The record-union., 1899-11-05
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought Of the Day
- Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

- Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.
But even granting the validity of the
exegesis which makes our Lord allow
remarriage in the case of the innO-
cent party in a divorce for adultery. ii
ought to be evident to those who are
conversant with facts as they are
says the Living Church. (P. Ed o1
Cnlcago, that it has become impossible
for the church in this country to arrive
at any safe conclusion in the majority
OF instances, and that to allow divorce
with the power of remarriage in this
particular case is practically to allow it
in all cases. We consider that to for
bid the clergy to marry divorced per-
sons will add incalculably to the
strength of the church as a moral force
IN the community. Nothing could be
better for the priest who is called upon
TO marry such persons, but who does
not feel prepared to take a. strong line
on the basis of his personal convictions,
than the existence of such canon He
IS delivered from the necessity of con-
Quoting a judicial examination for
winch his training has not prepared
MN; or, II he has taken the decree
OF the civil court as his guide, he is no
longer In danger of accepting as an
innocent party one who has obtained
that position of vantage by fraudulent
methods. He has but to point to the
law OF the church and say, 4 cannot.
y
SIDE by side with the demand that
there should be vigorous legislation in
cnurch and State, there must be-" saws
the New York "Churchman" Up. E).
as we have frequently insisted. posi-
tive teaching regarding the nature of
marriage and its sanctity. The founda-
ton for more explicit teaehina on this
topic must be laid in the instruction of
young life. The institutions of educa-
tlon nave a rare opportunity as well
as distinct duty to do this very work.
Miss Hazard, at her installation as
President of Wellesley College. spoke
with both refinement and power regard
ing the preparation OF women for wife
hood and motherhood, and the inf1u-
ence OF such lofty conception of the
welded state as is Miss Hazards is
great beyond reckoning. But even more
than women do men need to be trained
with reference to their future respon-
slpllltles. And in school and college
life such an opportunity is presented
as can nowhere else be found. Men
especially need to be inspired as they
are not, with the truth of the sacred
ness of the body
The much-heralded letter to Bishop
Potter by one of his recently deposed
presbyters is only an iteration of per-
sonal feeling, individual opinion, and
some prejudice" says the New York
Evangelist" Pres.). 1.-The position OF
one man is little enough compared with
the attitude of the whole church toward
the Christian scholarship of this age.
1t is little amusing when this one
man talks as if the church must stand
or fall with him, when the church he
wants would be a small and ever mar
rowing sect of exclusives and complain
ers. The course of Bishop Potter has
been both wise and catholic The
Christian world is glad for his com
prehensive churchmanship and his dig
nifled refusal to be moved an iota by
the clamor of an excited and not alto
gether courteous company of a very
few Bishops and other clergy How
simple is the lesson that the church is
more than one man or one party. Yet
how the one man groans when it is
brought home to him.
+
THE real point raised by DR.. De
Costa's withdrawal" says the New
York Independent lis whether man
ceases to be good enough Christian to
belong to the Protestant Episcopal
Church when he comes to believe that
the Holy Scriptures are not so infalli-
BILE as to exclude all scientific and his
torical errors. We are coming to see
that man may believe in the evolu-
ton which DR.. De Costa denounces, and
even in a process of divine evolution
which has produced the Mosaic relig-
ion and the Mosaic books, and yet be q
devout and. loving disciple of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ A man may
ask evidence and yet have faith He
may, as scholar, deny much that his
fathers believed, and yet hold to the
heart and life of Biblical Christianity.
This DR.. De Costa will not see, and
this he is small enough to deny He
adds to his right of private judgment
for himself that of such judgment of
others as belongs to God alone, and he
does we'll to leave those whose Chris
tian faith he denies.
Speaking of the recent Congregat ton
al Council, the New York "Observer"
(Pres) says: 1T was great meeting.
Some things might better have been
left unsaid; some other things sadly
needed to be said. Certain phases of
truth and of life We're scarcely touched
upon, and the general impression af-
forded was that of a condition of mind
and thought in many respects transl-
tional rather than permanent. But
when all this has been said which must
be said, the fact remains that as a
registry of the trend of opinion among
a large body of our fellow Christians.
as a witness in deep, broad unison to
the evangelical heart truths of our re-
ligion. as public demonstration of the
power for fascination which abstruse
religious problems yet possess for the
crowds, and as a means of mighty spir :
Itual quickening of intelligent believers
in the way of Jesus, gathered from ali
parts of the world, the Second Interna-
tional Council has abundantly justified
its existence, and has left a record
which will constitute one of the bright
est chapters in the annals of the Amer
lean Church."
The old-fashioned religious revival