The record-union., 1894-03-24

receive your ambassadors as the equals
OF those OF Germany or Italy or Spain.
Inelr commissions are detective Our
Government could not be expected to re-
spond favorably to overtures made on
sucn a basis. 1t would insist on being
recognized as a legitimate, independent
and competent Government. The case
presented by the Episcopal Church is
somewhat analogous to, the foregoing.
The Bishops say in effect: We have
great love and respect for our brethren
around us and glory in the good they
have done; but they have not valid
ministry, and we cannot recognize their
organizations as divinely ordered
churches Here is manifestly a denial
OF equality. How can the two sides be
brought together to consider in good
earnest the possibility Of union unless
this difficulty is removed? Methodists,
Baptlsts, Congregatlonalists are conscl-
Gus OF no lack in the authority and COM
potency of their ministry. They believe
they are in entire harmony with the or
der of the apostolic and primitive church.
They cannot without cause change these
views and adopt those Of the Episcopal
Church,
There is an urgent demand that the
church shall give up its broken potsnerd
OF the past, and devote itself to sociologi-
cal and altruistic questions. We have
not much faith" says the Interior Pres
of Chicago, lin the result of such discus
SlonS, because constantly and everywhere
they neglect those most obstinate OF all
things, natural laws. The amount of ig-
norance brought out by those theories
and schemes is amazing. Men are build
ing all sorts OF machines with which to
fly TO The moon. There is no end to the
variety OF new boot-straps by which we
can lift ourselves over houses. One
would imagine that the reformers obtain
the materials for their philosophy out Of
the treasures OF the Arabian Nights En-
tertainments. The denser the ignorance
the more damboyant the scheme. 1t
verify appears that civilization is going
back to its second childhood and taking
. serious interest in fairy tales"
'There is a new atmosphere in religi-
Gus thought" observes the Christian
Register (Unit.) of Boston. "It cannot
be kept out of the churches. People are
not content to breathe the wholesome at
mosphere outdoors and then to breathe
mephitic air when they enter the churches
air which has been shut up in them
since medieval days. There is natural
demand for ventilation, and the fresher
air OF modern thought is entering the
doors and the windows. People cannot
be prevented from breathing it. 1t puri-
fies the blood; and nothing that church
councils, synOds. bishops, or Popes can
do will prevent the circulation of health
full currents OF thought which impart new
vigor and life"
why it should be any harder to draw
men to church and to enlist them in its
work than it is to secure the allegiance of
women is question:" says the CORgrega-
tiO1t0taSt OF Boston, ION which we may
all philosphiZe with varying degrees of
success in arriving at the real nub of the
difficulty. Theory aside, we deal di-
rectly with the cold fact, and devote our
selves entirely to efforts to remedy a con-
dition which is universally and fre-
quently deplored. The merit of the de-
llveranceS on this subject, to which we
devote large space this week, consists in
the fact that the problem is treated both
from the theoretical and the practical
point of view. = After careful,
and, we trust, candid consideration OF
what the men have to say, we cannot but
feel that many, perhaps the major por-
ton, of the reasons alleged for apathy to-
wards the church are excuses, not rea-
sons. Churches there doubtless are
where the lines are drawn too taut as re-
spects creed and conduct. But where
one man is kept from church because it
asks him to believe too much, or because
it assumes to be the arbiter for him in
matters which his enlightened consci-
ence ought to decide, five men stay out of
the church because they are not willing
to commit themselves TO the pure unset
fish, Christ-like life for which the church
stands or ought to stand.'
sit is quite right that Roman Catho-
lie should be elected upon the Board of
Regents of New York State" observes