The record-union., 1898-12-25
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought Of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
- tartan Press.


"The recent extraordinary attack
upon the Church Of England has CEN
tered largely about the question of ad
ditional services" says the Living
Church" P. Ed of Chicago; that is,
services over and above those contain
ed in the prayer book. Such services
have, under certain conditions and linn
itations, the sanction Of express law.
1t is not, therefore, question whether
such services shall be allowed or not,
though in much that is said and writ
ten on the subject, either through ig-
norance or through sheer INSCRIPTIONS
ness, that is made the question. The
real question is whether the conditions
under which alone these services are
lawful have been observed. One OF
| these conditions necessarily is that they
shall have episcopal sanction. Most OF
! the Bishops have instituted inquiries,
| into the forms in use, with the view of
deciding how far they are able to set
| upon them the seal of episcopal appro-
| baton. The Bishop of Manchester, no
| friend of anything that can be called
extreme, has recently given the results
| of his Investigations. He said that out
of four hundred and seventy four forms
| of prayer for special occasions which
he. had received, he had been able to
authorize three hundred and eighty
nine without the change of a word. Of
the remaining eighty1ve, few slight
alterations had to be made in most,
| and there were only thirteen of which
he. could not approve. II this is fair
sample, it would appear that there is
comparatively little ground for the ac-
cusations so sweepingly made against
the clergy as a whole"
'In the realm of religion says, the
New York observer Pres.), some.
thing is fixed, some teachings stay 1t
is not all a matter of varying form, it
is largely also an exhibition of agree
ing and abiding faiths. Though our
syntax and vocabulary are not precise
ly those in which an Augustine or
Clement wrote. the Christian world is
thinking to-day by the same rules Of
logic as did the fathers, and to large
extent the same thoughts. In other
words, there has always been, and there
is to-day, a significant and extensive
consensus of opinion as to the vital,
structural truths of the Christian re-
the evangelical unity who are not of
it, who are outside if, since this sort
of thing is spiritually discerned; it is
doubtless the case that the varieties of
minor Interpretation seem very numer-
Gus and important to those who have
an interest in setting Christianity, if
possible, at war with itself, but to the
candid student Of historical Christian
Nv I,
certain great leading ideas have DOM
mated the centuries, and commanded
the devotion of countless multitudes
which belong to the very structure of
the Gospel, and are as continuous in
history as the life of mankind itself"
ct has been wisely said" says the
'Congrega tionalist' Sof Boston, shat
some of the profound sayings of the
Sermon on the Mount await their en-
tire explanation and fullfllment until
the kingdom of God, about which they
We're spoken, shall be fully established
ON earth or in heaven. A similar
thought may be truecof other words of
Scripture. 1t is suggested by the re-
mark Of lady, writing as to her
mother who had suddenly been taken
from her: I am trying to rejoice with
her, and SO forget my own loss We
think of PauPs familiar injunction as
belongingzenly to ourtlife here but why
should it not become our duty and priv
ilege to rejoice with those Whof have
finished their pilgrimage through this
evil world and entered their Masters
| joy-'glad also with exceeding ioy'?
Would it not turn our sorrow into Joy
if We thus tried to sylnpathize with the
supreme happiness of those whom in
our half selfish grief we would like to
bring back to earth? It would surely
give a broader, grander meaning to
many precepts and promises if we ex-
tended their scope from the narrow
world around US to the wonderful world
just beyond our ken-a world already
the abode of so many we have known
and world, too, which is soon to be
ours
rs it not a significant fact" asks the
Christian Register (Unit.) of Boston,
that some OF the sociologists and eth
ical teachers who are most disturbed
about what seem to them to be the
signs of moral and social degeneracy
49, H.