in
Washington brings this home to every
prelate IN the most unmistakable, and,
We should think, eXasperating way.
Archbishop Corrigan, TOR instance, now
understands the Papal supremacy as he
never understood it before. And though
The erratIc McGlynn may chuckle and
loudly proclaim his loyalty to the Holy
Father with his tongue in his cheek, the
parish priests are not unlikely to discover
that if the Pope is absolute master of
bishop, he is much more absolute master
of a priest, and is not likely to occasion,
on any large scale, the dangerous scandal
OF suspending or disposing the hierarchy
new appointment is a beginning, or
step, in process of decentralization
which is the qualification of the claims
OF the Papacy as jttre diUiRO. There was
time, we may concede, at least for the
sake OF argument, when Capitalization
was eXpedlent, the creation of metropol-
ltans and patriarchs, with their supreme,
coordinate or dependent jurisdiction.
Even the Papal monarchy, the last stage
OF Capitalization, may have been desira-
bic, for Rome was, de tacto, the center of
the civilized world and the most power
1ul and important patriarchate of the
church. But the delegation of Mgr. Sa-
TOLL is itselfa a confession that the church
has become far too large tor the admin
istration of a single ruler.'
Touching the appeal in the Briggs case
the New ork EUdagetiSt (Pres.) re-
marks: ''Of course, all this is done from
a painful sense of duty 1t needs no Ma
caulay to tell US, what every man who
reads history has observed for himself,
that the worst and the wickedest things
that were ever done were done by men
who felt impelled to severity by an impe-
rious sense of moral obligation. The in
quisitors were not always men who de-
lighted in cruelty for its own sake; Tor
quemada is said to have been an amiable
gentleman in private life. But the awful
voice of duty urged them on. They
terminate heresy, and though, TO be sure,
their methods were a little rough, yet the
torture was soon over, and when man
was dead he could not preach heresy any
more. Nor was this method of eXtir-
pating heresy confined to the Roman
Catholics. Calvin burned Servetus to
preserve the purity OF the faith from the
contamination of false doctrine. And
there be those in these last days who
make it their boast that they are strict
Calvanists who 90 judge from what they
do) would not have much scruple in pu-
rifying the church by fire. OF course the
appeal is not for the sake of getting a fair
trial, or any trial at all. The trial has
been had already, and fairer trial there
never was, and never could be, and the
verdict has been pronounced with all due
solemnity. And it is safe to say the case
will never be tried again. But what is
wanted is decree TO set aside the YER
dict, and to condemn the accused by the
mere exercise of arbitrary power"
'The trial of DR.. Smith and DR.. Briggs
for heresy, ending in the suspension of
the former and the acquittal of the latter.
seems to have made great stir not oniy
among the Presbyterians, but also in the
world at large" says the Li0ing Church
Up. E.) of Chicago. I'm certain sense il
is nobody's business outside the Presby-
terian fold. But it is not an unfayorable
sign of the times that Christians of all de-
nominations, and even men of no creed
or church, should be deeply interested i'm
q question of this kind. Opinions ex
pressed may be very crude, very WRONG.
but it is well that the world cares to think
and talk about the issue. To the world
outside the Presbyterian body does not
appear to be in position. Just now. to
be very eXacting with its ministers as to
doctrinal teaching. Its doctrinal stand
ard is in solution.' One of the funda-
mental points of the Calvanism which
Presbyterians formerly held to be sScrin-
tural,' they are about to repudiate. Most
OF their preachers privately repudiated il
long ago. 1t was always false doctrine.
but for centuries the Presbyterian Church
has ordered IL to be taught. Now. some
of its most distinguished ministers are
tried for presuming TO question some
other doctrines heretofore supposed to be
'Scriptural.' We venture no opinion as
to the truth or falsity of the doctrines
called in question; we give the outside
view OF the case. Both defendants. we
understand, protest that they hold the
Bible to be the Word of God, the only in
fallible rule of faith and practice. That
seems to be pretty good Protestant doc
trine."
The Chicago Interior (Pres.) says: SIT
is in the style in some quarters now TO re-
iterate the statement that the Presbyte-
rian Church exists for the purpose of ele-
waiting and preserving doctrinal formu-
las, the products of intellectual processes.
existence would be gone. This is a schol-
astic idea, which, surviving beyond its
time, is groteSquely out of harmony with
It's surroundings. The idea originated
when there was not Protestant mission
ary in the world. Had the church not