The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-06-18
RELIGIOUS OPINIONS.

The following opinions of leading &C.
ciesiastdcal papers are offered simply
as theirs. and not as the views of the
Salt Lake Herald.
Speaking of the action of the Presby-
terrain assembly IN reference to Rev.
H. Preserved Smith. the Boston Chris
tian Register says:
The spirit of inquiry and the spirit
of TRUTH cannot be silenced by an &C.
clesiaStical fiat. There are such things
as growing pains, and the Presbyterian
church must experience them. By and
by it will cease to consider ampubation
as necessary for foot which has out
grown the shoe ut used to wear. Cues
ttons which have been decided wrongly
are sure to come up again. Presbyter-
ianism canot absolutely close its ears
TO the voices and shut its eyes ITO the
lls.lt of the day. BY and by iC will con-
slider it just as foolish to eXtinguish the
light which comes from spiritual lead
ership as it would be for a great body
of travellers in the Mammoth Cave 10
blow out the lights of their guides, and
cast the torolh-bearel'S into abysmal
darkness"
The Chicago Advance has this to say
about the ministry:
I'm the nature of the case a minister
cannot well be a critic, He must be a
preacher of convictions rather than of
doubts. AS a teacher, a leader, a guide,
comforter, he is expected to have
something to say which The profoundly
believes. Doubts lead nobody, put no
moral strength into the weak, wipe
away no tears. The man whose Bible
has become to him a book of doubts
caEmet build up a church. He can only
demoralize those whom somebody with
more faith has built UP"
The New York Outlook says:
There has. been a great deal of su-
perStitiOus faith in the supernatural,
but there has also been a great deal
of drra tfonal prejudice against it. What
IS meant by this oft-used but not al
ways understood phrase? Does it mean
a power superior to physical ma
tuI'e? Everyone but the craSsest ma
ireriahst believes in the super-material
believes THAT THE spirit of man is SUI
perior to his body, and in some sense
and wfbhin certain marrow limits, Su-
perior TO, and able to exercise control
over. the material world and it's for
ceS. Does it mean "a, power superior TO
man? Everyone but the cpasseSt atfle-
DIST believes in the uper-human-be-
lieVes that there is a power above man,
which exercises an influence, if not a
control. on life, both physical and spir-
ftUal. Why should it be thought in
credible that this Some One should
have revealed Himself to man in tha
only way in which such a revelation
is poSsible-t.hat is, by dwelling in and
menifesting Himself Through human
life?
The New York Observer declaims
against the undue prejudice given by
preachers to the discussion of social
problems, it is a serious source of dan
ger to the pulpit, and remarks:
The closing years of tine nineteenth
century have been characterized by an
extraordinary development of interest
in the social welfare of the poor and
the oppressed, which is creating in the
iheamt of the Christian church a large
compassion and earnest desire to de-
liver men, not only from that eternal
SORROW whidA awaits the impenitent
after death. but TO save them now and
there from these evils and miseries
which Shame both our civilization and
our Christianity Various schemes are
advocated with this noble end in view,
and some of them are 50 identified
with tine gospel that preachers carry
them to the pulpit, devoting to their
consideration the precious half hour
which ought to be wholly given to the
proclamation of the message of the
cross. The pulpit which talks of the
cries when it should talk of the facts of
revelation is to that extent weakened
in its influence as we'll as secularized
by so dwelling upon remedies which
after all. are Of this world, as ito shut
off tf1ougll, and vision tine remedy or
fered from the. world above.