The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-18

paniOns Nicholas or CuSa ana Plco Ol
Mirandola. These men dreamed tina
it was possible to set up philosophiC
worship, emasculated and universal
which should harmonic in common
vagueness all the religions of the
worhld 1t has been well said that they
forgot that life-homage paid to all re-
| ligions la virtual denial Of each, anC
| that it is possible SO to combine religion
and philosophy as to rob philosophy of
it's only principle and religion of its
only power.
ut was so in another form with the
Cambridge Platonists. The attempt tc
separate religious worship from relig-
ious conviction landed them in intellect
ual unreality Contemporary writers
dwell upon the hearty subscription
which these men gave to the thirty-nin
articles of the Church of England. But
| it turns out that this hearty subscrip-
ton was very much like that which
John Henry Newman gave to these
| same articles some two centuries later,
when in Tract No. &c. he showed that
they meant only what he personally
wanted them to mean. The subscription
of these Cambridge divines merely i'm
piled acceptance Of the articles as in
| struments of peace Bishop Fowler
defends this unreality-we may so fur
| Their and say this ouble-dealing-by
quoting these ominous words from
Archbishop USHER: We do not suffer
any man to reject the thirty nine arti-
Giles of the Church of England at his
pleasure; yet neither do we look upon
them as essentials of saving faith, or
legacies of Christ and His apostles; but
in a mean, as pious opinions fitted for
the preservation of unity; neither do
we oblige any man to believe them, but
only not to contradict them
you will probably feel with me that
this kind of talk it not calculated to
win our respect, and that if man in
ordinary business signed a contract in
the easy-going fashion in which these
men are said to have subscribed the ar
ticles we should know what to think of
him
"All this has it's instructive side for
the preachers of to-day 1t shows us
that nothing permanently succeeds in
the way of religious teaching except
clear and unreserved setting forth Of
the distinctive facts and truths Of
Gods own revelation. Every true man
of course will try to see these facts and
truths with his own eyes, but he must
never substitute his own speculatlons,
however original and ingenious, for the
authoritative revelations of God. To
the extent to which he yields to this
temptation his ministry will be power
less. Mans speculations change with
changing times, but the word of the
Lord endureth forever. Thrice has the
effort been made to render the abstrac-
lions of philosophical religion pow
err among men, and thrice it has failed.
Earnest minded men feel that it Is
puerile and powerless and they will
have none of it, while the careless and
superstitious remain careless and su-
perstitious still Mans passion and
worldliness Of heart are not to be beat
en- down by mere straws of our making.
They can only be overcome by that
which has Gods own power in it. For
a preacher to refine away what is most
distinctive of divine revelation and then
to subtitle the rest into mere senti-
mental theism is to court predestined
failure, 1t has been tried under the
most favorable conditions by some of
the ablest and most learned of men. IF
it failed in their hands, and it did fail,
it is not likely to succeed with others.
A religion that can only live in the
study and on the heights of intellectual
speculation, that demands philosophic
culture as an indispensable condition,
may suit men of an aristocratic spirit,
but it will never meet the wants of the
great body of the people who often, I'M
der hard and sorrowful conditions, are
fighting the battle of life. There is
room and need in the Christian pulpit
for the loftiest genius and the pro-
foundest learning, but the word to be
delivered must be that which went forth
from the carpenters lowly roof, and
was first published abroad by fishermen
and tent-makers of Old