The record-union., 1894-12-22
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.

TO invent some new method of reunion,
we were to go back. discover the cause of
disunion, and repair the wrong by re-
tracing the steps which led from unity to
sectarianism?' asks the New York out
look. How would it be if we were to
inquire what was the secret of the prim-
tive unity in apostolic times? and what
the process which already in PauPs time
had begun to rend the church and split it
into factions? In Paul's first letter TO the
Corinthians he has described the pro-
cess of disunion and indicated the secret
OF reunion; he has given his diagnoses OF
the disease and his prescription of a rem
edy. Christians had already, within
thirty years OF Christs death become fol-
lowers Of men-ot Paul, Apollos, Peter,
as, in later times, they became Calvinists,
Arminians, Wesleyans, Bushnellites. L
summon you,' cries Paul. by your 10y
atty to Jesus Christ, back 10 your one
message. Heal the rents you have made
in the body OF Christ by returning to one
spiritual perception, to one spiritual pur-
pose. Your message is simple-a Mes
siah crucitied tor the world, and so setting
forth the glory OF God. Neither the
scribe, by his scrupulous preservation of
ecclesiastical traditions, nor the modern
debater, with his new theology, can
bring the world TO a knowledge OF God;
that can be done only by the herald of q
Messiah who has been crucilied.' The
new inventions have not, SO far,
accomplished much. How would it
be 10 try PauPs method; to
stop trying to cast our beliefs into
one creed, to express our devotions in one
ritual, to symbolic our conservation by
one rite, or TO band ourselves together
under one set Of commanding officers, and
instead return To this original message, this
primitive mission, leaving each body of
Christians, and indeed each individual, to
give the message in his own way? At
Pentecost the apostles spake in different
tongues, but there was no strife; different
tongues are d blessing, not a curse, so
long as there Is one message"
'The presence Of wordliness in the
Church OF Christ must be readily recog-
niZed by those who have her welfare most
deeply at heart" cOntesseS the New York
Observer (Pres.). There have been times
when the distinction between the church
and the world was very marked. AS this
has been obliterated, some of the most
precious qualities Of the church have di-
minished with it. Spiritual life is en-
1eebled by love OF The world which is
sapping the foundation of religion pure
and undetiled. Ii is very significant
that from time to time the keenest
observers of the tendencies of the
time call attention TO the alarming
growth of worldliness among Chris
llans. Mr.. Gladstone, in the last arti-
Gle of that remarkable series pub
lished under the title Of the I'M
pregnable Rock of Holy ScrIpture,' in
quires into the causes of the wave of scep-
tlcIsm now rolling over us, and answers
than the most powerful causes are more
of a moral than Of an intellectual order
He lays great stress on the increase of
wealth, facilities of travel, abundance of
recreation, and other changes, all tending
To make the present life more attractive,
and in corresponding measure to dull
the appetite for what lies beyond the
knowledge of the senses. Men have got so
much more to interest them in what
is seem and temporal that they are less
moved by those things which are un-
seen and eternal. MIR. Gladstone has,
we believe, revealed the secret of the
spirit OF worldliness, which is chilling
the spiritual life of our day. Love not
the world, neither the things that are in
the world,' is divine injunction which
ought to sound loud and often in the ears
OF our generation. 1t is incumbent on
the ministers Of the Gospel OF Christ to
give the warning"
at is significant" exclaims the LiUi9ag
Church lP. E.) of Chicago, that just now
the deepest thinkers, without Christian
bias. are acknowledging that no other
force can ever equal that OF religion, with
its strong and constant appeal to the con-
science and moral sense. IN the earlier
days of our public school system, 'educa-
ton was eXtolled as the cure for all the
ills Of the body polite. 1t was assumed
that knowledge and morality would go
hand in hand. It was the old heathen
philosophy over again which identified
knowledge with virtue and ignorance
with vice. w hen one came to analyZe
the matter it was not very evident why a
training IN mathematics should make a
man honest. The relation between chem
iStry and restrained temper is not ap-
parent, nor why skillfuI penmanship
should deter its pOssessor from forgery.
Practical experience has not justified the
expectations of those who looked for the
spread OF virtue as the result of popular
education. There are those who still
hold to this ancient delusiOn but those
who have had most experience are be-
ginning TO acknowledge. with increasing
1rankneSs and emphasis, that from this
point of view our schools are Intellectual
and that nothing else was to be reasona-
bly, expected"
'The last demand of science is for
knowledge that can be verified, proved to
be true by observation and experience.
But that is also the last demand OF re-
ligion," remarks the New York E,g-
man on that ground precisely, has APP
pealed to EinI on that ground for eighteen
centuries. The Christian IS not REQUIRED
TO accept the fundamental things of re-
ligion on any authority, not even the al
legged authority of God; he Is invited to
make personal trial whether these things
are SO. Verification? The Christian lie
Is one long process of testing aud prov
ing truth, and the testimony OF universal
CHRISTIAN CONSCIOUSNESS as to what it has
found TO be true is datum no man OF
science can venture to ignore without
iorieiting his right TO the title. All facts
must be EN- mbraced within the scope of q
true science. That is a psuedo science
mat rules out, as OF no value, the expert
ence OF the Christians of all ages and
creeds. The man OF science NAV of
course, enter this demurrer: he NAV saw
that this supposed verification is illusory.
that the pretended experience is mere
subjective emotion without objective re-
alIty behind 1t; in short, that Christianity
is delusion, an interesting psychological
phenomenon, nothing more. But he can
only DO this by virtually denying the
validity OF all knowledge. To saV thai
the men of greatest wisdom. mental
breadth, depth OF learning, genius. eIeva
ton OF character, IN all the worlds his
tory, have been mere dupes; that the tes
timony of their consciousness, soberIy
and deliberately given, is wholly without
validity; this is TO say that nobody can he
certain that any deiverances of con-
sciousness are trustworthy, that no ey
perience amounts TO certainty, that ALI
knowledge is a perhaps or. at best. a
probably -
Reviewing book by university pro-
fessor, an important daily paper charac-
teriZes him as 'one of the most eminent
c.Nff h