The record-union., 1899-07-23
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought Of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.
1t has become a sort of fashion in
certain quarters says 1.-THE Living
church (P. Ed of Chicago, Ito insist
polntedly upon the distinction between
theology and religion The aim seems
to be to assure people that while re-
l1glon is necessary, theology is only a
matter of the schools. Only be relig-
lous, and you need not disturb your
NINA about theology. Clearly there is
distinction. Religion may be con-
sldered as involving the subjective con-
vlctlons and the emotions together
with activities, through which the spir-
ltual nature strives to express it's sense
OF the reality OF spiritual world, and
OF the obligations which such reality
brings. theology is the statement OF
the divine and heavenly things known
or considered to be known, upon which
religion is based and which mold and
control It's character. Thus stated, it
is evident that while religion and the
ology may be distinguished, they can
not be separated. If the theology is
false, the religion will be false also. If
it be imperfect or corrupt. the religion
Will be affected accordingly. Within
the realm of Christian influence it is
an absurdity to say that so far as re-
ligion is concerned, it is all one wheth-
er the underlying theology asserts that
Christ is the Eternal Son of God. of one
substance with the Father, or that He
a oil to hn IN
carnation is to alter essentially the the
ology of Christianity and surely it
needs no proof that the whole charac-
ter of the Christian religion is altered
with it, and so far altered that it is no
longer the same thing
1.-The Anglican communion" saws the
New York "Churchman" P. Ed never
accepted entirely the Puritan Sabbath,
and to her alone, among the churches
OF Chrlstendom, may one turn for the
antldote for that reaction against it
which threatens to drive Sunday as
holy day from the public consciousness.
That antidote, we maintain, is in the
ulVlne reaSonableneSS of her require
ments. She declares in the most un-
ambiguous way that Sunday is, first of
all, the day Of the eucharist-the joy
bearing sacramento of the new life.
She does not find recreation as such in
consistent with the joy of this sacred
Feast. Worldliness and irreverence in
recreation, as in all things, are her es-
pecial abomination. She holds that
those who have partaken of the holy
gifts should not resign themselves to
worldliness, and to labor-a condition
Inferior to that secured through the
Hebrew Sabbath. But that recreation
not unbecoming the Christian profess
ion at large, and that does not put d
block of stumbling in the way of 9th
ers, is consonant with the liberty of the
gospel and the recollectedness of life
for which the Anglican church has con-
tended against extremists of either
Side.''
In discussing the case of Professor
Gilmore, formerly of Bangor, and now
of the Unitarian School at Meadvile,
Pa, the '''Congregationalist'' of Boston,
says: Professor Gilmore says that
in his inaugural address he made evil
dent the dissonance between his belief
and the declaration of faith, which just
before he had publicly and formally
avowed, yet the Trustees made no OBJ
lection, and the following year trans
ferred him to the chair of Biblical his
tory and introduction, and made him
lecturer on comparative religions. In
these statements Professor Gilmore has
pointed out cause of decay of relig-
ious institutions, which is not confined
to Bangor Seminary. 1t is the worm
at the root of the tree which bears the
fruit of the professed Christian life of
to-day. Men who, on the same day
and in the same place, Solemn1y and
publicly avow a belief and frankly de-
clare that they do not believe it cannot
inspire other men either to be Willing
to die or to live for the belief they avow
or the belief they hold. Trustees of a
theological seminary who regard with
Indifference such inconsistency in it's
professors can hardly expect the inSti-
tuition to draw large classes of students.
What our churches most need is men
whose convictions control and possess
them, not men whose claim to leader
ship is in possessing statements of be-
lief which they use to satisfy the re-
quirement of past generation or to
suit their own convenience"
LAS there are evils involved in great
business combinations, so there will
be in benevolent considerations" says
the Independent" 1.-The subject should
be carefully studied. We need to know
whether there will really be any less
ening of the expense of management.
There would have to be one chief sec
retary at a high salary, the best man
To ho in, AZ
under him nearly as many assistant
secretaries as there are now attending
to the different departments of the six
societies. and at very nearly the same
salary as they now have. There would
have to be the same division of ap-
peal and of collections It would be
disastrous to reduce the number of
collections. The plan must be to raise
more money, not less; to carry on
more missions, not less. The present
division works well. If it must be
changed it may be from the growth
of the trust idea, but it should not be
done unless it is necessary in order to
remove friction. If the societies can
not agree to prevent that the churches
can teach them.''
tThe subject for a constitutional
amendment regulating the laws of
marriage and divorce is constantly agi-
tated, says the "Watchman" Bapt.)
of Boston, ''but the impracticability of
such a movement is evident to any one
who gives the slightest heed to the
multiplied obstacles the trainers of the
constitution threw in the way of
fr r.