The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-05-27

Address.
 Last evening the Connecticut Church
 club held banquet in the New Haven
 house. The feature of the evening
 was the address by the Rev. Dr. Hart
 of Middletown on the question of ] changing the name of the Protestant
 Episcopal church. His address showed much preparation and was of much in- 1 !erest.
 1 MT. Hart after dwelling on the va
 rious aspects of the subject, masterful-
 ly summed up as fololws:
 l The whole question, for the discus
 sion of which I have ventured to offer
 some suggestions. though it has been l at too great length and of too little i value, brings us at the last to an anti
 thesis such as that which often pre- sents itself between the practical and
 the prophetical aspects of truth and of duty. None of us doubts that the church os which. by Gods mercy, we
 are members is, by Gods grace, fitted to supply to the men of this land, how ever. differing in origin. in education, | in spiritual endowment, all that they need: that her faith, her Scriptures, her ministry, her sacraments-historica without being antiquarian, spiritual with the most true reality, authorita- tive while repudiating all tyranny, free under the liberty of perfect law are fitted to draw to her the souls of Christian men which are naturally churchly, even as the soul of man is, in the phrase os an old writer, natur- ally Christian: and none os us would willingly be held back by any prejudice from surrounding aught that is non-
 essential or from accepting aught that
 Is shown to be reasonably necessary, if only he could help to make this church to be in reality what she is in
 possibility, the church in the United States. Will it set forward the attain
 ment of this-such is the question which the clergy and laity in our con- venti0ns are asked to-day-if at this
 time by an official act we declare that we are to be known henceforth in for
 mai title by some other name than that which our fathers accepted when we
 became church enthusiastically inde-
 pendent six score years ago? Men of a
 practical mould will be disposed to say
 that our present name has served as a
 good purpose by way of definition:
 that it does not appear to have stood
 in the way of the recognition of our
 claim to a special position among the
 religious bodies of our land; that to
 surrender it would lead to grievous
 misunderstanding and to the weaken
 ing of the faith of many of our own
 people; that when we are, or when we
 really try to be, what we ought to be,
 we shall be spontaneously given the
 title which to-day we regret that we do
 not deserve; and that we dare not nar-
 row words of unlimited application by
 using them to exclude others who are not yet. of our fold from all right to place in the flock of Christ. They say, in short, that the ques-
 tion Is not now a matter
 of practical ecclesiastical states
 manship; and some of them fear that
 the adversary is rejoicing that we are quarrellng over words and the church S
 name when we ought to be agreeing as
 to things and the churchs work. And
 men of prophetic mind bid us consid-
 CT that we need larger thoughts and
 larger expression for them as larger
 possibilities open before us; that it is not enough that we speak in the Eng fish tongue and to men of Saxon preju- dices, but that our words must be heard and understood by men of all nations,
 and, therefore, must be cast in a gen. eral mould and given general form; that it is no conceit for a lawful heir to claim rightful heritage; that it is entirely consistent with the discharge of present duty that we should be mak- ing ready for responsibilities which will | soon be crowding upon us; that we hold the scriptures and the prayer book, the ministry and the sacraments in trust for all who can be persuaded to accept them at our hands and to use them, and that we have no right to talk or to ask as if any of these belonged exclu- sively, or even especially, to one part of the one and indivisible church of God and that to seek to be known by a better name than we now have Is to prepare for service of God and of the
 brethren in a way and with a power l which we have not tried before.
 It has fallen to the lot of Connecticut | more than once, in matters both civil and ecclesiastical, to stand in times of change and mediate between the prac- I tical and the prophetic temper, between the old and the new. She never did ! this more conspicuously or more suc- | cessfully than in the formative days of | our federal government and of the au- | tonomous church in this land. Dr. William Samuel Johnson, tory and old | fashioned gentleman, moulded the con stitution of the United States by wise adherence to principles and accom11o- dation to circumstances; Bishop Sea bury, nonjuror and high churchman | "uncompromising and conciliating," as one of another faith said of him, gave his assistance to the work and his as- sent to the result of the framing of a constitution for the church as a body | organized in the republic and the revis- ion of the prayer book to adapt it to the needs and even the prejudices of the men of that day. May We not look at this question, if consider it we must, in somewhat of the spirit of these men who so fairly rep resent the genius of our commonwealth! May we not ask the practical man tc note that a change is taking place in | the way in which both churchmen and non -churchrnen think and speak of the