The record-union., 1897-10-24
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

tartan Press.
The question, Cui bono? has begun
to be asked with some emphasis in con-
nection with the Lambeth Conference,
and that question has lost none of its
significance says the Living Church"
(P. ED of Chicago, "since the results Of
the recent conference have begun to be
known. 1t is, perhaps, severe thing
to say, but it is only too clear that the
official utterances of the Bishops hard
ly anywhere rise above the level of the
commonplace. 1t is a still more serious
criticism that nothing whatever is said
of questions of pressing importance IN
connection with faith and morals. 1t
would not be gathered from the ency-
clical letter published in our issue of
September 4th) that there are errors
abroad among US which tend to over
throw certain fundamental doctrines OF
Christianity and to render the creeds
utterly nugatory. We might have ex-
pected home kind of reiteration or IN
dorsement of the admira BILE statement
of doctrine set forth by the American
Bishops a few years ago. The most
crying difficulty with which the church,
both in England and America, has to
contend in the realm of morals arises
out of questions of marriage ana dl-
vorce, about which some definite ac-
ton is imperatively necessary, If the
church is not to suffer shame before the
world. Yet upon this subject the letter
contents itself with few general re-
M oY,lxS nd ha ctr tar1 that fh6rp
was not time for the full consideration
of the matter"
I'VE have an instance of excessive
skepticism as to the faiths of the pres
ent generation says the New York
observer" (Pres.) lin the volume en-
titled Religion for To-Day, recently
published by the Rev Minot J. Savage,
DID, leading Unitarian preacher of
this city. We might take issue with
| the title in the first place. since no re-
ligion can be fit for the day of which it
can be said that it is in any sense of
the day. DR.. Savage may
speak for Unitarianism, but we are not
alarmed when he discounts an evangel-
icism with which he is not personally
|
lieve, he is not therefore justified in
doubling so hastily and so sweepingly
others faith. The mass of the clergy
and lalty of our evangelical churches
do not know that they are doubters. 1t
VIII not shake their faith to tell them
that they are; they know better. But
to indulge in such reckless statements
may result in sitting the nascent faith
OF those who are now nearing the king
DOM 1t is dangerous and a destruct-
i've thing to mock at the faith of man
kind. If the world is as bad as it is
| with the religion that it has. what
would 1t be if all the vitality and vir-
tue were rationalized out of the Chris
tan scheme and religion reduced TO a
vanishing point in the vague dreams of
the secularists?"
'The modern world looks back with
kind of seIf-conscious complacencv
on the medieval world" says the New
York Outlook" 'and thanks God in a
very audible voice that it is no longer
what it was five centuries ago. The
progress has been great, and nowhere
| greater than in the freedom and
breadth of the religious life as men
now understand it; but there have been
losses as we'll as gains, and one of these
losses is the apparent disappearance
| from the consciousness of multitude
of religious people of the need of si-
! lence and solitude in order that the
! presence Of God may be felt 1t is a no.
| BILE manifestation of the Christian
spirit which makes so many modern
men impatient of any kind of religious
confession which is not evidenced and
confirmed by immediate and ardent
service. Never before in the history Of
| the race has religion been so swiftly
and nobly translated into human help
fulness; and men are everywhere show
| ing their love for the invisible God by
the love they bear for their brethren
| In this modern emphasis upon activ-
| ity and helpfulness there is danger.
| however, that the springs of spiritual
power may lose in depth and capacity
If an immense surface of hitherto arid
| territory is to be irrigated and its desc
lation turned into fruitfulness, the
| fountains themselves must be deep
| ened.'
! A writer in the New Unity" Unit)
of Chicago says: "One of our contempo-
raries gives US an editorial to prove
that Unitarianism is dead. The asser-
ton is constantly thrust at us that lib
eral movements are only spasmodic
and soon pass away. Possibly liberal
organizations are never permanent;
but that does not prove that liberal
| idanc T,,st oy;o, ;c
an idea. The Unitarian organization
was only to foster and to instil the
conception of a sentiment So the prob
/ lem shifts to this form: Is the Unitari-
an idea dead or in decadence? Per-
haps the easiest way of settling this
problem is to imagine Theodore Parker
and Jonathan Edwards to be both alive
and applicants for the. same metropoli-
tan pulpit. In life Edwards was well
come in any pulpit in America; Parker
was theological outlaw, and whose
ever treated him with pulpit courtesy
was made to share his outlawry. But
it will not be disputed that to-day Ed
! wards would not be tolerated in any
pulpit in America, while Parker would
rarely be unwelcome. Certainly Chan
ming could enter any pulpit of any de-
nomination. / doubt If he would not
have the preference over most ortho-
dox preachers in the candidacy for the
pulpit of any sect in the land Uni
tarianism has struck root in all organ
izations Instead Of being dead it is
| just coming to life
!
"A careful critic. taking note of the
drift of Unitarianisn. if he were to
| iudga by what was said at this (Na-