The record-union., 1898-04-24
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought Of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

tartan Press.
THE question, How far is King
James Bible to be supplanted by the
revised version? is being asked. The
revised version" says the New York
"Churchman" P. Ed, is certainly in
many cases more accurate than the
older translation This accuracy, how
ever, sometimes degenerates into ped
antry, and the genius of the English
language is sacrificed for the purpose
OF constituting literally the idiom of an
other tongue. A grave objection to the
adoption Of Westcott and Hort's YER
sion of the New Testament is the fact
that these critics base their version
on text which they adopt on certain
critical principles which have not met
with universal acceptance. Before these
translators revised the English, they
also undertook to revise the Greek. IL
1S95 a committee was appointed by
general convention to select marginal
readings from the revised version
which might be used at the discretion
of the minister, in place of correspond
ing passages in King James Bible. This
seems to us an excellent expedient. 1t
compelled to read aloud to the congre-
cation tranSlations which sometini S
contradict, at other times misrepresent,
the meaning of the original The clear
common sense of the American Church
cannot be better shown than in adher-
ing to a course in this matter at once
conservative and corrective of error
A copy of King James version with
mis- TO la1 ic-
sions corrected in the margin would
be blessing to the church, and a great
remover of stumbling blocks. We sin
cerely hope that such work will be
the result of the conventions delibera-
tions in the autumn
1T is surprising" says the Living
Church CP. Ed of Chicago, how many
good people lose sight of the tremend-
Gus bearing of the Trinitarian idea IN
their admiration for the human lowell
ness of Christ as the man of sorrows.
1t is not easy to mingle awe with pity
but in the lessons of Holy Week we
must combine these views. "Thinkes,
thou that I cannot pay to my Father
and He viii presently send me twelve
legiOns of angels?' If Good Friday is
day merely OF rapt sympathy, it is
day which our Unitarian friends
might fully share with US. The effect
of dwarfing the idea of Christ's majesty
is ultimately to weaken faith. The
TRANSPORTATION was the message from
on high to the faithful disciples, warn
ing them of their close connection with
the unseen. The cruciixion was not so
much an object lesson to the world as
it was the great expiation. God would
not have subjected the heir of His
glory and the express image of His
person to a shameful DEATH merely or
mainly to impress men. He did it to
save them. He 4humbled Himself to the
death of the. cross. and in this We see
how fatally the 'rationalistic and Uni
tartan idea wanders in it's efforts to do
justice to the loyeliness of Christ's hu-
man character. 1t loses sight of God
in contemplating the suffering of man:
The spiritual apprehension of the
meaning of Holy Week is the only
guarantee that Holy Week will retain
it's ascendency with us in these skepti-
cal and unsettled times
In the whole discussion of the mat
ter of the validity of our orders, we
think there has been entirely too much
attention paid to narrow details of the
oretical theology and archaeological lit
urigology," says the "CathoAc Cham
pion" of the Guild of St. Ignatius CP.
Ed. we need hardly say that we have
the deepest regard for the careful study
of divinity and Of liturgies, but while
we should have liked to have seen the
matter treated on these lines, yet we
all such considerations is the fact,
which to us is patent, that we have a
priesthood which is receiving the bless
ing of Almighty God in a most marked
and wonderful fashion, and which in
creases it's power over men just in pro-
portion as it claims and exercises those
rights and privileges which by the ad-
mission of all men are the peculiar pre-
negatives of the apostolically derived
sacerdotium When Bishop Coke was
asked what he thought of the Question
of Anglican ordinations he answered
that there We're not and could not be
any such question:! 1t seems to the
Catholic Champion" that this is the
only true position for a churchman to
take. Of course We are glad, when
what we knew before by many infal
principles of sound theology and of
Catholic litugiology, but before all this
we have something which assures Us
of the fact, and that something is the
fruit of our priesthood which we daily
and hourly see''
1T is true" says the New York
outlook" that Protestants have en-
cd hot fai In atiJ
formulated, sometimes unformulated.
But this is no reason why these creeds
should be erected into Standards or
given an authority which Protestant
ism refused to the earlier and, in some
cases, more catholic traditions The
creed, rightly understood, is an instru
speech A radical Bryan Democrat, who
thinks the Supreme Court of the United
States should be abolished, and who
had joined an organization for the pur
pose of securing it's abolition, would be
perfectly honest. if elected a Senator
of the United States, in taking the
oath to support the Constitution of the
United States So a Presbyterian who
thinks that creed subscription should
be abolished altogether or who thinks
that radical changes should be made in
their present creed, is entirely justified
in agitating for either change, While
still a member of the Presbyterian
Church. His subscription binds him
simply to this: that he shall agitate for
it by legitimate and honest methods.
The denial of this principle imputes dis
honesty to all |Presbyterians who, IN
Scotland and in the United States. have
agitated sometimes for radical changes