The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-03-21
In RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions From Various Religious
Newspapers
The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed i'm the Sec
tartan Press.

! development of unbounded luxury, of
high living and all it's artificial accom-
paniments, does not tend to produce
worthy type of character among those
whose occupations owe their exist
ence to the lavish requirements and
self-indulgent habits of wealthy pa
irons. The tendency is to produce a
class of i1unkeys, of mean-spirited and
SerVlle people. There is a loss of
healthy independence and an eager
readiness to pander to every morbid
craving engendered in the sickly at
mosphere of an artificial society. 1t is
not well, in short, that any large num-
Der of our working people should be de
pendent for their livelihood upon the
capricious frivolity the unnatural
standards of living, the false tastes and
the extravagant social rivalries of a
class to whom wealth and estentat;on
are all in all.
ITO speak of the moral effect upon
the poSsesSors of great wealth of their
manner of employing it would be TO
go over familiar ground. The preacher
and the moralist Of all periods have not
ceased to warn the rich and great of
the sure results of the misuse of their
possessions; and the common sense and
conscience of enlightened men can
hardly dismiss the conviction that un-
bounded luxury and extravaganza of
living are not good for any nation"
mo one can more firmly believe than
we do" says the Church Standard
(P. Ed of Philadelphia, sin the old
saying, Extra ecclesiam Catholicism
ulla salus: Outside of the Catholic
Church there is no salvation Every
human soul that is saved is by that
fact a member Of the Catholic Church
Whatever in this world is worth saw
ing belongs by purchase and inherit
ance to the great head of the church.
and, therefore, of right, to his body
The work of the church is to claim it
and, in HIS name to take possession of
1t. Everything in this world that is
true, or beautiful, or good is hers: men
who are true and just and merciful OF
heart are hers, though they may not
know 1T. Millions of men belong to her
who never knew her, and millions more
who have heard of her only to dread
and reject her. No man is excluded
from the benefits of the new covenant
who was not rejected of God under the
DID, one wearies of the chickering's Of
critics over the book of Jonah. The
Jaunty lrreVerence of some writer's and
speakers is offensive, though they NAV
not know it. One wonders at the ten
city with which others insist that an
anonymous writing, of absolutely no
historical Importance, shall be accepted
as history, and not as a poetic and
prophetlc parable; one may absolutely
re1use TO stake the authority of the
christian religion on the proposition
that our Lord could not refer. by way
OF illustration, to a prophetic poem or
parable in the same way in which He
might have referred to an incident of
historical fact. In this age of the
world neither the personal history of
Jonah nor the geographical position of
uneven is of any conceivable impor-
lance to anyone; but it is of supreme
Importance that we should learn the
lesson Which Jonah learned with such
reluctance"
Jesus did not assume to know every
tnlng says the christian Register"
UNIT or Boston. ION the contrary
omniscience was something he directly
dlsclaimed. The impression he made
upon the world was not made by his
learning or his logic; it was an impress
sion distinctly ethical and spiritual
the impression of an exalted and quick
en1ng life. If modern critical science
therefore, reaches the conclusion that
Adam and Moses and David did not
write the Psalms, and Solomon did not
write the Songs ascribed to him, and
Moses did not write the Pentateuch it
does not weaken in any way the spiritual
authority of Jesus. 1t simply shows
that MS knowledge on these subjects
was limited and His views traditional.
but we must always remember that the
words OF Jesus, as they come to US, have
become so colored by His reporters that
we cannot be sure that He is quoted
with precision. Thus, concerning his re-
ference to Jonah, Professor Toy saws:
A comparison between Matthew xii
81, 40, and Luke XII. 20, 80, makes it
probable that Jesus Himself said only
that Jonah was a sign to the Nine
vlteS by his preaching; and the tradi-
ton added the parallel between the
prophets three days stay in the fish's
for the same period In the heart Of the
earth. Such expansions of his words may
often have been made unconsciously:
We must judge in each case whether it
Is probable that this process of coloring
has taken place.
The talk of those who would mini
m1ze the public appreciation of the
Scriptures at present is about the Bible
as literature The large majority fails
to say that the Bible is very good litera-
ture," says the New York Christian In
telligencer" Ref), that it far surpasses
in character and expression the litera-
ture of contemporaneous Oriental ma
lions, and that it ranks to-day with the
best literature of the present, in fact
is generally accepted as a model of clear.
dignified, terse and graphic expression
Neither do they put emphasis on the
fact that this superlative literature in
thought and expression was produced by
nation that had no art, has left no
monuments save those constructed for
it by the men of Tyre, and has furnished
the world no literary works worthy of
comparison with the Scriptures How
did it happen that such a book as the
Bible was written by the Hebrews of
Judea? How did it happen that such a
people expressed itself in such words as
those of the Bible when they did not ex-
press themselves with equal beauty and
force in a single other literary produc-
ton"
But supposing it were true that Mr..