The record-union., 1894-01-05
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions From the Various Re-
ligious Newspapers.
The Religious Thought Of tho Day as
Expressed In the Sectarian Press
Some Matters of Interest to Both
Ministers and Laymen.

Expressed In the Sectarian Press
Ministers and Laymen.
1.-THE managers of the Church Congress
have been blamed" says the La0tng
Church (P. E.) of Chicago. 'for having
on their committees and programmes so
few conservative or High Churchmen of
the Bishops or other clergy. Perhaps
word of explanation is due, though 1T
must leave them still responsible for the
inexcusable one-sidedness and dangerous
trend of this debating society which
by It's name assumes to be church instl-
tuition. In justice TO the managers it
should be said that bishops and priests
who are known defenders of orthodox
and Catholic principles have been invited
10 official positions and urged to take part
in the congress, but in great majority Of
cases they have declined. AS long as the
managers allow the congress to be plat
form for the defense of disloyalty and the
denial of the truth as this church hath
received the same so long will the men
who are sought out for this sort OF thing
have the platform mostly to themselves"
The Christian Register (Unit.) of Boston
suggests that it might be as we'll to pub
lish notes Of the latest fashions in theol-
ogy as well as clothing. 1t says: sit
might require an experienced theological
tailor to keep track OF all the changes in
creeds and standards. Epispopalians
are wearing their clothes a great deal
looser than they used to. They have
taken to wearing, in theological sense,
the double breasted frock. The cutaway
is suggestive of modern Presbyterianism,
which is cutting of a good deal of the
cloth Of its theological vestments. There
is good piece of the tail left; but it is left
open in front, and you could not button
the garments across the breast if you
tried. Our Methodist brethren do not
wear such loud garments as they used to.
A quieter style is more characteristic of
their modern spirit. The Baptists set the
style in waterproofs, and the Unitarians
wear their undeTclOthes all of one piece.
1t is natural that the Universalists should
be satisfied with an eclectic coat of many
colors. Our Roman Catholic friends pre-
fer to use material imported from Italy,
and made on looms which are centuries
old. Yet there are indications that they
are wiling to accept new patterns, and
to adapt theological vestments somewhat
suited to the climate in which they are
WOrn.'
''The General Assembly," says the New
York Outlook, "had already for bidden the
Board OF Education to aid students who
were attending seminarieS disapproYed
by the General Assembly. The action of
the New York Presbytery goes further,
and intimates, though it does not affirm,
that students will find it difficult to be
licensed TO preach if they have studied in
such semlnaries. Probably very few
Presbyterian students will apply to be
taken under the care of the Presbytery
of New York, or seek licensure to preach
from that Dresbytery. In short, the &C.
cIeSasticS maintain the boycott, though
under genter phraseOlogy than was orig
inally proposed. The probable effect of
this action will be, primarily, to discour-
age certain class of students from en-
tering the Union Theological Seminary,
and also to make it more difficult for stu
dents of that seminary to find their way,
on graduation, to Presbyterian pulpits.
OF course, the further and more serious
effect will be to deprive the Presbyterian
Church of independent and scholarly
men, and to shut that church up to those
who are willing to have the ecclesiastical
court TO determine what the result of
their Investigations shall be before their
studies are begun. Another result, how
ever, will probably be to make Union
Theological Seminary more and more an
undenominational university, to which
men OF all denominations will come, and
in which will be afforded special facilities
for independent research OF Biblical and
theological problems. Such university
is greatly needed by the Christian
churches of America, and we believe that
if the directors and faculty shape the
course OF this seminary aright they will
find their field of usefulness enlarged,
not limited by the action of the presby-
terry"
The Christian Advocate (Meth.) Of New
York, in speaking of the prayer test'
proposed years ago by Professor Tyn-
dali, says: "It excited the contempt of
all religious men of sciences; for so many
mental and moral elements enter into
cures, that without the most elaborate
system of comparison Of statistics ever
attempted in the world for the settlement
OF opinion, even if God without miracle
could be assumed to interfere, the final
result could not be determined. Ques-
tions involving differences of climate
the action of remedies, hereditary en-
dowments of vital force, the effect of re-
ligious belief or disbelief, or OF particular
philosophical systems; of the desire to
live, or willingness or anxiety to die; of
the force OF the original shock by which
injuries were produced; an estimate of
the quality of the faith or unfaith in those
making the prayers; the possibility OF
prayer being answered by divine action
on minds and physicians and nurses sug-
gesting remedies, or upon the minds of
the patient; and many other questions in
capable of being specifically or generally
investigated-all complicated by the fact
that if there be true doctrine of answer
to prayer there must be correlated doc
trine of special Providence for believers,
shortening or lengthening their lives,
promoting death sometimes as readily as
life, independent of all propositions relat-
ing to the determination of a general
question of vital force and its exhaustion.
Had miracle been proposed, such con-
siderations would have no bearing. Yet
even then it would have been scripturally
as absurd as the cry of the Jews, Come
down from the cross and we will believe
or as Satan's proposition to Christ on the
mount of temptation"
The AdUocate Congo of Chicago thinks
that short pastorates are in accordance
with the spirit of the times. 1t says I'm
such spirited, progressive times the
mere attempt to tasten pastorate upon