The record-union., 1893-05-13
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.

Some Matters of Interest to Both
Ministers and Laymen.
''The day of declamatory and rhetorical
preaching has gone by" remarks the
National Baptist of Philadelphia. "The
day when ministers preached sermons,
and wondered that no one cared for them,
when, in fact, they did not care them
selves, when there was not natural in
tonatlon in the entire service from the
beginning to the close, when oratory
nourished and eloquence died, has passed.
The sort OF preaching that dealt with the
heresies OF former generations, the preach
ing that was addressed entirely to mature
saints, to which the children tried in vain
to listen, or If they listened, heard moth
ing that they could understand; the
preaching under which the hungry sheep
looked up and were not 1ed,' this kind of
preaching has gone by. But the preach
ing OF Christs Gospel; the preaching that
offers to sinful man present salvation;
the preaching that tells drunkard, the
impure and the lost that there is salvation
Tor them; the preaching that believes
everything 1t says; the preaching that has
tears in voice, as had the preaching of
the Lord; the preaching that cries aloud
for souls; the preaching that interprets
the Word to old and young-the time for
this preaching has not gone by. The
printed page cannot take its place; the
lecture of the learned professor cannot
take its place; the intelligence of the nine
teenth century cannot take its place; the
Chrlstless philanthropy of Ethical Cult
ure cannot take its place; culture cannot
take its place; the fog-bank of Theosophy
cannot take its place"
1.-THE admiration for the PRAYER Book
nowadays protessed by many wise and
intelligent non-liturgists is a hopeful
sign," observes the New York Church-
man (P. e.. 1.-The desire for form of
prayer may gradually lead to a desire for
the form OF prayer, the form, that is,
which apostolic days compiled, and whose
elements in some shape are still the COM
ponents OF all catholic forms of worship.
The very composition and publication
OF Common Book, common to all Eng
llshman, of whatever shade of Christian
belief, was a noble attempt, on the part of
the advisers of Edward vi, to keep this
link OF unity unbroken. The attempt
was largely futile, but are we too SAN
gulne in hoping that the present rever-
ence for the Book, evidenced on so many
SIDES by those who never publicly use it,
Is testimony to the fact that the unity
which good Christians are praying for
may come, if it comes at all, by prelim
mary acceptance of form of worship
which unltes, before the throne OF God,
those who as to doctrine and Church gov
ernment are still united?''
The New York Christian Inquirer
tBapt.) has this to say about Church
union: "Why cannot all Protestants be
in one broad church? men ask, and ask
very foolishly. A church broad enough
to embrace all Protestants is no church,
hf,t
OF demarcation that never can be obliter-
ated as long as the Bible is held as an au-
thority. To state them is sufficient to
show what we mean: Christ-what of
Him? Is He God or simply good man?
If He is God we ought to worship Him,
crown Him, enthrone Him. If He is
simply a man, or a divine person less
than God, then we have no right to wor-
ship Him, any more than we have to
worship stick or a stone. Ii Christ is
God the whole Unitarian world is de-
throning Him, uncrOwning Him and
robbing Him of His nature. But if He is
God, then the whole orthodox world are
blasphemers. This is gulf that no creed
can bridge, sea across which no thought
takes passage. The Atonement-what
of that7 Among evangelical Christians
there are shades of difference in thinking
on this subject, but they all come to the
important fact that Christ died for sin
ners, that it is the blood of Calvary that
saves. Another gulf! And nothing can
bridge 1t. Regeneration-wha of that?
Is it matter of education, custom, self
equivalent to new birth, or resurrec-
ton from the dead? That is another gulf,
broad, deep, impossible"
The following is from the New York
Christian Uacion: Revision overtures
were submitted by the last General AS
sembly TO the Presbytery, and on these
overtures detailed reports from 112 Pres
byteries are in the hands of members of
the General Assembly Committee who
reside in New York city or vicinity.
These Presbyteries compromise about
one-half the total number in the church
but their conditions, geographical and
doctrlnai, are such as to make them fairly
representative. OF these, siXty-siY ap-
prove of the revision overtures in GEN
eral, while forty-six oppose revision in
toto. Only thirty more negative votes to
the overtures are required to defeat the
movement, and it is almost certain that
this additional number of Presbvteries
will be found voting in the negative
when all the returns are in. Yet while it
is probable that revision has failed of the
two-thirds vote required to sustain it, it
is also probable that three-fifths of the
church will be found in favor of revision.
and if to these three-ffths are added
those who are opposed to revision but are
in favor of leaving the historic creed un-
changed and providing as a condition of
Ministerial fellowship brief catholic
Christian creed, the majority in favor of
a change in the doctrinal conditions of
ministerial fellowship would not i'm
probably be considerable. If revision be
lost, and the next General Assembly
should exclude DR.. Briggs and Professor
Smith from the Presbyterian ministry,
it is not impossible that we may see. on
the one hand, separation from the
Presbyterian Church of those ministers
and churches that are in favor of more
liberal and catholic faith, and, ON the
other, q union between the conservative
churches and ministry of the North and
the Presbyterian Church in the South"
Discussing the question whether the
General Assembly in Washington will
entertain the appeal from the New York
Presbytery in the Briggs case the New
York Evangelist tPres.( says: 1.-THE re-
sponsibility resting upon the conserva-
tive newspapers and molders of opinion
is great. 1t is not yet too late for them
to instruct their readers and hearers
clearly and patiently; and a beginning
might be made by telling them that theY
must be persuaded i'll their own minds
that the appeal ought, on grounds of law
and equity, to be entertained before they
can, as elders and ministers in the Church
of God, vote for entertainment. And let
US add that attempts to divert attention
from the query whether entertainment
is lawful or not, by side attacks upon this
or the other individual, will not meet the
case. 1t is absolutely of no consequence,
so far as the question of entertainment
is concerned, whether or not DR.. Van
Dyke said wrong things in his sermon
on the Bible as it is, or DR.. Brown made
unwarrantable remarks in Oxford last