The record-union., 1897-05-23
IN RELIGIONS REALM
Expressions From Various Religious
Newspapers.
The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

what" asks the Living Church
(P. Ed of Chicago, lis the reason why
the Episcopal Church is the object OF
dislike, and it's claims are especially
intolerable? We believe it is because
there is certain feeling that they may
be true. This is strengthened by a
fact of experience well known to most
people; namely, that while it is the rar-
est thing in the world for a priest of
this church of any repute to leave the
church in order to become the minister
of a Protestant denomination, ii is an
exceedingly common thing for minis
terS of the highest standing in those
denominations to seek the priesthood.
Two such instances have been reported
within the last few weeks. This con-
ditiOn of things, in which the tracks
are all one way, cannot be without
meaning. Nor can the explanation be
found in the attraction of a better liv
ing or higher social position. To those
who know anything of the facts, such
an explanation is ludicrously wide of
the mark The true solution lies in the
inherent strength of the peculiar claims
are the sole justification for her exist
ence. We hold that here, and here
alone, is the reason to be found for the
dislike which the church has to en-
counter from many quarters. We have
little patience with the charge that our
clergy are in the habit of adopting an
arrogant tone towards these denomina-
tiOnS and their ministers. No doubt
we have controversial preachers. One
here and there may be more Jealous
than wise But wide knowledge of the
facts enables US to assert that the
line usually taken by our parish priests
is that of quiet insistance upon positive
truth; the careful exposition of church
principles, without attacks upon those
who do not accept them"
'In our view" says the New York
Christian Intelligencer" Ref), what
is needed is not fewer ministers, but
more of the right sort 1t may be ques
toned if the training of the clergy has
been always the best possible, whether
too much attention has not been given
to the head and too little to the heart.
The church has not to-day and proba-
bly, never will have too many ministers
on fire with love for Christ and souls,
ready for self-forgetting service. Any
one who seeks the ministry for gain or
reputation, for an easy and comfortable
lot in life, will be sure of disappoint-
ment, but now as in the past there is
scope and room for work which seeks
compensation in the consciousness of
well doing. The reward of the ministry
jC bn &c 1t11t y1,.,t
he gives, and for those who enter the
ministry in this spirit it will ever be
divinely rewarded office, and of such
ministers the churcn will never have
too many. The church needs to pray
for more rather than fewer laborers in
the Lords vineyard. and in praying
rise to a higher and better appreciation
of those who serve them in the Lord"
Trinity Church" says the New York
outlook" has been, in a true sense,
a religious home, not a travelling sanct-
uary; it has become rich in historic
memories and in personal associations;
those who have received baptism under
it's roof have worshiped to old age on
the same spot and been carried from it
to the last resting-place. In all the
shifting and changing of this new
world it has stood not still, but rooted
and grounded. It's earlier congregation
long ago removed to other sections Of
the city; but it did not follow them; it
called them back, it called in the great
new population about it: it kept It's
faith with the locality. And it's crowd
ed services have shown how wise was
the loyalty and how sound the
policy of this ancient parish It's ex-
ample is full Of suggestion to those
churches which follow congregations
instead Of leading them"
Anyone who takes the pains to com
pare the accounts of the religious con-
dition of different parts of our country,
which appear from time to time in the
daily and weekly press and the maga
zines, will be apt to be impressed" says
the ''Watchman" (Bapt) of Boston,
with the circumstance that the church
attendance of children and young peo-
pie appears to be steadily declining.
Singularly enough, this decline
appears to be coincident with a re-
markable extension of religious organi-
pie. The Sunday-school was never SO
popular as it is to-day. If the statiS-
tics put forth by Sunday-school author
tiles are to be trusted, it seems as if the
children of the entire Protestant popu-
lation Of the country were brought into
more or less close relation to the Sun
day-school. During the last decade the
young peoples societies have enjoyed a
marvellous expansion. They have come
to number their members by the hun
dreds of thousands. 1t is only
necessary to call attention to this act
ual state of affairs to have one solution
of this anomaly suggested-and that is
that these organizations themselves are
not emphasizing as they might the i'm
portance of church attendance. They
are reaching the young people, but they
are not influencing them, in a control
ling way, to being present regularly at
the public worship of God. They admit
the Importance of going to church, but
they do not throw their energies in the
direction of leading their members to
form the habit of attending public wor-
ship. They do not give the obligation
priority over attendance at their own
meetings. One who looks over the cal
endar of the Sunday appointments of
the average church will see a forcible
illustration of this
I'VE should pay a little more defer
ence to DR.. Behrend's diatribe against
evolution were it not a diatribe," says
the Christian Register Unit.) of Bos-
ton. "A theory which now has the
support of nearly every scientist of