The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-03-29
C0NGREGATIONALIsM IN 1895.


its larger and more important churches
is an event OF considerable Importance.
While the Christian church today not
infrequently complains that it finds
| difficulty in these times Of business risk
and worry 10 maintain full pews, we
are inclined TO believe that its influence
| in public affairs was never stronger.
If it is true that men hot in
the struggle of business and pro-
fessional life, grown selfish and self-suf
ficient in secular pursuits, have relapsed
| from things spiritual, and no longer feel,
so much as their fathers are credited
\ with feeling, the need of the church and
the minister, it is also true that the
church has not hesitated to go out after
them. We very much doubt if it is a
! matter of fact, the statements SO fire.
quently made, that we have, as apeople,
fallen off in church going as com
| pared with the supposed habits of
our forefathers; but it is, we believe, a
fact that the church has main tanned and
keeping in touch with humanity in its
ever-changing phases and its ever new
necessities, and an earlier disposition to
keep aloof, as if the spiritual were
thing apart from everyday life, has been
replaced by closer and more intimate
association with affairs of men and
with the everyday life of the commu-
nifty of which it is so important and be-
neficent an institution. If men have
gone away from the church the
|, church has not held off until they should
come back. 1t has gone after them. In
every denomination that we know OF,
the church has gone out among men
and not demanded that men should
come TO il. 1t has aimed to serve
humanity, to lead il by careful study
OF methods that would appeal to
humanity in its daily development
rather than assuming the complacent
attitude of an institution, the orthodoxy
of which was infallible, inviolable and
all sufficient. The church, pointing
upward with one hand. has not neglected
to reach out with the other hand. Look
ing within for faith it has looked out
ward for conditions
We are moved to these remarks by the
installation of new pastor to fill the
| pulpit Of the Union Congregational
| Church. The Union is what is called
| prominent" church. In its congrega-
ton, are found many of our sub
stantial and progressive citizens and
its ministers have, in the past, figured
prominently IN the life and progress of
the city. They have spoken good words
on occasions where conditions called for
a voice from the pulpit and have ex-
erted an Influence in our every day life
in common with other ministers of the
same denomination, like Dr.. VosE and DR..
BEHRENDs, and such eminent preachers
and citizens in the pulpits of other de-
nominations as Bishop CLARK OF the
Episcopal diocese, GREER of Grace
Church, WOODBURY. of Westminster,
SLIcER of the First Unitarian, RUGG
and CUsHMAN Of the Universalist faith,
MONTAGUE of the Baptists, TRAFToN,
and long line of periodically
Catholic Bishop, and any number of
others who have elevated to the pulpit
the concerns of their fellow men and of
the community in which their patriotic
and christian work lay
We have at hand the statement of be-
lief of the young minister who now
comes to the Union and we wish to re-
produce it here as an expression repre-
sentative of the faith of the Con-
gregational Church of today. These
statements of belief are not ordi-
narily made public because, out
side the council of ministers
that passes upon them, they are probably
not regarded as Of much interest, being
merely formality satisfying to the
examiners. 1t occurs TO us, however,
that such statements are of very con-
siderable interest and we wish we had
at command the statements that would
show the prevailing and controlling
thought that guides the pulpits of the
different denominations in this year of
our Lord, 1895. We think that page
or more of THE News devoted to such
statements would be most interesting
and profitable reading.
Here, then, is the statement of belief
of Rev. WALLACE NUTTING, ID. d., who
is now installed in the pulpit of the 4
Union Congregational Church;
The existence in the world OF a Christian
church, composed Of persons holding certain
remarkable and peculiar beliefs; the existence
Of great, elaborate and ancient cathedrals,
built in the form Of cross; and the current
of history for many generations all point
back 10 great event.
That event was the Cruoihxion and Resur-
raction an tho third dav ~ Ios,,s -