The record-union., 1898-01-02
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.

|
The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
| tartan Press.
| "The radical critics allow us, as a
small consolation for the loss of things
that have been taken away" says the
New York observer Pres), "a crumb
of comfort in the reflection that man,
average man, is a trifie better than his
ancestors We're ages ago. For this
statement again they offer no proof,
| but since it tallies better with the om-
nivorous evolution theory to believe
/ this, We are asked to credit the fact.
But the fact, if fact, points no moral
in favor of this intolerant iconoclasm
of old beliefs. For who made man 70
become better? What has improved
him? Only the gospel OF Christ, which
has not simply repaired the broken
fragment Of perfect Adam, but has
regenerated him. For, as DR. Park
hurst has remarked in recent sermon,
| Scripture has nothing TO say about
lHS HdluFdI VI dCClOl-
ing or tinkering the native disposition.
| The gospel is not a hospital nor re-
pair shop The Old Testament in its
opening shows us God in the act of
making new suns, moons stars, and we
call it creation. The New Testament
| is busy in showing to US God in the
act of making new men and women,
and we call it redemption, the same
thing Unitarianism has given US
little but words in place of the old
faiths which it says, since the wish is
father to the thought, have gone. We
prefer to keep our belief in God, in
| Gods Bible, and in the fact of Gods
redemptive work with man. and we ad-
wise all others who value their souls
| to do the same"
| Public sentiment which is a long
way ahead of the churches in this re-
spect, is moving in the right direction"
says the Christian Register CUnft1
Of Boston 1T is increasingly impatient
| of littleneSs and narrowness, and is
steadily schooling itself into the con-
viction that Christianity is open to
more than one Interpretation, and that
no particular church is the authorized
custodian of its teachings. Every in
depreciation If it must stand or fall
| entirely upon it's own merits; and the
church which is loyal IN its own way
to the life and example of Jesus. be it's
lChristology what it may, is entitled to
respect and fellowship. If it appeals to
treason, conscience and the religious in
Istincts, they and not prejudice or pas
sion, must be permitted to adjudicate
upon its claims. When a body of re-
lig1ous people as sometimes happens,
puts itself out of communion with
Christians, and AYERS that it neither
desires to be classified with them or to
bear their name, it is folly to include it,
unwillingly, in the fellowship of the
churches; but Unitarians and Univer-
salists who avow their allegiance to
Christ, take upon themselves His name
seek to illustrate his example, and en-
deavor to do his work in the world. can
| hardly be omitted from a federation
of Christians without breaking the law
OF liberty and dishonoring the charity
which is first pure and then peaceable
To set them aside with Pharisaic pride,
and deny them complete fellowship, is
not the way to bring about the unity
Of Christendom.''
| When scientists will come to give
| one-half the study to the human soul
which they gladly bestow upon bee
| tie or an angle-worm. they will find
a whole realm Of facts not unworthy
! of their Investigations, observes the
Inferior" Pres.) of Chicago "The
facts of psychology are as much facts
| as those of geology; and the phenom-
| ena Of conscience are as important as
| those of sensation. Why is that the
Greek tragedist personified avenging
justice as Nemesis and that Shake
| speare represents the Timed SOUL as
| struggling to be free? The truth is
that in every age and under every form
| of faith the soul recognizes the ques-
| uon or right to be a question of per-
| sonalitieS. Moral law is not like phys-
ical law, fixed relation to unconscious
forces: it is free relation of personal
| voiitions, harmonious or antagonstic
The man who has broken an arm speaks
or the incident as a misfortune, but
the man who has committed a theft
knows himself guilty of an 'offense. By
the hleroglyphs upon his mummy case
/ we understand that the Egyptian did
| not expect to meet a book of statutes in
| the next world, but to come face to face
| with Osiris. Thus from first to last
| the conscience of man has been con-
| scious Of the personality of moral OBJ
| ngation; that is, of the fact that the
| sinner Was not cont ending with a
force, but opposing a will. This is not
a dogma Of revelation, but a truth of
psychology. 1t is practically the same
| under every form of belief"
| 1T is great thing to be gained if
| we can bring every one to a full ap-
| probation Of what the church really
| means and what it Offers" says the
Living Church Up. Ed of Chicago.
It's elasticity, which some find to be
| fault, is really its greatest virtue A
| churchman may be opposed to certain
| interpretations of churchiy duty, with
out finding one thing amiss in the
| Prayer Book. The American Prayer
| Book has not provided an office for one
saint of post-Biblical times. The
! saints days, which have six chances
out Of seven of falling on a week day
| are each and all worthy to be observed
| with an early celebration. This helps
~4r.l al lsrt, L