The record-union., 1898-05-08
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

We have expressed ourselves more
than once on the attitude Of the church
IN regard to the subject of marriage
and divorce" says the Living
Church P. Ed of Chicago. 1T has
been made abundantly clear by ADLER
pens than ours, that in the uncertain
and varying results of the most careful
study of the two passages in ST Mat
thew's Gospel where this subject oc-
ours 1t is unsafe to contend that an eX-
ceptiOn to the binding character of the
marriage tie. such as to warrant new
marriage in the case of divorce was
meant by our Lord to be allowed in
His church. In other words, it is un-
safe to rest the case for laXity on an
exegesis about which there has been
question from time immemOrial. On
the other side we have every other
passage in the New Testament In
particular, we have the marriage ser
vice of the church. in which the indis-
soluble character of the marriage bond
is asserted as emphatically as it can
be expressed in words. Last of all,
we have the alarming moral conditions.
which in our own time and country are
breaking down with increasing rapidity
all the old safeguards of the married
state. 1t is bad time for the church
to give way to any compromise. If
she is to be a strong and wholesome
moral force in the community if she
| is to give any efficient aid towards re-
forming the lax ideas which have be-
come SO prevalent, even among those
who profess and call themselves Chris
tians we firmly believe it can only be
done by bringing our fixed practice into
exact conformity with the marriage
service"
There is no reason for any particular
ecclesiastical disturbance over the
transfer of Professor Shields of Prince
ton College to the Episcopal Church, ,"
says the New York independent" LAS
he correctly says, this transfer is con-
sistent with his public record in the
cause of catholic unity 1t has long
been known that his sympathies have
| been with the order of worship in the
| Episcopal Church. and he published a
Presbyterian prayer book after the
manner of the Episcopal prayer book
| 1t is not to be understood we
Episcopalians he accepts the prev
alent Episcopal doctrine of church
exclusiveness. He has long main
tained in his writings that the historic
| churches of the Reformation, such as
the Lutheran, the Reformed. the Pres
byterian, and the Episcopal, are gener-
ally more or less nominal portions of
the Catholic and Apostolic Church,
which should be reunited in this coun-
try and he says: To the last-named
communion, the Protestant Episcopal
Church, l have been drawn by my stu
| dies, tastes, affinities, and most charac-
tteristic OpiniOns3i 1t will be observed
that he takes pains to give that church
! its full name, and in using the word
! Protestant he somewhat emphasizes
his fellowship with other Protestant de-
nominations; and we do not anticipate
that in his case there is any likelihood
of a further recession to the Roman
| Catholic Church.
THE exodus (from the Presbyterian
| church, of professors, pastors and
! families who do not retain their belief
in Presbyterian doctrine, who accept
! important portions of the assertions of
the higher criticism, may prove a re-
lief rather than an injury" observes the
New York Christian Intelligencer''
| (Ref). 1T is possible that it will re-
move a sbOurce of irritation, sometimes
a troublesome antagOnism to the evan
geHstic endeavOrs of the Presbyterian
Church at large, and of some Individual
churches. Such opposition or a with
drawal from participation in the work
of the church is discouraging, dis
heartening, and leads too many to con-
clude to wait and see what Will come
out of it. Dissatisfaction which does
not express itself, does not openly con-
tend against the faith, order, and work
of the church, is still a depressing and
disheartening power. When it leaves
the church, the act may prove TO be a
relief, resulting in a more bold and
clear declaration of the faith of the
church, and a more hearty, earnest,
and energetic prosecution of its work" B"
"Strype, in his memorials of Arch
bishop Cranmer, quantity describes the
shifts to which many of the reformed
party in the sixteenth century were
put in trying to avoid a break with the
ancient church. There We're those who
put great confidence in verbal ambg-
uity. They thought it might be more
convenient in order to peace. to suffer
some difficult and cOntrOverted points
to pass under dubious expressions, or
! in the very words of Scripture, with
out any particular decisive sense and
explanation imposed upon them SO
excellent a theolOgian as Bucer ad-
ViSod a friend when he spoke of the
Eucharist, to use more dark and am
biguOus forms of speech, that might be
taken in q larger acceptation, urging
him that by this means a great con-
troversy might be at an end, and so
peace, SO long wanted might be re-
stored to the church.. There is some
thing very familiar to u.s." says the
| christian Register" Omit, of Boston,,
! lin this line of reasoning. 1t seems
an easy way to avoid the conflicts of
opinion which, in the nineteenth cen
tury, as in the sixteenth, have dis
turbed the peace of the church. Lam
guage is elastic, and may. without
much difficulty, be stretched SO as to
cover a multitude of meanings and no
meanings. The more ambiguous a
word, the better it is fitted for a larg-
er acceptance Sometimes this pro-
cess is carried to such an extent by
amiable theolOgians that the ordinary
mind is simply palalyzed. Creeds that
we had supposed to mean something
in particular are shown to mean every
thing in general except what they seem
to mean. 1t is sometimes held that
subscription to them indicates nothing
more than that the subscriber takes