The record-union., 1898-06-26
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought OF the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

as Expressed In the Sec
| tartan Press.
The American people, especially of
the Boston type and cult, seem to be
very much like the old Greeks" says
| the Living Church" P. Ed of Chicago,
always eager to hear of some new
thlng, to try some new scheme of prog
ress or reform, and each of these in its
turn needs to be reformed out of sight,
as rule, SO that the old Gospel may
| come back to do the work which it was
| sent into the world to do, viz, to save
society by saving the souls and uplift-
| ing the characters OF which society is
composed. There is always something
new, If not something good, coming out
OF the New England Nazareth, and just
now 1t is Christian socialism,, sO-called
10 be sure, Christian socialism, in the
oid sense, is as old as Christianity, but
that kind is too tame and unpretentious
for these times, though it did impress
the world in it's day. The queer thing
about it is that the church failed to
| perceive what the modern apostles of
| socialism have discovered, that the
whole Gospel lies in this cult. One of
our preachers tnot in New England)
recently said: 1T has taken the church
nineteen centuries to discover that Je-
sus was not theologian, but a social
lst'! All, how benighted the Church
must have been in the days of ST. Paul:
and 1t is only now, after nearly 1000
Years, that she has discovered that Je-
sus, who was the Power of God and the
wisdom of God was not a theologian!
There is a disposition" says the
| New York Christian Intelligencer"
(Ref), among teachers of morals who
have accepted more or less the philoso-
| ply OF Herbert Spencer to exclude God
from their instructions. They teach
! that men are to do right simply because
1t is right, and not in order to please
God; not because it is a duty to Goa.
nor because God Furnishes wrong dong
and rewards righteousness. On the Cal
ifornia coast such instruction is quite
bold and outspoken. But our obliga-
tions to God, if the existence of q God
| is allowed, are superior to all others If
there is God He is perfect, and His
law is holy, just and good and is a
prime consideration in all moral acts.
Moral duty is not only duty to man,
but more an obligation to God Obedi-
ence to the perfect will Of God enters
| into the quality of every moral act
A righteousness from which all consid-
erations of the claims of God is ex-
cluded is a defective righteousness:
godly men will maintain it to be fatally
so. We doubt whether the majority
OF intelligent men, even in the COM
munities where this defective instruc-
tion is given, are ready to accept ag-
nosticsm and whether they will allow
such instruction when their attention
is called to it,"
1.-The Presbyterian General Assembly
showed a peaceable disposition at it's
| recent meeting" says the New York
"Churchman" P. Ed. There were
two matters which of necessity en-
gagged the attention of it's members
each offering manifold encouragement
to the powers Of evil. 1t seemed i'm
possible that a body possessed of so
many stalwart convictions, and with
so stout reputation for forcible
Speech should consider the cases Of the
Princeton Inn and of Professor McGif-
fert's book without at least moment
ary forgetfulness of the sermon on the
mount. The great war, however, OBJ
scured the smaller ones, as the news
of the camps and the ships drives out
of the newspapers the records of do
mestic and parochial disturbance with
which so many columns We're formerly
filled. The Princeton Inn was consid-
cred with fraternal wisdom for which
the outcries of lesser assemblies had
not prepared us. And DR.. McGiffert
was not hailed into any court. The res
olution which the assembly adopted in
regard to the Professors book is not an
ideal one, by any means 1t still strikes
a false note, in that it accuses the
writer not so much of an offense
against the truth as of an offense
against the standards But it is a
great advance upon the position of
many previous conventions dealing
with like cases"
"It is generally understood" says the
presbyterian Banner of Pittsburg,
Pa, that the General Assembly in
| tended to express a measure of disap-
proval Of some Of the positions which
Dr. McGiffert is commonly supposed to
have taken in his book but to leave the
author otherwise unaffected by it's ac-
mite. The assembly has not pointed
out the respects in which the book may
be at variance with our standards. 1t
is not nearly as clear and specific in it's
disapproval as the action of the Pres
bytery of Pittsburg. But the whole
tone CT its action expresses a general
disapproval and individuals are left to
judge how far the disapproval extends.
This is something to be thankful for,
rather than ground for complaint. The
general unfitnesS Of a General Assem-
bly,, sitting but q week, and composed
of Commissioners. the large proportion
of whom have not read the book, to
point out in detail the errors of a book
covering a century of history will be
universally conceded. And yet the as
sembly's vague disapproval will prob
ably accomplish all that the assembly
could effect by any other action, in
the way of an offset to the erroneous
tendencies of the book
I'VE have spoken" says the New
York Independent mot unfavorably,
of the proposition that the Protestant
Episcopal Church should take the
name, the American Catholic Church.
No hoy, 1a