The record-union., 1898-08-07
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religions Thought Of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.
I'm a striking passage in his COM
mentary on the Epistle to the Ephe-
slams Canon Gore has recently thrown
clear and wide light on the meaning
of what st. Paul calls predestination,
says the New York "Churchman" (P.
E.). The general idea of predestina-
tion has commonly been associated with
the election to life of an individual
Christian. Some theologians have so
narrowed the scope of the term that it
has been applied altogether to personal
salvation, and a somewhat selfish and
subjective limitation has been so given
to the doctrine that the believer has
been in danger of becoming self-en-
crossed in securing his own safety
without thinking of Gods design with
regard TO others in the world at large.
Canon Gore takes great pains to cor
rect this misapprehension, and in so
doing he enunciateS great principle
which is as true a guide to the destiny
Of nations as of individuals. He repre-
sents the purpose of God as less dl-
rectly concerned with individuals tor
its main object than with the vast plan
which the Supreme Being is working
out in the universe through all its
stages and parts. Predestination is the
eternal purpose Of God working itself
out in history
Speaking of the proposed new canons
on marriage and divorce, the Church
Standard P E) of Philadelphia re-
marks: There is good old proverb
that it is we'll to let a sleeping dog lie,
and it has a ready application to the
matter in hand. AS Bishop Doane OBJ
serves, there is no apparent tendency
in the church at present to relax her
disciplne but if enthusiastic rigorists
compel the clergy and lalty, nolenteS
VOlentes, to take this matter IN hand,
they will invite a result which they lit
| tie expect Whether in the church or
| in the State, it is an established prln-
| ciple that laws must be presumed TO pc
| reasonable. From the application OF
| this principle divine laws are not eX-
empt. On the contrary, divine law
must be presupposed to be supremely
reasonable, since it issues from the
| fountain Of reason. But men can judge
| of the reasonableness of laws only
has endowed them withal. Hence, the
| right construction of laws, whether
civil or ecclesiastical, human or divine,
requires that they shall be Interpreted
| in such a way as not to violate the
| general judgment of the reason OF man
kind. What the rigorists are now pro-
| posing is that the church shall incor-
porate into her law an Interpretation of
! a disputed passage of Holy Scripture
| which is contrary to the common rea-
| son and common sense of mankind, and
| thereupon to subject certain members
| of the church to a degrading disability,
| accompanied by a sentence of eXcofn-
munication from which they may or
| may not be relieved by their bishops,
! the relief depending simply on the
question whether the bishop happens
/ to be, or not to be, rigorlst. Inc
common sense of mankind declares
| such legislation to be unreasonable; :;
and soon or late-probably very soon
! indeed-that legislation would be re-
pealed or nullified. Who would object
| if a reaction should follow, and the
members of the church We're then to
| apply the test of nableness TO
sundry other items in our existing
/ laU?'
Most of the Presbyterians, at least
| In this country, are holding fast TO the
| hath beens' of their creeds and con-
sessions, and every hath not been is
condemned less on its merits than be-
cause it is an interloper," says the New
| York independent" DIR. Houston is
sentenced. not because his views are un-
scriptural. but because they are uncon-
| stitutional Professor McGiffert is told
! TO make his history square with the
| Westminster Confession or seek some
other fold The Congregationallsts are
| in terror lest their national councll
prove to have the power of a 'hath
BEEN and hesitate to accept even
suggestion Of a manual for eccieslasu-
cal procedure because 1t is 'hath not
been We might give numerous other
instances, but each reader can supply
them for himself. Conservatism Is
good. but conservatism for conserva-
tisms sake is dry-rot. Progresslveness
is good, but change for the sake OF
change is a sure sign of weakness-not
of strength Pauls instruction to Inn
othy was that every man should pe aple
IN give q reason for the faith that is in
him 1t is a weak mind and a weak
church that contents itself with rea-
son based on the findings of its ances-
tors. The ancestors may be right to-
day. as they We're yesterday, but II
must be for reasons based on some
thing more substantial than mere an
oestorship We honor them and build
their monuments, but our loyalty 10
them is not necessarily gauged by a
slavish acceptance of their ideas or fol-
lowing their action
There are two conditions under
which state church might be main
tanned without great apparent inJus-
tice.' observes te New York outlook.
1T might be so maintained where all
the people in the community practically
held the same faith and desired the
same form Of worship. In this case the
church and the State would be compile
mentary organizations for different
functions. the one political, the other
religious. This substantially was the
relation of the state and church in the
ideal Hebrew commonwealth. All the
people had one faith and one worship.
and therefore there was no practical OBJ
lection TO the maintenance by the
state of one church. Or such a church
might be maintained where there are
great differences of opinion and of taste