The record-union., 1899-01-08
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought of the Day
a. Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.

tartan Press.
1.-THE primary duty on which the
progress and final triumph of all right
eousness depends is the preaching of
the Gospel" says the Church Stand
ard (P. E.) of Philadelphia, land be-
yond all question, the plain preaching
OF the Gospel, as this church hath re-
ceived the same, has been falling into
terrible neglect. Our children are not
catechised;, they are brought to confir-
nation without being sufficiently in
structed in the Greed, the Lords.
Prayer and the Ten Commandments,
and in other parts of the Church Cate
chism set forth for that purpose. They
are Christians by accident, so to say,
not by conviction. They are wholly UNI
prepared to meet the anti-Chrlstian IN
huences which surround them. They
are not trained to a deep sense OF the
reality or obligation of the spiritual life
to which they have been called; they
are not taught really to believe in the
spiritual benefit of the sacraments; they
have no idea of the sacredness OF the
church as Christ's body, nor OF their
own bounden allegiance to it as mem
beers Of Christ. In far too many cases
their instruction is purely perfunctory,
and their relation to the church is
merely formal. OF our own church, its
constitution, history, position, claims
and title to their allegiance they very
often know nothing at all; they are re-
cefyed into its communion as into
bag with holes, out of which they soon
drop; and there is no class of human
beings whom it is harder to win to the
realities of spiritual life than that of
those who have been admitted to spirit
ual privilege without being touched by
the sense of spiritual power. The neg
lect of catechising in our church, we do
not hesitate to say, is one of the very
worst and most ominous. signs Of the
present time"
IF we could believe (Which we can
not" says the Living Church (P. E.)
of Chicago, that it makes no difference
whether We believe in the incarnation
as an historical fact, provided we be-
lieve that human nature found a repre-
sentative Man to personate that which
is immanent in every man., and We can
be saved by hope and not by faith,
then We could believe that baptism is
not regeneration, priesthood has moth
ing in it of an indelible character of its
own, the Resurrection is not a resurrec-
ton of the flesh, and Christianity is
not a new creation, but sentiment-an
Intellectual system. with philosophy for
its basis; man not fallen creature, but
by nature a Son of God, who needs no
supernatural help to enable him to lead
a better life; heaven not a place, but
a state; and hell the Pigment to frighten
such as hold on to the exploded notions
of a personal devil and the existence of
evil. This, in our judgment, is the spir-
it. not of Christ, but anti-Christ, and
the new theology is not the setting
forth Of new Gospel, but another
Gospel. A half incarnation is no incar-
nation at all, any more than an incar-
nate sentiment is an incarnation in YER
ity and truth"
Speaking of the departure of Profess
sors Briggs and Shields from the Pres
byterian Church, the New York In
dependent" Pres.) says: Both of these
men had drawings of taste or opinion
toward the Episcopal Church, but they
would never have left their own denom-
ination except for ecclesiastical med
ding; and this meddling has much to
do with the somewhat discouraged at
titude of Presbyterianism in this CITY,
For several years the meetings of Pres
bytery We're disedifying. 1t was no
pleasure to a peaceable man to attend
them; and many of the best men, pas
tors of the best churches, persistently
stayed away. The laymen We're equally
disguised, and withheld their support
They lost their affection for their
church, and were not unwilling to con-
slider a change. If any inconsiderable
matter. like the unfortunate personal
difference in the Fffth-avenue Church
in connection with the resignation of
DR. John Hall, arose, they found it
easy to go into another denomination;
and where would it be so easy to go as
to the strong Episcopal Church, with
all It's social prestige and wealth? And
II Is to be remembered that the Epis-
copal Church in this city has been de-
veloping most admirable enterprise
1t Is not generous in either foreign or
domestic missions, but it has great
wealth in the cities, especially in New
YORK, not to speak Of the immense in
come Of Trinity Church; and its money
Is expended generously to enlarge its
1oeoi poiuSiS. II was never SO genu-
1neiy Christian church as it Is to-
day. with its missions covering the
city"
1t Is true that our methods or sea-
sons of prayer may not be precisely
those of our forefathers," saws the
New York observer (Pres.). .sThey
had more leisure and less opportunity
than we. Their cares We're less if their
prayers were more. Life at large was
then more studied, deliberate, reflect
i've in type. Where, as in the country
in the long winter evenings, time hung
heavy on the hands of costly sheltered
family f1ocks, a leisurely conduct of de-
votions about the reddening embers of
the fire on the open hearth was easier.
seemingly more natural. 1t is not so
easy to be pious and prayerful in
front Of a register or over a steam
heater, which possibly accentuates a
'Selah with a. screech. Moreover
there is the evening engagement, which
hurries many man from dinner to
desk or from parlor to political plat
form. And so it goes, that there are
always hundred considerations why
we have not the opportunity to pray,
or the leisure to mediate long and
quietly on the nature of God and the
ways Of men. And yet over against