The record-union., 1899-01-15
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
EXPRESSIONS FROM VARIOUS
RELIGIOUS NEWSPAPERS.
The Religious Thought Of the Day
as Expressed in the Sec-
tartan Press.

the doctrine of consubstantiation,
either as it was expressed by Luther or
as it has been more recently expressed
by Mr.. Bennett of Frome. The Lu-
theran formula is that after consecra-
tion the body and blood of Christ are
present in, cum, and sub Chat is, in,
with, and under), the forms of the
sacramental bread and wine, not as if
He Himself were absent, but because
He Himself is thus present. The Arch
| bishop (of Canterbury is clearly right
in saying that this cannot be distin-
guished from the doctrine of Mr.. Ben
| nett: Who myself adore, and teach
the people to adore, Christ present in
| the sacrament under the form Of bread
and wine, believing that under their
veil is the sacred body and blood of my
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Our
objection to both of these formulas is
that they imply what Luther, not less
than Mr.. Bennett, unequivocally de-
MED, namely, physical localization of
the body and blood of Christ, and of
Christ Himself, in, with, and under the
consecrated elements. It is possible to
believe in a real, objective, personal
presence of the Master of that sacred
feast, and also in very true gift
therein of His body and blood as the
spiritual food of the faithful who re-
ceive it, without adopting formula
which thus appears to be at least in
adequate, if not self-contradictory.
Moreover, it is both possible and per-
missible for the Undetermined to be-
lieve in that presence and in the real
ity of it's holy gifts, without attempt
ing to form any theory whatever con-
corning it, sharing the thought if not
the language of Queen Elizabeth:
He took the bread and brake it,
And what He then did make it
That 1 believe and take it,
= y
Among other things, the thoughtful
friends of the Catholic movement in
the Church of England have seen with
regret and anxiety tendency to play
fast and loose with the prayer book, to
alter, rearrange. or omit according to
the good pleasure of the individual
priest, and to bring in new devotions
of various kinds, virtually supersedins
the appointed offices, and certainly
changing the whole spirit of the serv-
ices. Such a course must" says the
Living Church. (P. Ed of Chicago
''in the long run be fatal to the move
Church of England is concerned; and
it has had the further evil of encourag-
ing the growth of liberalism The
fathers of the Tractarian or Oxford
school occupied an impregnable posi-
ton when they planted themselves
firmly upon the law of the prayer-book
and became strict observers of the ru-
brics. Their successors, in departing
from too
ground from which they were able to
defy all assailants, and in which they
strongly witnessed against laxity and
lawlessnness in other sections of the
church. We should regard it as worth
all it costs if the present agaitation re-
suits in the restoration of the normal
and proper relations between priest and
bishop; in other words. if the authority
Of the church as represented by the
bishop comes to be again recognized.
The history Of events in the great do
cese of London during the last eight
months is completely reassuring on
this head
New devices for raising money or
for making the parish popular will
never take the place of a quickening
faith that shows itself in good works."
says the New York "Churchman" F
Ed. "No one would return to the crude
life of our forefathers any more than
to their barren and unadorned worship
or to their crudities in education. Re-
sorting to their methods will not give
us back their old-time vigor and power
to endure hardness. The world has
never yet put up monument to a man
who did an easy thing. The worlds
heroes and the church's heroes are
those who have done hard things No
true man wants an easy religion, or, for
that matter, anything else for the mere
reason that it is easy. To offer men
cheap salvation; Gospel that asks
for no sacrifice; a faith that is not to be
contended for and defended; to hold
out any motive for becoming Christians
but the highest: to preach the economy
of religion, and then show how it pays
is to bring contempt upon it. The
Christian religion is what it is because
of what it exacts.''
Referring to the appeal of the Rev.
DR.. Abraham Kuyper for return to
Calvanism, the New York Observer
| (Pres.) remarks: "Dr. Kuyper is certain
| ly not far wrong in warning US of the
danger of the comfortable reliance we
have been tempted to feel in the revival
of all forms of social and philanthropic
activities in the church and in the gen.
teral promotion of sympathetic good will
which he terms mysticism. For both he
| has good words. Jesus example of
daily ministry to the poor, the sick, the
unfortunate. has been too much ne
elected, while the Christianity that ne
elects the heart grows frigid. God has
given the head for knowledge, the
hands for deeds and the heart for mys-
| ticism But it is fatal mistake to
seek aggressive and resisting power
within the limits of philanthropy, or to
think that feeling, however deep and
tender, can take the place Of clean
thought and intelligent conviction. The
| blood of the martyrs is the seed of
the church; and the martyrs were men
who gave their lives not for philan-
thropy nor for mysticism, but for their
confession. Many may not be prepared
to follow him when at this point he
| says that to obtain the clearly wrought
| system of Christian truth which is nee
essary if Christianity is to win the fight
against the world we must return to
Calvinism; but all must admit that the
history of the last three centuries and
| the testimony of long array of think
ers of the first class down to Macaulay
and Rufus Choate, and Guizot, and
Froude and Carlyle as to the part Cal
vinism has played, ought to secure for
| his thesis a careful consideration He
| is certainly justified in his claim that
Calvinism shall no longer be ignored