The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1894-11-17
In RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions From the Various Re-
ligious Newspapers
The Religious Thought of the Day as
Expressed In the Sectarian Press
Ministers and Laymen.

Ministers and Laymen.
''The example of Tammany is teaching
voters that public office is not public
| trust, but means of private gain; that
politics is a game in which the boldest
and most corrupt win, and that Courts,
Legislatures and Governors are mere
pawns in the game. 1t brings into con-
| tempt the vital principle of our system,
that the people rule, and is infinitely
more dangerous to the integrity of Amer
lean institutions than all the machina-
lions OF socialist and anarchist agitators,"
says the New York Observer (Pres.l. at
is the elimination of this corrupting in
huence from practical politics that is the
real issue in this State and city in the No
vember elections. 1t cannot be too
strongly or frequently impressed upon
the better class of citizens, and especially
upon Christian citizens, for it is with
them that responsibility for the existing
condition of things rests most heavily.
1t IS true that TO scores CT thousands of
earnest Protestant Christians no failure
of duty can be charged. But it is owing
to the indifference or unreasoning tealty
TO party of the many, to their divorce of
religion from politics., of Christianity
from citizenship, that the corruption of
society have gained supremacy. They
have forgotten that religion has to do
with the present as with the future life:
that the Christian cannot be consistent
and pull down with one hand what he
seeks to build up with the other; that he
is always his brothers. keeper, and that
1t is his personal duty that the forces of
government are arrayed against evil, and
the work OF the church thus given a
1airer field. What is needed is an yak
ened sense of individual responsibility
in local politics, a resort to the polls as
the solemn performance Of duty TO the
Master"
Father Doyle of the Church of the
Paulist Fathers has been enlightening
his congregation, says the New York
| CHaTchmdB (P. e., ION their duty in
voting upon the constitutional amend
ment which renders the teaching of de-
nomlnanonal tenets III any school or in
stitution OF learning a cause for placing
such school under State examination or
inspection. Said Father Doyle: If this
amendment becomes part of the or
ganlc law of the State, it viii become the
duty of the State officials to stand at the
door of every schoolhouse and require
every scholar to leave his religion out
side the door before he enters.' Pre-
cisely. VINO is responsible for the with
drawal of the Word OF God from the pub
lie schools and for the silencing of such
religious teaching lit was never dOcLrinaD
as once was heard in them? Rome should
never make wry face at taking her oW n
medicine. She has striven with her ut
most power, and no inconsiderable sue
cess, to enforce the principle that the
State should not interfere with the
church. But apparently she has forgot
ten that it is an exceedingly poor rule
II
The church must not interfere with the
State, and it is the duty of the State to see
that she does not attempt to do so. Let
the principle of non-intervention have
fair play. The real crux of the matter is
that the State is annually called upon to
contribute enormous sums towards the
support of institutions which, while
they are eleemosynary, are also educa-
tional, and that such OF these as are under
the Immediate government of the Roman
Church are conducted upon the most
narrowly secLarian bases; hence that
church looks with disfavor upon the
prospect that the State contemplates ex-
ercislng the visitatorial right which be-
longs TO the Chief supporter of any such
institution"
1.-The action of Archbishop Plunkett in
| consecrating a Bishop in Spain has
aroused much comment IN England
Chicago. 1T certainly seems strange
that so good man should be so regardless
OF the interests OF the Anglican commu-
MON as to act in a matter of such mo-
nent without the approval of the episco-
pate in general, and, in fact, contrary to
its judgment, so far as it has been ex-
pressed. He has brought into existence
body which must be regarded as in
communion with the Church of Ireland
and through that with the Anglican
Church at large. But it is hard to be-
iieye that the Bishops will allow them
selves to be dragOoned into recognition
of an act which they did not sanction.
Then the question arises, what is the po-
sition OF branch of the church, in this
instance that of Ireland, which insists
upon its admitting to its communion
bodies not recognized by the rest OF the
church? The Archbishop has probably
prepared the way for much conflict and
controversy. 1t appears that the Span
iards, If they could nave approved them
selves to the Old Catholics, might have
obtained the episcopacy from the Bish-
ops in Holland, but their overtures in
that direction failed because Archbishop
Plunkett had already induced them to
sign documents bringing them into line
with the Irish Church, and this the Old
Catholics would not tolerate. 1t might
have been thought that his Grace would,
III the first place, have directed them to
the Old Catholic body and would have
been extremely careful not to place any
obstacle in the way. 1t is impossible
that movement can succeed in Spain
bearing so distinctly a foreign impress"
1.-THE circular letter of the Pope, urg-
ing deeper devotion to the Rosary of |
Mary, the mother OF God.' strikes the |
Protestant mind as deep descent from |
the grand theology of the Gospels. But |
there was reason" observes the Interior !
(Pres.) of Chicago, ''for the rise of this |
cult in the Roman Church. The mind |
demanded relief from the Roman theol- !
ogy. This relief could not be afforded |
by their system itself, because, as has |
been said not long ago IN one of our own |
schools, the Greek doctrine OF the divine |
love does not consist with the logic of the |
system. Therefore the rosary OF Mary |
was brought in. The Latin Mary is |
idealized gentleness and mercy. She is |
all the sweet feminine graces embodied |
and crowned. She could thus stand apart |
from the system, of it and yet not in it. |
The ideal appealed with the strongest at |
traction to the hearts of the people who |
were under the hardship and oppression |
OF greedy kings and avarlclous priests, |
who employed Goo for no other use than |
az an instrument of terror; and thus it |
was that the worship of Mary took pre- |
cedence OF the worship of God, both in |
prevalence and in degoutness."
"Never, perhaps, were the themes of |
discussion SO nearly alike in church as |
semblies of all denominations as now.' |
exclaims the CORgregdti0Rdttst of Bos- |
ton. "a glance over the reports of con-
ference and associations in our columns |
for the last few weeks will furnish ample |
illustration of this fact. The nature of |
these themes is indicated by a few titles