The record-union., 1898-03-20
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

In different parts of the country it
is interesting to note the different sig
nification of robes and ceremonies in
the church and in the courts" says the
Christian Register" (Unit) of Bos
ton In some places a gown worn in
the pulpit on Sunday morning seems
to be only a simple and fitting mark Of
respect. The scholar and preacher as
sumes the garb of his office without
criticism or self-consciousnesS The
same man in the same gown in another
part of the country would find himself
stared at, criticised and perhaps de-
nounced. His gown would be a sign
of Catholicism or Episcopacy or some
pestilent form of ecclesiasticism In
the courts, also. as in the colleges, the
uniform dress of the Judges or profess
sors on public occasions in one COM
munity is regarded as a decent sign
of order and respect for the functions
of the college or the court In an
other community it would excite violent
opposition. A curious inconsistency
may be noted in the way in which
many accept as natural and praisewor-
thy military and naval uniforms, the
insignia of masonry, and other secret
things in the church, the courts, or the
colleges. What is it that excites in
an American crowd enthusiasm Cor q
woman solely because at a festival she
has been called queen. has been crown
ed and clad in costly robe? 1t is i'm
possible to predict which tendency will
prevail, the one to abolish all external
marks of social condition and special
service, or the one to increase the use
of the signs which will show to the
eyes mans place and the kind of
work that is expected of him"
1T is evident to all candid minded
people," says the New York observer
(Pres), that where a moral teacher of
men becomes unable consistently and
thoroughly to agree with the readily de-
terminable meanings of the creed he pro-
fesses to uphold, which represents the
historic Interpretation that has always
been put upon it, he should frankly de-
clare that fact, and withdraw from
the ecclesiastical connection with
which he is no longer in real accord.
Mental jugglery with terms and ex-
pressiOns which have certain very dis
tinct meanings for those who have al
ways used them, and who maintain
the churches reared as concrete ex-
pressions of such doctrines, is indis
putably out of place Yet there are
those who disingenuously do this very
thing. 1t cannot be said to such as
it once was to Peter: Thy speech be-
trayeth thee!' for the phraseology APP
pears to the average undiscriminating
reader to be quite the language of Ca
naan. But behind the terms there is
little force and no fire of conviction.
There is a hollow sound to the pro-
nouncement Evidently it does not
mean all it seems to mean. If theme
is sacrifice, the significance is repre-
sented as ethical, not vicarious: if the
blood of Christ is referred to, that is
treated as a mere rhetorical figure; if
salvation is incidentally mentioned,
nothing is said to indicate that saliva
ton is especially needed, or that it is
needed in any thorough going, regen-
eratiVe sense. In short, what is preach
ed is the gospel of the husk, not of the
kernel -