The record-union., 1897-03-14
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions From Various Religious
Newspapers.

The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.
'It is a fallacy, condemned equally by
history and philosophy, to suppose that
any one religious movement in the
church gives final expression to her
mind" says the New York Church
man " P. Ed. 1T is not surprising; how
ever, human nature being what it is,
that the advocates of the most recent
movement, with their minds STEPPED as
they are in some vital though not ex-
elusive set of truths, should almost
strive to crystalline religious thought
accordingly. Were their efforts crowned
with success, the church would suffer
irreparable loss. Always maintaining
the whole creed the faith once delivered
to the saints, the church allows special
attention to be called now to this and
now to that article of her faith. She
would cease to be a living organism If
she were robbed of her successive relig
ious movements. They are at once in
dications of her life and a means of sus
tanning and developing it. There is a
fallible human element in the church
which stands in constant need of correc-
ton. Owing to the unbalanced nature
of men, too heavy an emphasis is laid
now on one and now on another truth or
set of truths, for which the only relief
is movement which calls for change
of emphasis
1.-THE larger part of this apostolic criti-
cism, it seems, amounts to this" says
the New York observer" Pres.), that
the apostles were degenerate regenerate
| men. Their Christianity is conceded,
but not the full inspiration of their
writings. They may have known fact
or two, and said few good things (such
| critics IMPLY, but their deliverances
must be taken with the addition of many
grains of salt. We must get back to
Christi is the cry This demand seems
| a plausible one, and in response to 1t
multitudes are hurrying back past Pat
mas, the Roman Praetorium, the Aero
polls, and the Beautiful porch, to sit
at the feet of Jesus on the mount or by
the pebbly beach of Gennesaret. 1t all
seems logical and fine, though 1t all
tends to a virtual discrediting of the
apostolic contributors to the New Tesla
ment. And so it would be quite logical
and sufficient if Jesus Christ were but an
ordinary teacher of mankind whose
messages ceased with his own earthly
life. To go to the historic fountainhead
is proper when the source is simply
human philosopher such as dead
Plato or Socrates. But such reference
is not wholly applicable in the case of a
living Christ who said at the close of his
ministry that he had still many things
to say to his disciples which then they
could not bear, and who minated that
his own teaching would be enforced and
supplemented by the subsequent work
of his Spirit"
"In the work of the future" says the
Church Standard Up. Ed of Philadel-
| phia. I'VE ought surely to endeavor to
| learn something from the misfortuneS
of the past. If, in the past, individual
| congregations have been so crowded to-
gether as sometimes even to destroy
each other, that ,egregious error ought,
so far as possible, to be repaired.
| Where we have now feeble, competing
| congregations, with nothing but the I'LL
| innate extinction of some of them
| or perhaps of ALTO be expected it
would surely be a wise policy to con-
| soidate them, and instead of several
feeble, struggling, disappointed congre-
| cations, to have one strong, vigorous,
well-served church, and possibly an en-
| dowmen, to be obtained by the sale of
one or more Unattended churches
which are clearly superfiuouS. In such
| a consolidation strength would come
| out of weakness, and the clergy who
are now separately striving in some
! thing like rivalry might work together
with the united power of a collegiate
| paStorate. In the future location of
| churches the error of OvercrOWding
| particular district ought surely to be
| forbidden by the disastrous experience
| of the past; and, as a general rule, no
| congregation ought to be established
without a reasonable prospect of draw
| ing sufficient support from the neigh
| borhood in which it is placed without
| trenching upon it's neighbors. BY pur-
suing this plan of common sense
and common prudence it might
be hoped that in time and in
no long time, there should be
no district in any city for the pastoral
| care of which the church should not
| provide
| 1.-THE root idea of the New Testament
Church." observes the "Watchman"
| Of Of
| Christians who, under divine guidance
and with divine help, are substituting
every avenue of human influence for
the extension of the message and power
of the Gospel. Family life, social rela-
| tionship, commercial ties and gracious
| philanthropies We're all to be made the
means of spreading the truth. The no
| ton that holding Q prayer meeting or
sustaining preaching service is the
whole of the legitimate work of a
| Christian church was at the furthest
remote from the primitive thought The
early Christians had received the DOW
er from above. and they sought to find
channels for 1t to flow into every hu-
man life. 1t has been impossible to Sc
duce the Church of Rome from its fidel-
ity to this original Christian concen-
ton. She lays her hand upon marriage.
upon the cradle, upon education, upon
the details of ordinary life, upon social
relations, upon ministry to the poor
and the sick, upon the grave itself. and
makes every human activity the chan
mel of religion. Professionalism too often
has thrust these activities and relation
ships into what It calls the secular
realm, and made an hour or two on the