The record-union., 1896-11-15
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions From Various Religious
Newspapers.
The Religious Thought of the Day as
Expressed in the Sectarian
Press


Pope Leo XIII. is not the first Pope
| who has made such blunder on the
subject Of orders as must require much
labor on the part of Roman doctors and
canonists to explain away" says the
New York "Churchman" P. Ed. 1T
will be noticed that Leo XIII. forbears
to dwell in his bull 'Apostolicae Curae'
on what is technically called in the
Roman ordinal the correction OF the in
struments, i. E., the delivering into the
hands of the ordinand of the sacred
vessels of the altar. History has re-
vealed many aberra tfOns on the part or
infallible Popes. In the present IN
stance, either Eugenius w. made a slip
or Leo XIII. has tripped into pitfall
Early in the fifteenth century Pope Eu-
genius Nv. undertook to do for the Arm
enians exactly what his successor of to-
day has undertaken to do for the Ang'll-
cans. AS the present occupant OF the
Holy See defines clearly the form and
matter of the sacrament, so did Eu-
genius ". in his bull addressed to the
Church of ST. Gregory Photistes. But
while Leo XIII. points out that the mat
ter in ordinat ton is the imposition or
hands, his predecessor declared that the
matter is neither more nor less than the
porrectio instrumentorum, the offering
to the ordinand of the holy vessels. Eu-
genius absolutely makes no mention of
the imposition of hands, and leaves the
Armenians to suppose that this part OF
the rite, ancient and apostolic as even
Z until
it to be, and quite essential to the effi-
cacy OF the sacrament, is thing otlose
and unnecessary; in fact, that a priest
or a bishop can receive his orders WITH
out laying on of hands at all. Perhaps
the utterer of the bull 'Apostol1cae
Curae' abstained from alluding to the
correction of instruments, while citing
as essential the words accompanying
this part of the ordinal, from the fear
of bringing to memory the strange and
almost heretical lapse of Eugenius.'
"The decisive message in which the
Pope recently informed his querists in
England that their priestly ordinations
are invalid, may have some very divine
results" remarks the Northwestern
Christian Advocate" (Meth.) of Chicago.
1T ought to be clear that the churcn
that saves the most people and Is the
greatest spiritual power in the world
needs no stronger or more valid proofs
that it is near to the heart of Jesus
Christ Vestments, rituals, creeds, in
cense, bodily postures, and the whole
catalogue of formalisms fail to identify
and certify the real church of our
in
church know all that. The Roman
Catholic and the English churches in
clude holy Bishops, ministers and lay
men who would rejoice if Pentacdst
should come again. If this stinging bu;
impotent message from the Pope would
but stimulate the English church to do
it's first works over and seek Gods re-
rewed manifestations Of favor, the face
Of religion on that island would be
changed miraculously. Who knows the
divine date upon which God may revisit
the ancient English temples and light
anew the sacred fires? 1t may yet ap-
pear that this very disposition to draw
nearer to the neglected and unchurchcd
peoples may open the windows of Heav-
en- and be followed by a blessing for
which there will not be room to con-
tain it. ;"
Speaking of Mr.. Gladstone's Studies
Subsidiary to the Works of Bishop
Butler" the Living Church. CP. Ed of
Chicago says: ut appears to us that he
surrenders the essential quality of the
miracle when he tells us that what we
call a miracle may be the operation of
an unknown and as yet unsuspected
natural law. Most, if not all, Of the
study upon miracles in the book be-
fore us takes it's place among those at
tempts, so common in these later times,
to present the philosophy of miracles,
when, in fact, there is no philosophy of
miracles. We can understand the posi-
ton of Mr. Lecky, who, in his History
Of European Morals in treating upon
this subject says that, while he does
not deny the possibility of miracles, it
has yet been the observed order that
miracles appear in a dark age, but dis
appear as intelligence advances. We
can understand the unbelieving scien-
tist who unequivocally affirms the in-
possibility Of miracles. But we confess
that we cannot understand those who
whole thing in the course Of time. If we
cnly wait awhile the riddle will besolved
by the supernatural becoming the nat
ural. Mr.. Gladstone's spirit is rever-
ent and submissive when he treats of
these high themes, as might be expect
ed from his known views and character,
but his attempt to explain the inexplc-
able is unsatisfactory"
Commenting on the Princeton cele-
bration, the New York Observer
says: Princeton is. in the popular esti-
nation, synonymous with conservatism,
but we need constantly to remind our
selves that conservatism is the mother
of progress, and that all true radical
ism is a greater conservator; that prog
ress in the future grows naturally and
normally out of the past: and that a
root which has in 1t no growth and a
branch which has lost it's vital con-
nection with the root are equally in the
way that certainly leads to death. The
function of great university Is to
learn from the past the lessons which
experience teaches, and teach them to
new generations; it is to discern be-
meath the ever-varying phenomena of
life the eternal reality of which they
are the manifestation. 1t is. therefore,
at once scientific and religious; scien-
tific because it ascertainS and interprets
.he laws which phenomena reveal; re-
ligiouS because these laws are them
selves expressions of God, and a COM
prehension of them is a comprehension
Of him, and his presence and authority
in the world. Thus the evolution of
great universities is itself the evolution