The record-union., 1893-05-06

against the lnfallible church. The Bible
has been the citadel to which dissenters
have Withdrawn, after giving UP ring af-
ter ring of outer fortitications. And the
serious point in their situation now is
that the walls of their stronghold are be-
ing attacked and disputed One of the
most striking effects of recent Bible
criticism has been to divide men to
whom the Bible was the center, and the
only center, of unity, into:hostile camps.
The case of DR.. Briggs is really. of the
graVest importance in the consideration
of such a question as the possibility of
church union in the future. To some
Nonconformists buttress after buttress
seems to have fallen from the support of
that on which their faith has been
| builded. We are not now considering the
results of Biblical criticism, or declaring
our Interpretation of such terms as the
| inerrancy of Scripture. We are simply
chronicling an historic fact, and that fact is
palpable, namely, that the inerrancy Of
the Scriptures does not mean to some dis
senters what 1t meant TO their foretathers,
and what it still means to some of their
| brethren. Dissent is divided on the sub
lect of the Holy Bible and its claims on
human faith. And we are not surprised
that men are having their minds turned
toward some other basis of union; that
they are going back to take up long
abandoned outposts, and are thinking of
repairing the walls which once they con-
sidered needless"
The CYtriStiaa Register (Unit.) of Boston
remarks: when 1t is fully understood
and admitted that the Unitarian may
have the deepest love and reverence for
the God and Father of Jesus, and have
as much joy in his faith as his orthodox
neighbor does in his worship of Jesus,
the talk about essential differences will
cease to be heard. Unitarians are often
shocked when they hear what seems to
them ldolatrous language addressed to
j Jesus. But, If they have charity and will
translate the language of devotion, they
will remember that they who say Jesus
and they who say Father may mean the
same blessed Reality, the Giver OF every
good and perfect gift Nothing is gained
to the cause of Christian faith or Chris
tian unity by obscuring these differences;
but much may be lost by magnifying
them, and by insisting that they are
essential"
The following is from the New York
Christian Union: "The newspapers re-
port that in South Carolina a young
! woman has been eXcommunicated from
Presbyterian Church because her en-
gagement in telephone company re-
quires her to render telephone service on
Sunday, and that in Pittsburg, Pa, the
business manager of daily paper has
been fined for publishing Sunday edi-
| ton. a few months ago a Sabbatarian in
Tennessee was fined by the courts for
working on his farm on Sunday; he felt
himself compelled by his conscience to
observe the seventh day instead of the
first as his Sabbath. These cases illus
trate q curious ignoring of the function
of law in its relation to the re-
Iigious life. That function is not to
compel righteousness, but to. protect
rights. ii II The Sabbath is a day
of privilege. If it is to be a day of
privilege, it must be a day of lib
erty. The State has the same right
to declare it a holiday that it has to
declare Decoration Day a holiday, and
the same duty to protect the individuals s
| right to that day, not only from Interrupt
| tions of it by his neighbor, but from in
trusions upon it by the compulsions of
| commercial competition. The Church
has duty of urging by all persuasions
in her power this privilege. not only
upon individuals, but upon the commu-
| nifty, and may properly eXcommunicate
any member who wantonly disregards
his brothers right to this day, as it may
eXcommunicate for any other wanton
disregard of brothers right. But to fine
a man because his too narrow conscience
sends him back from the freedom of
Christianity to the bondage of Judaism,
or to excommunicate a young woman
because she renders telephone service to
her neighbors on the Sabbath, is to take
efficient means to cast odium not only
| upon the sabbath, but upon the Church
and the Christian religion"
"It is reported,r says the New York
| Examiner (Bapt.) that the Pope is pre-
pairing an encyclical letter, in which all
| good Catholics will be urged to make a
more thorough study of the Scriptures.
fthe report turns out to be as authentic as
those that have proceeded from the same
source frequently during the past few
! months, the coming encyclical Will mark
| most important change in the policy OF
| Rome. Nevertheless, it will not be so
| revolutionary as some Protestants might
hastily infer. 1t would involve no con-
fession that the infallible authority
of the church had erred. The de-
NAL of the Scriptures 10 the Iaity,
like the denial of the cup in the
mass or the ceibacy of the clergy, has
never been a matter of faith, but OF dis
cipline. Nobody has been required to
profess on pain of accommodation that
these are divinely revealed doctrines,
and that belief in them is essential to
salvation. 1t is not denied that for many
centuries the laity had access to the
Scriptures and received the communion
in both kinds, or that priests were suf-
| fered to marry. 1t is only claimed that
the church rightfully forbade these
! things, for good reasons, and that every
good Catholic is bound to obey. But the
power that makes law can unmake Il. II
| the supreme power discovers that, in the
changed conditions of modern life. some
things are safe that were once dangerous,
it may alter the discipline TO suit the new
conditions"
OPTIMISTIC AND PESsIMISTIC.