The record-union., 1894-03-17

language of symbol conveys q true his.
tory Of Gods dealings with mankind. 1t
is an illustration of the way in which ex-
tremes meet. Dr. Harper was formerly
understood to hold that no eSegesiS was
OF any value except literal exegesls, that
the idea OF a spiritual and mystical sense
was TO be dismissed as quite unworthy
of scholarly attention. But now, unless
we quite misapprehend his meaning, be
is paving the way for something like the
method of Origen, the most mystical OF
commentators and one who cared least
for the truth of the letter. It is not inI-
possible that the result of higher criti-
cism may be to bring about a reaction to-
wards the old ecclesiastical system of in
depreciation, which takes it's rise in the
New Testament treatment Of Old Testa-
ment texts"
The Christian Register Unity of Bos-
ton, com menting upon the story OF Abra-
ham and Isaac, remarks: This old story
shows just how man advanced in his con-
ception of God. When Abraham came
down from the mountain he had q better
conception of God than when he went up.
When a man has become better than the
God he worships, he refuses longer TO
worship an ideal that is below himself.
This is what has been going on for the
last fifty years in the so-called evangeli-
worshiped very stern conception of
the Hebrew God, and they had the sever
ity of the God they Worshiped. But de-
velopment III modern philanthropy and
| the conception of justice has reacted
upon the idea of God. Men are no longer
willing to worship cruel despot whose
character is vastly below the character of
the average man. God, if He be anything
TO us. must be equal to our highest ideal
of truth, love and justice; and when we
pass out of the childish conceptions of
HIM entertained by man in the infancy
OF his religious life, it is hardly necessary
to seek to justify these early carlcatures.
| They are interesting as showing the crude
attempts of mankind 10 picture God, just
as the picture writing OF the Indian is in
teresting TO the history Of art. But 10 ap-
real to them as TO absolute moral author
ity is absurd and Incongruous."
On the subject of "Churchless Chris
tianity," the interior (Pres.) of Chicago
| remarks: Grant that ecclesiastical ma
chinery like all other machinery has its
defects. Grant that under every change
the church of God has been subject TO the
con lounding of its form with its life.
Grant that ecclesiastical pride may be as
| lofty and as absurd as philosophical pride,
Grant that the religious Pharisae is as
unlovely as the religious Brahmin. What
OF it? 1t is the organized church which
! before Christ kept alive the hope of His
coming, and after Christ has spread the
knowledge of His truth. Just what
clergy and other religionists' have de-
MED that there can be any such extra in
/ stitutional Christianity we do not know.
| Familiar as we have been all our life
with Christian homilists we have never
| heard such denial made. But that the
| extra institutional Christianity is doing
much for the evangeliZing of the nations
| for whom Christ died, few would be rash
enough to assert. For our own part we
are heartily tired of this hgh-caste, re-
! philosophical or 'scientifico-theo-
| logical Christianity, which is too nice to
associate with common Christians, and
! too much absorbed in the contemplation
| of its own perfection. to plant cEapels,
| build mission hospitals and explore dark
continents in the name OF the Redeemer
of mankind"
''If it were OF any nse at all 1t would be
easy to point out method for providing a
religious exercise in schools TO which no
reasonable person could make the small
est objection" says the Standard (Bapt. J
J of Chicago. "a book might be prepared
with selected passages OF Scripture and q
few hymns with music, in which nothing
should appear that could possibly offend
any one but an absolute atheist or an
archist. There is no other such book of
practical wisdom in the whole world as
the Bible, whether as regards things fund
amental in religion, or things tunda-
mental in morals. Even as whole, as
Dir. Woods Indignantly claims, and with
justice, it is not a sectarian book. But of
matter suitable to guide the young mind i'll
beliefs fundamental in all right character
and good living. 1t has more that is really