The Portland daily press., 1896-05-18
THE UNITY OF cHRlsTENDoM.
DR.. Blanchard's Sermon at Congress
Square Church.

Rev. DR.. Blanchard preached sermon
in Congress Square church yesterday
morning on f'The Coming Unity of
Christendom through the Work of Schol-
ars." The texts were taken from John,
viii and K. 1.-The truth shall make you
free, "And there shall be one flock, one
shepherd
When Bishop Colenso returned from
England, where the dignitaries of the
church had reviled him, to his diocese
at Natal, the vicar general of the Bishop
of Cape Town, met Bishop Colenso at the
door OF his own cathedral, and solemply
babe him depart from the house of God
as one who had been handed over to the
evil one" TIE vicar general repres ented
tne Ignorant theologiau5. Bishop Colenso
represented the thoughtful, urbane
scholar. Very different was the scene IN
Boston recently. Dr. Edward Everett
Hale, the Unitarian, exchanging with
DIR. Herrick, the Congregationallst, was
gladly honored by the members Of Mount
Vernon church. That exchange'is sign
Of the times. Men are thinking of unity
among ths followers Of Christ. 10 be
sure, each earnest churchman hopes to
have all como to him. The frank and
witty Episcopalian clergyman said
when we talk of church unity, if you
look US straight in the eye, you will see
what we mean is that you should come
over to us. " The Pope invites all Christ
endom to come to him. The Methodist
General Conference at Cleveland wishes
union. The CCngregationalists say:
There can be union II you will adopt
our methods. But the Greek church
scorns the Eope. The rest of Christen-
dom docs not rush into unity. There is
god reason. Theologans and and eccle-
slastics expect to unite under old forms
OF creed. Unity Ecomes not that way.
There is only one way-to have the
church accept the work Of scholars. The
s scholarship of today determines the creeds
of tomorrow. These will be very brief.
The old ones must be given up. Even
the UniVersalist must be abandoned. The
sermon then would try to show what is
the consensus of opinion among the
scholars.
First of all these say that evolution is
the method of God in creation In DR..
George Harris's book choral Evolution"
on page l, these words appear: Zone
dominant factor in Thought, without
doubt. is evolution, which 80 years ago
was theory advocated by few bio
logists and opposed by others, but which
is now adopted by all scientific author1-
ties and accepted by the vast majority of
educated men. A generation ago, it was an
hypothesis pre-: ented in scientific treatises
and in technical terms. Today it is
taught in the colleges. illustrated in
magazines, popularized on the platform,
and recognized in the pulpit"
DIR. Harris is professor at the Andover
Theological Seminary. Prof. j. NJ. Ty-
Ter Of Amherst, who recently gave series
OF lectures on evolution in this city, says
IN ic nd
10 of the introduction: "We take tor
granted the probable truth of tho theory
of evolution as stated by Mr.. Darwin,
and that it applies to man as really as to
the lower animal. D.
Now evolution revolutionizes all the
old dogmas and creeds. 1t denies any fall
of man. IL teaches mans ascent. With
the fall of man" thrown down, the
whole superstructure of ecclesiastical
theology falls into ruin. A distinguished
layman of this city sees this and read
paper to this effect before the Liberal
Christian clergy.
In the second place, scholarship shows
that the Scriptures are literature DR..
George T. Ladd professor at Yale, says
: In any legitimate meaning of the terms,
it is not truly catholic doctrine that the
Bible is the word of God.."
What tremendous changes scholarship
will make in the beliefs of men concern
ing the Bible, DIR. Harris, DR.. Briggs,
DR.. OrelIo Cone and others have already
shown. They are literature revealing
the gradual ascent Of mans thought of
God from low ideas to the summit of
thought in ..esus's declaration, "God is
SPIRIT" "Our Father who arte in heav-
en-
in tho third place the scholars are
showing us that Jesus must be regarded
as man-the greatest man, the fullest
reyealer of God. DR.. Harris says, page
a virgin do not regard as an essential
doctrine OF Christianity" He himself.
however, accepts this belief. But his
declaration shows the trend of belief to
be towards the humanity of Jesus. Men
who are not Unitarians, no longer pray
to Jesus. 1t is felt that he VINO said:
'tWhy callest thou men good; there is
mono good but God" and on the cross
cried out: my God, my God, why hast
Thou forsaken me"" cannot be God.
In the fourth place the scholars are de-
nouncing the doctrine of conditional i'm
~ ortality. More and more men SEE that
the universal fatherhood of God in wolves
final perfection of all his children.
DIR. George A. Gordon, in his Christ
OF To-day" says on page 1856: eff the
decree of the Infinite is to be inferred
fir ON Christ, it must be an inclusive de-
cree. Some will be first and some last,
one will be elected to lead and one to
but allsawill be chosen for ser.
vice, and will have the beatifc vision"
In the fifth place, the scholars teach
US to follow Jesus in establishing Gods
kingdom on earth. In all churches, even
now, the emphasis is strong that men
must do what they can to make the best
conditions for men to improve while they
toll on the earth. Art, literature, music,
science, business, politics., in the expan-
sion Of religion. as DR.. Donald shows,