The record-union., 1898-07-03
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEwsPAPERs.
The Religious Thought OF the Day
NJ Expressed in the Sec-
tartan Press.

1SOiatlOn WITH ATS EVIL cOiiSS4ASite'o Va
an excellent remedy for intellectual
narrowness and one-sidedness. says
the New York 'Churchman IL. Ed.
1.-The faddist or the man OF partial
reading cannot do better than ava2l
himself of the opportunity OF airing ms
notions in open court before his Dredn-
rem. The search for truth is never un-
available if it be prosecuted conscien-
tiously 1t is providential that in these
days of intellectual unrest and theologl-
cal curiosity, the American church mas
in the congress a gathering IN winch
! men can state their difficulties, receive
counsel Of others and listen to a state
ment of the other side of question
upon which they may have reached
decision unaided. The eighteenth
church congress has left this impress
sion upon us, and it is with deep re-
spect and admiration for its Executive
Committee that we wish the church
congress godspeed."
Prosecutions for heresy have ter
rible record" says the interior" (Pres.)
of Chicago, 1.-The very worst in the his
tory Of civilized peoples-and it is inn
possible to break the force of the asso-
citation. 1t it We're only the Turks mas
sacreing the Armenians because they
are infidels,' it would not touch US
but it has come down to us by natural
generation as the catechism says, from
Claverhouse and Laud and Queen Mary.
1t is in our history and in our blood.
Our indictments are copied from those
which led up to Smithfield and Geneva,
employing the same forms and terms.
These conditions, as We said, lie upon
the surface The less apparent is a
growing confidence in the safety Of
truth where freedom Of speech is un-
restricted, and a suspicion that a doc
trine held as a truth which is not Will
ing to submit to the ordeal Of free in
vestigation and discussion is not
worthy Of confident acceptance. The
most thoughtful public opinion is large
ly, therefore, set against trials for her
esy, and the experience of their evils
is rapidly bringing church members to
the same point of view. There could
scarcely be a stronger expression Of
this than in the words of DR.. Davies,
the successor of Howard Crosby, who
implored the assembly not to precipi-
tate another heresy trial in the presby-
terry of New York. Is there then no
remedy-no means for bringing a min
lister who proves to be unfaithful to his
doctrinal pledges to an accounting?
There certainly is, and it is a very
powerful one. This can be brought to
the readers apprehension in convince
ing and impressive way: B. Fay Mills
where was he in the estimation Of the
evangelical churches? Where is he
now?"
I'VE said two weeks ago." says the
New York Independent" sin speaking
of the McGiffert case before the Pres
byterian General Assembly, that ques-
tions of scholarship are not suited to
an ecclesiastical court; that they be-
long to the forum of honest scholars,
who are the final judge and jury in such
matters, and that this is court that
can open and renew the trial every year,
and the only court competent to tell us
who wrote an epistle or what was the
view of the early disciples about the
Lords Supper. A correspondent asks
us if we mean to imply that the minis
try must wait on the latest conclusions
of scholars before teaching the common
doctrine on the subject of the sacra-
ments; and whether one who declines to
accept the opinion of some of these
scholars that Peter did not write the
Epistles that pass under his name, re-
bells against the court of last resort. Not
at all. That would be most absurd
This is not a court made up, like the
Supreme Court of the United States, of
official members, who take a question
and decide it and whose decision is
backed by authority 1t is an indeter-
inmate court and it's decisions are of
gradual growth; and any one has a
right to rebel against them if he thinks
he has good reason, for it is a court in
which reason counts and not authority;
and not the names of the court. but the
arguments they present, must control"
NO church can permanently grow"
says the New York Christian Advo-
cate" (Meth.), 'if it's pulpits are filled
with latitudinarians, nor can any one
long exert moral power if its pulpits are
filled with platitudinarians, and no
church can make numerous accessions,
except by perverting from other de-
nominations, if it's pulpits are filled by
attitudinarians. Only those religious
bodies can flourish whose pulpits are
filled by men who have convictions. who
believe, who know what and why they
believe, and attach Importance to that
which extinguishes them from others.
Controversy on such points within a
denomination invariably dminishes ac-
cessions. Controversy between denom-
nations on such points is unpleasant,
but If attacked it is necessary to de-
fend the truth: and such controversy
with an external foe, if conducted in a
Christian spirit has rarely been known
to diminish accessions. The current
talk that the differences among the de-
nominations amount to nothing is pro-
NOTED by those who wish free course for
the propagation of destructive ideas,
and not by those whose chief object is
constructive. Men who wish field in
the pulpit to preach doctrinal novelties,
whether destructive of the general prin-
ciples of the Gospel or not cry for lib
erty, and If they cannot gain that they
declare for liberation; and though they
have been borne with till their influence
has blasted many a once promising
plant, if they cannot secure liberation,