The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-02-05
IN RELIGIONS REALM.

EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought Of tho Day
a. Expressed in the Soc
tartan Press.
Let US be frank with ourselves"
says the New York "Churchman'' P.
Ed. Either we believe that our epis-
copal elections are under divine guild
ance, or we do not. If we think that
God leaves us to human wisdom alone
in those days of trial of mems souls,
then all the honest electioneering meth
DDS of the political caucus and the NOM
mating convention are lawful and
right. Only we must not expect to es-
cape the political evils of that sys-
tenn. We, too, shall have our strug-
gle for the primaries and our capturing
of delegates. Possibly, also, we shall
have what is charitably called undue
influence And we may be sure that
men so elected will care more for the
office than for its duties, and will be
men to whom, as Milton said of those
in his time, the hungry sheep look up
and are not fed If, on the other
hand, we believe that the Holy Spirit
still works in and through the church,
we must act on this conviction, and en-
deavor by every means to keep episco-
pal elections upon this high plane"
=
1t must always be a matter of re-
greet" says the Living Church (P.
Ed of Chicago, that the English re-
visers failed to realize that in extend
ing their work so as to make it sub
stantially new version they were TAX
ing the first step toward destroying the
wholesome tradition of common Bible
for English Christians. If they had
exercised a wise economy, and strin-
gently confined themselves to the cor
rection of the old version in the COM
paratively few places where the need
of such correction was seriously felt
they would have conferred an immense
boon upon the Christian world There
would have been no opposition to the
use of the amended edition, and the
continuity between the new and old
would have been in no way broken.
The church would have been able to
present an invincible front to all new
versions. and devout people whose re-
ligious thought has been moulded in
the beautiful language of the old Eng
fish Bible, would not have found them
selves troubled and distracted by the
Introduction of new words and express
sions in the golden texts which have
by lifelong use become fixed in their
minds. The opportunity was lost, and
it remains for us in the tide of limo
walton which is setting in so strong, to
decide what shall be done to protect
our sacred books against the loss of
power which inevitably results from too
much change and the manipulation Of
a too secular scholarship
" In youth the real plastic energy is
not got up in tutors or lectures or in
books "gct up" but in Wordsworth
and Shelley; in the books that all read
because all like; in what all talk of
because all are interested; in the argu-
mentative walk or disputatious lounge;
in the impact of young thought upon
young thought, of fresh thought on
fresh thought, of hot thought on hot
thought; in mirth and refutation. in
ridicule and laughter, for these are the
free play Of the natural mind, and
these cannot he got without a college.
These words of Walter Bagehot," says
the New York Observer Pres), "ex-
press a truth usually unrecognized ex-
cept by men of peculiar penetration
Note what the things which cannot be
without a college are. The atmosphere
of a college, mental, moral and spirit
ual respired for four years, is the
thing of paramount Importance. In a
State University where the Christian
professor is net permitted to bring
Christianity into class work, where nc
spiritual studies are required of the stu
dent and no spiritual books are sci
before his eyes, what will all talk OF
because all are interested? What SUBJ
/ jects will be discussed in the argument
alive walk and disputatious lounge!
What lines will young thought, fresh
thought and hot thought inevitably
take? Where the demands of the cur
riculum absorb engagingly the time
and physical and mental power of the
student for things and themes not spir-
itual. whence shall real plastic en-
ergy be breathed upon his soul? How
shall he be shaped for spiritual char
acter, life and service?"
zone of the principal differences be-
tween the church of a half century age
and the church of to-day" says the
christian Register" Onit.) of Boston
is indicated by the fact that, instead
of the question: What must 1 do to be
saved?' which the former strove to in
spire and answer, the latter endeavors
to prompt and reply to the inquiry
What can we do to save others?' or
What can we do to save the world p
The change marks an advance from in
dividualism to a sense of human unity
and brotherhood, from self-interest to
aatruism, and is therefore salutary and
laudable. Yet there will be a distinct
loss if the old question should cease
to be asked. 1t is not safe for one 10
be SO interested in the welfare of 9TH
ers as to forget his own soul - the
structural ideals of truth, honor, pur-
ity and beauty-in the cultivation of
which, by meditation as we'll as by ac-
ton, man finds depth and richness of
life One of Professor Peabody's SER
mons, that upon the text, For their
sakes / sanctify myself, shows the
deep and abiding relation between per-