The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-09-04
A Providence Preacher Tells Some
Pretty Plain Truths.
CHRISTIANS OUTSIDE CHURCHES.
Some observations Profitable for Church
Authorities to Consider and Take Ac-
tion Upon without Delay, IL They
Wish to Keep Up with the Timea

In the Century for September Rev. Dr.
William Chauncy Langdon Of this city
has an articleof much more than ordi-
nary significance and Importance upon
"Christianity Outside the Churches.
1t is keen aud searching arraign-
ment of the attitude of churches
toward outside Righteousness that
strikes home with telling force. and holds
the mirror up To church authorities so
courageously and yet so fraternally shat
il must compel attention and oughtto
stimulate more just and liberal view
and practice on the part OF the churches.
DIR. Langdon begins with Newman
Smyth's declaration that There Is now
unbaptized christianity In the Thought
aud lie OF men outside the
church," and quotes other ecclesiastical
writers In the same strain, and suggests
that it is difficult for churches to know
precisely what IL going on outside their
ranks, and consequently not easy TO
adopt remedial measures IL they'were in
chned to do so. On this point ne says:
1T Is the misfortune or the weak ess
of most OF MS, aud notably Of the clergy,
that In proportion to our own personal
81 certify In the faith which we profess,
and our devotion to the church OF our al
legiance, our friends and even our sons
hesitate to tell us plainly, because
Of the pain 1t will give us, just what tn y
see and hear, what they believe
aud know. We uuconsclorsly withdraw
from the testimony we ought to hear aud
out OF TIE reach Of such plain speaking
aud then We pronounce confiden .ly on a
stats Of things Of which we really know
nothing"
1t is Christian age.
Touching the Christianity of the times
and the willingness of people to listen TO
what the churches teach. DIR. LanRdon
says:
"rhere has probably been no epoch in
Christian history when the best inteliects
were more deeply interested in religious
questions than now; when young men of
early advantages and Of education
ss, wsrs aSns, or sasr 70 ovo to spow
to its proclaiming end to its defense.
There never was time when God Was
more real to educated and to thinking
men generally; when there was
among such men more real
interest in the BiUle and desire to
to listen to the story OF Christ aud his
doctrine, SO only 1t be his and not some
gloss which the theologians or ecclesias- {
tics have put upon or substituted for it,"
why Men Hold Aloof.
Why do these men hold aloof from the
chur h the writer asks. and then pro.
ceeds 10 answer the query by showing the
change that has come about in religious
thinking. He declares that the churches
''insist dogmatically upon the old
confessions aud traditions as part
ana p reel of the very warp and
woof OF divine truth aud that it is there
fore dinicult for those with whom tins
new religious philosophy and these new
convictions find acceptauce not to
feel themselves virtually excluded from
the churches. indeed, absolutely repellei
by them"
People have become thoroughly disinter-
ested in quesl ioas of dogma and creel
aud church poliiy. "Ihey do not care to
study or even to consider these questions.
Tney will hold as apostolic anu will
follow that ministry whca leads them
most directly Christward. which most
truly and most consistently bears witness
to him. No other argument has force
with them.
And it is. therefore. above all other
reasons, because those most under the iu-
flueuce of this new theological phil
osophy feel that the churches are
less loyal TO truth for its own sake
anxious to be faithful to Christ than TO
adhere to themselves, to their own in
terpretations Of his teachings, to the &C.
clesastical habits and even to the IL
norances and unreal couvent tion alities OF
their past, that they hold aloof fro m
them."
How Churches May Win.
But when the churches, when any one
Of them, by her leaders and rep resenta-
tive men, shall, with honest and manly
candor, court criticism aud the most
searching trial OF all things which
may have become unreal, when they
manifest sincere devotion, above
all things else. to Christ's christianity.
even should the theological traditions Of
their past be convicted Of error in the
new light OF truth. and the customs and
methods and ecclesiastical life, which
are now taken for granted, Of unreality
by the new revelation, when any
church thus illustrates it's supreme 10y
atty to truth and to Christ, then those
who now stand SO utterly apart, IN their
own loyalty to both, will return by
one and another aud at last in hocks tu
ecclesiastical allegiance"