The record-union., 1898-01-16
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought Of the Day
as Expressed In the Sec
tartan Press.

THE church has no reason to regret
any storm and stress of controversy
which may have marked its way in this
scientific and cynical age says The
Living Church" (P. Ed of Chicago, ''if
it has succeeded in planting its stand
ards on nights from which they can
never be torn down. 1t is astonish-
ing 10 note what an almost superhu
man effort has been made by protested
admirers of Christ in the flesh to do
away altogether with His divine es-
sence 1t sometimes seems as if half
the sreat novels of the day are written
largely for the purpose of deifying hui
man reason at the expense of the plain
Gospel narrative. These insidiously ex-
toll the human teacher of Nazareth in
order that they may the more plausibly
strip Him of every really supernal at
tribute! 1t was never intended in the
scheme of mans redemption that the
Second Person of the Trinity should
| have special interest as an historical
portent 1t is as God incarnate by an
act of wondrous humility that He has
given us any right to call him the heir
| of David's line The Word made flesh
cannot be compared with Oriental
sages, or the thoughtleaders of any
! epoch, without insult to His majesty
| and opening of His wounds afresh The
| hereSy of Christ as the mere teacher
! is the most dangerous of all-and more
| so in that it is not mere scholastic
bubble, as We're many which came un-
! der the review of medieval councils,
! but it is a total overthrow and denial
! of the whole plan of human redemp-
| ton
| THE word agnosticism is unfortu-
nate says the Church Standard" (P
| Ed of Philadelphia. 1T is intended to
| imply belief in the impossibility of
absolute knowledge; and, so far, it is
we'll chosen, for scientific agnosticism
| means that the essential reality of
nothing in heaven or earth can ever be
known to beings of such faculties as
ours. We constantly speak of time,
and space, and matter, and force, and
motion. and life, and feeling, and
thought, and knowledge. Without the
ideas Which these words represent we
could not speak, or even think, at all;
and yet, when we ask ourselves what
these things are, we cannot answer. In
/
| agnosticism is well chosen but in the
religious sense less well. For, reason
ing as we may and must from such
cognitions or conceptions as we have,
even the most extreme agnostic con-
cedes and affirms the existence of re-
alities, though their essential nature
lies beyond his scrutiny One of these
| realities is force, with all its various
I nh
| We discover force in all things. in the
stone which falls to the ground in
the flower which lifts itself above the
ground, in the animal which moves it
self upon the ground; but force implies
power, and Mr.. Spencer not only adj
mits, but proclaims, that the presence
of an uncreated and eternal power in
the universe and in every part thereof
is the most certain of all things Ag-
Mysticism is no right name for this most
| positive and dogmatic of assertions.
and the truth which it asserts, the truth
! of the immanent presence Of God in the
universe he has created is precisely
the truth which the Deism of a century
ago denied"
AT the present time there is to be
noted says the New York Observer
| tPres.), "a tendency in some spheres
to discard, for purposes of practical
philanthropy at least, this idea of the
gospel as a. force with a message which
| is its chief feature, and to cultivate the
notion of a religion without words. Lin
coin House, for example, a social settle
ment in Boston, which does a useful
ethical work. announces fatty in his
annual bulletin that it is it's settled pol
Icy to make no effort to influence people
along religious lines, and explains its
position by saying: We believe from
our experience that purely social or
ganizaticAs should simply stand for
inorganic religion and that without
words But how is this to be recon-
ciled with the injunction Of Christ, 'Ye
shall be witnesses, or with the eager
declaration of Peter, We cannot but
speak the things that we have seen and
heard" If a man has not religion
and poses as a mere ethicist, of course
he can say nothing about 1t, though he
should as speedily as possible get re-
ligion which will bear discussion. Yet,
according to the admission of some Of
the social settlement workers, the re
ligious dynamic is the greatest source
of power In the work. Why then con-
ceal the declaration of this fact? What
right, indeed, has any man who is
Christian at all to hide the fact that
he is a believer? 1t Is claimed that by
this method of religion without words
Jew as well as Gentle is reached But
reached by what and for what? Not
by the gospel, not by anything that
converts the heart and regenerates. the
life"
ut is admitted on all Sides" says the
New York "Churchman" P. Ed that
secularized Sunday, if such should
ever be the result of the present ten
dency. would be fatal to the religious,
even the physical, health of the nation.
1t is certain that the continental peo-
pies who have for a long time made
Sunday either a day Of mere toll in the
service Of amusement or industry are
coming to the conclusion that such a
state Of things is prejudicial to the gen
eral we'll being. There Is a movement
afoot in France and Belgium to remedy
this state of affairs. The continental
Sunday is a synonym for religious neg
lect and proclamation of a holy day.
But the people on the Continent of Eu-
rope are now enrolling themselves in
associations for the reformation of the
abuse The 'Ligue Populaire pour lie
Repos du Dimanche' is the most in
fuential among numerous societies
which have the same end in view. These
societies include in their members men
Of all religious tenets, and are increas-
ing in numbers and influence every
year. While the avowed object of these