The record-union., 1897-07-18
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.


'The secular papers," says The
Church Standard" P. Ed of Philadel-
phia. have been inclined to treat with
/ levity a critical controversy which has
arisen among our brethren of the Re
formed Episcopal Church on the sub
ject of clerical vestments. Ihe report
ers have been unab to see in it any
thing more important thah a queStioii
| of dry goods Questions OF uiS
goods however, are not Trivial Wheh
the color or cut of the goods is sig
nificant of something more important
The wearing of the green IN Ireland
and of the white cockade' IN Scotlahu'
has ben accounted felony, and men
have died because they chose to lndl-
cate their political productions py the
wearing of these bits of 'dry-goods-
So, even in the Reformed EplScopal
Church, one need not be astonished TO
find that the cut and color OF clerlcal
garments should become so important
as to threaten disruption OF that or
ganiZation Whoever else may laugh
at our Reformed Episcopal breathren
for this episode in their history, we
Protestant Episcopalians can hardly
indulge our mirth on the subject, when
we reflect that little more than twenty
years ago some of us were almost 60
ing into spasms on an essentially SINH
lar occasion. People whose houses are
50 extensively glazed as ours have been
are in no position to cast stones at the
dwellings of other people; and while
| it is impossible to deny or ignore the
humorous side Of the subject, we are
not disposed to treat it with sucn lev
ity as to overlook its graver aspect or
withhold our sympathy from some Of
the participants in the recent conten-
ton"
The following is from the Christian
Register" OUnit) of Boston: Accord
ing to DR.. Watson Qan Maclaren), Uni
tarianism has done its work, and has
no promise of life because its strength
| lay only in the affirmation of the faith
erhood Of God, While there remains to
it, as distinctive, only the denial of the
deity of Jesus. Supposing this were
so, does Dr. Watson think that, be-
cause the gospel of the fatherhood of
God is now the common property of
the Christian church. it. has ceased to
be a source of strength to Unitarian
ism, or that it is for Unitaranism a
message less living and commanding
than for the other faiths which have
come to share in its privilege and duty?
But we cannot grant that the father
hood of God is or has ever been the
only affirmation of Unitarianism. The
affirmation of the incarnation of the di-
vine life in Jesus not, indeed, as unique
] but with what seems to us a far great
| er meaning, as type of all human life
the affirmation of eternal life as that
which is already possessed by men as
| children of the eternal life-these, with
that first affirmation which Dr. Wat
| son concedes are but the foundations
of faith overlooking with affirmation
and strength and living power. There
| is excuse for a different conception of
| Unitarianism among unthinking men
and men who are not informed or have
| been misinfOrmed. But DR.. Watson
is not unthinking. and we supposed
that he had had opportunity better to
! inform himself"
'The question is more or less being
discussed whether We have too many
ministers; and here and there" says
the New York Independent - 1--WE hear
suggestion that young men be dis
suaded from entering the profession be-
cause there are now more ministers
than will supply the churches. The
spirit of the suggestion is very much
like that of the labor unions. which
forbid a man to apprentice his own
III [a
business will be too crowded Pretty
much every business is overcrowded.
There are more lawyers. more teachers,
more carpenters more engineers, more
tramps, than there would be room for
if every one We're provided with em-
ployment to fill his time But that is
no proof that there is not abundance
of room for new applicants Many
man crowds into business for which he
! is not competent, and it would be to the
advantage of the world if he were
crowded out Of it. A good farmer may
make a very poor minister and it
would be to the advantage of the world
if the poor minister We're to become a
good farmer or insurance agent The
road out of a profession should be made
as easy as the road into it, This may
L
is a blessing to the churches. There
is room enough for good men; none too
many good ministers for the churches"
"Every one" says the Living
Church" (P. Ed of Chicago, lis ia
miliar with the fact that the colored
people as a whole are noted for their
deep religious Instincts Those in Chi
cago have established and now main
tain, more or less adequately, a number
Of places of worship. But we have re-
ceived the impression, from those who
ought to be we'll informed, that there
is a tendency among those who have
made the most material progress to
lose their hold upon religion. The SUI
perficial chatter of the day about 'evo-
luton and higher criticism has caused
many who aspire to be thought we'll
informed to think it a mark of intelli-
gence to disparage the Bible and neg
lect or even repudiate the obligations of
Christianity. This is an evil by no
means confined to the people of whom
we are speaking, but it has its infiu-
ence among them. Perhaps a more
powerful factor in this Indifference so
far as it is real, is the revolt of the bet
ter educated against the form in which
religion has been chiefly known to
them. To the more ignorant, in whom
the emotional nature is predominant,
those sects which have the largest ele-
ment of sensation, and which appeal
almost exclusively to the emotions,
have commended themselves most
strongly With the development of the
intellect If is natural that the power of