The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-01-28

lhe sltudtlon OF passive hoStHity tnat
las long existed between the ''high
church" and slow church" wings OF
Ihe Episcopal Church seems now to be
IN fair wayto develop into an open
and public contest, if we understand the
recent pastoral letter issued by the
Bench Of Bishops.
While for years the Episcopal
Church seems TO have developed an
ever widening gulf between its
TWO wings, the slow church
appearing 10 become more and
more liberal in its tendencies
and broader in its view of the faith per-
missable to be held by its flock, and the
thigh church, hugging its ritualism
more and more closely, there
has. so far as The outside public has
been impressed, been only rare occasions
ofclashing between the two. ichparty
has seemed to be content TO move along
its respectively divefging lines, and
the breach has ken care Of
itself reasonably well because OF
the position of the denom-
national bodies which halted between
the extremists. Occasionally, as we
have had occasion TO note here in Proyi-
dence, where the high and the low
churchmen have been assembled to act
in concert on some pubic question, the
breach between them has been exposed to
public view although how deep and
how wide it was has been fairly well
concealed. Unlike the Presbyterian
Church, which has wrestled with liberal
ism everywhere and everytime it showed
its head, the Episcopal Church has per-
mitted its liberal branch to grow and
wax strong until it has become ques-
ton as to which end OF the church
properly represents Episcopalianism.
The Bench OF Bishops, however, seem
to have taken the bull by the horns, as a
result OF aggressive agitation begun by
Bishop GEO RGE f. SEYMOUR of Illinois
and taken up with avidity by ths high
churchmen. Bishop SEYMOUR charges
that many laymen and clergymen in the
church are guilty of trickery, evasion
and deceit in that they do not believe in
some of the fundamental doctrines
of the church, and the
bishop and his followers proceeded to
call upon the Bench OF Bishops TO issue
a pastoral letter condemning these un-
believers. The two chief funda-
mental principles insisted upon
by the high church wing are
the divinity of Christ and the authority
OF the Bible, as to which the latirudi-
narians were declared to be particularly
loose on. 1t was intimated that the
Cambridge Divinity School engenders in
the students lack of confidence in the
miraculous virgin birth, and that the
Philadelphia School is not particular
whether Biblical inspiration Is thorough
ly believed in or not. t&
TO be sure, Mr.. HOWARD MkcQUEAgY
was deposed from the ministry for act
ual denial OF the dogma of the virgin
birth. but the high church men sought
to probe deeper and reach those
who, while not denying the dogma,
were suspected of letting it go by de-
fault of preaching it. And finally they
have secured action from the Bench of
Bishops whose pastoral letter defines
and affirms the virgin birth and Bib
lical inspiration in uncompromising
terms. The Bishops declare that they
speak under the guidance of the Holy
Ghost" ard. in the expressive language
of the day, 1t is to be assumed that what
they say must go with cIergymen and
laymen who propose TO remain Episco-
palians. At least the authority of the
Bench of Bishops has here ofore been re-
garded as unquestionable, though it has
rarely beea exercised in so critical
situation.
The bishops comprising the Bench of
Bishops, which issues this letter, were
WILLIAMS of Connecticut, DoANE of
Albany, HUNTINGTON Of Central New
York, McLAREN of Chicago, and PoT-
TER of New York. Their ac-
tion is an important victory for
the high church wing. The letter
affirms distinctly, as faith of the
Church which is sacred deposit and
cannot be tampered with, that Christ il
God, just as God the Father is, and that
he assumed the nature OF man by being
miraculously born of the Virgin
Mary. And furthermore, while it is
right 10 study the Scriptures, such study
should not be turned 10 investigating
any facts that tend to create doubt as
to their inspiration, or that run counter
to the traditional teachings of the
church that every word in them is {" ad-
judicated truth"
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