The record-union., 1896-08-16
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions From Various Religious
newspapers.
The Religious Thought of the Day as
Expressed in the Sectarian
Press.


Mr.. HowellS, the novelist, says that
rfch people are always on the lookout
for some advice as to how they may do
good with their superf1uous money. One
way of doing good says the New York
Churchman' P. Ed, would be by
building church and founding par
ish in some country place, with such
means at it's disposal as would make it
financially Independent of its surround
tngs. 1t may be a mere fancy of Dream
land, but even as an experiment mag
nificent church, with an assured income
fer two clergymen and a choir with full
equipment of guild and school build
fngS, would provide an opportunity for
the church to put forth her full
strength, power and splendor in places
where she is scarcely known in the real
dignity of hert rue ritual beauty. A
church of intercession and home of
study and good works would do much
In country places toward winning coun-
try people back to the faith which was
the faith of their ancestors, and which
they have abandoned for some imper-
feet, but, to them more interesting and
tty. If a rich man is desirous of devot-
ing his means to the service of God, he
cannot do better than by giving the
church in some country place an oppor-
tunity to stand forth in her real power
and efficiency. AT present the externals
of church activity in rural districts are
conformed to the tastes, the limitations
In means and zeal of those to whom the
church minister's
"The criticism formerly aimed at Uni
versalism, that to believe in salvation
in the future is to be Indifferent to
present salvation, is losing it's point"
remarks the Christian Leader Oniv.)
of Boston. 1T is, of course as forcible
as ever it was; but it's force was never
in itself; it was always in the mental
state of those who used it. Now the
mental state of those who stand outside
the Universalist circle has changed and
is changing. They are not themselves
putting the same meaning on the terms
salvation and saved as formerly
They are coming to look upon it as
process of moral Qualification and spir-
itual growth, with which times and
places have little to do. This altered
view takes the point out of the old crit
lcism. That is, the objector does not
} feel that he is saying anything to the
point when he makes that antiquated
charge. His view of salvation approxi-
mates the Universalist view; and it is
the view of what salvation really is that
determines the validity of an objection" 4"
In some sections of all denomina-
tions, membership in a religious body is
presumed to include adherence to every
jot and title of the general accepted
creed-written or unwritten. Therefore
persons who find themselves readjust-
ing their beliefs, questioning traditional
interpretations of Scripture, or restat-
ing accepted definitions, are led to be-
-4feE-e that sincerity requires them to
withdraw from a denomination with
which they are no longer in perfect ac-
cord They are confirmed in this opin-
ion by the bigoted utterances of certain
seif-apponited censors, whose chief de-
light is a new heresy, and whose favor
ite epithet is 'unbaptistic'-or 'unpres-
byterian,' etc, as the case may be. We
believe" says the STANDARD" Bapt)
of Chicago, that the serious step of
and entering a new communion should
never be taken without careful consid-
Grafton: whether the bolt be simply a
remuneration of previous views or an
acceptance of new principles, it should
never be made for any but conscientious
reasons. Mere intellectual difficulties
with the minor tenets of ones denom-
ination are not usually sufficient to
warrant such a step; only the settled
conviction that one can better serve God
and do his duty in a new environment
should be accepted as making the
change Imperative
THAT many of the critics who main
tain that the Pentateuch and other of
the Old Testament writings are not
authentic in the sense of having been
written by the persons whose names
they bear still insist that they are in
spired and credible, is a fact to be ac-
cepted for what is worth" remarks the
Advance" (Cong) of Chicago. "It is
granted that just and philosophically
proportionate criticism will in the end
strengthen the foundations of credi-
bility; but destructive and philosoph-
ieally eccentric criticism will break
those foundations down. and it is with
the latter sort that the churches of the
present time are chiefly called to deal
1t is not enough that the critic pro-
fesses to be working to lay the founda-
items of trustworthiness more broadly
and deeply: we know in general the
workings of the human mind, and we
can predict with considerable certainty
NIB Of 1,~;+f C-l,
Will be in the average intelligence. We
shall judge him, not by what he pro-
fesses, but by what he accomplishes
Spinoza was called the God-intoxi-
Gated man. and VS. grieved that any
should reproacb IN with atheism;
but he never raj 4 up in the world
any children after his kind, who were
intoxicated with the love and conse-
Grated service of the living Cod A
criticism whose greatest acknowledged
leaders, practically without exception
scout the miraculous and prophetic ell
ements in the Jewish history, whose
bias against a supernatural revelation
in the evangelical sense colors all oi
their critical theories. is not likely tC
establish a general confidence in the
trustworthiness of our sacred writings
as a record of Gods self-revelation tC
man.
He who takes his Bible up as col
lection of literature. lays aside tht
theologically colored glasses through
which he has been accustomed to reaC
1t. and endeavors simply to see what
the writers meant when they wrote