The record-union., 1896-10-25
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions From Various Religious
Newspapers.
Tho Religious Thought of the Day as
Expressed in the Sectarian
Press,

Expressed in the Sectarian
Press
I'VE Protestants do not claim that
We have the grace to change the nature
or the elements, or to confer any su-
pernatural grace" says the New York
Independent" '"The Roman Catholics
reduce the church and its ministers to
those who accept this dogma, and they
disfellowship all other Christians
Herein they are schismatic and un-
scriptural. They exalt a rite above the
Kingdom of God, which is only right
eousness, peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost But if they will exclude An
glicans and other Christians, they suf-
Ter most by their narrowness. 1t is
such exclusiveneSS and Journalism as
this that explains the fact that Prot
eStantism is gaining on Roman Catholi-
clSm all over the world. There would
be no hope for the Roman Church but
for the fact that it is growing constantly
more spiritual and making more and
more of the spiritual life, and less and
less, comparatively, of fasts and relics
and forms, and even sacraments. For
but it is filling it out with life II
breaches as it has never done before
Its unfortunate claim to be semper
eadem holds it, nominally, to every
error of darker age, but really those
errors are losing their prominence and
influence. In their inner life the Ro-
man Church and the Anglican Church
in Great Britain and the United States
are not so very different, and it was
to be desired that the division should
not be accented; but this decision was
we suppose, inevitable, from every his
torical view of the case"
The POpe's frank declaration will
also clear the minds of a great many
people with respect to the true affilia-
tions of the English Church." saws the
New York Outlook" Nothing has
been more fncomprehensible to intelli-
gent students of the religious life of the
English people than the vain attempt
OF a small body of advanced churchmer
and ritualiStS to make the fundamen-
tally Protestant Church of England
Catholic in the narrow sense of the
world. The English Church is, as has
been so often said of late, a true branch
of the Catholic Church, but it is none
the less in spirit, in history, and by race
tradition Protestant body. 1t cannot
be anything else without a surrender
OF its historic standards, a violation OF
Its historic spirit, and a gross infidelity
to its historic past. Without the exer-
else of private judgment and the recog-
milton of the validity of the action OF
the individual conscience the English
Church could not have been. When il
ceases to be Protestant it will cease to
represent the spirit, the convictions and
the history of the English race-Protes-
tant not in the narrow sense of the term
as the creation of result of a protest
against certain idolatrous practices and
certain ecclesiastical usurpations. but
Protestant in the assertion of religious
liberty in harmony with ecclesiastical
ORDER
1.-THE Roman Catholic press have al.
ready accepted the decision of Pope Lee
XIII. as "a foregone conclusiOn'-sucn is
the expression used by the Tablet Bus
the Tablet is either ignorant or un.
truthful" says the new York Church
man" P. Ed, when it declares the
Church of England for more than tive
hundred years (after the Reformation
was in its entirety as Protestant as Lu-
theraniSm,' for this, If it means any.
thing implies that Anglicanism viewed
the sacred ministry as Luther viewed
It, namely, to the repudiation of the
episcopate. Lutheranism has alway.
been Presbyterian, and has practically
held the theory of parity Against thi.
theory the Prayer Book has maintained
the threefold ministry of bishops
priests and deacons, as of apostolic or
der and authority. What candid stu
dent of Anglican formularies, and VIII,
that knows anything about the practic
and government of the Anglican
Church, will hesitate fatty to contra
dict the Tablet when that journal pro
ceeds to say that the elder Anglican
desired to have nothing at all resem
bling the episcopate and priesthood 0
the Church of Rome or even Of tn
schismatical (sic) Eastern Churches
=
"The Romanist defends his churcl
against attacks upon it's confessional,
says the Northwestern Christian Ad
vocate" (Meth) of Chicago, "by sayin,
that the Wesleyan class-meeting ex
hibits in the Protestant Church tha
human impulse which leads a man t.
confess his sins to others than God
When the Romanist is told that genu
ine repentance is sufficient to secur
Gods favor, and that these papal in
struments of physical pain are there
fore Superogatory, the former claim
that the English churchmen use thes
'disciplines' for analogical purposes
Both are aside from the truth. TIL
very core of the doctrine of indulgence
is close to every human heart. He VIII
would atone for a month of sin of an,
kind is quite willing to do so by abstain
ing for a brief time from that sinfu
things with his Maker. If SHINE
wishes to have a season of sin in July
he is even willing to purchase the priv
ilege in advance by month of self-de
NAL in June. ProteStants insist that re
pentance commends a sinner to God a
make the church indispensable to sal
walton declare that repentance is to
easy for the trangressor, and they rec
ommend to him various penances.
fact, genuine repentance is more diff
cult and testful than are penanceS. TIL
latter are temporary, while the former i
perpetual and continuous with respec
to all kinds of transgression on accoun
of which it is needful."
1.-THE attempt is made to justify tn