The record-union., 1897-01-31
In RELIGIONS REALM.
Expressions From Various Religious
Newspapers.
The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.
"At the present moment an eHonI IS
being made to do in New York what
JuStinian did in Constantfnople, says
the New York "Churchman" (P. E.).
The building of a vast and costly ca
thedral, in this great emporium OF the
Western world will be a meaningless
thing unless it points to a continued
epiphany of the Christian religion before
the eyes of the world. A structure
which is to be essentially Christian
must be something in the way OF mon
umental exposition of the chief prlncl-
pies and underlying beliefs of Chris
titan community or nation. People talk
very glibly of an age of faith as some
thing which is gone by, and as afford
ing the only moral and religious ait
mosphere in which could rise a building
like st. Gatiens at Tours, or st. Cuth-
bert's at Durham. We venture to point
out that such an undertaking as that
of the New York cathedral that is to be,
toward which the commercial world is
contributing its treasures, witnesses to
the fact that this is an age of faith, and
that the days Of the Epiphany of Christ
still continue, SO long as Christian art
rises before the world in all its peculiar
features, its mystical grandeur, its pro-
fuse expenditure its passion for Wor-
ship, alteration and reverence"
'It has been well said" says the Civ
ing Church" P. Ed of Chicago, 'fthat
if the apostles and the church from the
first misapprehended the mature of the
religion which they disseminated in the
world. if they were mistaken in the
facts, if they held out hopes without
foundation, and professed that there
was in their system a living strength
which was in fact fabulous; and if the
church through so many ages has gone
on upon the assurance of the truth and
reality of all these things, it is vain at
this time of day to begin over again.
Moreover, if Christ was not the glorious
Son of God whom the apostles repre-
sented Him to be: if He did not die for
our sins and rise again for our jusitifica-
ton; II He never aScended into heaven,
or sent forth the Holy Ghost; if we are
not united With Him in baptism. and do
not parlake of His flesh and blood; if
In short, the whole fabric of the Chris
tian religion is only a splendid dream
formed out Of fables and delusions, and
the Christian experience which has
caused SO many souls to rise superior to
the things of time and sense is mere
self-deception, it is hopeless to Imagine
that a system built upon the poor re-
Si11g1lY11 (which +J9-eA
US could have any force. The obscure
and intangible figure their analysis
leaves TO Us is not the kind of Savior
thar the world requires
I'm this country our system of theo-
logical education has grown up, like
other things, in quite haphazard fash
ion. = remarks the Church Standard
P. Ed of Philadelphia THE church
has four or five colleges, none of them
large, but she has no fewer than twelve
Theological sen7inaries, without count
ing five other diocesan establishments
Tor the training OF candidates for or
ders. Surely this is too many. The
whole number of candidates for orders
reported TO the General Convention of
IS9o was J61. The number of instruct
"rs in these institutions is over sixty
most Of whom have no other occupa
tI0n. We do not care to go into tbn de-
taAs Of cost in men and money; but. to
say the least, the cost of educating the
three or four hundred candidates for or
derS who attend these institutions is
needlessly great The expense for the
ological education would not be too
great if it gave US proportionate re-
suits But does it? As a plain matter
OF fact, are the clergy of the Protestant
Episcopal Church at this date in anv
notable degree better qualified for their
Office, or do they stand in anv v-av
HBher than they did forty or fifty wears
ago When a large ma jority of them had
not been prepared for their ministry by
spending three years in theological SEM
lnarles! We do not believe ii. We
very greatly doubt whether the clergy of
the Protestant Episcopal Church at This
date If compared with any either class
oI professional men. could be rated
higher than the clergy of fifty, for-tv or
even Thirty years ago
I'm the International Journal ~
Ethics for January there is an article y
says the Christian Register" TTnit
Of Boston, which shows lust what i'm
Genlous caSuistry may be summoned
to the defense Of theology. The article
Is on Ethics Of Religious Conformity
by the Rev. Hastings Randall. Hertford
College, Oxford. The author admits
that 1t is quite easy to show that ~
the present day there are few clergy
men whose private beliefs correspona
with the letter Of the foImulae 10 which
they profess adhesion He proceeds to
show The great divergences between
the belief Of men and the creeds they
profess. The writer is himself a. liberal.
and he maintains that If anybody sl,n-
poses that the articles of the Church NJ
England really express the actual views
OF the clergy. he must be singularlv in
observant Of their pulpit and other ut
tcrances. The question arises. If these
articles donot represent the belief of the
majority Of the church to-day, why not
Get rid Of them and bring them un IN
date That is the shortest and mos.
satisfactory way of dealing with creeds
that are still used as tests of admission
l. the ministry. When such creeds ara
simply matters Of history which are not
used today 10 impair liberty. they NAV
De allowed 10 die a natural death. AS
matter Of fact, the Anglican Church
Is carrying round the bones of old be-
heis. They are utterly devoid of vi
failly, and they ought TO be buried"
No age has witnessed more vital and
sighlheant changes than the one