The record-union., 1897-10-03
IN RELIGIOUS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought Of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

There should be room in a united
church for all kinds of gifts, says the
New York Churchman" (P. Ed, and
the exercise of all sorts OF varying fac
ulties and accomplishments. one Of
the great disasters resulting from the
disunion of the Christian world is the
inability to make use OF powers ana
activities which in themselves possess
the note OF individuality. There should
be diversities of operations united IN a
common cause, and welded together in
the maintenance of a harmonious uni
~. Instead, there are Jarring sects,
contradiction and hostile competition,
blindness, desultoriness, and division.
The idiosyncrasy of each individual
would find wide field in the Catholic
Church. There would be room there
for the evangelical zeal of Wesley, the
ecclesiastical learning of Newman, the
speculative breadth and liberty OF Cole
ridge and Maurice. The misfortune is
that men feel SO keenly the reality OF
some truths, or of some sides OF the
truth, that they absolutely forget the
Catholic faith comprehends all, to the
exclusion OF none, OF the manifold phas-
es OF Gospel truth Whenever the man
of one religious idea, however true that
idea may be, separates himself and his
followers from the general body of be-
LEVERS on the basis of that idea, he
robs the Catholic Church of something
which belongs not to a sect, but to uni
versal Christendom, and while general
Christianity is weakened as force in
the school of thought which is thus
brought into existence, presents 10
those who are seeking for truth and
guidance only an imperfect, sided,
and mutilated form of Christian doc
trine."
Speaking of letter which appeared
recently in the Church Standard" P.
E), The Living Church" CP. Ed Of
| Chicago Observes: This is the ac-
count of the original character and aim
of the Reformed Episcopal Church as
given by a competent hand. The inten-
tion was to perpetuate the traditions
and practices of the evangelical party
in the old Episcopal Church. The new
church was to be distinctly an Episco-
pal and a Prayer-Book church But
in endeavoring to steer clear of Scylla,
it now appears to have run into the
jaws of Charybdis. 1t is in the mem
ory of many that the new body was
widely advertised as a common meet
ing ground for the discontented of all
denominations. While this policy was
not successful in attracting very large
numbers, it appears to have been suffi-
GENTLY successful to cause embarraSs-
ment and ultimately to bring about a
crisis. In the words of the Reformed
Episcopalian' writer, to escape what
they disiked in their own denomina
tions, men came to the Reformed Epis-
copal Church, determined to make it
Reformed Methodist, Presbyterian, or
ngregationalist-as their former
affiliations had made them. The re-
suit was confusion, and steady drifting
from the original purpose of Bishop
Cummins' This is most instructive.
1t conveys a lesson worth pondering
1t is not long since certain among our
selves, carried away by their enthusi-
asm-certainly, in itself, a generous en-
thusiasm-for the restoration of Chris
tian unity, were urging upon the church
the very policy which, it seems, has
brought our brethren of the Reformed
Episcopal Church to the verge of ship
wreck. We commend to all who have
been inclined to carter the distinctive
principles of Catholic polity and the
! immemorial usages of the church in
discipline and worship for a dream Of
all-inclusive unity, the careful consid-
Grafton of this actual attempt to do
that very same thing
"The noted revivalist, the Rev. B.
Fay Mills, having formally repudiated
the philosophy and the methods of old
orthodoxy, and declared his sympathy
with the spirit and aim, if not the
doctrines, of the Unitarians, makes a
carefully prepared statement of his
present position observes the Chris
tian Leader (Unit) of Boston The
older orthodox theories have he says
ceased to interest me- except from an
h stor cal standpoint He has not form
ally joined the Unitarian denomination,
though he has long been in sympathy
with its freedom Of thought, broad
tolerance. and spiritual basis of fellow
ship. He believes in purely ethical,
spiritual and practical ecclesiastical
tests, and abominates all sorts of sec
tarianism.' He can see a reason why
Presbyterians, Baptists. Methodists and
Episcopalians should be sects, but Uni
tariansm is, he holds, utterly hostile
to the very idea of sect. Still he is in
fellowship with two sects-Congrega
tional and Presbyterfan-and would
gladly have the fellowship of other
sects, and he does more than intimate
! that not a few in the sects agree with