The record-union., 1893-07-01
In RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions From the Various Re-
ligiOus Newspapers
The Religious Thought of the Day 90
Expressed in the Sectarian Press
Ministers and Laymen.

christians are sometimes accused by
men of the world of being narrow and
/ bigoted," says the LtUiHg Church Up. e.
OF Chicago. "If they do seem to lean
little that way sometimes, it should be
I charged to their intense conviction that
there can be no compromise of Gods
truth and law. Truth is necessarily mar
row with respect to error, but not neces-
sarily to the exclusion Of charity. An
earnest Christian OF one denomination
ought to be able to believe that one of an
other name may be perfectly sincere, and
to regard such with respect and sympa-
thy, for there is very much in common
with all who profess and call themselves
| Christians. But when 'narrowness' leads
to intolerance the way is open to envy,
hatred and malice. and all uncharitable-
ness. From this should all Christian
people pray, Good Lord, deliver u.s. and
| none apparently need more TO use this
| prayer than some who have vehemently
| opposed the opening of the Worlds Fair
1 on Sunday. SO far, they were within the
bounds of right and duty, as they re-
garded the principles involved. But
| when, having done their duty and failed
to convince the country that they are
right, they denounce and threaten and
call upon the Government for soldiers
| and guns to kill those who attempt to
! open the gates, they are guilty of some
thing worse than 'narrowness.' The
acrlmony and bitterness displayed by
| some Christians during this Sunday Opeu-
ing controversy, and published all over
the civilized world, will, we fear, have
| very damaging effect. 1t win be taken
1 h i
| spirit of the Gospel, and will, perhaps,
ALLEVIATE large number of conscientious
people,
"Dr. Briggs" says the New York IN
! depende1tt, INSISTS that the Assembly rep
resented minority and that this mi
nority' has proceeded in a revolutionary
| way. 1t is not, we suppose, to be ex-
pected that he should think well of the
court which has condemned him; but he
| Will md 1t very difficult to induce many
to believe shat the Assembly was not
| 1alrly representative OF the church. Such
a charge seems to us nothing less than
| absurd. We can find no evidence what
ever III support of it. The legal points
named by him are fair subjects of discus
| sion. They are TO be reached by amend
! ing the constitution. The constitutional
process can be properly invoked for such
| a purpose. No blame can attach to Or.
! l1llSBs lOI proposing II. but MS letter
1 does not stop here. 1t incites to a revolt
against the decisions Of the Assdm blv.
and proposes a deliberate. organized at
| tack upon them. This hardly seems con-
sistent with loyalty to the church. He
utterly discredits the judgment of the
| highest court of his church, and appeals
| to his friends so to condemn, plan and
agitate as to secure an Assem- bly, next
! year of different character. We have
! heard good deal in the last three years
! about packing assem- blies. let, if
| packing were possible, the process DR..
| Briggs now advocates is the one by which
| 1t would be accomplished. Is this the
| way TO establish the truth? 1t is rather
| the way to generate strife and struggle
and make the church perpetual scene of
| battle. The supreme court of the church
! has spoken in this case and closed it. DR..
| Briggs appeared before it, made his plea
and exhausted his rights. The decision
was against him, and now he condemns
| the court and speaks Of it as having
'trampled under foot the constitution Of
| the church, liberty of conscience and
! freedom of scholarship This, he says,
has been done by ruthless majority;
| Questions of scholarship cannot, it has
| been said by the defendants sympathiz-
| erS, be settled by ecclesiastical courts
They must be settled by the general court
OF scholarship itself Very well. Then
| let DR.. Briggs and his friends await that
verdict patiently. If the Assembly is
| wrong the ultimate verdict of scholarship
will set it right"
! The New York Evangelist CPres.), in
commenting upon a long letter from DR..
| Ecob advocating tho foundation of a new
| sect free from all sectarianism, observes:
| DIR. Ecob's communication is sure to be
| read with care, and with sincere respect
| for the high character and Christian mo-
] II fIharn ara a.
no others in all the land who will enter
tain his appeal with the degree of sympa-
| thy that will be felt for it by many of his
| Presbyterian brethren. A. vast number
of them will appreciate and honor his
purpose and his frank, not to say passion
ate, speaking out of all that is in his heart
But that many of them will be persuaded
OF the wisdom of the course he marks
out, and join with him in forming a
new and altogether ideal sect, does not
seem even to himself very probable. This
being so, we the more admire his courage
in venturing the challenge, and we would
| in no wise rob it of its just force and in
tluence. Having conceded thus much,
we do not see our way to go with him any
further, for the thing he proposes seems
to us both unwise and impracticable
Surely, if the latter, then the former.
| We do not concede that matters are so
unpromising as he puts them. He does
/
mits his moral Indignation, of which he
has great store, to color his whole in
| dictment of his conservative brethren. Is
it not just possible that good proportion
| of them are as honest as he? He does not
impeach their sincerity. And this being
| so, why should we put ourselves out of
relations with them, and beyond the pos
sibility of directly influencing them in
their action, and this at the lavish cost of
the great and worthy patrimony, histori-
cal and material, which we hold in COM
mon, and which is our just inheritance
and vantage from the past"
"If any reader has imagined that the
declaration that the Bible is not the Word
Of God depreciates the Bible, he greatly
misapprehends its Significance says the
New ork Christian Union. MEN often
conceive of the Bible as the history of
/ God IN the world, as though he had been
only with the Jewish nation and had
/ spoken only to the jewish prophets This
/ IS to mluify, not to magnify, the Bible
| We conceive the Bible as teaching that
/ God IS IN all history and is ever speaking
| to His children but as teaching this dra-
matlcally and vitality, not philosophically;
as teaching this by giving an illustration
/ OF this divine presence in human history
| and human consciousness, by the pens of
1 men who had eyes to see the Presence
| which is everywhere and always, though,
! alas! unseen. Man is like a child who
\ hndS himself lost and alone in great for
/ est. Some men regard the Bible as blaz-
| ings on the trees, made by those who
/ have passed this way before, so that he that
will follow these ancient indications OF
the right road with care will at last find
his way to his home. We regard it as