The record-union., 1897-12-25
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

| Christian ethics" says the Living
| Church" Ho. Ed OF Chicago, are based
upon the incarnation. Ii that great
fundamental fact be denied, or ignor-
! ed, the foundation is taken away. And
While few highly cultured souls might
/ be able TO give practical effect TO their
| belief in the universal fatherhood of
| God and the universal brotherhood Of
man, the majority OF people, deprived
! OF this great motive power will find
! themselves unequal to this high moral
| ideal, and must inevitably sink TO d
/ lower level. We have but to open our
! eyes 10 see this process going forward
under the influences which now exist.
| Among the thousands OF people who
no longer enter our churches on Sun
! day, there are few who Will say that
/ they do not believe in the ethical
creel.' But as they have no feeling Of
positive obligation, there is observable
a distinct decline to d lower level of
moral responsibility. You will make
! little progress in elevating the lower
races out OF paganism, by means of the
doctrine of the fatherhood Of God and
| the brotherhood Of man, until they
have arst been quickened out of their
| degraded condition by imparting TO
! them the fundamental Christian truths
| which lie at the foundation of all spir-
| itual advance"
| Discussing DR.. Lyman Abbott's THE
ology of an Evolutionist," the Church
Standard" P. Ed OF Philadelphia re-
marks: The press is flooded with just
such vapid minglings of pseudo-science
and pseudo theology as that of which
DR.. Abbott is the protagonist. 1t has
only two defects: 1t is not science, and
it is not theology. AS a defense of
Christianity it has this fatal fault that
the pretended defense is a surrender.
But not to an enemy. Science is no
enemy to religion, and the scientific
evolutionary theory is no more incon-
sistent with Christianity than the the
ory Of the planetary system. Holding,
as we do, the really old theology of
the Catholic Church, We cannot only
regard the evolutionary theory with
equanimity, We can go so far as to be-
lieve that the minutest jot of the Cath
olic creed is perfectly consistent with
every fact which any competent man
of science will publicly aver to have
been scientifically verified. We go even
further. We affirm that every sylla-
BILE of the Catholic creed is consistent
with the evolutionary theory to the ut
| most extent to which competent men
of science will aver that evolution ac-
| counts for the phenomena of nature.
Unsciontific and radical theories like
| that Of DR.. Abbott create difficulties
which their so-called and miscalled
! fhpOlopiEC do nfhin0 tn
will be time enough to permit our
selves to. be troubled by them when
they shall have something more solid
to rest upon than pure speculation
which is unsupported by single fact"
There can be no progress in elemen-
tai truths" observes the Interior"
| Presby yterian) of Chicago. THE laws
and facts Of physics, for example, are
no different from what they We're a
| thousand or a million years ago, and
yet it is only comparatively a little
while since men first began to compre-
hend them. The vast progress that has
been made does not imply any change
in the nature or tendencies of physical
| forces, but it lies in the success of the
| human mind in acquiring knowledge of
/ biiCiil Iiid III iLS ShIli III 1IlpIOyIHS dIIO
applying them. This is equally true in
! the regions of spiritual dynamics. If
/ the theologan had made no progress
! in the past centuries it would imply
an atrophy of his powers. 1t would
imply that theology had passed its
| prime and was descending to senility
and dissolution. And this is the con-
| clusion of the agnostic. He infers it
! to adapt itself to new conditions, and
this inference he draws from the SEEM
| ing incapacity of the churches to modi-
| fy their formularies, doctrinal, ritual
| istic and other. But the truth is that
! Christianity has SO grown, expanded,
and changed in the past five hundred,
/ or even three hundred, years, that
there are no points Of resemblance be-
! tween its external and it's medieval
past. The sum of the changes amounts
to revolution and reconstruction. A
comparison will show that the change
is constantly toward simplicity of doc
trine and directness of application-a
constant increase of conformity to the
type OF Jesus Christ"
Perhaps we did not make our mean
| ing entirely pam WneH we spoke OF
the passing of close communion" says
| the New York Independent" 1--WE
did not mean the passing of the theory:
we meant the passing of its enforce
ment. All that is interesting eccle-
| siastically is the question of tolerance.
One may believe what he pleases, but
the question is whether close commun-
ion is to be insisted upon as the law of
the Baptist churches. AS soon as open
communion is allowed without disci-
pline, and in fact without any effective
protest, then close communion is dead
or. at least, is sucking Its thumbs. Then
close communion becomes nothing but
! an academical or philosophical corpse
| like the bondage of the will or limited
atonement, and not a live religious
question. 1t is enthusiastically matter
! Of indifference. All these were once
| 1--we religious tests; and so was close
! communion in the early seventies. A
! little excitement like this at the Bap-
j tist Congress proves its death. Probat
sternutando; or, in the words Of the
Book Of Job, BY his neesings light
doth shine.
''In recent times the Papal See has