The record-union., 1897-07-04
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

that churchmen are at liberty to accept
or reject any and all mere theories con-
cerning the future life,' says Inc
Church Standard" (P. Ed or Phlladei-
phia. For ourselves, we nave none'
and, if We had, we should not put tnein
forward in these columns. 1t seems TO
US to be a subject concerning which II
has not pleased Almighty COO TO en-
tighten us; and we are not sollcltous TO
know what He has not seen mt 10 TELL
What we do know is that conduct is
infallibly followed by its necessary con-
sequences, and that in this and every
other world whatsoever a man soweth
that shall he also reap. We know, also
that long continued conduct establish
es a permanent character from which
escape may not be only difficult, but
at last impossible We learn from the
parable Of Dives and Lazarus that
character formed in this life remains
in the life beyond and carries its ef-
fects along with it. More than this
we do not know concerning the human
side of the subject"
"a letter from French ecclesiastic
recently appeared in the London
Times in which the opinion was ex-
pressed that the next great ecclesiasti-
cal change in the Roman Church will
have to be the abolition Of clerical CELL
bacy. He suggests that the movement
may come from America. Ideas may
be presented from that country, it
seems, with impunity, which would
makes the hair of the Curia stand on
end coming from any other quarter
Cardinal Gibbons and Archbishop Ire
land are worth all the oldworld Bish-
ops put together in a matter of this
sort It may be true" says the "Liv-
ing Church" P. Ed of Chicago, that
such radical proposition coming from
this country would be received with in
dulgence at Rome, but we fail to dis
Germ the slightest probability that any
such proposition will some from this
country. Clerical celbacy is perhaps
less of a glaring failure here than in
some other countries, and to all ap-
pearancethe Roman priesthood are en-
tirely satisfied with it, The writer's
real thought is indicated in his san
guine expectation that large crop of
conversions from among the Anglican
clergy would take place if only they
iilSht DC dQIillltcQ " Tic
and at the same time retain their
wives. There are, nevertheless, some
good things in the letter. as when the
writer says: The married Oriental
clergy are not wanting in any respect.
and the Holy See approves of their
marriage He is speaking, Of course,
of the innate clergy. AT present we
have marriage and heaven for the
Eastern; marriage invalid per Sc and
hell for the Western who infringes the
law a beautiful illustration of uner-
ring consistency of the Roman Church
under the rule of an infallible Pope"
I'VE are glad to note,' says the New
York observer Pres), that the pres
ent Pope, Leo XIII, who is certainly
an able and, we presume, a sincere
man according to his lights, has re-
Gently addressed that branch of Chris
tendon over which he presides on the
subject of The Devotion to the Third
Person of the Trinity In this mes
sage many things are said reverently
and discreetly, and in a true Bible
spirit, regarding the nature and work
of the Holy Ghost. 1T is sweet to re-
call, says the Pope, the words which
Christ, on the point of leaving the
world, spoke in the midst of his disci-
pies: 1T it good for you that I go;
for If I go not the Paraclete will not
come to you; but if I go, 1 will send
him to you. In saying this, Christ
gave the best possible reason for his
departure and his return to his Father
the advantages which were to result
for hiks 6icnir1Qc
Holy Ghost And then, with a genu-
Inc pathoS, Leo XIII. continues: To-
day, seeing, as we do, the end of our
life approach, we feel more keenly than
ever the desire to recommend to the
Holy Ghost who is vivifying love, the
work of our apostoate. We
have resolved to address you, during
the feast of Pentecost. on the wonder
full presence and virtue of the Holy
Spirit, and to remind you how. thanks
to the admirable abundance of his
heavenly gifts. he works and exercises
his blessed Influence on the church in
general and on every SOUL Wherever
they may be manifested, though it be
in Rome itself. such desires as those
after the wonderful presence and vir-
tue of the Holy Spirit cannot but af-
ford great satisfaction to truly devout
souls of every communion"
What the Bishop of London said in
his address to the Diocesan Conference
about the solidarity of the church was
bold and strong" says the New York
"Churchman" (P. E.). ct would seem
to have met with the approval which it
deserved j am bound to say that I
cannot speak in a melancholy way Of
what we sometimes call ''our unhappy
divisions" I tell you, and I must tell
you frankly. that I rejoice in the
breadth and the width of the Church
Of England as it is I recognize the
enormous advantages which every diff
ferent school of thought contributes
toward the general spread of those
eternal principles of truth in which we
are all Interested He went on to say
that he did not believe that the church
could be 'dragooned' into a dead uni
formity of opinion or ritual and that
as Bishop Of the diocese, he purposed
to show his sympathy with all forms
of service, and all forms of religious
zeal which were Loyalty in accordance
with the principles of the Church of
England The question might arise as
to what loyalty in accordance with the
principles of the church might mean
1t would seem to us to include all that
did not require special pleading for its
defense"
"Dr. Lyman Abbott, who recently
discovered that the whale did not
swallow Jonah, discovered, no later
than Sunday last, that the accepted
idea of the Trinity rests on nothing
more substantial than ignorance and a
perverse superstition" says the New