The record-union., 1897-02-21
In RELIGIONS REALM.
From Various Religious
Newspapers.
The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.
Commenting upon Father Sidney F..
Smiths paper on the Popes encyclical
ON Anglican orders, published in the
Contemporary Review" the Church
Standard (P. E.) of Philadelphia says:
Every successive attempt to defend
the Papal condemnation of Anglican
orders goes only to confirm us in the
belief which We have held from the
first, that the pretended examination Of
the validity of Anglican orders by the
Roman Curia was a sham and a pre-
tenoe; that it was their predetermined
purpose from the beginning TO sustain
the former action of the Curia and
Clement TX. in 1904; that their own eX-
animation of the facts showed the or
Gers of the Church of England to stand
so clear that every one of the old OBJ
JeotionS had to be successively aban-
doned; and that, in order to justify a
condemnation. which they We're deter
mined to pronounce without regard to
fact or truth, they are now actually
Roman Church itself on the whole sub
ject of ministerial intention, as the
Pope himself expounds it in this very
encyclical. Father Smith protests with
JUNCTION, as others do, that Leo XIII.
the suaVe,, the gracious, the benignant,
the charitable Pontiff of the time, could
not be swayed by motives of policy in
the exercise of a judicial function We
must frankly confess that this as a
priori argument does not seem to us to
be overwhelming. Leo NIL is before all
things else a politician; the encyclical
Apostolicae Curae gives US no exalted
opinion of his judicial character or ca
pacity; but if he had all the graces that
his friends allege, and none of the
temptations of a political Pontiff, we
cannot forget that behinds him is the
Curia, and that the Curia is ever SO
much stronger than the Pope"
DIR Lyman Abbott is making a great
deal more than is necessary of the doc
trine of evolution in religion" remarks
the New York Independent, land
some of his critics are quite too vehe-
ment in their attacks. That evolution
is generally accepted among biologists
is no new fact; that there has been an
evolution in the history of morals and
religion is a fact that has been ia
mlliar ever since Jesus preached that
doctrine in his sermon on the mount
from the text: Ye have heard that it
was said by them of old time The eV-
olution within morals can go on until
We have learned all the meaning and
all the applications of the words: "A
new commandment give l unto you,
that ye love one another The evolu
ton within religion can go on until we
have learned all the meaning and all
the application Of the command: Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart Outside of this progressive
evolution in morals and in religion
there is an evolution in theology which
has been going on ever since the He
brew people first heard the sublime an
nouncement: Hear, o Israel; the Lord
thy God is one Lord Before that ut
terance polytheism fell; and theology
has from that day been a progressive
science. How far it shall progress is
not a question of religion, but of science
and is to be discovered by intellectual
NNN'0H'NDs
ence of religion the successful student,
of theology must be in sympathy with
religion. Religion cannot stand in the
way of the scientific study of theology.
AS science is the orderly development
of truth, 50 scientific theology, what
ever it may evolve, cannot injure re-
ligion.'
&
The eXtravagant evolutionism which
has gone on from the physical theory
Of life to pose as a metaphysical theory
of ali things and all relations we might
describe" says the New York "Observ-
er" Pres.), las encyclopedia evolution
ism. Its claim is to serve as the regis
try of all being. 1t catalogues every
thing. Thus the idea of evolution is
extended to human customs, morals,
and manners, to literature in general.
and to the Bible in particular, as lit
erature, to religion itself, and to the
growth of States and social sovereig-
ties. Everything in this view has grown
from something that was lesser than it.
It is all from a primeval germ, from
the original crude and dull homogenety.
Thus the universe is filled so full of
expanding germs and of battling, evolv-
ing forms as to no longer leave any
room in it for a divine presiding genius
over all. All this is evolution gone
clean daft. II but illustrates once more
the usual folly of mankind of taking a
pet idea, valid perhaps in part, and
RUNNING it into the ground. The pres
ent day tendency to monism helps to
this result. 1t tickles the fancy of
mankind and it has fired the ambition
of a Spencer, to reduce everything in
heaven and earth to one philosophic
principle, in subsection to one imperi-
Gus, uncompromising unity. Therefore
are Herculean efforts made to this end:
therefore are all theologies, all sci
ences, all morals all manners, all dox-
les laid on the Procrustean bed of mex
orable monistic or evolutionary theory.
that they may be either chopped off or
drawn out to fit the "a priori' demand"
The" "Congrega of Boston. re-
ferring TO the resolution adopted the
other day by the Manhattan Associa-
ton in Brooklyn in relation to DR.. Lv-
man Abbott'S lectures, says: I'VE be-
lieve the action of the association was
timely and wise. Dr. Abbott is the
only Congregational pastor in BROOKLYN
who is preaching on the higher criti-
cism of the Bible. But he is not the
spokesman of the Brooklyn ministers.
and since they We're of one mind on this
;,,s \