The record-union., 1899-10-08
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.

The Religious Thought of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec
tartan Press.
We agree with the Bishop of New
York" says the Living Church" P.
E) or Chicago, "in believing that it is
a serious matter that the canonS should
allow so much discretion as practically
to provide between seventy and eighty
standards for admission to the min
istry.' There is no doubt that the
standard ought to be nearly uniform.
both as regards time and scholastic re-
| quirements. One direction especially
in which we think the canons need
sharp retrenchment, is in the require
ments laid upon ministers of other de-
nominations seeking the priesthood.
The latitude now allowed is full OF
danger to the life and teaching of the
church, as the Bishop himself shows:
The vagrant minister, or he of un-
savory record or doubtful soundness in
the faith, is tempted by such a condi-
tion of things to turn from other COM
| munions to the church, as a short cut
to the honors and emoluments of a
calling for which, it may be, he IS
doubly disqualified Almost every
canonical amendment relating to this
subject for years past has been in a
wrong direction, and it is undeniable
| that much evil fruit has been the re-
suit. To be able to point to a long
and increasing list of ministers who
have sought holy orders is a poor COM
pensation for the evil wrought by men
| who have had no proper training for
the priesthood, and no affection for the
old paths of the church. 1t is true that
very eminent men have come to us in
| times past, and men who, embracing
with heart and soul the principles of
! the church, have been of signal value
to the cause of Christ in their day and
generation. But these are men who
would have acquiesced in any tests Of
time and preparation which might be
deemed necessary
''The American church cannot fulfill
the responsibilities that rest upon it, !"
says the New York "Churchman" P.
Ed, without loyalty to its standards
on the one hand and without liberty in
ritual on the other This liberty must
be twofold, a liberty of growth and a
liberty of adaptation. Our ritual must
be able to suit itself to every mission
ary emergency, not by lowering any jot
of it's standard, but by giving others
the opportunity to feel after the stand
ard and grow UP to it, just as our own
ancestors felt and grew into the ritual
that we now enjoy. For ritual never
gets beyond the needs of those who
worship through it. It grows to meet
them. It satisfies no passing fancles.
1t seems sometimes slow to satisfy
even a universal demand. 1t changes
less by decree than by the slow but
irresistible processes of custom. The
service has changed, we do not know
exactly when or why. 1t will con-
tinue to change, and, in so far as we
are a truly national church, thai
change will reflect and answer to the
change in the character of the nat
ton. In so far as it does not, our ritual
will be inadequate to translate our re-
ligious life. Each new national life de-
mands new ritual expression for It's
new religious instinct. The church
that does not see this, and see it with
| boldness, may be an interesting MS
torical survivor, but it will never be
national church
ssThere was a time" says the New
York observer Pres.), when Con-
gregationalism stood for something.
We believe that it stands for some
thing to-day. Yet there has been ap-
parent for some time in certain quar-
ters a laxity in belief which has caused
serious anxiety in the minds OF all
well-wishers of that noble denomlna-
ton. This laxity has been in numbers
of instances, we think, more apparent
than real; that is, the clamor of the
radical element has been SO loud, and
the silence of many faint-hearted ad-
vocates of orthodoxy so continuous
as to make it appear that the ND
erals so-called, have swept the Whole
denomination into an Endorsement Oh
their improved hypothesis. But that
! CongregationaliSm in the main stiii
stands for something definite IN ooc-
trine and rectilinear in morals we
would fain believe. Whatever may De
true of some of the younger ministers,
who have not lived long enough in the
active life of the world to get a simple
and solid system of doctrines that Is
preachable, we are of the opinion that
the rank and file of the Congregational
ministry and laity are in substantial
accord with the fundamentals of the
evangelical faith as generally received
among u.s. If this is so, what is need
ed is the sounding out of this posi-
tive note in Congregationalism. The
conviction is there-let it assert itself
There is no reason why minority oil
radicals should pose before the world
as typical representatives of Congre-
gationalism as a whole"
"Does not careful observation prove,
says the New York Christian Advo-
cate" (Meth), that much less atten-
ton is being devoted to the conversion
of sinners now than in former years,
and that conversions are not so fire.
quent as they formerly were? 1t is not
possible that Christians are losing in
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